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For all the wonders of Apple's iPad, one feature that's always been a little underwhelming is its native Web browser. Like on the iPhone, Safari for the iPad definitely gets the job done and is overall a pretty solid browser in terms of performance, but there are few features that are inexcusably absent.

Fortunately, there have been a number of third party browsers that have made their way into the App Store. Atomic Browser and Opera Mini are both very popular, streamlined browsers that support tabbed browsing. Skyfire offers rich social integration and can even play Flash videos. The newest entrant into this space is Dolphin HD, a tablet-optimized version of the popular Android browser, which just launched for iPhone a few weeks ago.

Last year Xmarks, the cross-platform bookmark sync service, narrowly escaped being shut down for good. After tons of media attention focused on the shutdown, and then acquisition by LastPass, a funny thing happened – the service received almost no attention at all in 2011. So whatever happened? I caught up with LastPass CEO Joe Siegrist about the features added to Xmarks this year, the fate of the original Xmarks team and what he calls anti-competitive behavior on Apple's part.

In our Top Consumer Products of 2011 list, we selected the Chrome web browser as our number 1 pick. Its market share has grown over 2011 and it's on track to surpass Firefox as the 2nd most popular browser on the desktop (exactly when it passes Firefox depends on whose statistics you read). Over 2011 Google has demonstrated, in both user numbers and technical innovation, that Chrome is the most significant challenge to Microsoft's dominance of the browser market since the days of Netscape Navigator in the late 90s.

Meanwhile, in the mobile browser market, Apple's Safari has risen over 12 percentage points to have a 62% share of that market, according to leading Internet statistics provider Net Applications. However, Apple will have to continue to look over its shoulder at Android, which has also gained over 2011. Let's look more closely at how the desktop and mobile browser markets changed over 2011.

For all the wonders of Apple's iPad, one feature that's always been a little underwhelming is its native Web browser. Like on the iPhone, Safari for the iPad definitely gets the job done and is overall a pretty solid browser in terms of performance, but there are few features that are inexcusably absent.

Fortunately, there have been a number of third party browsers that have made their way into the App Store. Atomic Browser and Opera Mini are both very popular, streamlined browsers that support tabbed browsing. Skyfire offers rich social integration and can even play Flash videos. The newest entrant into this space is Dolphin HD, a tablet-optimized version of the popular Android browser, which just launched for iPhone a few weeks ago.

If you've ever felt underwhelmed by the Web browsing experience on the iPhone, perhaps MoboTap can help. The company just launched an iOS version of its Dolphin Browser, a third party mobile Web browser popular among Android users.

In addition to touting a very Chrome-esque tabbed browsing interface, Dolphin has re-imagined the way that sites and pages are called up and explored within a mobile browser. Its "Speed Dial" feature allows you to designate a page as a favorite, much like you can do with your phone's contacts. This is in addition to standard bookmarks, which Dolphin also has.

The first day that Lion was available for Max OS X, it was downloaded over a million times. That is impressive but coming from Apple is that really a surprise? In addition to all the goodies that Lion brings, a host of security updates were also bundled into the update of Safari as Apple starts pushing security patches more frequently.

There were 57 security patches for Safari in the update to version 5.1 and 5.0.6 and most of them have to do with "remote code execution," which is security slang for "drive-by malicious downloads." Yes, Apple fans, your computer is just as vulnerable to malware if you visit a malicious site as any PC. This update for Safari will help alleviate some of the problems but as Macs gain more market share, expect a lot more security updates to come from Cupertino.

Apple has added the "Do Not Track" option to the latest version of its default browser, Safari, catching up with the rest of the browser market. The Federal Trade Commission suggested the feature late last year during an investigation of ways to protect consumer privacy and, since then, most major browsers have adopted it.

"Do Not Track" gives users the ability to identify and opt out of certain type of online tracking.

Occipital, makers of the 360 Panorama iPhone application, have implemented a lesser-known feature in Safari Mobile - gyroscope support - into a new panoramic photo-viewing Web app it's calling "Augmented Reality Panoramas." You can see a demo of this feature here at http://occip.it/pt3dmqna.

The website shows the capabilities of the gyroscope, when used in the Safari Mobile Web browser, by allowing you to pan all the way around a 360 degree photo.

Malicious Web developers can take advantage of the iPhone's ability to push the Safari's address bar out of view, says independent security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani via a post on his personal blog. After a Web page loads, the real address bar can disappear while a website graphic depicting the address bar can be used to trick users into thinking they're on the correct site.

This weakness stems from a design consideration from Apple. It only occurs on websites that identify themselves as mobile sites, as it allows Web developers to take advantage of more of the "precious screen real estate" on the iPhone's small screen, says Dhanjani. However, for phishers, this could be a new way to direct users to dangerous websites.

With the release of the iOS 4.2 update yesterday, the major focus was on all the new features iPad users would receive - folders, multitasking and a unified inbox, to name a few. It also offered two major new features for all iOS users (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) - AirPlay and AirPrint, the former for streaming content between Apple devices and the latter for printing from mobile devices to networked printers.

However, flying under the radar a bit, was an update to Apple's mobile Safari browser. And for Web developers, this update may be the most important of all.