Opera has released the final version of Opera Mini 4.2 for Google Android phones. Opera Mini 4.2 final brings back a lot of the regular features which were disabled in the early beta.

New features include the ability to upload and download files, save pages, and zoom in and out with a double tap.

Users will also be pleased to know that the password bug has now been fixed, and your passwords will be hidden as you enter them in.

Currently there is only one Android phone, T-Mobile’s G1 phone. You can download the browser from the Opera Mini website.

As promised Microsoft has made available Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 (RC1).

IE8 RC1 can be installed on both Windows XP and Windows Vista, but is not available for the newely released Windows 7 beta.

Microsoft has posted a full list of changes since beta 2.

You can download the new versions from the Internet Explorer 8 download site.

Microsoft has announced that it will deliver the first release candidate (RC1) of Internet Explorer 8 to the public on Monday.

IE8 has been at beta 2 since August 2008, and this new early release is highly anticipated by many in the industry.

According to Microsoft, “a release candidate means the software is feature complete and the code is basically stable, and a final release is imminent”.

IE8 is more compliant with web standards such as CSS, to web developers delight.

IE8 RC1 will be released for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. We will post links to the download when they are available.

Google, as promised, has turned off the anti-phishing tool used in Firefox 2 as of 20th January. The anti-phishing tool would block sites suspected of hosting identity theft scams.

Recent Firefox build 2.0.0.19 and 2.0.0.20 have had this feature removed, but there are still thousands out there using earlier versions.

Mozilla is urging Firefox 2 users to upgrade to Firefox 3 as soon as possible. Firefox 3 includes a newer version of the anti-phishing protocol provided by Google.

Firefox 2 users can upgrade to Firefox 3 by selecting ‘Check for updates’ in the help menu, or can download the update manually from the Firefox website.

European Union regulators have laid down fresh claims that Microsoft is again in breach of its anti-trust laws.

The complaint is related to Internet Explorer being bundled with all new Windows installations.

Microsoft lost a similar case in 2004 and was forced to sell Windows versions without Windows Media Player.

This has potential repercussions across the market. Apple currently bundles Safari with every copy of Mac OS X, while most Linux distributions are bundled with Firefox.

“Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice” said a spokesman for the European Union.

Any final decision on the matter is likely to be years away.

Mozilla has pushed back the release of Firefox 3.1 beta 3 a week from January 26th to February 2nd.

After a developers meeting on Wednesday, notes reveal “due to the large number of outstanding P1 blockers, we are declaring a code slip”. This target may be optimistic however, as one developer hinted that it could be delayed by as much as three weeks.

A code freeze is now scheduled for January 25th, with QA starting on January 27th.

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.