Opera Otaku

Here's an article I wrote to introduce our latest Labs release:

"Powered by Opera Widgets, Web applications take center stage"
http://labs.opera.com/news/2009/10/15/

Excerpt:

When asked what we do, our CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner frequently replies that we are a browser company first and foremost. Putting our browser in all kinds of devices is our passion; through our products, millions of people around the world have full access to the Web. But the browser is more than just a window to the Web, and the Web itself is more than just content to be read, viewed, or heard.

We believe that the Web is the next great application platform. This trend has been long in the making...

Read more

When I visited Opera HQ in Oslo, I liked the look of the new reception area. (See pictures of the old reception area, which was also quite nice, here). One neat feature in particular was the set of eight clocks showing the times at the various Opera offices around the world. Given that I often have to schedule conference calls with my colleagues in Norway, I thought that having those clocks readily available could be quite useful to me and other Opera employees. It also occurred to me that someone could probably make an Opera clocks widget.

I have to admit, when Opera first unveiled widgets, I was a bit skeptical. I understood the benefit of having widgets that can work across platforms, but none of the early widgets really captured my interest. In recent months, however, I've been really impressed by a lot of the currently available widgets. All those design contests paid off, I guess.

I'm no programmer, so I knew I would need help to implement my Opera clock widget idea. At first, I was going to ask on the Opera widget forum, but then I noticed that a lot of the analog clock widgets were designed by one community member, seifip. Since he was clearly a clock widget master, I contacted seifip directly to brainstorm and sketch out my requirements. Ten days later, the first public version of the widget was released, and I think it's really cool (see the image below). This first version doesn't deal with Daylight Savings Time, but as of next Sunday (when we turn our clocks back), the times should be accurate.


(the Opera clocks widget running on top of my Thinkpad's default wallpaper; the image is resized to fit this page)

This widget is probably most useful for Opera employees. I'll ask seifip if he'll include an Opera Software logo or placard in the next version. For now, you can download the widget here:

http://widgets.opera.com/widget/5616

Here is a link to seifip's other widgets: http://widgets.opera.com/author/seifip

Enjoy!