Apple tweaking Safari for iPhone 2.2 software

Stephen Withers
Monday, 29 September 2008 12:00

Business IT - Technology

Search is an important consideration for browser developers, as they receive revenue from Google according to the number of search requests made. Such funding reportedly makes up a significant proportion of Mozilla's income, for example, and Apple is thought to receive tens of millions of dollars -  perhaps even $100 million from Google.

That's small beer given the amount of money involved in enterprises the size of Apple or Google, but when compared with the likely cost of writing and maintaining a browser, it doesn't seem a bad deal.

On the other hand, it's not such a big sum that it is likely to tempt browser developers into making it easier to accidentally search for a URL rather than going to that page, as the backlash from aggrieved users could be considerable.

And what about iPhone 2.2 more generally? According to various reports, it still lacks copy and paste functionality, as well as the push notification system that was expected in version 2.1.

The iPhone Dev Team says "Version 2.2 is still vulnerable to pwnage and quickpwn on everything but iPod Touch 2G."

"Hardware already vulnerable to pwnage remains vulnerable in version 2.2."

Of course, being "vulnerable to pwnage" is no great surprise when you're talking about beta versions of firmware, and it wouldn't be surprising if Apple slips in a little something into the final version just to make life difficult for those who want to be able to install applications that don't come from the App Store.

Until then, iPhone users are grateful that 2.1 is the firmware that 2.0 should have been, but many of them are hoping they don't have to wait until 3.0 to get something as basic - some say essential - as cut, copy and paste.

Make haste, Apple, make haste: give them a taste of cut, copy and paste!