Amazing Opera Face Gestures

Fresh from Opera labs come the Opera Face Gestures. Make gestures with your face and your head and your Opera browser will react. As easy as that. Too bad I have not seen this on April 1st…

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Newsflash: Songbird 1.1, Firefox 3.5, IE Windows 7, Firefox Fennec

Songbird 1.1

The final version of Songbird 1.1 is available for download. Songbird is an open-source customizable music player based on Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

Firefox 3.5

Rumors of a version jump for Firefox from 3.1 to 3.5 have been confirmed.

Beef about IE bundling

Google and Opera’s CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner demand that there is a choice of browsers even though Microsoft confirms there is an option to switch IE 8 off completely.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 with native JSON support has been released last week.

Fennec

A first beta – the twelfth milestone – of Fennec a mobile browser from Mozilla has been released. As this is a very interesting user agent I will write a follow-up with detailed information.

If Browsers Were Women

Internet marketer Zee has posted a fun article with a woman a browser what he thinks a women would look like if it were a browser. Have a look!

Video Opera Fingertouch

Opera labs showcased a technology where its browser zooms in on mobile devices. User are likely to make less false decision with this improved input method.

Upgrade to Opera 9.64

A minor upgrade of the Opera browser for the desktop got released this week which addresses several security issues and few minor improvements. If you are an user of Opera you should consider updating your release to Opera 9.64.

Starting with this release, Opera on Windows supports the security measures Data Execution Prevention (DEP) (available in Windows XP SP2 and newer) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) (available in Vista and newer). These security measures are a kind of second line of defence once an application runs into a serious fault, which would normally cause it to crash sooner or later.

Quote: Opera Watch in Opera 9.64 update

Opera Mini Simulator

If you do development for mobile sites or just want to know what Opera Mini looks and feels like before you install it on your mobile device you might to check out the Opera Mini Simulator.

The simulator is a live demo of Opera Mini that functions like it would when installed on a handset. You need to have a java plugin installed in your browser to run it. Once you do it does an amazing job to test mobile surfing behavior.

Rumors of Opera Turbo for end-users

Opera watch reports that ‘Opera Turbo’ is being considered for non-business users. Opera Turbo reduces bandwith usage and is only available for business user so far. The blog post also covers some interesting facts on the financial situation of Opera Software cited from Haavard’s “State of the Opera: Q4 2008”.

Opera 10 alpha Screenshots

Check out some of Opera 10 new / revised features: auto update feature, HTML mail, spellcheck on the screenshots. Click on a screenshot for a larger version.

How-To: Buttons in Opera for common search queries

If you are an Opera user you might be interested in How to convert the search field into a button in the Opera Search panel?.

You find a detailled answer to this question in the Opera Watch Blog.

Opera presents turbo-charged browsing for desktop browsers

To be available for business customers on Opera Desktop, Opera Mobile and Opera Devices SDK, Opera Turbo compresses bandwidth consumption. By processing data being sent to a mobile phone or a PC by up to 80 percent, operators will be able to reduce network traffic and save on data transmissions. This helps to extend the longevity of their mobile network investments. For device manufacturers, Opera Turbo provides a faster browsing application that can leverage device capabilities and utilize hardware resources more effectively. By leveraging Opera Turbo, operators and OEMs can provide a faster browsing experience to their end-users, independent of network constraints or hardware limitations.

Read Opera unveils turbo-charged browsing at Mobile World Congress 2009 for the full press release and see ‘Opera Turbo’ brings bandwidth compression technology to desktop browsing for an illustration of how it works.

Yahoo! will deliver Opera Mini

Opera Software and Yahoo!® announced a partnership to bring the Opera Mini mobile Web browser and the full Internet to more mobile phone users around the world. Yahoo! will begin distributing Opera Mini via Yahoo! Mobile and also as a standalone download from Yahoo!’s mobile Web sites in the near future. The Opera Mini client will be available free of charge.

As the most popular mobile browser on the planet, Opera Mini will also be available to users of Yahoo! Mobile. Yahoo! Mobile with Opera Mini is easily accessible to end-users, operators and manufacturers and provides a cost-effective means of getting the Internet on your phone. Together, Yahoo! and Opera will bring the full Web experience to your phone, similar to how you know it from your desktop computer.

CEO Jon von Tetzchner of Opera Software is quoted in the press release Yahoo! Mobile to take flight with Opera Mini mobile Web browser.