opera

This morning, Opera announced the release of Opera Mini 6 for Apple's iOS devices, including iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad 2. Known for being an alternative Web browser with innovative features, Opera Mini 6 boasts faster page load times than other browsers even when on slower or crowded networks, thanks to compression and its proxy browser technology.

Available for the first time on iOS devices, Opera Mini 6 features an updated design optimized for iOS; smooth pinch-to-zoom and two-finger panning; support for the iPhone 4 Retina Display, iPad, and iPad 2 devices; sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and Opera's … Read more

A significant update to the Opera browser's Speed Dial feature launched today in Opera 11.50 alpha (download), along with Opera Next, which includes a mechanism that makes it easier for Opera fans to automatically download under-construction builds of the browser. Opera Next will install separately and alongside the "stable" release of Opera, sporting a silver Opera logo much like Google Chrome Canary is visually distinct from the other versions of Chrome with its all-yellow icon.

The new version of Speed Dial introduces support for Speed Dial-specific extensions. Originally developed by Opera, and now in use in … Read more

Microsoft's browser continues to lose share of worldwide usage, but its new IE9 version managed to gain enough usage that new statistics show it surpassing one smaller rival, Opera.

Internet Explorer 9 accounted for 2.41 percent of browser usage in April, its first full month on the market, according to Net Applications. Opera accounted for 2.14 percent. And IE overall dropped from 55.9 percent in March to 55.1 percent in April.

Two browsers, Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari, outpaced the overall growth in Web usage. Chrome rose from 11.6 percent to 11.… Read more

If you can't make it to London this summer, you can fake it with a 3D virtual visit to the Royal Opera House's production of "Madama Butterfly."

RealD, the 3D technology developer, will team up with one of opera's greatest venues and production companies to film the Puccini masterpiece in 3D for release in RealD 3D-equipped theaters.

The obvious challenge here is to get a decent-size moviegoing audience to care about the technology-rich extravaganza.

Don't shoot the singing-telegram messenger, but the truth is the average moviegoer isn't going to rush out to two-plus hours of opera regardless of how legitimately cool the technology that captures it. If they find opera stuffy and pretentious under normal entertainment circumstances, the advanced filming techniques will only render that tedium in unsurpassed depth and detail. … Read more

The latest stable version of Opera 11 debuts today with a faster Turbo, an expanded Speed Dial, and some plug-in tweaks. Opera 11.10 for Windows (download), Mac (download), and Linux (download), also makes a handful of other changes to the browser, notably adding in more HTML5 support, mail client improvements, an updated rendering engine, and better battery management on laptops.

The changes to Opera Turbo and Speed Dial are the most apparent changes in Opera 11.10. The Norwegian company says that Turbo is four times faster than before, and Opera spokesman Thomas Ford said that those speed improvements … Read more

For all the tens of billions of dollars a year spent on Internet security a year, on everything from antivirus software to intrusion prevention, there's one component that's vital but remains obscure: which Web sites browsers decide to trust.

Each of the major browser makers has compiled a different list of who possesses the master keys to Web authentication--namely, who can be trusted to issue the secure digital certificates to create encrypted channels--and each has different procedures for approval. A closed lock icon typically appears in a browser and an "https://" connection is displayed when a … Read more

Opera announced last week that it would launch two new mobile browsers at CTIA--Opera Mobile 11 and Opera Mini 6--but when it came to new and enhanced features, it mostly kept quiet.

We were lucky enough to get our hands on a preview build before the show, and can share a lot more about what's in store for Opera on mobile phones and tablets.

Starting with the interface, the Opera browser gets a little bump in sophistication on an already graphically rich display. Opera loyalists will note some subtle changes--Opera has shaved off the title bar … Read more

In September, Google said it hoped to bring its then-new Google Instant search feature to users of the Opera browser "shortly." A half-year later, there's still no sign of it.

Google still is working on it, though.

"We've encountered some technical barriers that are temporarily preventing us from making Instant available for Opera," Google said in a statement yesterday. "It's difficult for us to estimate when we will overcome these barriers, but we want to bring Instant to as many browsers, platforms and regions as possible."

It's not clear exactly … Read more

If you can't get enough of the Opera browser on mobile, there's good news on the horizon. Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11, both updates to the current fare of alternative browsers, will debut next week at CTIA in Orlando.

Of course, we'll be there to give you the hands-on review.

Opera isn't saying much about what the new features will hold, except that there will also be a version optimized for tablets. In fact, they'll be showing a build of the new Opera Mini running on the iPhone and iPad. The new versions … Read more