Out of the way

This is really an advance. Kestrel has had a lot of work go into performance, and some key things of the browser have been rewritten or seriously updated.

There is a new ECMAscript/javascript engine, written from the ground up. Opera (most recently in the person of Chris Pine) along with others such as Brendan Eich, inventor of javascript, has been working in the ECMA group that will standardise a new version of ECMAscript. The new engine is preparing the way to allow us to implement that too - and a key feature is that it is backwards compatible with any javascript correctly written in an older version.

Dear to my heart, there are two big leaps forward in accessibility that we are working on in Kestrel. The major one is screenreader compatibility. In the alpha version you can play around with Opera using screen readers such as JAWS and Window-eyes on Windows, or VoiceOver, the screen reader built into Mac OSX. Note that there are still major issues with the screen-reader support - especially on Windows. We are still working on this, and since it is complicated work it will probably be a while before it becomes the best screen-reader compatibility on all platforms...

Special thanks are due to a bunch of people for this, especially our accessibility volunteers who have helped test the builds, the programmers who have worked on making it happen, and Aaron Leventhal at IBM and the guys at GW Micro (makers of the screen reader Window-Eyes) for being particularly helpful in answering questions about various aspects of screen readers and accessibility.

There has also been work on the mail engine. This matters to me, since it was the reason I started using Opera full-time again. Having filters, so one message can be visible in multiple places (think of it as a way of tagging messages, with each filter being a powerful tag), is what I always wanted, s when Opera started doing it I started using it as my mail client. And I haven't looked back.

Kestrel has been my mail client already for months, and while you should ALWAYS BACK UP (especially with an alpha...) I haven't yet reverted to a backup. More scary for many people, it is VERY difficult to take mail from Kestrel back to Merlin (9.0 - 9.2x) - you need to spend a lot of time messing around with the raw storage files. And while my experience has been good, some testers have reported issues, so don't use it for mail if you don't want to be on the VERY bleeding edge, and if you do BACK UP YOUR MAIL!

Inside, there is a new search engine which is not only fast, but does some cool new things. Not only can you search your mail, but you also get opera:historysearch - a search in your own browsing history. Of course, at opera we care a lot about your security and privacy, so if you are paranoid, or shaing a computer (e.g. in a public internet café), don't forget that the Tools menu is where to find the "Delete Private Data" function.

Of course, there is plenty more, from CSS improvements and some big changes to User Interface, to things I am still not allowed to tell you about. See the changelogs for mac, windows, or unix versions for the details.

So if you want to see what's new, BACK UP EVERYTHING. Remember, this is an ALPHA. That means it might have bugs, even ones that cause a major crash. It also won't always perform as well as the final version. This is a preview for those who like living on the bleeding edge, and want to play with the new stuff that is coming soon in a final version. And Go Get A Kestrel. (Note that keeping the actual birds is no longer legal in most places, so stick to the browser ).

And while I'm waffling about work, don't forget that the second beta of Opera mini 4 came out last week. If 9.5 is an update of Opera, Mini 4 is a major new version of the browser for all kinds of phones. (I run Mini on the $50 phone I bought at a train station when I needed a phone urgently, as well as on my fancy work phone). David Storey (our Chief Web Opener) and Chris Mills, (the new editor at dev.opera.com), wrote an article about Mini 4 to go with the launch, and while it is mostly aimed at helping people make web pages work properly, it also discusses a bunch of the new features in Mini 4...