Hasta La Gadget!

While the non-final build of Opera’s new browser for PC and Mac was simply called “Next,” today it’s chosen the more formal title of Opera 15 for its official release. There aren’t any features of note that we hadn’t seen in the desktop preview of the WebKit-based software (or should we call it Blink-based?), but to jog your memory, it sports a fresh design, a Discover feature for catching up on the latest news and a tweaked Speed Dial menu for quick access to your favorite corners of the internet. Also, the web-clipping Stash feature, predictive address-cum-search bar, new download manager and “Off-Road mode” for extra compression on lousy connections are all included in the final version. We ran a quick SunSpider benchmark on the Mac build of Opera 15, in which it scored 167ms, compared with 171ms in Chrome. If you’re not already allied to one of the many competing browsers and feel like giving Opera 15 a try, head to the source below for the download links.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Internet, Software

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Via: SlashGear

Source: Opera (1) (download), (2)

And Google Glass’ slow march toward market readiness continues. The development team shared a few details about an upcoming update on the official Glass Google+ page, and it finally unlocks some oft-requested features for all those Glass Explorers to start mucking around with.

The changelog is a pretty significant one — users will soon be able to initiate calls and send messages to Gmail contacts, and rather than having to navigate to the OK Glass launcher card before issuing a voice command, users can boss their headgear around without having to touch anything. But most importantly though, Google is now letting users view webpages through Glass.

The post makes it seem as though the touchpad mounted on Glass’ right side will be responsible for most of the navigation — users can swipe forward and backward along the panel to scroll up and down, and there are multiple navigation schemes to fiddle with. Thankfully, there’s one tailor-made for those who generally feel impervious to embarrassment: users can pan around their favorite websites by touching two fingers to the touchpad and moving their heads to and fro. You know, nice and discreet. It’s a little hard to visualize, but current Glass Explorers won’t have to wait too long to see it for themselves as the update is slated to go live over the next few days.

Frankly, it was only a matter of time before Google let those particular cats out of the bag — we’ve known that Glass had the ability to fire up a browser and listen to voice commands outside of that launcher card ever since an enterprising developer named Zhuowei Zhang uncovered a slew of so-called Glass Lab Experiments and shared them on GitHub. Naturally, there’s still plenty on that list that hasn’t been publicly implemented yet (think video stabilization and a Cliplet feature that records short snippets of video, to name a few), so expect a boatload of new updates between now and Glass’ tentative release date later this year.

Netflix recently detailed some of the technological developments needed to transition from Silverlight to HTML5 streaming video in the browser, and in a notable turn one of the first companies on board is Microsoft. It’s not that surprising since Microsoft has made it clear it’s pushing other technologies going forward, but it’s still a stark example of how much things have changed in recent years. Netflix’s Tech Blog announced today that anyone running Internet Explorer 11 in the Windows 8.1 preview can visit Netflix.com today and try out HTML5-powered video streaming right now. Already available on ARM Chromebooks (pictured above), Netflix says Microsoft has implemented the Premium video extensions it’s been working on to provide support for GPU-accelerated 1080p video, DRM and encryption without proprietary plugins.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Microsoft

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Source: Netflix Tech Blog

People are becoming more vigilant when it comes to online privacy, so Stanford University’s new initiative couldn’t have come at a better time. The project, called Cookie Clearinghouse, will curate catalogues of websites whose cookies browsers should or shouldn’t allow. As designed, it works along with a Safari-like patch Mozilla is testing for Firefox that allows cookies from sites you’ve visited but blocks third-party cookies from sites you haven’t. Theoretically, that’ll prevent advertisers or other entities from tracking you around the web, but the method isn’t foolproof — having a centralized list will prevent your browser from saving the cookies of an ad or a spam website you’ve accidentally clicked on.

To establish which sites are kosher and which aren’t, the folks at Stanford are slated to meet up with an advisory board. It will be comprised of privacy researchers, law pundits, small business experts, as well as reps from Mozilla and Opera. Unlike Do Not Track — another Stanford initiative from which this one later evolved — advertisers don’t have to opt in for inclusion on either list. It’s just up to developers (other than Mozilla) to integrate this more thorough solution into their browsers’ privacy options.

[Image credit: Brian Richardson]

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Via: Ars Technica

Source: Brendan Eich, Stanford

The Dolphin browser for Android has just received a new update.

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