OSLO, Norway--With extensions coming to Opera 11, the Norwegian browser maker says it's time to consider making the technology a standard for all browsers.

That's because Opera 11 extensions will use the same collection of Web page technologies--HTML for page contents, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for formatting, JavaScript for processing--as extensions in Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari 5, and Mozilla Firefox's upcoming Jetpack. The approach generally makes it easier for at least lightweight extensions, and browser technologies handle the interface.

"We think extensions are ripe for standardization," Håkon Wium Lie, Opera Software's chief technology officer, said at a press conference here.

A standard for extensions holds the promise of easier development for programmers, as they wouldn't have to rewrite their extensions for each browser. However, there are obstacles, including the facts that the Web technology extension approach is relatively new, and different browsers expose different interfaces to the extensions.

Opera hasn't yet begun talking to other browser makers about the idea, though, Lie said in an interview.

"It's still a bit too early for that, but we're indicating willingness to do so," he said. "We think it would be fairly easy to write up that specification, if there is willingness."

Extensions come with the possibility of an app store, a very trendy mechanism for technology companies to keep users in their orbit these days.

Opera already has an add-on store where people can find the more independent applications, called widgets, and elements for the Opera Unite technology. Opera plans to use the same infrastructure for offering extensions, Chief Development Officer Christen Khrogh said in an interview.

Of course, Opera also has a cousin of Opera 11 for mobile phones, Opera Mobile. Opera co-founder John von Tetzchner wouldn't say whether it, too, would get extension abilities.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday with way too much pizza and cake. Much as I enjoyed myself, the bulging belly I'm staring at today is a reminder that it's time to drop a few pounds.

I know from past experience that apps can make this a whole lot easier. After all, weight loss is nothing more than math: you just need to burn more calories than you consume. And apps take the guesswork out of it by tracking your caloric intake, deducting calories burned during exercise, and so on.

I've rounded up four winners. Take a look:

Calorie Counter Pro  This is my go-to tool, the one I consider the single most comprehensive diet app available today. I can't list every feature here, but I will point out the coolest: bar code scanning. Just point your iPhone 3GS or 4 at, say, the Cheerios box, and presto: it's added to your daily log. And that helps overcome one of my only complaints with the app: its mammoth database can be hard to search. Calorie Counter Pro costs $2.99.

Couch to 5k  Diet alone won't get the job done. Exercise must be part of the equation--and few exercises burn as many calories as running. Not sure how to start? Couch to 5k ($2.99) gives you a complete program designed to get you off the couch and through a 5K run inside of nine weeks. 

Lose It One of the all-time great freebies, Lose It sets a weight goal, then tracks your daily calories and exercise via one of the prettiest interfaces in the diet-app category. It also lets you connect with friends who use the app and keep tabs on each other's progress. 

Intelli-Diet Apps like Calorie Counter Pro and Lose It merely keep track of what you eat, but Intelli-Diet ($3.99) tells you what to eat, and when. In other words, it actually lays out a diet plan for you, one that's based on the foods you like and/or have. It even generates a shopping list for the meal plans it generates. This is a rising star among iPhone diet apps.

Have you found a diet app you like better? (I understand the newly updated DailyBurn is excellent--and it's a freebie to boot). Talk up your favorites in the comments!

More on CNET:

• iPhone app kickstarts your healthy lifestyle
• Four killer iPhone apps for runners
  

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Popular and preeminent VoIP service Skype has wooed its fair share of people with an itch to ditch the landline and an Internet connection, especially those with international contacts. Today, the service is launching its latest update in the hopes of wooing even more customers and keeping the current ones happy. Skype 5.0 features a streamlined interface, Facebok integration, and video conferencing functionality.

First, Skype tackled the overall user experience of the software. The new Home page integrates a feed of mood messages from your contacts and yourself, and it offers a variety of tutorials to help you use the various features of the service, from making a video call to signing up for a subscription. The company also aimed to simplify the overall interface in order to make calling, messaging, screen sharing, and file transferring more intuitive and easier to navigate. In addition, the contact search screen now features images and mood messages and offers real-time results.

Skype is also offering an open beta on its new group video calling feature. According to company data, about 40 percent of all Skype-to-Skype minutes were used on video calling. The logical step was to provide a feature that allowed users to chat with more than just one other person. Anyone who downloads version 5 will have a chance to test out the new functionality for free, though it will be a paid extra down the line.

The video conferencing feature offers a few viewing options. One is the typical side-by-side screen with participants lined up in equal sizes. Then there's the more interesting dynamic view, which increases the size of the person doing most of the talking at any given moment. We got to check this out in a live demo and can see how it would be particularly useful for business calls.

The group video screen also prominently displays the relevant controls along the bottom, as well as a meter that measures call quality. Skype has added a call quality manager that gauges audio and video quality during calls. Automatic call recovery is another new feature that helps users quickly reconnect calls that are interrupted due to Internet connection problems.

Last but not least, Skype now has Facebook integrated seamlessly into the interface. A tab along the top of the screen will take you into your news feed, where you can update your status as well as start Skype calls with various contacts.

Financial software might not be the type of thing to make your knees go weak, but a good program is a control freak's dream come true. Such is the case with Intuit's latest offering in the form of Quicken 2011, which is available starting today in a choice of three versions: Starter Edition ($29.95), Deluxe ($59.95), and Premier ($89.95).

It's immediately apparent that Intuit's acquisition of Mint last year has had a positive effect on the Quicken update. For one, the start-up process has been noticeably streamlined when compared with the previous version. Those who are setting up a profile for the first time can add accounts in just three screens as opposed to five or more; a process that used to take an hour now takes 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how many accounts you have. In preliminary testing, I added four bank accounts and one credit card in just over 20 minutes, and that included some glitchiness from one of the banks.

The time and work required by the user overall is also vastly reduced in the latest version of Quicken, thanks to the fact that the program can now automatically download data from more than 12,000 banks, brokerages, and loans. (That number in the previous edition was 5,000.) For most, this will eliminate the need to download Quicken-compatible statements or input data manually. The app will also now automatically detect transfers between accounts, so it's no longer necessary for users to keep tabs on and correct this data.

Plus, the software implements new technology from Mint that has improved overall categorization of transactions. According to Inuit, it's now 90-percent accurate, versus 55-percent in the 2010 version. This makes budgeting a lot easier, and it provides detailed insight on spending habits.

Another marked improvement in Quicken 2011 is the modernized user interface, which is less cluttered along the top and simpler to navigate overall. For example, the transaction registers for the previous version were plain white boxes, with nothing to delineate different transactions. Now, there are iTunes-like blue-and-white outlines to separate each occurrence. And you can sort and resize columns, which was a rather glaring UI oversight in past versions.

So which Quicken is for you? For casual users who want to get a handle on spending, well...it's probably just as well to stick with the free offering at Mint.com. Unless, of course, you want desktop software, in which case the Starter Edition is the right pick. The Deluxe version adds more options for creating a savings plan (including a handy cash flow graph), while Premier offers investment tools as well.

OSLO, Norway--Opera Software announced significant new steps for its browsers today, including the release soon of Opera Mobile for Android phones and extensions technology in the upcoming Opera 11 for computers.

In both those cases--and also in the Opera Mini browser for less capable phones--the browsers will come with a major new feature: hardware acceleration to speed the display of pages and operations such as scrolling and panning. That change is essential to keep Opera relevant in a highly competitive industry.

Android is aligned well with Opera's business strategy. First, Google's mobile operating system, unlike Apple's iOS, is open to other browsers. It's spreading from the high-end smartphone area to more affordable, mainstream models where Opera is strong today. And Android can be customized to the tastes of hardware makers or carriers, many of whom today have partnerships with Opera.

But so far the company has offered only Opera Mini for Android, a browser that relies on an Opera server to translate pages into a stripped-down form. And now the company must contend both with smartphones that promise a richer view of the Web and the fact that Mozilla's Firefox is arriving alongside the built-in browser that Google provides.

"Opera Mobile for Android is the real McCoy. It's the full Web browser on the phone," Opera Chief Development Officer Christen Krogh said at a press conference here. The software should arrive on the Android Market within 30 days, and perhaps within October.

Opera Mini is good for reaching mobile devices with small screens and limited network capacity, but it's got shortcomings too. For example, with the Opera server re-rendering Web pages and sending them to the mobile device, it's not able to handle interactive Web applications such as one for entering information into a calendar.

The browser market is fiercely competitive today on both full-fledged personal computers and mobile phones, and Opera is working hard to maintain its relevance. Google's Chrome rapidly pushed Opera down from fourth place to fifth on computers, and a host of advanced browsers on high-end iOS and Android smartphones threaten Opera's stronghold on mobile devices.

Hardware acceleration is a key change to stay competitive, and with the shift under the Opera covers to the Vega rendering engine, it's coming.

"We definitely aim to have hardware acceleration in Opera 11," Lars Erik Bolstad, Opera's vice president of core technology, said in an interview.

Hardware acceleration on mobile will include one multitouch option in high demand--pinch to zoom--for Opera Mobile, the company said. It aims to provide the feature on whatever phone can support it.

For Opera 11's extensions, the company will employ the same approach begun by Chrome and followed later by Firefox and Safari. Specifically, Opera 11 extensions will rely on Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, said Chief Technology Officer Hakon Wium Lie.

The company showed two extensions in operation, one for using Reddit and one for sending highlighted text to a Wikipedia search.

Opera already is very customizable, but extensions will enable more fine-tuning, Krogh said.

"Today we are announcing extensions for Opera to address the long, long, long tail," Krogh said, referring to the large number of people with specific and different requirements.

Originally posted at Deep Tech