All Gadgets Aside...

So the official Launch of Opera 9 happened yesterday and I had the esteemed privledge to spend the day in lovely Seattle for the official release party. I have to say that I have been using the beta version for a little while now so I was familiar with all the new features. I don't to bore you with the specifics of Opera 9, as you should probably go download it and test it for yourself.
I want to focus on the official release event. The event itself was an amazing display of how Opera would like to be able to have everyone possible using the internet. Be it via a desktop computer, mobile phone, handheld device etc.
The event kicked off with Jon von Tetzchner(CEO of Opera Software) arriving via boat. He announced that unfortunately this year he will not be planning to swim across any fjords(bummer). After a brief kick off speach we proceeded to take our seats and the speeches bagan to roll out. On the big screen we were shown all of the new features and how they work, this was amazing in itself.
An interesting highlight though was a speech by the creator and CEO of Bit Torrent, Bram Cohen, as well as the president of Bit Torrent, Ashwin Navin. They of course were invited to speak because of the integrated Bit Torrent workings in Opera 9. It was amazing to hear there standpoint on peer to peer downloading and where they see it headed.
There was a lot of talk about web standards and how important they are to the browser and internet community. Although to most people this might seem like a no brainer, I felt it was great that it was so heavily covered because standards are what truly bring the world together on the net and at the same time standards give you the freedom of choice. Being as it is and the heavy focus on standards that Opera has, Opera 9 passes the Acid2 test with flying colors.
After the presentations were over DotEd and I spent ample time playing with a prototype version of Opera on DS and it seemed as if the press was equally interested. I also got to finally go hands on with a Nokia 770 internet tablet which was even more impressive in person than it was as a paper mockup(see Nokia 770 Contest). All in all we all had a blast, and we got to experience the power of Opera 9 from Opera Software's perspective.

For more details on the event as well as Opera 9 here are some links:
Opera 9 Release Party
My Opera 9 Seattle Launch Gallery
DotEd's Blog
Best Damn Tech Show: Video and Audio from the event
Joni Mueller's Blog
Opera Watch
SeattlePI.com
IT World
InfoWorld