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Pardon the digression.
With a re-written Opera' Opera 9.5 contains more than a year's worth of speed, standards and performance improvements. The Opera folks say their internal benchmarks show up to 50 percent increase in speed compared to the previous core version in Opera 8.
New features in version 9.50 include AppleScript support, improved font handling, improved image quality when zooming, respect for the Full Keyboard Access setting in Mac OS X System Preferences, many performance improvements (reportedly substantial benchmarked speed improvements in what was already the fastest OS X browser), full history search, improved site compatibility, access for everyone, improved platform integration, preview of bookmark and speed dial synchronization, a rewritten ECMAscript engine, some HTML 5 support, and improved IMAP reliability in the email client module.
Being a big Opera fan, I decided to take the plunge, and downloaded the 9.50 Alpha on Friday.
Note well that Opera recommends that you use this build only on properly backed up computers, making a clean install and copy over your profile data (but not your preferences file. You may not be able to downgrade if you upgrade an existing install. Opera 9.5 alpha will by default install separately from your previous version of Opera.
This release uses new storage and indexing formats for Opera Mail (including newsfeeds). If you copy your Mail directory from an existing profile, you will be prompted to convert all accounts into the new format and re-index your messages. You will not be able to downgrade to a previous version of Opera after starting the conversion process.
Read the Release Notes changelog for full details on known issues and unsquashed bugs in this release.
I just made a backup copy of my Opera Preferences folder, and dragged my bookmarks and cookies information, etc., into the "Opera Preferences Alpha" preferences folder that the program created upon startup.
Speaking of which, Opera 9.50 starts up a LOT faster than the previous versions. Sluggish startup has been one of the relatively few complaints I've had about the Opera browsers, and it appears that it's been addressed with this version.
Once it was up and running, I proceeded to put Opera 9.50 through its paces, visiting perhaps 70 Web pages on Sunday, and the browser, alpha build though it may be, has performed flawlessly for me so far, with no evident bugginess and no complaints about stability. It's fast too, although always a challenge to judge qualitatively on my dialup connection. Suffice to say that it is fully competitive speed-wise with the faster browsers I use - Safari, SeaMonkey/Camino/Firefox, and the current Opera 9.23 final, which is usually my default browser.
The Opera 9.50 user interface is pretty much the same as version 9.23, with just some minor changes, a cleaner-looking tab bar theme, and a slightly narrower window title bar.
Here are some of the new features of Opera 9.50 in greater detail.
Synchronize Your Stuff
Synchronize: the preview, lets you log in just once,Then access your stuff anywhere, anytime.
This alpha version of Kestrel contains a sneak preview with support for bookmarks, Speed Dial and personal bar synchronization between desktop versions of Opera. To check it out, click File - Synchronize with My Opera and follow the instructions.
Full History Search
Most of us have found something interesting online, but later struggled to find your way back to the small portion of a Web page where we saw it? Opera 9.5 introduces full history search - with which you can search the complete content of Web pages you visited, but without the need to bookmark them.
Unlike previous and other browser history searches which only look at the URLs of the pages you have visited, full history search searches the actual content of the Web pages you have visited. When typing a keyword, Opera 9.5 will automatically search the text of Web pages in your history.
Full History Search is integrated into the URL field of the Opera 9.5 browser, making it easy and quick to find what you're looking for.
Status bar with Zoom and Image control
Opera's zoom function and the bandwidth saving control of images are now made easily available on the Status bar. You can add your own buttons like the developer console to the Status bar.
Restore closed windows and changes in Speed Dial
OPera 9.50 Kestrel has an improved version of the much loved trash-can feature by adding support for opening closed windows, not only the closed tabs. You can also use the undo function now for Speed Dial.
Improved BitTorrent performance
This build of Opera adds support for BitTorrent Peer Exchange to allow you to connect to more download hosts and improve your download speeds.
Platform integration
Kestrel has been tuned to feel even more integrated with your platform. Mac users get the subtly cleaner new visual look and feel, and adds support for Apple's screen reader "VoiceOver" found in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. This allows visually impaired Opera users to more easily use all of the features in the browser. For more details, see:
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover
Skin And Mac OS Integration
Skins in Opera 9.5 feature improved conformance to Apple Human Interface Guidelines, and there is also a new native skin with a brushed metal appearance [if you must], for those of you into that sort of look.
Mail improvements
Kestrel features improved stability and performance for Opera's integrated email client, Opera Mail, with a new mail backend and new IMAP support. Opera Mail is also claimed to be much faster than in previous versions of Opera. I've never more than experimented with Opera Mail, so have no frame of reference to evaluate the enhancements, but based on the smoothness of the browser experience, I don't doubt that it crosses over to the email client module.
By the way, if you are an Opera Mail user, note well that you will need to install this version on top of your existing Opera version to use this version for mail. Opera will then re-index all your email, something which can take several minutes if you have thousands of emails archived.
All that, and this is just the alpha. Opera says that even more amazing stuff will arrive shortly.
It's great to see Opera determined to stay ahead of the browser pack and pioneering more cool new Web browser features. Opera was first with tabs, first with session restore, first with integrated search, first with mouse gestures; first with mouseover tab thumbnail previews, and first (still unique) with Speed Dial.
If you;re not familiar, Speed Dial, introduced with Opera 9.2, is a feature that lets users transform their most frequently visited sites into nine visual bookmarks that are immediately available in any new tab. With each blank tab, Speed Dial presents a thumbnail preview of the top nine sites as selected by the user. In addition to fast access through the Speed Dial, users can also enter the number corresponding with each bookmarked Speed Dial page in Opera's address field to access the page.
Here's what a fresh tab window looks like in 9.2 before you configure any favorite sites.
To do that, just click on one of the nine Speed Dial panes and a dialog window will appear with links to the last two-dozen or so sites you've visited. You can pick sites to add to Speed Dial from the ones shown, or type or paste in a URL in the field provided, click "OK," and momentarily a thumbnail preview of the specified Web page will appear, which you can henceforth use as a shortcut button to load the site.
Every time you open a new tab, the Speed Dial buttons will be displayed. You can of course also use the conventional Bookmarks menu as well.
It's early days yet, but I'm really pleased with this latest effort from Opera which has made my already favorite browser even better. So far, it's been smooth sailing and I've encountered no reason to go back to Opera 9.23 for day to day browsing. The speed and deep feature set are more seductive than ever.
Opera is freeware
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.
System support:
PPC/Intel
Free
For more information and to download, visit:
http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2007/09/04/go-and-get-opera-9-5-alpha-3
General information about Opera:
http://www.opera.com
Appendix
The Opera 9 Feature Set
Carried over from Opera 9.x are
BitTorrent
You don't need a separate BitTorrent application to download large files. Simply click a torrent link and start the download.
Content blocker
Remove ads or images - it's up to you. Right-click (CTRL-click on the Mac) on the Web page and choose "Block content".
Add your favorite search engines
Right-click on the site's search field and select "Create search" from the menu.
Thumbnail preview
It is easy to have many tabs open at once in Opera. But exactly which tab had that video you wanted? Hover your mouse on any tab to see a thumbnail preview.
Site preferences
Want to view a site in a different way or deny certain cookies? Want to block pop-ups on certain sites only? Right click and select "Edit site preferences".
Widgets
Small Web applications (multimedia, newsfeeds, games and more) that make your desktop experience more fun. Use the Widgets menu to discover new widgets and access your favorites. Visit widgets.opera.com to learn more.
Improved rich text editing
Use advanced text editing features for today's most popular Web applications.
Efficient surfing
Transfer manager
View download progress and access all your downloads from one simple transfer manager window.
Tabbed browsing
Surf the Web easier and faster by opening multiple Web pages within the same application window.
Password manager
The password manager remembers your usernames and passwords so you will not have to.
Integrated search
Search Google, eBay, Amazon and more with our integrated search field. You can also search directly in the address field using keywords (for example "g" for Google).
Pop-up blocking
Opera lets you control whether to block all pop-ups, or open only the ones that you have requested.
Mouse gestures
Opera supports mouse gestures, allowing you to perform certain movements with the mouse to access commonly used features.
Fast Forward
Fast Forward will detect the most likely "next page" link and greatly simplify navigation in multi-page documents such as search results and image galleries.
Sessions
Save a collection of open tabs as a session, for later retrieval, or start with the pages you had open when Opera was last closed
Quick preferences
Pressing F12 displays the 'Quick preferences' menu to easily switch settings such as pop-up and cookie preferences and more.
Notes
Notes can be kept in conjunction with a Web site you want to refer to later, or remind you of any particular information you may like to review again.
Voice
The voice feature allows you to control Opera's interface by talking and to have documents read aloud. Voice is currently offered in English and runs on Windows 2000 and XP.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts - like mouse gestures - make your browsing faster and more efficient. Read more about all the keyboard shortcuts in Opera.
Trash can
If you accidentally close a tab, you can retrieve it from the trash can. This also works for blocked pop-ups that you may want.
Security and privacy
Security bar
Opera displays security information inside the address field. The padlock icon indicates the level of security present on a site
Encryption
Opera supports Secure Socket Layer (SSL) version 3, and TLS 1.0 and 1.1. Opera supports 256-bit encryption, the strongest standard encryption for the Web.
Delete private data
You can clear the history and cache when exiting, to protect your privacy. Private data can easily be erased at any time by going to Tools > Delete private data.
Cookie control
You have detailed control of what cookies to accept and reject, including different setups for different servers.
Mail and Chat
Opera mail
Our built-in POP/IMAP E-mail client is a combined e-mail program, news reader, mailing list organizer and RSS/Atom newsfeed reader.
IRC chat
Communicate with people all over the world using Opera's IRC chat client. Chat privately or in rooms, or share files with your friends and family.
Customization
Drag and drop
Add, remove or rearrange buttons, search fields and toolbars. Go to Tools > Appearance.
Skins
Skins can give your browser the look you want. Make the browser your own by giving it the icons, colors and style of your choice.
Language
Opera is translated into a multitude of languages, and the language can be changed on the fly. Go to Preferences > General.
Accessibility
Zoom
You can zoom the contents of any Web page from 20%-1000% using the zoom dropdown or the + and - keys.
Text size and colors
You can change text size and color, link styling or background color to your liking in Preferences > Web pages.
User style sheets
Opera comes with a set of ready-made style sheets, including accessibility style.
Web development
Standards support
We take pride in supporting all major Web standards currently in use, including CSS 2.1, XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.01, WML 2.0, ECMAScript, DOM 2 and SVG 1.1 basic.
Small-screen mode
When displaying a page in small-screen mode (Shift+F11) you can see how it will look on a mobile phone or other small-screen device running Opera.
Validate code
You can validate the HTML code of any Web page by pressing Ctrl+Alt+V.
Toggle graphics and style sheets
Graphics and style sheets can be toggled on/off via our toolbars and shortcuts.
Info panel
The Info panel shows details about the currently open page such as MIME type, page size, character encoding and more.
Reload from cache
Edit the source of any open Web page and view the result instantly. Go to Tools > Advanced.
Special features
Full-screen mode
The F11 key toggles Opera's projection mode, using the whole screen for browsing and, if a projection style sheet is present, displays 'slides' suitable for presentation.
Kiosk mode
Opera supports kiosk mode - a lock-down mode in which the browser can be used for unattended computers in public places.
Opera Widgets
– Widgets are small AJAX applications that provide specific functionality
– like getting your favorite news, converting currency and so on.
For documentation on Opera Widgets – not only how to use them but also how to make them, visit:
http://my.opera.com/community/dev/widgets/
For more information about additional Opera features, see the Opera tutorials or the help files.
Charles W. Moore
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