iPhone screen recording app slips onto the App Store

An iPhone application that allows users to record their screens, including screen activity while using third-party apps on your phone, has managed to sneak onto the App Store.

xRec, which was published on Saturday and costs $1.99 on (iTunes), can record screen activity in its entirety. The software requires an active Internet connection to work and, according to tech site Giga (Google Translate), uses code from jailbreak app RecordMyScreen, which offers a similar feature set and user interface.

The app shows a red, pulsing bar at the top of the screen when it's recording, something that cannot be removed. Users also can record audio at various quality levels with the app. You can save the captured data to your camera roll or send it to other installed apps.

Screen recording is not something Apple provides to developers to add to their apps, let alone something that can record activity in other software.

The software, which Apple likely will remove, requires iOS 5. Its developer says it will not work with iOS 7, Apple's upcoming mobile operating system update.

This is not the first screen recording app to hit the App Store, but the capability to record activity from other applications is unique. iOS app UX Recorder also records on-screen activity, but it's limited to the front-facing camera and the Web browser built into the app.

Opera 15 arrives with Chromium-based rapid-release revamp

The Opera Software browser brain transplant that began on Android is now complete for Windows and OS X users, too.

The Norwegian company has been rebuilding Opera on the same browser engine Google uses within Chrome, scrapping its own Presto engine. The first fruits of the transformation arrived onAndroid devices, but now the new Opera 15 has been released for personal computers, too.

A browser engine's job is to process all the HTML, JavaScript, and CSS instructions on a Web page or Web app then render the result on the screen. Although Opera is following Chrome at this low level by using the engine with the open-source Chromium project, it's got a number of interface features that distinguish it from Google's browser.Among them:

• Speed Dial, long an Opera feature for presenting frequently-used Web pages, now lets people group multiple links into folders.

• Off-Road Mode uses Opera's proxy-browsing infrastructure to speed performance with slow networks. With the technology, Opera servers send boiled-down versions of Web pages. The feature automatically turns itself off when you get back to a fast connection.

• The Stash feature can be used to collect screenshots of Web pages in a centralized location for future reference. The interface shows small versions of the pages that you can expand, and you can label snapshots with keywords to find them later.

• Opera Discover presents a selection of Web pages based on a user's expressed interests such as regional news or sporting events.

Opera fans who want the rest of their old interface back should be patient, said Lars Boilesen, Opera Software's chief executive, in a statement: "Stay tuned for some of our most beloved features as we continue to develop the next generation of Opera."

One hot item to rebuild is synchronization of browser settings and data through the Opera Link effort, said Opera Product Management Director Sebastian Baberowski in a blog postTuesday. Also on the list for the next release are themes to customize the browser's appearance and Opera's more visual system for tab management.

are themes to customize the browser's appearance and Opera's more visual system for tab management.

Opera plans to keep its older Presto-based 12.x browser updated with security patches, and the company is working on an update, 12.6, Baberowski said:

We have neither asked nor forced our 12.x users to upgrade to Opera 15, as we know that some features that are important to you are still to come. So, while you are very welcome to test and use Opera 15, Opera 12.x will still be alive for some time. You can expect that we will keep Opera 12.x up to date and secure. In the future, once we are comfortable with the feature set, we may ask you to upgrade.

Opera has hung onto a small fraction of browser usage on the PC, and its Opera Mini browser continues to have a reasonable foothold in the mobile market. But Opera Mini is chiefly used on the lower-end phones that are losing out to modern Android and iOS smartphones. Opera concluded it would be better to devote its engineering resources to the Chromium project than to continue with its independent Presto work.

Google releases new versions of Chrome about every six weeks to distribute new technology as soon as possible, and Firefox has followed the same approach. Now Opera, which had been accelerating its development already, plans to move faster as well with its own rapid-release process. The company has been contributing code to the Chromium project, too.

Chromium began with the WebKit browser engine also used in Apple's Safari, but to enable more substantial changes, Google forked that software project into its own Blink project.

Opera released a beta version of the Chromium-based browser in late May under the Opera Next label. Opera releases three versions of its browser: stable, Opera Next, and for the most adventurous, Opera Developer.

Take Windows 8.1 for a spin with the new Preview build

Microsoft has finally opened its doors for users to check out the upcoming changes to Windows 8.1, the first major update to its flagship OS.

On Wednesday, Microsoft released their highly-anticipated preview build of Windows 8.1.Windows 8.1 promises numerous improvements to search, the Windows app store, cloud storage, and enhanced personalization features. In particular, Windows 8.1 also promises a potential "revival" of the oft-missed Start button.

Microsoft has also released an in-depth preview guide for users to showcase some of their major changes to the flagship OS.

We'll be taking 8.1 for a preview spin, but the preview update is free to download. Just remember to back up any sensitive files in case you need to revert back to Windows 8.0.