I'm guessing it's not a secret or surprise to anyone that Apple would work on a new version of their operating system, nor that such operating system would include a browser.
Also, what were the chances that someone would even notice "Safari" in their log files had it of slipped out, vs some stats company who only work on iPhones noticing a new iPhone version.
Apple was big news in the tech industry even at its nadir. To quote (roughly from memory) BYTE in 1994 -- the history of the computer industry over the last ten years has consisted of following Apple.
Apple 10 years ago < Apple now