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The public version of Safari 4 came out Monday amid all the iPhone noise at WWDC, and Apple confirmed what those who played around with the beta version already knew: Safari is now a serious browser for serious Windows users, and its position on Macs has been bolstered.

You can download Safari 4 for Windows and Mac from CNET Download.com.

Safari’s visual speed dial is one of the new browser’s best features–if your system is new enough.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

If you’re unfamiliar with Safari 4, I strongly recommend checking out Stephen Shankland’s analysis of the Safari beta version that was released in January. The biggest overall changes are the graphics improvements including the new interface and the new JavaScript engine called Nitro, but since the beta little else is dramatically different.

Users of Safari 3 will be hard-pressed to not notice that the interface is completely new, with a look and feel much more in line with the other major Webkit-based browser, Google Chrome. The browser launches with the menu bar, tab bar, and status bar all hidden, presenting you with the location bar, bookmark bar, and the slick Top Sites interface. Top Sites is essentially Opera’s Speed Dial feature, presenting your most commonly visited Web sites, with a Cover Flow-style skin. The black background, curvature, and reflective window bottom make this the most professional-looking Web browser around. A blue star and an upturned corner indicate that a site has been updated since your last visit to it. Tap the Edit button in the bottom left corner to remove a site or pin a site permanently to Top Sites.

One major change to the interface from the beta involves tabs. In the beta, Apple experimented with a Chrome-style “tabs-on-top” that it has abandoned in the public release. The font for the tabs was often hard to read, and made Safari look excessively like Chrome. The new tab style now looks much like the old tab style.

Cover Flow is now available as a graphic way to browse your bookmarks and history, however, if you’ve got a somewhat older computer you still won’t be able to use any of these graphics improvements.

Cover Flow in Safari gives your Bookmarks and History a graphics lesson.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Another new change in the public release is that browser crashes caused by plug-ins like Flash are now sandboxed. If Flash or Shockwave crash, only that plug-in will be affected. The page that it’s on will continue to function, and you can reactivate the plug-in by reloading the page. In testing the browser for the past six hours, though, I never had the occasion to test this feature.

Safari 4 is also the first non-beta browser to fully complete the Acid3 Web standards compliance test.

The URL bar does feature “smart” surfing, but only for including your history and bookmarks–much like Internet Explorer. Chrome and Firefox remain the only browsers to default to Google’s “feeling lucky” style of searching from the location bar.

Apple’s big claim with Safari is that it’s the fastest browser on the market, and Apple just might be right on that count. On an Intel Core Duo T400 ThinkPad, with 3GB of RAM and a 2.53GHz processor, I ran both Webkit’s SunSpider JavaScript test and Mozilla’s Dromaeo test on Firefox 3.5 Preview, Google Chrome 2, and Safari 4. Safari came out on top in Dromaeo by a long shot, but Chrome eked by in SunSpider.

For the SunSpider test, Chrome hit 597.0 milliseconds, while Safari scored 620.4 ms and Firefox comparatively chugged along at 952.2 ms. On Dromaeo, Safari reached 175.06 runs per second, Chrome managed 67.92 runs/s, and Firefox came in last again at 48.48 runs/s. However, Chrome only led in two categories, and it tied both with Safari. Safari definitively led in 36 tests, and Firefox led in 12.

Like many other browsers, Safari’s location bar offers suggested sites.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Keeping in mind that although these tests are affected by background computer processes, your hardware, and other factors, Safari is definitely one of the fastest browsers out there. However, it still lacks extensions, and for many Firefox users that’s enough to keep them from switching. Even Internet Explorer supports some form of extensibility with its Web Slices and Accelerators.

Safari is still a RAM-devouring beast, too. With two tabs open, one to Dromaeo and one to SunSpider, it was using a shocking amount of RAM–more than 500MB after running both tests. Google Chrome consumed about 75MB of RAM across the same two sites under the same circumstances, while Firefox required 120MB.

With about 8.5 percent of the browser market, it’s clear that Apple is positioning Safari as more than a developer’s tool on Windows, and that its successes at building a faster JavaScript engine should be taken seriously even with its other drawbacks.

Sprint Nextel executives said Monday that the launch of the much anticipated Palm Pre on Saturday hit a new sales record for the company.

Neither Sprint nor Palm is discussing specific sales figures, but Tim Donahue, vice president of business marketing for Sprint, said that the launch exceeded the company’s expectations.

(Credit: CNET )

“We experienced our best one day of sales and single weekend sales for any phone we’ve launched in our history,” he said. “We sold out of the device over the weekend in most of our store locations. And it happened at a much faster rate than we had planned on. ”

While the crowds that showed up on Saturday morning to buy the Pre at Sprint stores and other retail locations where the phone was offered were small in number compared to the crowds that have gathered for the past two iPhone launches, analysts are calling the launch of the Pre a success. A J.P. Morgan report estimated that more than 50,000 phones were sold in the first two days the phone was available. The Wall Street Journal cited analysts who said that between 50,000 and 100,000 Pres had been sold.

Now Sprint and Palm must wait to see if the momentum will continue. Donahue said the company plans to replenish inventory at retail stores as quickly as Palm can get the devices shipped. Customers can sign up to be on a waiting list for devices and will be notified when a phone is available. Donahue said that these lists should help the company direct new phones to locations with the highest demand. But he admitted there could be shortages and delays in getting the Pre into customers’ hands.

“I’ll be honest,” he said. “There will be constrained inventory for some time. And there will be spot shortages for the foreseeable future.”

But Donahue said the company will do everything it can to sell as many Pres as it can. Still, it will be interesting to see how well the Pre continues to sell now that Apple has just announced the next-generation iPhone, which will be outfitted with new processing guts to give it more power and speed. The iPhone 3G S will come with 16GB of storage for $199 with a two-year contract and a 32GB version that will sell for $299 with a two-year contract. Apple is also releasing a big software upgrade. The 3.0 OS is loaded with new features for old and new iPhone users. The latest versions of the iPhone and the software upgrade will be available next week.

In addition to the new phones and new software, Apple also slashed the price of its 8GB iPhone 3G to $99, which could put pressure on the Pre. Sprint is offering the Pre, which also has 8GB of storage capacity, for $199 with a $100 mail-in rebate.

Even though the Pre has an impressive touch screen that is similar in function to the iPhone, it may actually compete more with Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices than the iPhone. The Pre’s physical keyboard and the phone’s ability to handle multiple functions at once, much like a computer can, make it a good device for business users, Donahue and other executives have said.

But Donahue stops short of calling the device a BlackBerry-killer. After all, Sprint also sells quite a lot of those too.

“When you look at our customer base, the lines are blurred today versus five or 10 years ago,” he said. “Subscribers use their phones for business as well for personal use. It isn’t an either/or situation. And here is a device that I think is the best crossover device for business and personal use in the marketplace today.”

One thing is for certain, Palm and Sprint are banking on the phone’s success. For Palm, the Pre offers a chance to get back into the smartphone game. And for Sprint, the Pre provides a window of opportunity to attract new customers and retain old ones with a cool device that will show off the new and improved Sprint network.

Microsoft’s top Windows business executive said Monday that for all his excitement about Windows 7, he doubts the release of the operating system will lead to a significant spike in PC sales.

Bill Veghte

(Credit: Microsoft)

“History would tell us that generally as you ship a Windows release into the market…the bump is very modest,” Microsoft senior vice president Bill Veghte said in a “fireside chat” at the UBS Global Technology and Services Conference. “You will see a little bit, but it is modest.”

Veghte announced last week that Microsoft plans to ship Windows 7 on Oct. 22. The company will also have a program in the coming weeks through which those who buy a new PC with Windows Vista will get a free or low-cost upgrade to Windows 7. A leaked memo from Best Buy suggests that the program will kick off at the end of this month.

On the business side, Veghte said that there is “very good enthusiasm around Windows 7,” but that will not be the biggest factor in the decision by corporations about when to upgrade their computers.

“It will get drowned by the macroeconomic environment,” he said in the speech, which was Webcast on Microsoft’s investor Web site. “As the macro environment comes back, people will have to buy new PCs. People aren’t using PCs any less.”

Veghte was pressed on whether Windows 7 will help Microsoft see improvement in the average selling price of Windows, which has taken a big hit because of the rise of Netbooks, a low-cost notebook PC variant.

“It’s pretty hard to tell,” Veghte said. “I think in this economic environment it is very hard to see us at the mix we had (during Windows XP and the beginning of Windows Vista). As we come out of the economic downturn it’s a very interesting question.”

Veghte was also asked about Microsoft’s recent cost-cutting effort and said it is something the company hasn’t done in the 19 years he’s been there. He said every expense has been questioned as to whether it is essential.

“It has been line by line,” Veghte said. “As a culture we’ve got to go through and really make the hard trade-offs. I think it’s a wonderful thing for the company, for the culture.”

As for whether Microsoft will offer a cheaper upgrade for Windows Vista users, Veghte didn’t give a specific answer, but did say Microsoft wants to make sure that the upgrade path is “very smooth” from a pricing perspective.

Tune in on July 16 to see whether Oracle actually becomes the new parent of Sun Microsystems.

Sun’s board of directors has set up a special shareholder meeting for that date to vote on the proposed merger with Oracle, according to a statement Sun released Monday. Sun’s board, which has already okayed the merger, is urging stockholders to approve the deal–a majority vote is needed to push it through.

Shareholders can vote on the merger in person, at Sun’s Web site, or through a proxy card received by mail. Assuming approval, it expects the merger to be completed over the summer.

The company has sent a proxy statement dated June 8 with full disclosure to all shareholders. Besides providing details on the vote and stockholder meeting, the statement reveals other interesting tidbits.

Severance pay
No details have been revealed about what will become of Sun management, though the proxy statement does discuss potential severance packages for Chairman Scott McNealy, President and CEO Jonathan Schwartz, and other high-ranking execs. If termination were to occur in August, McNealy would receive $9.5 million in total compensation, including severance, health benefits, and equity, while Schwartz would walk away with $12 million.

The courtship of Sun
The proxy statement also reveals blow-by-blow details of the battle to buy Sun, with other suitors besides Oracle in the mix. IBM had been widely rumored as a likely buyer of Sun, but the proxy material doesn’t mention any suitors by name.

On November 6, 2008, the CEO of a Sun competitor, known in the statement as “Party A,” approached Schwartz about a possible business combination. After initial discussions with Party A, Sun started shopping for other potential buyers, including “Party B.” Sun continued its discussion with Party A, entering into a confidentiality agreement and permitting Party A to investigate Sun’s finances.

By late December, Sun was serious enough about a potential merger to hire Credit Suisse as its financial adviser to help it consider different offers. On January 28, Party A proposed acquiring Sun for $8.40 to $8.70 a share. In early February, Sun discussed the proposal with its legal and financial advisers.

But by February 12, 2009, Party B was back in the picture as Sun resumed discussions with its other suitor, signing a confidentiality agreement and permitting due diligence for Party B to check into Sun’s finances. On February 20, Party A boosted its offer for Sun to $10 a share, predicated on exclusive negotiations between the two companies.

By February 23, Oracle had entered the picture. McNealy spoke with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison about a possible transaction. Between February 22 and 26, Sun’s board was busy setting up special meetings to discuss the proposal from Party A and the interest from Party B and from Oracle. Further conversations were held between McNealy and Ellison. But by February 26, Sun had decided to enter into an exclusive agreement with Party A and end discussions with all other companies.

Over the next month, Sun held lengthy meetings with Party A. But negotiations dragged on, and there was talk of ending the exclusivity agreement with Party A and resuming conversations with Party B and with Oracle. On March 12, Oracle sent Sun’s board a letter expressing an interest in a limited takeover of certain Sun assets. However, Sun management opted to continue its agreement with Party A.

On March 29, Party A reduced its bid to $9.40 a share. After review, Sun management was worried about Party A’s offer for various reasons, especially antitrust issues. Concerned about the price and terms of the agreement, Sun decided on April 4 to reject the offer from Party A.

By April 6, the board was back discussing potential deals with Party B and with Oracle. But on April 8, Party A jumped back into the ring, still interested in Sun. Now the board was at work again to discuss offers from all three companies.

By April 10, Sun and Oracle had entered into a confidentiality agreement, and the two met soon thereafter to hash out a possible transaction. On April 17, Party B opted out of the race. On the same day, Oracle sent Sun a draft merger proposal for $9.50 a share.

After the price per share became a sticking point between Sun and Party A, Sun’s management finally approved a merger agreement with Oracle on April 19.

Now it’s in the hands of the stockholders.

Rambus has asked the International Trade Commission to terminate an investigation of Nvidia relating to four patents as part of a November 2008 complaint.

Rambus provides high-speed memory interface technology, though in recent years the company has become better-known for intellectual property litigation practices. Rambus has sued many of the world’s largest chip manufacturers.

Nvidia’s David Shannon

(Credit: Nvidia)

The Los Altos, Calif.-based company conceded before the ITC that Nvidia products do not infringe on its four patents, and also asked for termination of several claims from a fifth patent in the ITC action, according to an Nvidia statement.

“We are pleased Rambus has recognized the weakness of these patents and claims,” said David Shannon, Nvidia executive vice president and general counsel in a statement. “These withdrawals represent essentially half of the patents and one third of the claims asserted against us, and we look forward to addressing the remainder of the case.”

The current ITC litigation originally included nine patents involving memory controllers related to graphics processors.

In June, Nvidia announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had rejected 41 claims, in seven patents, which Rambus had asserted in the ITC action against NVIDIA.

Rambus has a checkered track record on lawsuits. The European Commission launched antitrust investigations against Rambus in 2007, alleging intentional deceptive conduct in the context of the standard-setting process, citing its behavior as “patent ambush.”

In January, a Delaware federal judge ruled that Rambus could not enforce patents against Micron Technology. Judge Sue L. Robinson, in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, ruled on January 9 that evidence “spoliation” occurred when Rambus allegedly destroyed important information related to the case that could be used against it. Robinson’s decision rendered Rambus’ patents unenforceable.