Desktop software

The Opera Browser made some serious headway in keeping itself relevant when it introduced a new JavaScript engine for its upcoming revision. The latest edition of Opera 10.50 beta 2 for Windows contains no new major features, some minor feature improvements, and is mostly a bug-fixing release that incorporates around 100 changes since the first beta.

Also, in an effort to prevent attention from drifting away from the Mac version of Opera 10.50, the publisher has also announced a new release candidate for the beta. While that milestone is unusual, it's not unheard of for browser publishers … Read more

Mozilla has officially decided that the next major version of Firefox will require at least Mac OS X 10.5 when running on Apple computers.

"We believe a Mac OS X 10.5 minimum will allow us to provide the best experience possible to our users," Mozilla Mac programmer Josh Aas said Tuesday in a mailing list announcement. Firefox is built on a browser engine called Gecko, and the upcoming version 1.9.3 will have technology for Mac OS X 10.4 and before removed, he said.

The recently released Firefox 3.6 works on Mac OS … Read more

Apple has cut some staff working on its Final Cut video editing software suite, according to a report by a video industry insider.

"Apple laid off 40 of my old Final Cut team yesterday, lots of good people, despite high profits," said Pete Warden in a tweet last week. Warden, a data-mining former Apple employee who writes plug-ins for Adobe Systems' After Effects video software, also noted the cuts on his blog.

The tweet surfaced at Rich Young's AE Portal News blog, which deals with After Effects.

Apple declined to comment on the matter.

With successful products … Read more

It's not often that a technology product, even a successful one, enters the language as a verb. Some of us google, but nobody iPhones, Excels, or HDMIs.

But by remaining influential over a history that now spans 20 years, Photoshop software has achieved a place in the English language. Over its two decades, it grew from a single black-and-white image-editing package to a multi-product franchise, a starring member of Adobe Systems' Creative Suite line, and, of course, a verb.

At a National Association of Photoshop Professionals event Thursday in San Francisco, Photoshop's movers and shakers will gather to … Read more

Opera, which was bumped down to fifth place in browser usage after Google Chrome burst on the scene, has embraced a super-fast JavaScript engine as part of its bid to stay relevant.

Unfortunately for Opera, my tests show more work is needed.

The beta version of Opera 10.5 arrived Thursday morning, and I thought it a good time to compare how some of the cutting-edge versions of the browsers were shaping up in performance--especially because Mozilla has released a preview version of the next version of Firefox.

Before we dig into the statistics, let's start with some important … Read more

With the release of the Opera 10.5 beta, a fourth browser is available that can play video built directly into Web pages with no plug-ins required.

The HTML5 Web pages standard under development lets programmers build video into Web pages so browsers don't need a plug-in such as Adobe Systems' Flash to play it--the way they've been accustomed to doing with JPEG images for years. However, Opera's arrival isn't likely to bridge a video technology divide that's a serious hurdle for adoption of HTML5 video.

Opera 10.5, like Mozilla's Firefox, can play … Read more

The latest minor-point update to OpenOffice brings users faster launch speeds and better support for Microsoft Office 2007-formatted files. OpenOffice 3.2 for Windows, Mac, and Linux also sees the debut of comments in Impress, encryption support for Office 2007-formatted files, and smoother sort, merge, and copy and paste functions in Calc.

Highlighting has also been tweaked to stand out more visually, with a new blue background and edging. The full list of changes can be read here. Be warned, it's a very tech-speak-heavy chart and is not easy to navigate.

The performance improvement is immediately noticeable, although when … Read more

Opera moves its latest browser build out of alpha development and into beta and claims that Opera 10.50 beta is the fastest browser currently available. It's not clear at the moment whether it's faster than Google Chrome's development builds, or merely as fast as, but there's no doubt that this new beta should draw a lot of attention for its performance.

For users who didn't take a look at the pre-alpha builds released in December 2009 and January 2010, Opera 10.50 has been fully optimized for Windows 7, sporting a new interface, full … Read more

Google released a new version of Chrome for Mac OS X on Thursday that restores a key feature, extensions, that had been missing for weeks.

"With this new version, you'll be able to install any of over 2,200 extensions (and counting!) currently available in Chrome's extensions gallery," said Chrome programmer Mark Mentovai in a blog post Thursday. Extensions are a key asset for one big rival browser, Firefox.

Curiously, the beta version--5.0.307.2 for Mac OS X and Linux as well--made it to beta status earlier than the Windows version, which is still … Read more