My OperaThings I like of Opera: Unite
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 7:09:50 PM
Unite is an application running in the Opera browser. Actually, I should call it an add-on, but I feel uncomfortable to call "add-on" something that is actually part of my browser 
Enter Unite
To use Unite, you will need to subscribe an account on My Opera; let's say you chose "marcomarongiu".
Once you have that, you can choose a name for the computer you are running Opera on, let's say you call it "home".
Once the access to Unite is complete, you'll notice a green icon on the status bar of the browser, and the applications on your computer will be accessible when connecting to http://home.marcomarongiu.operaunite.com/. Now the Unite applications on your computer is accessible on the Internet. What for?
Unite applications
Let's start with the easiest one of the default applications: the fridge.
The fridge is a very simple interface that allows people to leave you small public notes, that will appear as small post-it's (TM) attached on a fridge door. It may be useful for yourself, too: I used it a couple of times to leave myself a note for the following day in the office.
Access to the fridge may be public or password protected --this actually applies to all Unite applications I tried so far.
OK, the fridge is fun and may even be useful. But Unite would not be cute if all it could provide was the fridge, right? Let's go for something definitely more interesting.
Photo sharing
This is a very interesting one. Until today, if you wanted to share photos with your friends you had to upload them to your blog, or Flickr, or whatever. You might also need to resize them, or reduce their quality, because otherwise it would take sooooooo long to upload them...
With Unite, all you have to do is to fire up the Photo sharing application, tell it in which folder you have the photos you want to share, and you are done. Just inform your friends of the URL and they'll watch the photos directly from your computer. Yes, it is simple as that, really!!!
Media Player
This is definitely one of my favourite!!! Want to make your band's gigs available over the Internet? Or maybe you just want to listen to your favourite MP3s when you are in the office? Well, why buy limited yet expensive remote storage, or drag that USB disk everywhere, when you have all those free gigas on your home PC? Just run the Unite Media Player, and you can access your music files wherever you have Internet access!
Multimedia streaming
Audio files aren't everything, are they? So what about videos, for example? The Unite answer is the Stream Media application! So, if you have a video library as well as a music library, you can access it from everywhere as easily!
File sharing
And because multimedia is not the end of the story, and is not enough, here we go: a generic File Sharing application. Here you really can share anything you want: from single documents to zip archives, from spreadsheets to programs: the sky is the limit!
File Inbox
Would the scenario be complete if it was only a matter of making some content available? Of course not. So, if you need to push files from the Office to your home PC, or maybe you need to exchange big files with your friends and email is not the right solution for you, just fire up File Inbox, browse for the files you want to send, and upload. Simple, sexy and sweet
Any more Unite?
Sure! Fire up Opera, and choose among six pages of Unite applications!
Have fun!!!
Enter UniteTo use Unite, you will need to subscribe an account on My Opera; let's say you chose "marcomarongiu".
Once you have that, you can choose a name for the computer you are running Opera on, let's say you call it "home".
Once the access to Unite is complete, you'll notice a green icon on the status bar of the browser, and the applications on your computer will be accessible when connecting to http://home.marcomarongiu.operaunite.com/. Now the Unite applications on your computer is accessible on the Internet. What for?
Unite applicationsLet's start with the easiest one of the default applications: the fridge.
The fridge is a very simple interface that allows people to leave you small public notes, that will appear as small post-it's (TM) attached on a fridge door. It may be useful for yourself, too: I used it a couple of times to leave myself a note for the following day in the office.
Access to the fridge may be public or password protected --this actually applies to all Unite applications I tried so far.
OK, the fridge is fun and may even be useful. But Unite would not be cute if all it could provide was the fridge, right? Let's go for something definitely more interesting.
Photo sharingThis is a very interesting one. Until today, if you wanted to share photos with your friends you had to upload them to your blog, or Flickr, or whatever. You might also need to resize them, or reduce their quality, because otherwise it would take sooooooo long to upload them...
With Unite, all you have to do is to fire up the Photo sharing application, tell it in which folder you have the photos you want to share, and you are done. Just inform your friends of the URL and they'll watch the photos directly from your computer. Yes, it is simple as that, really!!!
Media Player
This is definitely one of my favourite!!! Want to make your band's gigs available over the Internet? Or maybe you just want to listen to your favourite MP3s when you are in the office? Well, why buy limited yet expensive remote storage, or drag that USB disk everywhere, when you have all those free gigas on your home PC? Just run the Unite Media Player, and you can access your music files wherever you have Internet access!
Multimedia streamingAudio files aren't everything, are they? So what about videos, for example? The Unite answer is the Stream Media application! So, if you have a video library as well as a music library, you can access it from everywhere as easily!
File sharing
And because multimedia is not the end of the story, and is not enough, here we go: a generic File Sharing application. Here you really can share anything you want: from single documents to zip archives, from spreadsheets to programs: the sky is the limit!
File InboxWould the scenario be complete if it was only a matter of making some content available? Of course not. So, if you need to push files from the Office to your home PC, or maybe you need to exchange big files with your friends and email is not the right solution for you, just fire up File Inbox, browse for the files you want to send, and upload. Simple, sexy and sweet
Any more Unite?
Sure! Fire up Opera, and choose among six pages of Unite applications!
Have fun!!!
