Opera has released the latest version of it’s Opera web browser, now in version Opera 10.5 for Windows. Mac and Linux version will out soon. Opera 10.50 is said to be the most advance and the fastest web browser with Opera Turbo, first introduced last year.
The interface is now have cleaner looks and minimalist. The new feature such as Speed Dial, effects on visual tabs were introduced to improve visual. Taking advantage of Aero Glass effect on Windows 7, Opera is now looks more sleek than before.
Using Opera is still easy as before even with all these improvements. Just like other modern browsers, there are address bar, search box at the header, the bookmarked website at the main body along the Ask search box, and the Speed Dial.
Not all web browser created with speed in mind. StudentPad by Haxaro is one such web browser which integrate text editor into the browser. The main idea is to allow users making note of what they search.
Although that sounds promising, but that’s not really practical as we already had other application such as Evernote or even Google Notebook add-ons. This application allow user to take notes by highlight any text or image, which then automatically copied directly to that application. That is much easier, rather than typing the notes, although that method has its own advantage if you want to memorize it effectively.
On the UI, I wish that the text editor windows can be re-sized. It only left small spaces for web browsing purpose especially if you’re at low resolution screen.
Other features are including in-built calculator, Character Counter, MDI, Email Client and a bibliography template. Not much can be said about that, as that is pretty standard application on any computers nowadays. Take note also that it failed on Acid 3 test, where it scored only 13/100.
Student Pad is lightweight and standalone browser. With this advantage, you can keep it into your thumb drive, as it does not require any installation.
Opera Mobile 9.7, set to be unveiled next week, is the latest version of mobile web browser from Opera. The Opera Turbo, unveiled early this month will be one of the key feature introduce on Opera 9.7. Opera Mobile 9.7 also provide full support to dynamic web pages such as Flash and Javascript as well.
As a note, Opera Turbo is the feature that improve the Opera performance, when it is connecting to the slow internet connection . It will compress the web content such as images, but still maintain the web page layout, hence allow the page to load faster. Having Opera Turbo as a default in Opera Mobile 9.7 will give it slight advantage over its rivals, including the newcomer such as Mozilla Fennec.
Opera put up a demo showing the loading test between Opera Mobile 9.7 with and without the Opera Turbo and Internet Explorer. Click play to get the result.
Mountain View, California and Las Vegas, Nevada – March 26, 2009
At next week’s CTIA Wireless Show, Opera Software will be announcing the new Opera Mobile 9.7 server-accelerated browser for smartphones and mobile devices. Opera Mobile 9.7 features Opera Turbo, Opera’s breakthrough compression technology, along with the company’s latest Presto 2.2 rendering engine (also used in Opera 10 desktop) and full support for dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax and Flash (for accessing popular sites like Facebook and YouTube).
In today’s tough business climate where customer expectations are ever-increasing, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo can help carriers reduce network congestion while helping mobile device manufacturers bring increased speed and a more rich Web browsing experience to their customer and users.
For carriers specifically, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo provides a more consistent and compelling full Internet experience by compressing data up to 80%, thus reducing unwanted traffic and congestion and allowing users to access the Web regardless of network limitations.
For mobile device manufacturers, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo can make for a faster, more rich browsing experience by leveraging current device capabilities and utilizing hardware resources more effectively. Opera Turbo offloads Web page rendering to Opera servers freeing up device resources. Even devices with limited hardware capabilities show improved page download rates and better overall performance.
“Today, carriers and mobile device manufacturers alike are looking for solutions that take advantage of existing technologies and investments while trying to maintain a high level of service for their customers,” explains Rod Hamlin, Senior Vice President for the Americas for Opera Software. “Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo gives our business customers to ability to bring a rich Internet browsing experience to their mobile device and to the end-user without having to allocate new resources and development costs.”
Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo also features better standards support (100% Acid 3 test) and developer tools, hardware acceleration Open GL ES, and support for Google Gears.
In addition to Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo, Opera will be showcasing Opera Turbo on other connected devices as well as the latest version of the award-winning Opera Mini 4.2 on today’s hottest mobile devices – Sprint Instinct, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Storm, and T-Mobile G1.
Finally, stay tuned for Opera’s latest partner announcements, and make sure to check out Opera executives at the following panels and presentations:
BRIC Conference – “The Important Role of the Mobile Internet for Developing Countries”
Opera Presenter: Jon von Tetzchner, Founder & CEO
When: Tuesday, March 31st @ 3:10pm
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, Room N255
CTIA Wireless – “Applications & Operating Systems for Devices”
Opera Presenter: Jon von Tetzchner, Found & CEO
When: Thursday, April 2nd @ 3:30pm
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Room 223
CTIA Wireless – “Mobile Internet – Access to Internet is Not a Desk Job Anymore”
Opera Presenter: Rod Hamlin, Senior Vice President, Americas
When: Thursday, April 2nd @ 4:00pm
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Room 228
CTIA Wireless will be held from April 1st – 3rd in Las Vegas, NV. Visit Opera at Booth #6724 in Central Hall. For media inquiries, please contact Ted Miller at tmiller@opera.com tmiller[at]opera.com.
About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.
The folks at StatCounter just release the statistic of how web browsers are performing for the period of July 08 to March 09. Internet Explorer continue its dominance with 63% market, drop 8% from 68%, while Mozilla Firefox gain 2% to 27%.
IE experience lowest ever percentage of Internet Explorer usage had in recent years, thanks to its own image. It has something to do with the bad perception that tech savvy internet users had, toward Microsoft and its product, including Internet Explorer which is slow, bug-happy and malware-magnet. The emergence of better and open source web browsers such as Firefox and Chrome also contributing to the loss when users are looking for more secure, openness and promote standardization web browser.
The new StatCounter Global Stat is useful for in depth view of the stat. It is flexible, as you can filter the statistic based on period and region as well as the statistic type as bar or line statistic. There is option for you to download the data in .CSV format, or turns the statistic to image (.JPG).
Please note, this stat built from the data collected ONLY from websites that running StatCounter script. Hence it didn’t provide overall pictures of how this web browsers are performing.
Global
Asia
In verall, Asian countries still favor Internet Explorer over Mozilla Firefox with market share 74.72% to 20.79 respectively.
Malaysia
Unlike Asian statistic, Malaysian internet users are more favorable toward Mozilla Firefox compared IE with almost 36.61% to 59.13% market share respectively. For Firefox, this percentage is higher than Firefix global stat. The trend showing Mozilla Firefox is consistently capturing more percentage, while IE is consistently losing its market to Firefox and other rivals.
You’ll no longer seeing boring blank page when opening new tab, on incoming release of Firefox. Other browser such as Opera, Chrome and Safari has their own new tab page style for sometime, but Firefox as the 2nd most used web browser only planned to introduce it on its next release.
The new tab (also called About:Tab) consist of 2 main elements, called ‘quick-access bar’ on the right, and the ‘contextual actions’ on the upper left.
Closer look what it got.
quick-access bar – Showing the frequently visited sites and shows related items like feeds. It stay in faded gray until you move your mouse over it.
Contextual action -Mozilla describe it as
Generally, you’ll select some text and open a new tab to search for that text. The new tab provides a big button so that becomes a one-click action (in the future, it will use your default search provider). If you’ve selected an address, the new tab provides a one-click action to map it. If you’ve selected a URL, one-click action will open it.
It can recover website that you close unintentionally too.
