web browser

Merry Christmas!

On Tuesday, Opera
launched opera 11.50
beta, AKA "Swordfish,"
that adds a new feature
to the browser: password
management. With the release, Opera
Swordfish moves out of Opera's alpha channel, known as Opera Next, which Opera launched in early May. The new
release also includes a revamped version of
Speed Dial, a feature that normally might show
you the most frequently-accessed Web pages in
Chrome or Firefox. Now, in Opera Swordfish, those screens can
actually show dynamic widgets, so, as Opera
notes, those screens can show a snapshot from a
weather-forecasting page - or, if it's programmed
appropriately, that screen can show you a
personalized weather report. Opera also improved Opera Link, the service that
Opera previously used to synchronize
bookmarks, notes, Speed Dial links, and other
useful information. Now, Opera said, users can
sync passwords as well, securely. "We don't make releases for the sake of releases,
nor do we make innovations for the sake of
innovation," said Jan Standal, vice president of
desktop products, Opera, in a statement. "We
create browsers that make the Web faster and
easier to use, and the newest features in Swordfish support that goal." Opera said that users could download the beta
by itself, or simply download the Opera Next
client. Designed for testing new features and
enhancements, Opera Next is an independent,
self-contained version of the Opera browser. As
an alpha, it's early in the development cycle and
may be suffer from instability and other issues.
However, with Opera Next, you can have it both ways: you can keep your existing installation of
Opera and install the 11.50 alpha as a separate
product. By keeping preferences and settings
separate, Opera keeps your existing data safe.