I work in the QA Services and Documentation department at Opera, and I try to stay updated on everything that happens in our user communities. Even though I work for Opera Software, the opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
The first Opera Mobile beta is finally out, and it's looking quite nice. One thing that might be a problem to some is that there is a limit to the number of tabs you can have open. This makes sense if your phone is a bit limited on resources, but some of you may have a phone that can handle more tabs.
To increase the number of allowed tabs, go to opera:config, and set "Maximum Allowed Tabs" to the number of your choice (you may have to restart Opera).
Note that this opera:config setting does not work in Opera for desktop.
John Forsyth, VP of strategy at Symbian, seems to think that browser monopolies are good for you:
One target browser covering most of the world's phones is a good thing.
Considering the lesson we learned with IE, this sounds odd. What about all the people who are not using that browser? Then again, Nokia probably wouldn't mind having the mobile browser market all to themselves.
The Japanese Choose Opera blog has a post showing Jon browsing the Web on a Sony digital photo frame. There's even a video. Browsing the Web isn't exactly the first thing that would come to mind when buying a digital photo frame, but it has a lot of potential, and shows the wide range of devices Opera is available on.
In the future, everything with a screen will be connected to the Internet and run Opera
Today's press release on downloads and number of users reveals that the number of downloads four days after release has increased from 1 million 2005 (Opera 8) to 4.7 million with the release of Opera 9.5. The number of actual desktop users users has actualy doubled since 9.0 in 2006, and is now more than 20 million each month.
We also have more than 12 million monthly users of Opera Mini.
This means that while it hasn't really been reflected in browser stats, Opera has only been gaining users since it became available free of charge.
Mozilla Japan is apparently claiming that Firefox 3 is two times faster than Opera 9.5. Does that mean that I can claim that Opera is an infinitely smaller download than Firefox and get away with it?
The latest version of the Opera browser is here, and it's a stunner. Integrated theme previews, an improved address bar search tool, built-in torrent support, and real-time fraud prevention earned Opera 9.5 a coveted five-star review.
The financial result for the first quarter of 2008 were announced today. To summarize: Opera is profitable, has lots of cash, and revenues are growing rapidly in all business segments.
For those of you with an interest in Web technologies and what's going on with those here at Opera, check out the new Core Concerns blog. "What is Core?" you may ask. Lars Erik explains:
What we call "Core" at Opera refers to the platform-independent internal components of our browser.
A year ago, I posted about how GameSpot called out for a better Web browser on the PS3. Now CNET is echoing the request, and even mentioning Opera:
A lot of folks would like to see Sony move to an Opera-based browser, which runs on Linux (and the Wii uses). Whether that's the right solution or not, Sony can do better in the Web-surfing department. Heck, if the iPhone can have good Web browser, why can't the PS3 and the PSP have good ones?
The PS3 is a very powerful system which seems to be gathering some momentum after a slow start, so it's too bad that it is let down by the browser. With the processing power and available memory, Opera should run like a dream on the system. (Note that Flash is still basically out of Opera or Sony's hands, as Adobe runs the show. But Flash Lite 3 would surely work well on the PS3.)
Sony has used Opera for other products in the past, and Opera is even the default browser on UIQ, a platform used by phones from Sony Ericsson. Get in touch with us, Sony, and I'm sure we can work something out. You need a better browser, and you know where to get it
A couple of days ago, HTC revealed their new "iPhone killer", the HTC Touch Diamond. The phone looks extremely promising, and I'm actually considering a purchase if they can manage to work out the kinks from the demo version (it seems slow at times). Better yet, the phone uses the new Opera Mobile 9.5 for a "better internet experience".
Opera Dragonfly is out, as most people probably know by now. If not, check out the Opera Dragonfly blog for the juicy details. To start using it, just go get Opera 9.5 Beta 2, then go to the "Tools > Advanced > Developer Tools" menu.
According to a recent report from ABI Research, the mobile browser market is set to really explode in the coming years, which is something Opera has known for years. But the report reveals an interesting detail on the number of Web-enabled phones (emphasis mine):
ABI Research sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over the next five years, as the open-Internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile grows from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013.
A Norwegian analyst made the connection, and pointed out that Opera apparently has a market share of 54% in this segment. According to our fourth quarter presentation, Opera shipped on a total of 40.8 million handsets in 2007, and the analyst states that this does not include Opera Mini.
If these numbers are correct, then Opera is currently the dominant mobile browser, by far. And with the incredible growth potential, it is hardly strange that more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon.
How did Norway come to vote yes to Microsoft's OOXML format? Not only did the vast majority attending the meeting vote against the proposed standard, but the people who let it through admitted that it was a broken standard which would need fixing later.
After their failed Minimo mobile browser project, they are now ready to rinse and repeat. But not without commenting on the competition, of course. Or the lack of it, if Mozilla is to be believed. Provided, of course, that the journalist has not taken liberties when "translating" Lilly's answers.
Anne posts in his blog that internal builds of Opera that are intended for some post-Kestrel release are already at 98/100 of the Acid3 test. You won't have to take his word for it either, as we are apparently planning a public build to demonstrate this.
So yes, a lot of things are going on behind the scenes. While Kestrel might be the "latest and greatest" public version, we have people working on the future of Opera as well. And if you like the various improvements in Kestrel I think you'll be pleased by the version after Kestrel as well.
While this blog is mainly about the Opera browser and related things, I've decided to write down a brief report on the event I attended today.
On February 10 this year (the birthday of Lisa McPherson, alleged victim of the Church of Scientology), thousands of people across the world gathered to protest against the Church of Scientology. The protest was arranged after a group called "Anonymous" had pledged to destroy what they consider to be nothing but an evil cult. Long story short, the protest was such a smashing success that another one was quickly set up.
This is a great day for open standards. Microsoft has changed its mind regarding the default mode in IE8.
And while this is a huge win for the internet community, it is also a vindication for an small browser company in Norway, which, at times, faced harsh criticism for getting the authorities involved in order to enforce open Web standards.
