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I use a variety of browsers, but the one that I always have up and running on my production machine is Opera - one of my favorite browsers.
Opera 9.24 is very much an incremental update, with just security fixes, a Leopard compatibility tweak, and no major announcements. Actually, for the past month or so I've been using Opera 9.50 Alpha, and I have absolutely no complaints about its performance or reliability. by clicking here. However, if you prefer running a final version browser, 9.24 is the current one avalable.
Returning features include Speed Dial, introduced in version 9.20, that lets users transform their top sites into nine visual bookmarks that are immediately available in any new tab. Opera says Speed Dial came about from careful consideration of individual browsing preferences. Version 9.23 includes a stability issue with Speed Dial fix.
"Speed Dial is based on the idea that people generally have five to 10 sites they browse regularly throughout the day," said Johan Borg, team manager for Opera's desktop browser. "Speed Dial is made for almost instant access to those sites. We want developers and the curious-minded to discover Speed Dial. When they do, we hope they'll help us with another rigorous round of testing before the final release."
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.
"Speed Dial is a fresh way to call up the top sites you enjoy throughout the day," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. "It's a cool new way to access those sites - you can do it through the Speed Dial or enter the corresponding number in the address bar. I hope current and new Opera users find Speed Dial both enjoyable and addictive."
It works very well. It will take a while to determine whether I will find this an addictive feature, but I suspect that I will. If you're a regular reader, then you know that I'm an Opera fan, and for more than two years now it has been my default browser, although I usually have at least one other Browser up and running as well.
I like Speed Dial, but on the downside, the two biggest complaints I have about Opera have not been addressed in this version, namely: that Opera takes forever to start up compared with most other OS x browsers, especially Safari, and that the "HideOpera" command breaks when you quit and resrart the browser with a bunch of tabs open, rendering Opera's otherwise very cool session retore feature essentially useless, because the cure id to trash theOpera Preferences and Sessions files from the Opera Preferences folder and restart the program (sometimes it takes a couple of tries). Very annoying, but I simply can't abide not being able to hide a program, since I usually have about 20 open.
New in version 9.24
Security
• Avoided a vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player. Details will be disclosed at a later date. See the advisory
• Fixed an issue where external news readers and e-mail clients could be used to execute arbitrary code, as reported by Michael A. Puls II. See our advisory.
• Fixed an issue where scripts could overwrite functions on pages from other domains. See the advisory. Issue reported to Opera by David Bloom.
Mac specific
• Fixed user interface glitches in OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
New in version 9.23:
• Fixed four crash bugs found using Mozilla's jsfunfuzz tool.
• Fixed a stability issue with Speed Dial.
• Fixed a JavaScript security issue discovered with Mozilla's jsfunfuzz tool.
If you're new to Opera or haven't tried it for a while, you'll find that Opera 9 has some very cool new features to try:
At a Glance
• Content blocking
• BitTorrent support
• Widgets
• Search engine editor
• Site preferences
• Integrated source viewer
• Universal binary
• Full-screen integration with Intel Mac remote
• opera:config for advanced settings configuration
New in Opera 9
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.
For more information about additional Opera features, see the Opera tutorials or the help files.
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/
BitTorrent
– BitTorrent has become one of the most popular file transfer protocols around, now built right into the browser so you can download torrent files easily. No more hassle finding the right port, no worries about setting upload and download speed. We've worked to optimize all of that for you.
Customize your search engines
– Use your favorite search engine in the search box. Go to the site you want and right click on the search field site and click on the search field. You will then be prompted to "create search"
Improved content blocker
– Cosmetic surgery for Web pages. Just right click on a page and select "block content". Any content not greyed out can be blocked with a click. Select "done" and see the page the way you want.
Opera 9.2 is fast and slick, and in my surfing session last evening I encountered no instability or new bugginess. However, there is still room for improvement. Opera is still bog-slow to start up, the slowest of ant modern OS X browser, although the fact that it's the fastest browser once it's up and running mitigates this somewhat. I very occasionally run across a Web page that won't render properly or whose links refuse to work with Opera, but they're rare.
There is also a persistent bug that causes Opera to stop responding to the Hide command (which I use extensively) after it's been quit and restarted. This has been, if anything, worse with the 9.2 builds than it was with earlier ones, and the only fix I've discovered is to trash the OPera 9 preference and Sessions files from the OPera Preferences folder and restart the program, which means of course that you lose the advantage of resumable sessions when it happens. I still like Opera enough to put up with this behavior, but it should be fixed. Nevertheless, the speed and deep feature set are seductive.
Opera is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://www.opera.com
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
System support:
PPC/Intel
Free
For more information about Opera, visit:
http://www.opera.com/products/
To Download:
http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/
or
http://www.opera.com/download/
Tags: Reviews ď Internet Reviews ď
