Apple has begun approving 3rd party web browsers for the iPhone and iPod touch. The move comes after speculation that Apple was denying apps that competed with it’s own.

It is hoped that this move could allow Opera Mobile to make finally make debut on the iPhone. Current web browser apps include Edge Browser, Incognito, Shaking Web and WebMate: Tabbed Browser.

There are fears Apple’s restrictive SDK may still hold back a fully featured version of Opera Mobile.

With the recent relaxation of approval rules, there are still hopes yet for a good range of web browsers on Apple mobile devices. The future is starting to look a little brighter.

After news that Google Chrome is no longer using WinHTTP libaries in alpha versions of its web browser, Google now hopes to relese its browser for both Mac OS X and Linux before the first half of this year.

Chrome’s product manager Brian Rakowski said Mac and Linux versions are progressing. “That team now is able to render most Web pages pretty well. But in terms of the user experience, it’s very basic”.

“We have not spent any time building out features. We’re still iterating on making it stable and getting the architecture right.”

The status of the Mac OS X version can be tracked on the Google Chrome Dev Channel.

A serious security flaw has been found in Safari’s RSS reader. The vulnerability could allow a malicious website to gain access to sensitive user data, and affects both Mac and Windows versions of the browser.

“Apple’s Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user’s hard drive without user intervention. This can be used to gain access to sensitive information stored on the user’s computer, such as emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user’s accounts on some web sites. The vulnerability has been acknowledged by Apple” said discoverer Brian Mastenbrook.

A time frame for a fix is still unknown.

Google has released a pre-beta release to its dev channel allowing developers to take a look at new features packed into Google Chrome.

With a version number of 2.0.156.1, the release includes a new version of WebKit, autocomplete for forms, and an updated spell checker.

This release also brings Google closer to bringing Chrome to Mac and Linux, with its own version of the HTTP protocol. In previous releases Google has been using WinHTTP library, tying the browser to Windows only.

Google is yet to announce a release date for the final version of Chrome 2.0.

Pixel Labs has posted a rather amusing yet statistical poster of the browser wars. The cartoon depicts web browser and their market share over time.

Strangely absent from this cartoon is Google’s Chrome, which has a greater share than Opera.

Click on the cartoon to see the full version.

Opera has announced a new version of its software development kit (SDK) at this years CES.

The new SDK will be available to all hardware makers who include the Opera browser with their product, including the Nintendo Wii.

Opera’s new SDK includes Opera Link which is found in the latest versions of Opera, as well as a new debugging tool called Opera Dragonfly.

Opera is yet to announce a release date for the new SDK.

Still with no release date, Microsoft has released details that the next version of its browser, IE8 will be pushed out via Automatic Update, Windows Update, and Microsoft Update as high priority to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users.

For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 the update will only be pushed out with an important priority.

For network administrators or users who do not want to update, there is a toolkit available to stop Internet Explorer 8 being pushed out.

The toolkit has no expiry date, unlike previous versions, and can be configured via a registry file run on uses machine or pushed out via a group policy.

You can download the IE8 Blocker Toolkit here.

Market Share results for December 2008 show that Playstation 3 users are more web savvy than their Wii counterparts.

For December 2008, Playstation 3 web surfers made up around 0.4%, while Wii users made up for 0.1% of the browser market.

This is an interesting result, as there have been almost twice as many Wii’s sold worldwide. Estimates put Wii sales at 25 million compared to 13 million for the Playstation 3. This suggests that Playstation owners are more tech savvy and intertwined with web culture.

With 2009 fast approaching, details for IE Mobile 6 have started to appear. The latest mobile Internet browser from Microsoft should bring a positive change to the web browser market.

Currently, there are still no screenshots available, as Microsoft has made all beta testers and OEM’s sign NDA’s, but details on the new browser are starting to emerge. Here are some of the key features for IE Mobile 6.

• A full HTML rendering engine (unfortunately based on IE6).
• Support for Adobe Flash Lite 3.1, something still not found on Apple’s iPhone.
• AJAX and JScript 5.7 support.
• Support for touch, including scrolling and zooming.
• Ability to switch between full and mobile versions of websites.

With these unique, and some innovative features, IE Mobile 6 may make up some ground in the mobile browser market, but is it enough to entice Opera Mobile or even iPhone Safari users?

Your next PC could very well come loaded with Google Chrome. Google is in talks with PC vendors about the possibility of including Chrome with both desktops and laptops.

Manufactures such as Dell, HP, Acer, and Toshiba are all showing interest in shipping Chrome as the default browser. Currently, the majority of PC’s ship with Internet Explorer as the default browser, as it is included with both Windows XP and Vista.

Google Chrome currently has about 1% of the browser market, while Internet Explorer has around 70%.