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The Digital Void of SPZ

In space, nobody can hear you blog.

Posts tagged with "opera"

Update!

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I just realized it has been over 3 months since my last blog entry, and decided to write a quick update of what has been going on since my last post.

The holiday I had was very lengthy and relaxing - an excellent way for me to fully recharge my depleted batteries; A couple weeks enjoying the mediterranean sun in southern France, a trip to London visiting my brother and his family and a few weeks of partying with Steve who once again came to visit (including a cool trip to visit Leon - a mutual friend from highschool - in Copenhagen), and just relaxing in general felt very good indeed. I had been working rather hard without having much time off for a while (read: browser for Nintendo Wii) so this was needed before starting in my new job here at Aspiro AS.

Speaking of Aspiro, I have now settled in nicely here and as I write this I sit at my desk looking down at Egertorget and Stortinget subway station examining all the weird people outside. I now work on the backend for the Telenor and djuice online/mobile music shops which is very cool in many ways, especially for a musician like myself :smile: We also went on a company wide kickoff trip to Jurmala, near Riga in Latvia - which in itself is an entire chapter of good times and drunkenness :cheers:

Another cool little update is the fact that I hooked up some Apple iPhones for me and a few mates, and we were lucky enough to get in on the batches right before they started shipping with firmware 1.1.1 which is as of yet has not been successfully unlocked :yes: While it does have its shortcomings, I am absolutely digging it like I hoped I would - the entire experience and features far outweighs the few negative issues for me personally.

When it comes to Domi, we're still going strong; rehearsing and playing shows whenever (our producer) Andreas is working in London, and recording in the studio when he is in Oslo. This on and off way of working, where we typically get in a day or two in the studio every two-three weekes, means it still will take a while before the album is ready... but good things come to those who wait. At least that is what they say :smile:

Last Day at Opera

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Today is my last day at work here at Opera Software. I will have a nice 7 week vacation before I start my new job at Aspiro, also situated here in Oslo, where I will continue my career as a software engineer.

It has been a great nearly-4 years here and although I am eager for new challenges and all that good stuff, it is still sad to leave a place I have called home for some time now. All the best to all my friends and colleagues here, maybe we'll have the pleasure of working together again in the future. I know I'll be seeing some of you wednesdays at Mucho Mas for lunch :smile:

Up, up and away!

Full Wii browser available!

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Finally... After months of working overtime, working weekends, just generally working alot - we (the team working on the Wii browser here at Opera Software ASA) finally delivered a full version of the Opera web browser (aka. Internet Channel) for the Wii to Nintendo!

This time around we had time to fine tune alot of things, add new features and generally make it a better browsing experience. I was very happy to amongst other things be able to rewrite the entire toolbar which I believe made the whole product alot smoother and more useful, and also added a much needed responsiveness improvement.
:smile:

So anyone with a Wii should definitely download the best TV browser ever made, remember it is free until June 2007!

Opera for Wii - Free on Dec 22!

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Finally, what we have been working on and known for a while became public today! :D

From Nintendo press release;

On Dec. 22, Nintendo and Opera Software bring the Internet to the living room couch with a free trial version of the Opera Web browser. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can download a free trial Opera browser to activate the Internet Channel of the Wii Menu and begin surfing the Web.

[..]

The final version of the Opera browser will be available at the end of March 2007, and will be free for all Wii owners to download through the end of June. After June 2007, the browser will be available for download in the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii Points.



Edit: It is now available, so go to the Shop Channel and download it free!!! I had a quick go at it, quite weird to be uisng it outside of debugging it at work p:

On the Opera site we have published three screenshots, does anyone recognize one of them?
:yes:

Opera Mini™ 3.0 Released

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Opera Mini™ version 3.0 was released today, boasting both new features and an even faster exerience!

Get all RSS news on your phone
Subscribe to your favorite RSS news feeds and every time you connect with Opera Mini all updates are just one click away. Sort the articles by feed source or by date.

Point, snap, publish
Share a picture from anywhere, anytime with your phone using Opera Mini's photo sharing feature. Upload your photo to a blog or forum, or as an e-mail attachment. Photo sharing just got easier.

Safe and sound
Do even more online with Opera Mini. Secure connections will now let you safely use secured sites, such as your e-mail, bank site, online stores, with no exposure of your personal details.

So if you have a phone with Java support (and who doesn't?), I'd strongly urge you to try it out today if you haven't already!

SEMC aquires UIQ

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Yep, Sony Ericsson has now 100% taken over UIQ pending EU bureaucracy and paperwork to go through. As for how this affects the way UIQ currently operates:

Following completion of the acquisition, UIQ Technology will operate as a separate business subsidiary of Sony Ericsson under its current management team. UIQ on Symbian OS will continue to be openly available, licensed on equal terms to all its licensees.

In other words UIQ will still be openly available and most likely continue to operate with current staff (most likely with additions) from their current location in Rönneby, Sweden.

“UIQ offers excellent technical flexibility enabling us to provide compelling features such as push email, internet browsing, end user personalization, and enhanced music applications” explains Mats Lindoff, Chief Technology Officer at Sony Ericsson. “By acquiring UIQ Technology we will further invest and exploit the full potential of UIQ on Symbian OS for phone vendors, mobile operators, developers and consumers.”

The internet browsing bit is of course our job here at Opera :smile:

SPZ does Wii

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This is old news to most people, but Nintendo are soon to release their new gaming console - the Wii. The most distinctive feature of the Wii is it's controller - the Wiimote - which is shaped like a remote control and is set to change the way we experience games; it is essentially a pointing device with a gyro - detecting your every movement and rotation of the controller while knowing exactly where on screen you are poiting it. With built in rumble and speaker (yes in the controller itself) this makes for some very interresting controlling concepts - and thereby also making room for some new and innovative gaming. You can see some short videos of random people all over the world testing some Wii games here, to get a quick introduction to some of the possibilities.

This console will have a browser, and that this browser is developed by my employer Opera Software. Yours truly is now working on the development of this browser (or the Internet Channel as it is called) - and since I am such a console freak decided to make a little post about it :smile: This post was done with the Wii devkit and the lovely Wiimote.

Christmas is soon here, and with the releasedate for europe set to December 8th you should make sure your tree has a Wii under it - it should truly be a fun little console for everyone :yes:

Sony Ericsson M600 in the wild

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Here at work I've been working for quite some time now on the Opera browser for the UIQ3 platform;

Ronneby, Sweden - Oct. 04, 2004
Opera Software and UIQ Technology, a fully owned subsidiary of Symbian Ltd., today announced that they have selected Opera to be the default browser in UIQ's UIQ 3.0, the new release of the UIQ Platform that is expected to be commercially available in Q4 2004.

It is quite the challenge, with it being Symbian 9 as well as UIQ having a whole new architechture, and recently the Sony Ericsson M600 hit the shelves making it the first UIQ3 device out there (closely followed by the P990). Here is a review of the M600, and some quotes related to Opera on it:

The M600 web browser is powered by the most advanced mobile browser ever created Opera Browser, Opera web experience in small screen devices is unmatchable, and if you looking for any mobile device with the best web experience always look for Opera logo in the box.

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With the high-speed 3G mobile internet access you are in for a desktop experience in the M600 screen. I remember a lot of Treo users specially users trading in the stocks market use to complain a lot that they can’t access the java web-portal to see their stocks status, well, with the M600 Opera browser (with HTML 4.01, xHTML 1.0, CSS and Java script (ECMA script), WAP 2.0 support, and SSL/TLS security protocols) you can do just that, and amazingly the Opera browser support tab browsing as well just like in your Opera desktop version of the popular browser, so you can keep your stock market update page open and start a new page to check your email or open a page for each of your main stocks, now how cool is that!?

So make sure to check out some UIQ3 action if you have the opportunity, and don't forget that the Sony Ericsson W950i will hopefully be out Q4! :smile:

Nokia's mobile browser

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Those not following the mobile phone/device market that closely, and more in particular Nokia, may not know that a little while back they decided to drop us at Opera Software and start using their own "new" browser for their Symbian S60 devices. I for one still believe we have a superior product, and now that the new Nokias have started hitting the market it seems there are some that share our views.

I just read a funny article over at Reg Hardware, The Register's hardware section had the following to say:

A special circle of Hell needs to be created for the souls behind Nokia's new web browser. This is the fruit of the decision to develop an alternative to Opera Mobile based on the KHTML engine used by KDE's Konquerer and Apple's Safari.

[..]

This browser also sucks up all available memory from the phone - quite an achievement considering the E70 has 80MB of RAM. Three or four pages in to a session, the browser runs out of memory.

Opera 9 out now!

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Opera9 is now available for download. For those who read my post about the beta release will already know about some of the new features, such as widgets support, BitTorrent, content blocking, tab preview, source viewer, site specific preferences, customizeable searches and much more. Also for powerusers, the address opera:config should open up a whole new world of options (with a guide here).
Digg it!

Opera for Symbian passes Acid2

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You read it correctly, us here at the Symbian team at Opera have now got Opera for Symbian to pass the ACID2 test.

Acid2 employs certain features of HTML, and more prominently CSS. The purpose of employing such features is to highlight the problems with browsers that do not display it correctly. The Acid2 test should render correctly on any browser that follows the W3C HTML and CSS 2.0 specifications. Any browsers which do not correctly and completely support all of the features which Acid2 takes advantage of will not render the page correctly.


For reference, have a look at how Internet Explorer 6.0 renders this test, or even how Mozilla Firefox 1.5 handles itself! :whistle:

Wii the people

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Nintendo today renamed their next generation gaming console, thus far going under the codename "Revolution", to Wii.
From http://revolution.nintendo.com:

Introducing ... Wii.
As in "we".
While the code-name "Revolution" expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games ... and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?
Wii sounds like "we" which emphasizes this console is for everyone.
Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.
And Wii, as a name and a console, brings brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.
So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you.
Because it's really not about you or me.
It's about Wii.
All together Wii will change everything.

Ingenious move, or worst name ever? Time will tell whether it works and wii all love the wii thing. Regardless it is time for a long wiikend, monday being May 1st wii have the day off!

Edit: Since it is now official, I can also share that Opera will be installed on the Wii as a built in browser :yes:
Also, you can see Nintendo's E3 presentation of Wii here!

Opera 9 beta

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New features in Opera 9 include
  • Widgets - Small Web applications (multimedia, newsfeeds, games and more) that make your desktop experience more fun. Any Web developer can create their own Widgets and share them, regardless of operating system. Try the Widgets in Opera 9 by pressing F6. Look for further development of Opera Widgets in future releases.
  • BitTorrent - Instead of having to use a separate BitTorrent application for downloading large files, users can now simply click a torrent file and start the download
  • Content blocker - Choose the content you want to view. Remove ads or images - it is up to you. Right-click on the Web page and choose "Block content"
  • Improved rich text editing - Take advantage of rich text editing capabilities when using the latest Web mail or blogging services
  • Customize your search engines – Use your favorite search engine in the search box. Right-click on the site's search field and select "Create search" from the menu
  • Thumbnail preview – It's easy to have many tabs open at once in Opera. But exactly which tab had that video you wanted? Hover any tab to see a thumbnail preview
  • Site-specific preferences - Do you need to view a site in a different way or deny certain cookies? Want to block pop-ups on certain sites only? Site specific preferences hold the key
Changelogs
Windows
Macintosh
Linux
Solaris
FreeBSD

Widgets
Learn more about Widgets | Start creating your own Widgets

Availability
Opera 9 Beta is available for download at http://www.opera.com

Note
Opera 9 Beta is not a final version and may contain bugs. Use it only on properly backed-up computers.

See comments for links to press coverage on this release.

Opera Mini goes worldwide

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Finally, the amazing Opera Mini is available all over the world! For those unaware, Opera Mini is a smaller version of Opera that works on all phones which have Java which means pretty much every phone out there now.

Opera Mini™ offers the same speed and usability as the renowned Opera mobile browser, and uses Opera's Small Screen Rendering™ technology to provide access to the Web. It has all the features expected of a browser, and more, such as bookmarks, browsing history, and ability to split large pages into smaller sections for faster browsing.



Another great feature is the serverside functionality of Opera Mini. Compression and manipulation makes sure that when downlaoding a site, the end user only needs pay for downloading a fraction of the page as most of the fluff will be stripped out even before it reaches your phone. Also makes sure the server does most of the work, making it run smoothly even on low end phones with little internal resources. Increased speed and decreased price, can't complain? :smile:

Instead of requiring the phone to process Web pages, it uses a remote server to pre-process the page before sending it to the phone. This makes Opera Mini™ perfect for phones with very low resources, or low bandwidth connections.



So wherever you are, if you have a mobile phone which runs Java apps give it a go. There are two ways of getting Opera Mini, you can either go to http://mini.opera.com and download it directly or go to this page to get the SMS numbers you can use in your contry to have it sent to your phone. It couldn't get any simpler, or better.

Abandon that crappy built in wap browser and grab the entire web by the, eh, cohones :wink:

Opera Whale Spotting

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As a team building exercise, the Symbian team here at Opera Software all got to go on a trip up north in Norway to Tysfjord in Ofoten.

We left friday morning, and after a flight, some busses and some ferrys across some fjords we arrived at Tysfjord Turistsenter at around six-seven-ish. We shortly thereafter had dinner (where I ate way too much) and spent the evening having drinks and a good time at the hotel.

Saturday morning we started off early and headed off to Camp Kenny, which was basically a little nature camp out by the sea, for some "survival training"; Out in the wilderness by a beach looking out on Lofoten he had set up a laplandish lavo (native lap tent) where we all kept warm by the fire relaxing on raindeer skinrugs and nursed the slight hangovers from the night before with some more brewsky. A little closer to the water was a nice axe throwing setup where I soon discoverd my natural talents, it felt strangely comfortable with a beer in one hand and a doublesided axe in the other. Some of the more adventurous of us actually jumped into the hottub set up right on the beach and even ventured into the sea for a few seconds before bustling back into the warm embrace of the tub. New to the whole thing, people struggled between putting on too little kindling resulting in a cool bath, and too much resulting in a near boil. Later we all went for a hike up to the nearest top where we got a nice 360 degree panoramic view of the fjords and Lofoten. Back at the hotel five hours later we again had dinner after some hours of work, but took it rather easy wanting to stay sharp for the next day's big event. We did catch lots of Aurora Borealis that night, or more popularly called Northern Lights, stretching the entire night sky. They were a little undistiguished though and only sort of gray-ish green, but very cool nonetheless.

Sunday was the big day, we were going out on the fjord to look for Orcas (also known as killer whales). We were split into two groups, the ones wanting to actually snorkle and get in the water with the whales and the ones who would rather stay on the boat. So after being lectured about the whales, their behaviours etc. we all got ready. I wanted to get in the water so I joined the snorkel crew to get set up; We were given drysuits which were quite uncomfortable but kept you dry and warm. We then got on the boats, which were zodiacs, and headed out on the fjord to find us some whales. This time of year the temparture lies around freezing, and unfortunately the weather turned quite quickly bringing in clouds and rain, making the sea rather unstable. Because of this we dind't spot as many whales as hoped, and never got a go-ahead to get in the water with the whales. We did see a whole buch of them up real close, including males, females and newborn - majestic creatures indeed! It is quite the feeling seeing a 1-2m dorsalfin pass only a few meters away and witnessing these magnificent giant dolphins gracefully swim by. The ride home took almost an hour, and with the rather rowdy sea it was quite the rollercoaster ride with a side dish of seaspray. Once back, and after a nice long warm shower we hung out and relaxed before some more work. Dinner was very good, raindeer meat again, and the evening ended with some drinks and some billiards.

The following day we had to get up at 0500 in order to make the busses and ferrys in time to catch our flight home, and when we arrived at Opera HQ around 1400 we were all quite exhausted.

All in all a very very cool trip, only thing which could have made it better would have to be better weather for the whale safari and actually getting in the water. There are more pictures in the Opera Lofoten Trip photo album.
December 2009
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