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Being a huge Opera fan, I downloaded a copy of the Opera 10 alpha for a looksee and test drive. Visually, it looks pretty much teh same as Opera 9.5, but it sefinitely is faster, and by seat-of-the-pants reckoning feels like the fastest OS X browser I've used so far.
Opera's developers have also optimized the Opera Presto 2.2 engine to be much faster on resource intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook.
With an Acid3 100/100 score, Web Fonts support, RGBA/HSLA color and SVG improvements, Opera 10 alpha is designed to be ready for the next generation of Web applications.
Other new features in OPera 10 include:
• Inline spell-check
Write freely in your Facebook wall, blog or Web mail. Opera 10 alpha underlines any misspelled words so you can express yourself without reservation.
• Auto-update
Opera 10 alpha makes it easier than ever to stay up to date with the latest version.
• Email your way
Depending on your personality or mood, use full HTML formatting or just plain text in your emails. Either way Opera Mail has your back.
• Web Developers, get ready
The new Opera Presto 2.2 engine in Opera 10 alpha supports all the features you need to start developing the next great Web site.
• Web Fonts and SVG
Typography on the Web will never look the same. With the Opera Presto 2.2 engine, you can use Web Fonts -including SVG font files- on your Web pages.
• Opacity through RGBA and HSLA
Transparency is the new black. In Opera Presto 2.2 it is easier to make page elements transparent, with the addition of an alpha transparency argument to the RGB and HSL color models.
• Opera Dragonfly evolved
Opera Dragonfly is now even better for debugging Web sites, allowing you to edit the DOM and inspect HTTP headers.
And of course, all the traditional Opera good stuff is still there, such as Opera's already excellent Download Manager which deserves mention since it's IMHO so much better than any other browser's handling of downloads, with excellent progress monitoring and full control, including resumable downloads after a pause or shutdown, and no-hassle multiple downloads
Opera's Zoom controls are among the best if not THE best, with a handy pull-down menu and button in the lower right corner to resize Web pages. If the page is too wide for your screen, simply hit Fit to Width and Opera will resize the Web page so you avoid horizontal scrolling. I also like Opera's implementation of the sidebar, which stays out of your way until bidden to appear with a button-click, and hiding again efficiently.
Opera has a built-in email client, which has been tweaked for better speed and improved responsiveness in version 10, and including enhanced HTML support, optional plain text, and returning IMAP support. Opera's email client runs in a separate thread, so it won't slow down simultaneous web browsing.
The browser's Opera Link feature syncs your bookmarks and Opera's unique Speed Dial between your computers and mobile phone. Log in with your Opera username, and your data will always be accessible.
Note that this is alpha software and prudence would dictate that it's likely to be buggy, although in the early going I haven't encountered any bugginess or instability, and based on performance so far I may have already switched to Opera 10 as my main borwser application. I've had extremely good luck with opera pre-release builds in the past, including alphas, so this wasn't a major surprise. However, Opera requests that users report any bugs, or join the discussion with the community and the Desktop Team Blog.
For more information, visit:
http://www.opera.com/browser/next/
Charles W. Moore
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