So far, Apple’s mobile version of the Safari browser has only been seen on the iPhone screen. Previously it’s been ported for Windows on the desktop, but outside of Macs and iPhones, that’s the only non-Apple screen it’s been on. Until now, that is.

The new Samsung L870, a slider S60 smartphone running on Symbian 9.3 that was announced for the European market in April, will be available there beginning August. Its features were revealed today: it’s a tri-band GSM phone with a 3 megapixel camera, and comes with some apps, including a PIM homescreen plug-in and a business-card recognition function, but by far its most interesting and unique feature is that it’ll run Apple’s Safari browser on its 2.4″ QVGA display.

Seems like a solid phone. We don’t know yet how Safari’ll look or fare on a small screen (amazingly, it’ll be a full browser as opposed to a hobbled version), but we’re willing to bet it’ll be better than the S60 web browser. No word yet from either Samsung or Apple as to how this odd pairing came about, but maybe we’ll hear something at the WWDC.

Man & Machine, who’s suing Apple and CBS for alledged infringement on the use of the Mighty Mouse name, replies to Mac-A-Doodle, via representative Erica Tingler:

Man & Machine, Inc. declines to discuss its trademark-infringement complaint against Apple, Inc. and CBS Corporation, the underlying merits of the case, or any related settlement discussions, since the litigation remains pending. Meanwhile, we remain committed to protecting our rights to the MIGHTY MOUSE trademark and also to finding a fair resolution for all involved parties.

Man & Machine designs and manufactures a completely customizable line of hygienic, cost-effective, water-resistant computer keyboards and mice. They are distinguished by their ability to be washed and disinfected, and matchless in their rugged, sealed design, 100% latex-free silicone construction ideal for medical, healthcare, dental, and institutional environments – the best of breed choice anywhere safety, durability and user health are priorities.”

All I can say is, all right then, may the mightier mouse win.

Update us on how it goes, Ms. Tingler. Good luck.

Psystar, that maker of those uber-controversial Mac clones, has created something else we never thought would see the light of day: Mac OS X Service Pack 1. Well, sorta.

Aside from its brazen hardware cloning, it installs Leopard onto these Frankenstein machines, in direct violation of provisions of the Leopard EULA that forbid 3rd party sales and installs of the operating system. Not cowed in the slightest by Steve & His Legal Eagles, now it even has the cheek to actually improve on Leopard by fixing some inherent problems in the OS, including glitches in Time Machine, Keyboard Viewer and various other niggles.

Beginning this Monday the various patches, bug fixes and workarounds will come preinstalled in shipping units, but existing users can download the bunch, which constitutes what is essentially Service Pack 1, from the Psystar website. Some fixes are specific to their hardware, like one that repairs conflicts between Apple’s Airport Extreme router and the Realtek network card that ships with the Psystar boxes, while some actually improve on Leopard, like support for new versions of Java and adding international standards for networked devices.

Oooh. Now we’ve seen everything. Whoever these guys are, they’ve got big ones, don’t they?

In the meantime, we wonder why Apple hasn’t lowered the boom on these cheeky bashi-bazouks. It’s gonna be fun when it finally happens, that’s for sure.

(Via InformationWeek)

A good friend and co-worker of mine, the extremely talented Hinge Inquirer Creative Director Chris Garperio, recently got himself a flat-screen HDTV, and is now obsessed with finding hi-res inputs to feed it. He eventually ended up connecting his MacBook to the Bravia, and was delighted with the visual results, but wryly told me that he wished the sound came with it. I told him it did! He rapped back that he didn’t mean the paltry mini-stereo analog output from the jack - he wanted the serious surround stuff.

I realized that it isn’t common knowledge, even among supposed die-hard Macheads, that the audio-out ports of recent Intel Macs like Macbooks, Macbook Pros (with the exception of the Air, I think; I can’t get it to work, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s one of the things they took out) and others are actually also Digital Audio-out ports as well - all you need is to tweak a setting and use the proper digital audio cable known among audiophiles as the Toslink cable, which is used to connect AV receivers to digital media players and monitors. With it, connect your Mac via the jack to your system. (Yes, it’s that same little earphone port you use to connect your iPod buds to - all you need is a different cable.)

Get yourself a commonly available Toslink cable (pictured above) and get a mini-Toslink adapter (easily found; Belkin sells one, for example) so you can connect the Mac to the monitor or the AV receiver. Then dive into your player application (in this case, DVD Player) and enable the digital output:

Voila! Your Macbook now outputs full digital surround, including DTS signal passthrough - just like your settop DVD player! Then combine your Mac and Home Theater System with the Apple Remote and XMBC (which we’ll talk about in an upcoming post), and you got yourself an honest-to-goodness Mac Media Center.

The chief executive of Intel Germany has revealed that Apple is developing a touchscreen device similar to an iPhone, but larger, and with a bigger touchscreen.

Hannes Schwaderer made the statement at an event held in Munich, Germany that this alleged tablet-device-phone-pda-something will be using his company’s new Atom processor for mobile devices. This supports rumors circulating the net that Apple is indeed developing a tablet gadget for general computing that may or not be a new iPhone model. Whether this announcement is based on fact or on one too many brewskis is yet to be determined.

Can you say Newton 2.0?

(Via Electronista)