Opera flies the friendly skies
Tuesday, 1. November 2005, 18:48:48
Opera Browser Takes to the Skies
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
November 1, 2005, 10:11 AM
Not content with just shipping its Web browser in mobile devices and on the desktop, Opera Software is expanding its horizons to in-flight entertainment systems. As part of a deal announced Tuesday, Opera will be offered as part of the Thales TopSeries System to provide airline passengers with a full Internet experience.
Thales is currently in use by a number of airlines worldwide and functions on most new Boeing and Airbus jets. Opera's international support was named as a key reason for its selection. "Opera's speed, small-size and Extensible Rendering Architecture (ERA), coupled with its headache-free portability to Linux devices, make it the natural choice for new Internet devices and use cases," Christen Krogh, Opera's VP of Engineering, said in a statement.
Opera press release here.
Zdnet has an update
Opera worked with Thales last year to add Web browsing capabilities to Thales' TopSeries system, which is already used by more than 15 airlines, including Air Canada and Air France. With the new arrangement, the companies are devising a new user-interface for an in-flight system that will let airline passengers navigate the Web, videos and games on a single screen, said Christian Dysthe, a vice president of sales at Opera.
Instead of relying on a laptop computer, a passenger could browse the Web and check e-mail from a screen in the seatback facing him or her, the companies said. Thales is still working out how to incorporate a keyboard and mouse into the new system, which may not be ready until 2007, said Thales spokeswoman Lori Krams. One option would be for the airlines to distribute keyboards to passengers, she said.
[snip]
Thales selected the Opera browser because it supports multiple languages and can automatically reformat Web pages to fit the small screens typically used for in-flight systems, Opera said.
The Thales deal is part of the browser company's ongoing effort to carve out a niche in mobile Web browsing, since Microsoft dominates the desktop browser market. Last year, the Opera browser was included on 8.8 million phones and other devices running operating systems such as Symbian, Linux and Microsoft's Smartphone, the company has said.
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
November 1, 2005, 10:11 AM
Not content with just shipping its Web browser in mobile devices and on the desktop, Opera Software is expanding its horizons to in-flight entertainment systems. As part of a deal announced Tuesday, Opera will be offered as part of the Thales TopSeries System to provide airline passengers with a full Internet experience.
Thales is currently in use by a number of airlines worldwide and functions on most new Boeing and Airbus jets. Opera's international support was named as a key reason for its selection. "Opera's speed, small-size and Extensible Rendering Architecture (ERA), coupled with its headache-free portability to Linux devices, make it the natural choice for new Internet devices and use cases," Christen Krogh, Opera's VP of Engineering, said in a statement.
Opera press release here.
Zdnet has an update
Opera worked with Thales last year to add Web browsing capabilities to Thales' TopSeries system, which is already used by more than 15 airlines, including Air Canada and Air France. With the new arrangement, the companies are devising a new user-interface for an in-flight system that will let airline passengers navigate the Web, videos and games on a single screen, said Christian Dysthe, a vice president of sales at Opera.
Instead of relying on a laptop computer, a passenger could browse the Web and check e-mail from a screen in the seatback facing him or her, the companies said. Thales is still working out how to incorporate a keyboard and mouse into the new system, which may not be ready until 2007, said Thales spokeswoman Lori Krams. One option would be for the airlines to distribute keyboards to passengers, she said.
[snip]
Thales selected the Opera browser because it supports multiple languages and can automatically reformat Web pages to fit the small screens typically used for in-flight systems, Opera said.
The Thales deal is part of the browser company's ongoing effort to carve out a niche in mobile Web browsing, since Microsoft dominates the desktop browser market. Last year, the Opera browser was included on 8.8 million phones and other devices running operating systems such as Symbian, Linux and Microsoft's Smartphone, the company has said.
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