Opera Software Changes Name To Otello Corporation

Opera Software has changed its name to Otello Corporation, it said in a statement on Monday. From a report: Otello owns companies that develop software for advertising, telecoms, games and other online business. The name changes does not affect Opera Software AS or the Opera and Opera Mini internet browsers, all of which Otello sold in 2016, Opera Software AS said in a separate statement. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Opera Software Changes Name To Otello Corporation

Microsoft Edge Beats Chrome By Over Three Hours In New Battery Usage Test

An anonymous reader writes: With the launch of the Windows 10 Creators Update and Edge 40 (EdgeHTML 15), Microsoft has released a new battery usage test that, naturally, trashes the company’s competition. This new test shows that Edge uses less power than both Chrome 57 and Firefox 52, and is bound to draw a response from its competition, especially Google, who doesn’t like it when Microsoft takes a jab at Chrome’s efficiency. The same thing happened last year, in June, when a similar test showcasing Edge’s longer battery life was met with responses from both Google and Opera. The most recent tests were performed for the launch of Windows 10 Creators Update. Two tests were carried out until a laptop’s battery gave out. For each browser, a minimum of 16 iterations were recorded per test. The first test measured normal browsing performance and the second ran a looped Vimeo fullscreen video. In the normal browsing performance test, Microsoft claims Edge used 31% less power than Chrome 57, and 44% less power than Firefox 52. In the second test, Edge played a looped Vimeo video in fullscreen for 751 minutes (12:31:08), while Chrome lasted 557 minutes (9:17:03) and Firefox for only 424 minutes (7:04:19). That’s a whopping three hours over Chrome, and five hours above Firefox. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Edge Beats Chrome By Over Three Hours In New Battery Usage Test

Chrome 57 Arrives With CSS Grid Layout and API Improvements

Google has launched Chrome 57 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. From a report on VentureBeat: Among the additions is CSS Grid Layout, API improvements, and other new features for developers. You can update to the latest version now using the browser’s built-in silent updater, or download it directly from google.com/chrome. Chrome is arguably more than a browser: With over 1 billion users, it’s a major platform that web developers have to consider. In fact, with Chrome’s regular additions and changes, developers have to keep up to ensure they are taking advantage of everything available. Chrome 57 implements CSS Grid Layout, a two-dimensional grid-based layout system for responsive user interface design. Elements within the grid can be specified to span multiple columns or rows, plus they can also be named so that layout code is easier to understand. The goal is to give developers more granular control, especially as websites are increasingly accessed on various screen sizes, so they can slowly move away from complex code that is difficult to maintain. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chrome 57 Arrives With CSS Grid Layout and API Improvements

Opera warns that its web sync service was hacked

Data breaches happen all too often , but it’s rare that they target your browser’s sync service… and unfortunately, Opera just became one of those exceptions. The company is warning users that it detected a hack in its sync system that may have given intruders access to login details. While your passwords are likely safe (all synced passwords are encrypted, for example), Opera isn’t risking anything. It’s resetting all sync account passwords, and it recommends that you change any linked third-party passwords to be on the safe side. Opera is quick to note that the majority of its 350 million users won’t be affected, since most don’t use sync. However, this still leaves about 1.7 million active users at risk, and there are likely more inactive users who are storing useful passwords. True, it’s doubtful that the breach will lead to serious damage, but this certainly isn’t the kind of news Opera would want following its sale to a Chinese security giant . [Thanks, Kristy] Source: Opera Security

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Opera warns that its web sync service was hacked

Chrome 45 Launches, Automatically Pauses Less Important Flash Content, Like Ads

An anonymous reader writes: Google today launched Chrome 45 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android with some expected changes and new developer tools. First and foremost, Chrome now automatically pauses less important Flash content (rolling out gradually, so be patient). This has been a longtime coming from both Google and Adobe, with the goal to make Flash content more power-efficient in Chrome: In March, a setting was introduced to play less Flash content on the page, but it wasn’t turned on by default, and in June, the option was enabled in the browser’s beta channel. Now it’s being turned on for everyone. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chrome 45 Launches, Automatically Pauses Less Important Flash Content, Like Ads

Big Changes From Mozilla Mean Firefox Will Get Chrome Extensions

Mozilla announced yesterday a few high-level changes to the way Firefox and Firefox extensions will be developed; among them, the introduction of “a new extension API, called WebExtensions—largely compatible with the model used by Chrome and Opera—to make it easier to develop extensions across multiple browsers.” (Liliputing has a nice breakdown of the changes.) ZDNet reports that at the same time, “Mozilla will be deprecating XPCOM and XUL, the foundations of its extension system, and many Firefox developers are ticked off at these moves.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Big Changes From Mozilla Mean Firefox Will Get Chrome Extensions

Firefox 40 Arrives With Windows 10 Support, Expanded Malware Protection

An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 40 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Notable additions to the browser include official Windows 10 support, added protection against unwanted software downloads, and new navigational gestures on Android. Firefox 40 for the desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Changelogs are here: desktop and Android. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Firefox 40 Arrives With Windows 10 Support, Expanded Malware Protection

Firefox 34 Arrives With Video Chat, Yahoo Search As Default

An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 34 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Major additions to the browser include a built-in video chat feature, a revamped search bar, and tab mirroring from Android to Chromecast. This release also makes Yahoo Search the default in North America, in place of Google. Full changelogs: desktop and Android.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Firefox 34 Arrives With Video Chat, Yahoo Search As Default

What’s The Best Browser to Protect You against Malware?

The answer may be surprising to some, but according to leading security firm NSS Labs, there’s a new champ in town. NSS Labs tested the top 5 browsers on the market today; Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer 10, Mozilla Firefox 19 and Opera 12 to see how they would respond to “live” testing. Each browser was pointed to series 900+ URL’s that had known infections embeded in thier sites. At the end of testing, guess what? IE 10 FTW! Yeah, you read that right. IE 10 crushed everyone. IE 10 blocked a whopping 99.96% of the infested sites followed by Chrome at 83.16% (respectable), Safari at 10.15%, Firefox at 9.92% and Opera pulling up the rear at a measly 1.87% effective rate.

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What’s The Best Browser to Protect You against Malware?

Opera claims former employee gave stolen trade secrets to Mozilla

Opera has been busy repositioning itself as a middleware player for the mobile Web recently, but that isn’t stopping the company from defending its investment in browser technology. The company has filed a 20 million Kronor ($3.4 million) lawsuit against a former employee and consultant, claiming that he stole company secrets and incorporated them into a mobile browser for Mozilla. According to a report by Norwegian IT site Digi.no , Opera has filed suit against Trond Werner Hansen, a Norwegian musician and designer who worked for Opera from 1999 to 2006 as a user interface designer and developer before  leaving to pursue his music career . Hansen also worked for Opera as an outside consultant from 2009 to 2010. Last year, Hansen was involved with the development of the Mozilla prototype “Junior” browser for Apple iOS . Hansen and Alex Limi —former Firefox UI head and now manager of Mozilla’s product design strategy—demonstrated the browser prototype in a video on Air Mozilla last June. Hansen said in the video, “I spent almost seven years trying to simplify Opera and didn’t really succeed. Simplification of something that already exists is really hard. That’s way beyond product design issues—it’s company issues. I feel like we failed in making something really easy.” Limi credited Hansen with the invention of a number of Mozilla UI features, including the browser search—”the source of all our revenue,” Limi said—and the “speed dial” feature that allows users to pick frequently visited pages from a new browser tab. “Pretty much everything he’s invented, they’re now in all browsers,” Limi continued. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Opera claims former employee gave stolen trade secrets to Mozilla