GNOME 2.28 Switches to WebKit
GNOME 2.28 provides a few new features and improvements to well-known functions and components. So the GNOME Epiphany browser now uses the sleak WebKit that makes apps such as Google Chrome work faster.
Highlights of the GNOME 2.28 version include the Bluetooth module that provide a simple management of Bluetooth devices and connect Bluetooth phones easily with the Internet. PulseAudio and Bluetooth headsets also provide unwired opportunities.
The Time Tracker applet was dramatically improved, now color-coding tasks, supporting more export formats and providing by-category activity filtering. GNOME developers also upgraded the Empathy instant messenging app, where users can now organize contacts by drag-and-drop and change layout using the View menu. Empathy also provides geolocation support using Geoclue for XMPP chat contacts and full-screen video chats, and supports sharing desktops with Empathy contacts using Vino.
One of the major enhancements is to the Epiphany GNOME browser that switched from the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine to Safari/KHTML WebKit, as was long anticipated. Apart from greater speed, users should notice little difference. The GNOME Media Player now also supports DVD menu navigation and resuming playback from the last position. The Cheese webcam app can generate photo series and was optimized for small screens for more horizontal display by moving the thumbnails to the right. The GNOME volume control was improved for 5.1 SurroundSound. Even accessibility enhancements were made.
A full list of changes and developer information for 2.28 and the upcoming 2.30 are included in the project release notes.
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