Apple has released a new version of Safari, taking the browser to version 4.0.5.

According to Apple, the release fixes several issues:

This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to performance, stability, and security including:

• Performance improvements for Top Sites
• Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins
• Stability improvements for websites with online forms and Scalable Vector Graphics
• Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from changing settings on some Linksys routers

Mac and Windows users can download the update from the Safari website, or it will be pushed out via Apple’s Software Update tool.

Microsoft has begun testing of its new browser ballot screen for European Union countries.

The ballot screen, which can be seen at http://www.browserchoice.eu/, lists the 5 major browsers in a random order, followed by 8 lesser known browsers also in a random order.

Early testing by DSL.sk shows the ballot screen might not be as random as once thought, with testing showing that the screen appears to favour Google’s Chrome, while IE shows the least amount of favouritism.

These results could be an anomalie however, and may differ with further testing.

A Windows Update is available for download for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 users in United Kingdom, Belgium and France.

Adobe has come out saying that it is confident that Apple will eventually cave and allow Flash to make it onto the iPhone.

“Our goal is to provide a consistent runtime that spans devices, inclusive of [mobile and] desktop operating systems,” said Flash marketing director Adrian Ludwig at this weeks Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Adobe is currently working on providing Flash on devices powered by Windows Mobile, Android, Palm WebOS, Symbian, and BlackBerry OS powered devices, delivering parity with the desktop versions of Flash.

“I suspect what will happen is that as we have more devices in the market… Apple will have more market pressure to include Flash on the iPhone,” said head of Adobe’s platform business David Wadhwani.

“Apple would like to move rich content off the web and into its App Store, where it can more readily monetise it….Ultimately, the consumer will decide.”

Adobe has a version of Flash ready to go for the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad, but is being blocked by Apple from getting low-level access to the iPhone that’s necessary to properly implement Flash.

Whether Adobe’s prediction will come true remains to still be seen, only time will tell.

Private browsing will now extend to the Flash plug-in with Flash Player 10.1 Adobe have announced.

“Integrating with your web browser, Flash Player 10.1 will automatically clear stored data in accordance with your browser’s private browsing settings” said Adobe Engineer Jimson Xu.

Flash Player 10.1 supports private browsing with Internet Explorer 8+, Mozilla Firefox 3.5+, and Google Chrome 1.0+, with Apple’s Safari 2.0+support coming soon.

Missing from this list is Opera, which has only recently included private browsing in the latest 10.50 alpha release.

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is currently in Beta and is expected in the first half of this year. Beta 2 can be downloaded from Adobe Labs.

Time appears to slowly be running out for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), as Google has announced plans to drop support for the browser in its Google Sites and Google Docs applications.

“Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers” said Google Apps Senior Product Manager Rajen Sheth.

Not to feel left out, Google is also dropping support for Firefox 2, Chrome 3, and Safari 2.

“While you’ll still be able to access these Google applications, newer features may not be available and some features may even stop working” said Sheth.

Support for these older browsers is due to end on March 1st. Web users are urged to upgrade their web browsers before this time.

With 2009 now over, it’s time to analyse web browser market share over the last 12 months.

It’s been a big year for web browsers, with Internet Explorer taking a massive loss, down from 75.18% share in December 2008, to 62.69% share in December 2009.

Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera were all big winners, ending the year up higher than they started.

Google Chrome has had such an impact that it now holds third place in the browser market, which has been held by Safari for the last number of years.

We have compiled a graph below to show you the browser movements over the last 12 months.

All data has been provided by Market Share by Net Applications.

November has been another standard month, with Internet Explorer bleeding more market share, falling from 64.64% in October to 63.62%, while it looks like most of those users have moved to Firefox, which has gone from 24.07% to 24.72% share.

Safari lost a bit of ground for the month, moving from 4.42% to 4.36%, but rival web kit browser Chrome is up from 3.58% to 3.93%. At this rate, Google Chrome usage will overtake Safari some time in the first half of 2010.

Toping out the major browsers is Opera who also rose for the month, moving from 2.17% to 2.31%.

A big thanks to Market Share by Net Applications for the month’s statistics.

Apple have pushed out an update for Safari users, taking the browser to version 4.04.

The update improves JavaScript and History performance, while also fixing 6 security holes.

This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to performance, stability, and security including:

• Improved JavaScript performance
• Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items
• Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail

For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

The update will pushed out to existing Safari 4 users, or can be downloaded from Apple’s Safari website.

Browser market share stats are out for October 2009 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

As usual, Internet Explorer was down for the month, dropping from 65.71% to 64.64%, while Opera had a surprise loss, albeit only small,  from 2.19% to 2.17%.

Firefox had a small gain, jumping from 23.75% to 24.07%. Safari was also up 4.24% to 4.42%.

Google Chrome share was the biggest winner for October, jumping from 3.17% to 3.58%.

Opera’s drop off is likely from users who were testing Opera 10 and have gone back to their original browser. The jump for Safari suggests strong sales for Apple Mac’s, confirming the bumper year the Cupertino based company has been having.

Microsoft has made changes to the browser ballot screen that will be shipped with Windows 7, and rolled out to past versions of Windows in European Union countries, in a bid to keep the European Union happy.

The ballot screen will give users the easy choice to download and install up to 12 different browsers, with the big 5 – Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera heading up the list.

Changes to the ballot screen include:

• Make it so competing browsers can be downloaded from the ballot screen more quickly and easily
• Ensure equivalent placement on the Windows 7 taskbar for Internet Explorer and all other browser icons
• Add introductory information, improving the design of the ballot page about each browser to help users make more informed choices
• Alphabetize the list of browsers so that the five most popular are listed first (by vendor), followed by the next seven most popular (also alphabetically ordered), so that 12 choices are displayed in total
• Provide the browser ballot to users for five years

The browser ballot screen is set to be rolled out to users on October 22nd, the same day Windows 7 goes on sale worldwide.