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Retooling its browser with the WebKit engine isn't the only big change at Opera Software. The Norwegian company also cut its staff significantly in the last quarter of 2012.

According to the company's fourth-quarter financial results (PDF), the company had 777 employees at the end of 2011 and 931 at the end of 2012. But that figure includes 91 "employees associated with the organizational restructuring."

Moving to WebKit and dropping its in-house Presto browser engine. means Opera is cooperating with Google, Apple, and others using the open-source WebKit software, and that means the company could get … Read more

Emsisoft Free Emergency Kit collects a number of powerful system utilities in one portable package. With its help, you can clean, debug, and repair damaged and corrupted systems. Its Emergency Kit Scanner searches your PC for every kind of virus, malware, rootkit, Trojan, and keylogger that the very latest reports and updates identify, plus any new threats it finds, and will then remove or quarantine suspected files, depending on what you tell it to do. Advanced users will appreciate the Commandline Scanner, which is the same scanner but without a GUI. HiJackFree offers powerful manual malware scanning and removal capabilities, … Read more

It was a good day for the WebKit browser engine yesterday when Opera Software adopted it in place of its in-house Presto. But yesterday's developments also became an opportunity for a high-profile JavaScript programmer to lodge criticisms about WebKit.

"Each release of Chrome or Safari generates excitement about new bleeding-edge features; nobody seems to worry about the stuff that's already (still!) broken," complained Dave Methvin, president of the jQuery foundation and a member of the core programming team that builds the widely used Web programming tool, in a blog post.

"jQuery Core has more lines … Read more

It might have been a smart strategic move for Opera Software to move to the WebKit browser engine and scrap its own Presto, but some think it's a step backward for the development of the Web overall.

"A switch to Webkit might benefit Opera. It's just not going to benefit the open Web," Mozilla's Robert O'Callahan said today in comments on his blog about Opera's Presto change-o. "This will strengthen the WebKit mobile monoculture and make it even harder for us to promote Web standards over 'coding to Webkit.'"

Browser engines … Read more

Opera Software, an independent voice in the browser market since the 1990s, will dramatically change its strategy this year by adopting the WebKit browser engine used by Safari and Chrome.

The Norwegian company announced the move today and said it will show off the first fruits of the work with a WebKit-based version of its Android browser at the Mobile World Congress show in less than two weeks. But the company will move to WebKit for its desktop browser, too.

A browser engine processes the Web page instructions written in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS then renders the results on screens. … Read more

I'm no stranger to losing things. From leaving my bag on a park bench, to sifting through all my coats in the closet just to find the one pocket I last left my keys in, it's common for things to go by the wayside.

To help with this, Kensington's Proximo Proximity Monitoring System provides a way to keep track of valuables via Bluetooth. With its key fob or tag attached to your items, you can monitor and locate your belongings via an iPhone app. Likewise, you can use its key fob to make your handset sound off … Read more

Camera+ (99 cents) Camera+ is a solid image-editing tool that makes creating cool-looking shots easy, and all the upgrades since its release mean it has tons of useful tweaks. You can use digital-camera-like scenes to apply common camera effects in specific situations like simulated flash, sunset, backlit images, and portraits. You also can crop your images to your specs or select from several standard sizes.

When you want to add filters and effects, Camera+ makes it easy with a gridlike layout you can touch to see nuanced or drastic changes to your original image. The filters are organized by category … Read more

The Opera Browser will be rebuilding its mobile browsers using WebKit and a new interface that nearly entirely ditches the traditional browser buttons called Opera Ice, according to a leaked video acquired by Pocket-Lint.com.

Ice is not Opera's first dalliance with WebKit, as its current iOS offerings are also built with the WebKit engine. However, the current iOS Opera runs its server-side compression with Opera's Presto engine. It's not clear that that will continue with Ice, which apparently will debut at Mobile World Congress in February.

The video shows off Opera Ice, a browser that looks … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Almost every new car comes with a Bluetooth hands-free phone system, but SuperTooth believes there is still room for a Bluetooth speakerphone car kit, as evidenced by its launch of the HD Voice at CES 2013. And with the HD Voice's advanced features, SuperTooth may be right.

A spokesperson for SuperTooth suggested the call quality was so good, the HD Voice would be preferable to use in cars over the native hands-free phone system. A bold claim, but the HD Voice does come with two microphones and two speakers, hardware that will not only enhance call quality, but … Read more