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Opera Desktop Team

Macification

By perarnevollan. Thursday, 19. July 2007, 11:06:43

In a not too distant future, there will be a weekly preview release of Opera 9.5, with codename Kestrel. Along with containing all the cross-platform features, and usual bugfixes, the Mac team has done a lot of Mac specific stuff, which we hope you will like.:smile:

Some of these are:

  • VoiceOver support
    Kestrel will have good support for Apple's screen reader "VoiceOver" found in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. This allows visually impaired people to use all the features in the browser. See http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/ for details.

  • Optimizations
    Numerous small speed improvements, including faster startup time and page rendering.
    The font rendering speed has been improved quite a bit, along with tiling of bitmaps.
    We believe that Kestrel will be noticably faster than Merlin.

  • Skin
    Improved conformance to the Apple Human Interface Guidelines.
    We have also added a native skin with metal appearance, for those of you who might like that.

Looking forward to your feedback!

The Mac Team

More stability and speedOpera 9.22 released

Comments

tdzark 19. July 2007, 11:12

This is meta-news. I want a build :smile:

It will be a decent answer though to Apple's recent announcements of Safari's superiority on Windows, to beat them with a superior Opera browser on Mac :D

hansbendiksen 19. July 2007, 11:13

One browser to rule them all :cheers:

krusha 19. July 2007, 11:14

Giv it 2 us, plz, ASAP!

Skimat 19. July 2007, 11:18

so there so many suggestions are debated and proposed in your forum - what about making a web page with all those features titles and links to their negociation in the forum
make your website viewers vote for the one they like most, the best or the useless, the hated

Mrrrrz0r 19. July 2007, 11:18

Apple Human Interface Guidelines,

Not to sound troll like, but I think that the interface on 90% of crapple software is counterintuative and goes against most users logic. Somewhat like Adobe software too.

So yeah, it is my plee that as such, any redesign of UI to these standards should be avoided on the other releases(windows/nix)... and I bet I will now be attacked by a whole lot of apple fanboys weilding something about how I am the problem with the world.

Doliprane 19. July 2007, 11:22

Good for Mac Users, hope they'll like it!

-=>13<=- 19. July 2007, 11:38

Waiting for Kestrel!

Dasch 19. July 2007, 11:42

What will be the system requirements?
You know that the metal look is out with 10.5? Or is it like the current iTunes look (in 10.5 also the Finder look)? That would be nice. :smile:

Jazmo 19. July 2007, 11:43

Voting for features does not work. It may sound good idea, but is not. That way we get a browser full of features nobody uses.

Sushubh 19. July 2007, 12:02

I am hoping for a faster Opera on Linux platform. Dunno why but it is not as smooth as it is on Win.

pejakm 19. July 2007, 12:07

"One browser to rule them all"
lol!!!

"I am hoping a faster Opera on Linux platform. Dunno why but it is not as smooth as it is on Win."
Same here!

Serpher 19. July 2007, 12:10

I want a new build ;(

SuitCase 19. July 2007, 12:14

Mrrrrz0r, I probably don't speak for most Apple fanboys when I say this but I believe I speak logically when I say that the Mac version of Opera should go by Apple's guidelines even if they are the worst things in the world, much as it should for Microsoft's guidelines in Vista and commonly accepted guidelines in Linux. One of Opera's greatest problems is that it's somewhat confused about which platform it wants to act like, and I welcome any effort to make Opera look more like a native app on one of the platforms it runs on.

You're wrong and the HIG is awesome, by the way :wink:

Yemmi 19. July 2007, 12:14

where is the 9.5 build?

Stifu 19. July 2007, 12:19

Off topic: I only just noticed Opera requires you to click on Flash apps to activate them, like IE... Since when ? O_o

edupav 19. July 2007, 12:21

Ohhh I expect the win version too!!!

Sushubh 19. July 2007, 12:30

since the flash plugin was updated i believe. it was connected to some patent hassles which microsoft lost i think.

NoteMe 19. July 2007, 12:32

I can't wait....


- ØØ -

Stifu 19. July 2007, 12:33

Yeah, I heard about the patent issues... But it's the browser that requires you to click Flash apps to activate them, not the plugin itself (as Opera does it differently than IE, and Firefox still doesn't do it).

hansbendiksen 19. July 2007, 12:35

@Captain Stifu: Flash activation came in Opera 9 as I recall... due to Eolas copyrighted embed something....

While waiting for Kestrel, I made this quick vector gfx
http://storage9.myopera.com/hansbendiksen/files/kestrel.svg

"In a not too distant future" - Hmmmm.... Wish the future was now!

MrFrodo 19. July 2007, 12:38

Oh yeah baby! Can't wait!!!

Skimat 19. July 2007, 12:39

Jazmo -

If you looked at the suggestions, most of them aren't new features, they are more amelioration and tweaks (change the number of cases in the speed dial, put irc channels in speed dial,hide or group the server tabs in irc,add a sessions case in the sidebar and a quick save current session button,...) these are just some of the things i think about, there must be more in the Whish List - Forum : so what did santa picked in the list or has it to be a surprise and an endless waiting

DjiXas 19. July 2007, 12:42

Tomorrow... Waiting...

Sintti 19. July 2007, 12:48

You should also add one of those quick find boxes to the blocked content window, like the one in the history tab.

johannordholm 19. July 2007, 12:51

Finally a proper Mac version! Can't wait, it better come today or tomorrow.

drunkensurgeon 19. July 2007, 12:55

I'll need to reboot my PC to test it... but I'm too lazy to do this... :smile:

lachralle 19. July 2007, 13:15

Very good news! Eagerly awaiting Kestrel to pimp up my Mac :smile:

eestlane 19. July 2007, 13:17

Nice svg image, hansbendiksen!

fearphage 19. July 2007, 13:30

Until kestrel is first previewed, I think all blog posts on the desktopteam blog that do not contain links to download the latest kestrel build should provide the poster with a few random eletrical shocks for the next week after the post. Just an idea I had...

This is better than no news though. Thanks.

xErath 19. July 2007, 13:39

Screenshot please !

Luchio 19. July 2007, 13:43

FYI, Junyor said: no Kestrel build this week.

illiad 19. July 2007, 13:44

err... a search found this post about your 'tips and tricks' page (2003)
at http://my.opera.com/tips/ ... gets 404... P:

podarok 19. July 2007, 13:45

what about font looking better in new release of opera
Try to find difference IE7 vs Opera
Font antialias will be nice!

feil0ng 19. July 2007, 13:57

Opera 9.22 is final [build 655 linux]

illiad 19. July 2007, 14:04

DjiXas: tomorrow is NOT a release day... better PM Junyor to ask him when...

fei_l0ng: old news, mate! :D :D go here to talk about it..

DjiXas 19. July 2007, 14:05

OK, I don't get it.


"FYI, Junyor said: no Kestrel build this week.

By Luchio, # 19. July 2007, 13:43:38"

"In a not too distant future, there will be a weekly preview release of Opera 9.5, with codename Kestrel."

who lies?

and preview means beta release or just "preview"?

illiad 19. July 2007, 14:07

DjiXas: do you understand "In a not too distant future" ?? it does *not* mean next week!!

'preview' means 'working alpha' ie, one that will not cause your machine to crash & burn... :D

darklemcs 19. July 2007, 14:11

Fascinating, i cant wait XD

THC4k 19. July 2007, 14:14

Stop teasing us ;((

darklemcs 19. July 2007, 14:19

Darn, why they should stop... i just like new improvements XD

hogther 19. July 2007, 14:27

Screens Please!

:)

Fyrd 19. July 2007, 14:28

la la la!

/mst3k

mrd 19. July 2007, 14:28

This is cruelty guys! :O

Posting this kind of thing and leaving us dangling here... ouch.

dramkler 19. July 2007, 14:31

Hope a better long page rendering

DjiXas 19. July 2007, 14:35

illiad, :-)

So they can write Opera 10 will be released. Keep waiting. Not funny P:

illiad 19. July 2007, 14:45

DjiXas: well some like being teased!! :D
But seriously.... It seems 'perarnevollan' may write SCI-FI books... that is a common intro... :spock:

The problem with *giant* projects, is that your hopes of an 'early finish' are usually ruined by unexpected things going wrong...

have you ever been halfway through the 'car-mod' that you hoped would be 'easy', to find that a part fails, on a sunday afternoon, when the garages are all closed?? your mates will sympathise, "never had that fail on me.." but it does not help the long trainride to & from work, and all that....

just the same can be said for software dev.....

So sympathise with Junyor, he hoped it would be 'almost ready'... :up:

TriMN 19. July 2007, 14:50

I would love to see some speed in Opera for mac. Thanks guys :wink:

OPC 19. July 2007, 15:26

this sounds awesome. i'm not visually impared, but it sounds like a lot of cool stuff is on the way

viniciuscubone 19. July 2007, 15:53

Bitch, I want a Mac, it seems like the Mac version is going better than the Windows one.
Anyway, I agree that Opera on Linux/Unix has a lower performance than it does on Windows (or on a Mac, not tested yet), might Opera 9.5 fix it?

andresruiz 19. July 2007, 16:18

Woww. thanks a lot. Mac users should be happy.

If some of you uses a Mac..please give us some screen shots.

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