Anything & Everything...

Interesting and thoughtful review of Opera v10 with Unite Apps by Charles Moore at Applelinks.

I think many people will be surprised as great Opera Unite apps start to get released by the developer community. Since Opera doesn't lock-in users, all of these cool Unite apps will allow any browser users to quickly share photos and sample music privately (or, for example, collaborate on a group spreadsheet, etc...).

Opera's Unite Server Framework (aka "Yusef") will allow easy, flexible, web-standard development.

In fact, just as with Opera's history of innovation, I expect to see Opera Unite apps incorporated into other browsers or web services over time...

I noticed the interesting release about Google Chrome Frame plug-in for IE. Very sneaky and really clever. I'm eager to try out Google Wave when it debuts, but did anyone else notice the browser-choice pop-up when an IE user points to Google Wave...?

What's wrong with this picture?



Opera isn't listed as a super-fast, standards-based, easy-to-code-for, advanced browser in the browser-choice pop-up... Lame. (It's not as if the inventor of CSS, Håkon Wium Lie, works at Opera...oh, wait, he does.) This used to be a problem with another huge company in the past.

While all's fair in love & war, web interoperability is critically important to browser users (whether they know it or not), web developer ease, browser-maker sanity, and ensuring the beneficial, not detrimental, network effects of the Internet as a whole.

Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson replied to The Register saying:

"While we encourage users to use a more modern and standards compliant browser such as Firefox, Safari, OPERA or Google Chrome rather than a plug-in, for those who don't, Google Chrome Frame is designed to provide better performance, strong security features, and more choice to both developers and users, across all versions of Internet Explorer."

A fun revelation by our favorite Googler, David Bloom. When adding a link into a Gmail msg, Opera is the only browser that supports URL auto-complete, in the rich-text editor. Just write an email in Gmail, and click on the LINK button in the editor toolbar and try it out.



Gotta love a standards-based browser like Opera, no?



If you want to get the coolest web features in your browser, while making it RIDICULOUSLY easier for millions of web developers...try using Opera more. They'll all appreciate it.

There's a great change happening with mobile carriers in the US.

Not sure if the situation exists in other countries, as well, but David Pogue at NYT wrote a great article about how all the mobile phone companies have added a gratuitous 15-second announcement that everyone that calls you, hears before they can leave a message for you...and of course, you get dinged for those in your call plan every month, depending on how often you leave voicemails or pick up your own message. (Fortunately, Apple was the first to release Visual Voicemail on the iPhone, which avoids all of the hassle for me, but others aren't so lucky yet; looks like it'll change soon, though.)

Of course, all the major US carriers, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile allow you to bypass the 15-second black hole, but who always remembers those bypass keys? ha. (I'm still helping my friends/family by showing them that they can save time by not typing COM or WWW into their Opera address bar. Just type "wsj", <enter> key, and the Wall Street Journal site will load instantly...without any extra typing.)

Click over to Pogue's blog post...worth reading; and you may want to email your own wireless carrier to let them know about something else you want improved.

Good overview of Opera v10 beta by Jim Rapoza at eWeek.

His opening paragraph is exactly right, and shows that he knows the history of web browser design:

Ever wonder what features will be found in the next generation of Web browsers? Well, usually there’s one easy way to find out: Just check out the latest version of Opera.

Opera may not be the best known or most used Web browser out there, but, over the years, it has been one of the most innovative. Often, features that become mainstays across browsers appeared first in Opera.

You can see from Opera's history of innovation, for example, that original tabs were invented by Opera in March 2000 in Opera v4.0...and now comes Visual Tabs. (Don't forget that Tab Thumbnails were added by Opera long time ago also. Just hover your cursor over the Opera Tab Bar and watch what happens. You may need to check this box first.)

Opera added a search field in the toolbar WAY BACK in Dec. 2000...!

And now, we'll see how long until intelligent auto-Turbo is added by other (desktop & mobile) browsers to minimize flakey WIFI or slow connections.

Remember to set Opera Turbo to AUTO; then it'll only come ON when you need it (and turn itself OFF when your connection speeds up -- or after you complain to your internet provider).

Try Opera 10 Beta with all the new goodies here.