Opera Archive

"Opera Software today announced the first public beta of Opera 9. This version includes Widgets, small web programs running in their own windows that are fun, easy-to-use and live on users' desktops. The Opera 9 beta also features support for BitTorrent, a popular file downloading technology, in addition to an easy-to-use content blocker and thumbnail previews of tabbed sites. And yes, Opera remains available free of charge."

Opera is now fully Acid2 compliant. Its latest preview build fixes the last missing feature that was preventing the test page from rendering correctly. Other improvements in this release: fixed crasher on Flash; added experimental support for opening Web archives; improved display of content blocker toolbar; added keyboard shortcuts Cmd+ for back/forward on Mac; and much more.

"This interview with Opera Software CEO and co-founder Jon S. von Tetzchner covers the Norwegian browser company's history, products, and roadmap. It sheds light on the growing importance of Linux in the embedded market, and the growing importance of the embedded market to Opera."

As said yesterday, Opera Software today released the second preview of Opera 9. New features include a widget engine, web page thumbnails, syntax highlighting in the source viewer, a content blocker, and much more. Download it for Windows, UNIX, and Mac OS X.

Opera Software today announced the release of Opera Mini, the full Web browser that runs on almost every mobile Java phone, including low- and mid-end handsets. Opera Mini compresses Web pages by up to 80% and reformats them using Small-Screen Rendering for easy and fast browsing on small, mobile screens. For the end-user, this means faster browsing and dramatically reduced phone bills for those who pay per KB in data traffic. Screenshots rendering OSNews and our sister-site GnomeFiles.

Opera 8.5 Pocket PC beta version is based on the same core as the Opera 8.5 desktop browser and brings the full internet to mobile Pocket PCs. The version is available for both WM 2003 and WM 5.0. We tested the browser and we were very happy to see that it supports the VGA resolution out of the box, as our comparative screenshot reveals. There are still bugs though, namely with zoom control, fonts become huge when unchecking the "fit to screen" option or going landscape, and the fact that it doesn't pop up the virtual keyboard when a form field/URL-bar is focused. Other than that, it looks great.

"With Opera recently releasing their web browser completely free of Ads, it is a good time to let the truth be told. Not only is Opera faster then Firefox in all performance areas, it is much more secure and more compliant."

Representatives at browser maker Opera denied that the company is in the process of being sold to either Google or Microsoft, and said the Norwegian firm has no other acquisition plans in the works. Opera markets an eponymous desktop Web browser as well as several mobile browser technologies. A number of published reports appeared early Friday that implied that industry giants Microsoft and Google could be engaged in a bidding war over Opera. The company called those stories mere rumors.

Users of Java-capable cell phones anywhere may find browsing the Web easier and cheaper now that Opera Software is allowing anyone to download its Opera Mini application. The official worldwide launch of Opera Mini is planned for January but Opera has quietly lifted restrictions that previously allowed only residents of some Nordic countries and Germany to download the application, a spokesperson has confirmed.

Opera on Monday released a new version of its Web browser for Series 60 based mobile phones, such as those offered by Nokia. Opera 8.5 for S60 includes a new zoom function that lets mobile users view images and text in full size. A password manager has also been added in the update. In other mobile news, rumor has it that Microsoft is working on a mobile version of Office 12.

"Opera Software today permanently removed the ad banner and licensing fee from its award-winning Web browser. The ad-free, full-featured Opera browser is now available for download, completely free of charge, here." This news got submitted a staggering 14 times, and as far as I know, that's a record.

Here is an interview with the CEO of Opera. "There are obviously some users who go between Opera and Mozilla. They have Opera one week, Mozilla the next week, and back to Opera... But we have a shared common goal: we would actually like to see open standards prevail."

Opera released a mini/lite version of their 8.0.1 browser for all Java-enabled phones. On a similar note, the current leader of mobile phone browsers with 52% of market share, Openwave Systems, shipped one billion handsets with their browser in it.

Opera Software today released the second upgrade to Opera 8. The new version, Opera 8.02, is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh and includes security upgrades and smaller bug fixes. Download & changelog.