Planet Opera

Dev.Opera: The freelancing business part 2: budgeting your projects

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:04:51 +0200

This is the second in a series of articles written by R Blank giving practical advice on the business side of freelancing, including project management, contracts, budgeting and more. In this part he discusses budgeting, hot root vegetables and why working with new tech is similar to being a test pilot.

Dev.Opera: Rich HTML editing in the browser: part 1

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:04:51 +0200

In-browser WYSIWYG editing is becoming an integral part of the Web. This article looks at the basic concepts and challenges involved in utilizing the editing features in recent browsers. It will startle you to learn that each browser behaves slightly differently—but this two-part article will save your sanity.

Yngve Nys??ter Pettersen: W3C Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines

yngve@opera.com (Yngve Nys??ter Pettersen) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:46:13 +0200

The W3C's Web Security Context Working Group have just released the Last Call version of its "User Interface Guidelines" document, which is a set of recommendations for the security related UI in Web User Agents.

This specification deals with the trust decisions that users must make online, and with ways to support them in making safe and informed decisions where possible.

This document specifies user interactions with a goal toward making security usable, based on known best practice in this area. Subsequent testing of this specification will include conformance, interoperability, and usability testing.

If you want to comment on the document you are welcome to do so:

The W3C Membership and other interested parties are invited to review the document and send comments to public-usable-authentication@w3.org (with public archive) through 15 September 2008. We appreciate if comments follow these guidelines for writing good issues.

Opera Community News: User JavaScript winners!

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Aleksander) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:10:32 +0200

The wait is over, we have found our worthy winners of the HTC Touch Diamond for the User JavaScript contest!

Our "User JavaScript contest!" contest ended on 15th July and there were two big winners! There were a number of strong contestants with awesome contributions, however, after going through all the submissions, hallvors has declared zomg and d4n3 the worthy winners of the competition! Both will receive a sweet HTC Touch Diamond??? with Opera Mobile 9.5 pre-installed!

Take a look at what the zomg and d4n3 submitted:

Site Enhancement Section Winner:

zomg-fix-spreadsheets.js by zomg

This sitefix makes sure Google Spreadsheet works as intended with Opera! Also, zomg almost won the Tool section of the competition with his directory-listings.js and bookmarking.js submission.

Tool Section Winner:

History+ by d4n3

History+ is awesome! d4n3 really went all out when he created a script that allows users to visualise your travel through the world wide internet. History+ features a local HTTP server thats right on the edge on what you can do with a user JavaScript.

Thanks again to everyone who participated! For honorable mentions and the full post by hallvors, go and check out the competition forum post.

Tamil: Opera favicons & privacy

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Tamil) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:11:25 +0200

Opera 9.50 introduced new format for saving favicons to fix wrong favicons bug in previous versions. Opera now additionally creates idx file along with ico file to store favicon information. The problem with new format is Opera stores history of visited pages (including searches) in idx file and size will grow over time.

You can delete ico and idx files by enabling "History of visited pages" option in "Delete private data" dialog but it will delete all including favicons for bookmarks & personal bar items. (You can disable favicons completely. )

To delete all ico & idx files except bookmarks ico & idx files (when you use "Delete private data" with "History of visited pages" option), set read-only attribute to bookmark ico & idx files in images directory inside Opera Local Directory. This will also prevent storing of history in bookmarks idx file.

Bridge the World: Lost in translation

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Yenny Marissa Otero Castillo) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:26:15 +0200

It is incredible how fast can time pass. It is already been 4 months of the 6 I should be in Japan...

I have been thinking about posting to this blog for a while but, it has proven to be so difficult! Most probably because I have immersed myself into my work as well as the routine of everyday???s life that made time vanish between the always crowded subway ride-to/from-work and the every weekend city escape. But before I go into more excuses, I will write something actually interesting about my experience in Japan.

In Oslo, work is something that happens between 8 or 9 am and finishes at 5, 6 or even 4 pm (for those more fortunate that can actually wake up and arrive to work at 8am). As Oslo is a small city, you complain if you have to take a bus or a train to get to work.. the preferred solution is to live in bike / walking distance to the office.

In Tokyo, work starts at 8 or 9 am for most people. In many companies, employees have to wait until their boss leaves the office for them to go home (even if they are not doing anything productive) so they may even work until midnight... and not just in exceptional cases, but more as a rule. Someone (reliable source whose identity I want to protect ) told me that it is normal to do overtime because it is the only way to raise a normal salary into something decent. Living within walking distance from work is consider as luxury. For example, Atsuko whom is a very nice and funny girl from the office, has to travel 2 hours in the morning to the office AND 2 hours to go back home. Some other people is fortunate enough to travel only for 30 mins. but it anyway includes at least one potentially crowded train ride!

Transportation in Tokyo is quite complicated. In many big cities, it is enough to look at the map of trains to know which is your best connection. Tokyo is not that simple! any map you find won???t show all lines available because trains are run by two or three different companies with very complicated lines and schedules. Your best bet is to use a mobile phone ...-yipppee!! for mobile Internet use in Japan- Anyway, you can use a couple of sites that work well if you cannot enter Japanese station names, for example: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/index.html
Type the start destination and the end destination and it will give you a couple of options ranked mainly in price and time. If you don't know any stations, try "ikejiri-ohashi" in one field and "shinjuku" in the other, it will tell you the available trains from the Opera Japan office to the mega-station of Shinjuku.

And, here you have some pictures that are worth mentioning:

A kestrel stole my lunch

One of these guys stole my lunch in Kamakura! I had a chicken filled bread in my hands and was about to bite it when I felt a big rounded shaped shade and the sound of wings on my right side. In the time I could understand what was happening, a pretty big eagle stole my bread leaving only the aluminium wrapping and taking away what I had brought for lunch... needless to say I was hungry afterwards; surprised about seeing such a beautiful animal so close.. but still hungry.

Unknown robot cleaner from Norway sells in Japan

In Loft, a very cool store in Tokyo, I found a "robot house cleaner" that it is claimed to be invented in Norway.
did anyone know about this in Norway? How have I lived 6 years in Norway and have never seen it?

Prince Torkjel??s big give away

Torkjel felt like giving things away, including some house appliances... I hope his girlfriend be OK about his generosity.
More pictures of the same label on the coffee machine, the microwave, the fridge, the drinking water, a laptop and the stereo system my flickr account.

Taking the sun in Japan

No, that lady is not saving her life while attacked by the killer white towel. She is actually taking the sun... but everyone here has a big fear of getting any color as being white is considered beautiful, this creates a complete fashion of hats, jackets, gloves and clothes that deserves its own blog post later..

Opera logo in subliminal adds

Btw, we found the Opera logo in this store ... maybe it is one secret marketing strategy to get more people familiar with the Opera logo? (as absolut does with the bottle?)

Norske Opera

Found also this great "Norwegian Opera" poster: "I die, I die, I die... Opera, the art of overdoing it" :)

Mobile internet reinvented

This guy is showing us his own version of the mobile Internet... what he had in his phone was clearly not enough for him?

Slashdot: Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" Due In September

timothy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0200

Alexander Rose writes "Neal Stephenson's new novel, ANATHEM, germinated in 01999 when Danny Hillis asked him and several other contributors to sketch out their ideas of what the Millennium Clock might look like. Stephenson tossed off a quick sketch and promptly forgot about it. Five years later however, when he was between projects, the idea came back to him, and he began to explore the possibility of building a novel around it. ANATHEM is the result, and will be released on September 9th, 02008." Read Rose's complete posting for more information about the release of the book, which he describes as set "in a genre bending alt-future-retro world where mechani-punk technology meets space opera in a blend of the best of Snow Crash and the Baroque Cycle."

Opera Community News: Opera on the Fly

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Aleksander) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:07:29 +0200

Opera Mini continues to reach new handsets through a new deal with the Meridian Group.. This deals sees Opera Mini pre-installed on the new Fly handset.

Today we announced a deal with the Meridian Group to pre-install Opera Mini on its new Fly E310 handset. Meridian is a leading player in the mobile phone industry with its flagship brand of handsets, ???Fly???. This isn???t the first time we???ve worked together; Opera Mini has been pre-installed on numerous Fly handsets since April 2007.

The Fly E310 is available in the United Kingdom, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Opera Mini comes pre-installed on these handsets and is translated into the local language. Fly E310 mobile phone owners can browse all their favorite Web sites using the world???s favourite mobile Web browser.

Commenting on the deal, Andrew Collinge, Member of the Board of Directors of Meridian Group, stated, ???when it comes to offering our customers a fast, secure and cost-efficient Internet service on a mobile phone, the popular Opera Mini browser offers the user an outstanding experience.???

Opera Press Releases: No smartphone? No problem.

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0200

Opera mobile news

Slashdot: Web Browser Wars Go Mobile

CmdrTaco — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:44:00 +0200

alphadogg writes "A new generation of mobile Web browsers is finally making the Web a reality on handheld devices. The latest example is last week's beta launch of Opera Mobile 9.5, a native Web browser for high-end smartphones. It's an evolutionary release for the Norwegian software company, but it comes just days after Apple's iPhone 3G, with its highly capable Safari browser, went on sale. Other brand-new entrants, such as Mobile Firefox and Skyfire, are expected later this year, at least in beta form. But the evolving mobile browsers are only one part of the picture. Mobile browsing is affected by the client hardware, ranging from the processor to the kind of wireless network being used, all of which have improved markedly. It's also affected by the design of Web sites being targeted, and there's new attention being focused on optimizing these sites for mobile users."

Opera Press Releases: Opera Mini brings the Web to Meridian Group???s newest handset

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0200

Opera mobile news

Haavard K. Moen: Opera Mobile 9.5: How to increase the maximum number of tabs

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Haavard) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:59:28 +0200

The first Opera Mobile beta is finally out, and it's looking quite nice. One thing that might be a problem to some is that there is a limit to the number of tabs you can have open. This makes sense if your phone is a bit limited on resources, but some of you may have a phone that can handle more tabs.

To increase the number of allowed tabs, go to opera:config, and set "Maximum Allowed Tabs" to the number of your choice (you may have to restart Opera).

Note that this opera:config setting does not work in Opera for desktop.

Rowan Mulder: The busy bees at Opera Software

Alastor — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:58:11 +0200

Although browser news has been slow the last few days, except for some releases, the folks at Opera Software have been quite busy. Not only with software, but also by opening up more portions of the development. Yup, Opera Software is quite the open company for closed software,compared with others.

First of all the Opera Desktop Team has released another batch of snapshots for the upcoming Opera 9.52 which should include another load of fixes to smooth the overall Kestrel experience. But this post is special as Julien Picalausa, a Windows developer, explains a bit of the story about the release procedure. How does Opera get delivered to you from compiled source to a nice little graphical installer.

Another interesting development is that Opera Software Quality Assurance department has started their own blog, allowing readers to see what testers and QA engineers at Opera do, and also discuss more general quality assurance issues. Yup, that means you know have a blog where you can see how the process is currently going, and can give comments if you think Opera Software's QA can do better. This is a nice development as often people have been nagging about QA of the Opera desktop browser for some time and are now able to play a more active role in the process.

Last but not least Opera Labs is back with a new build! Experimental at best, this build features something similar to the latest snapshot of 9.52, but adds sweet, sweet candies to it, like file I/O support for widgets (proposal for W3C standard), royalty-free Ogg Theora video format support, and 3D canvas support through JavaScript on multi-platforms.

Opera Desktop Team: File I/O, Video, 3D Canvas - all in one go!

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Claudio Santambrogio) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:09:15 +0200

We have previously released experimental Labs builds containing File I/O, and 3D . For the first time we now have bundled them all into one build. On all of our desktop platforms.

Head over to the Labs to read more about the newest singing, dancing labs build??? and to download your build!

WARNING: These are development snapshots: they contain the latest changes, but they also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all.

Opera Watch: Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Released for WM Touchscreen Devices

BAMAToNE — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:14:27 +0200

The first public beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 has finally arrived. Some of the new features:

Speed tests show Opera Mobile 9.5 beta loads Web pages 2.5 times faster than Internet Explorer Mobile
Opera Mobile 9.5 defaults to full Web page viewing and allows users to pan and zoom into their desired content in just a few clicks
With a click, simply save your selected content and view it later offline
Multitask with tabbed browsing, view content in widescreen, and enjoy small-screen rendering
Browse with the full richness of AJAX
Save time with address auto-complete and Password Manager
Upload to Web sites such as online mail services or blogs

A more complete list of features can be found here.

Be warned, however, that this beta is for Windows Mobile / Pocket PC touchscreen devices only. Non-touchscreen Windows Mobile and Symbian users are out of luck. The Opera Mobile blog reports they are “planning to add compatibility for non-touchscreen phones in the future.” The Mobile team has already promised a Symbian version.

Keep in mind this is beta software: “This release is intended for developers and advanced users. It may cause data loss or other unintended actions.”

And be sure to check out the “Reviewer???s Guide to Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta,” which looks excellent!

Download Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta

Opera Desktop Team: A peek under the hood

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Julien Picalausa) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:48:34 +0200

Today's post will be a bit unusual in the sense that it won't be about Opera itself, but rather about how Opera is brought to you. This post will attempt to explain to you how we get from a lump of source code that can be compiled in a lot of different ways with many different options to the Opera packages that you can download and install from this blog.

Install? That is already a complex process on its own. You do it once and never think about it again, but the fact is that installation is a crucial process and it has to work properly, otherwise you can't enjoy your favorite software! So, how do we fit all our code in an executable, then pack it in an installer?

There are essentially two processes that take part here: Building and packaging. We have a build system that realizes both of them. The first part of it is a web interface that collects build requests from everyone and then dispatches them to our build servers, each of which can make a build for the requested OS. The second part is a script, partly different for each OS, running on each build server which takes care of building and packaging.

The building part is pretty much the same on each platform: it obtains the requested version of the source code, compiles it with the right options and builds it into an executable (and libraries). The compilation part is taken care of by a compiler specific to the platform on which the build is made and it mostly takes care of itself, as long as the source code is correct.

At that point, everything is ready for packaging, and the script becomes very different depending on the OS. I will talk more specifically about packaging on Windows, since I am responsible for the Windows part of the build system.

There are two kind of packages on Windows: MSI packages made with InstallShield and "Classic" packages made using an old version of the WISE installer. The WISE installer is relatively easy to configure. It takes a sort of installation script, written in its own scripting language, and just executes it. It uses an additional DLL to realize functions that are not possible with only the script itself (like detecting Windows Vista). Although it is nice and easy, the WISE installer is not very well adapted to Windows versions more recent than Windows 98.

InstallShield is a much more powerful tool and MSI installers are a lot more complicated to put together. I won't get into much details here, but there is a huge amount of configuration that can be applied to an InstallShield package. It relies on an ISM file (Installer definition) which is XML formatted and indicates what the package should do, once compiled.

The packaging script starts by opening the installer definition file and set up a few things in it, preparing languages and translations of the installer itself. It enumerates all the files that need to be in the package and puts them in the right place. After a few more tweaks it builds the MSI package. The process is done once for each MSI package. The WISE installer is built along with the english-only MSI package but the process is trivial in comparison.

Maintaining and improving the build system and packaging scripts is no small task, but also an important task. Without it all builds and packages would have to be made manually!

This was it, a small peek at a hidden, but important part of Opera development.

In other news, our QA team has started their own blog - head over to the new QA blog for more peeks "under the hood".

Changelog:

Fixed a URL encoding issue in javascript: URLs
Fixed an issue with the BBC iPlayer RealPlayer plugin not working
Several stability fixes
Fixed a problem where GMail would not load

Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
UNIX

Opera Community News: Member of the week

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Aleksander) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:00:18 +0200

This long time My Opera member has been using Opera since version 6.xx and continues to post to an informative and entertaining blog.

For the third week in a row, we visit Austria to find this week's Member of the Week. He has diverse taste in music and travel and his posts range from entertaining to educational, and is read all over the world.

This member always has 3 browser windows open with a total of 34 tabs currently running. Thanks to the possibility to save sessions they always come up when starting Opera. He has a great customized blog design and simply loves Opera!

Please congratulate thobi

Choose Opera: Opera Tokyo crew visited Okinawa

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (????????????) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:31:04 +0200

Let me report to you a Japanese local event ???CSS Nite in Okinawa 2008??? on the last weekend in Okinawa where is southern tropical island in Japan. From the Opera Tokyo office, 7 members visited Okinawa to participate the event.

This time that was 2nd time of having the CSS Nite in Okinawa. This year more than 150 peoples attended who they are mostly local Web designers and developers acting in Okinawa.

In the first day, some of presenters had been there from Tokyo to have sessions to the audiences, and other sponsor companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, also Opera had presentations, demonstrations, exhibition booth in the event. On our booth, we exhibited our products on PC, Mobile and Devices.

In our presentation, we introduced Opera Dragonfly which is bundled Web Developer???s tool on Opera 9.5. We demonstrated the debug works uses Opera Dragonfly running on PC syncing with a Web page browsed by Opera Mobile 9.5 running on a Windows Mobile base smart-phone WILLCOM 03. It was our first time opportunity to demonstrate the technique in Japan that seemed the audiences were really interested in the debugging work operation between cross platform devices. We got many questions after that.

In the 2nd day when was for the enjoyment and social networking sea side party among participants and local Web industry peoples. There was a venue on a beach we enjoyed BBQ, local beers and liquors. Also we played treasure haunting game on the beach. The some of prizes were provided by Opera. A few winners got brand new Opera 9.5 T-shirts.

Personally that was my first time to visit in Okinawa where awesome island. There are beautiful landscape, very clean ocean, cute animals and fishes, yummy cuisines and nice local peoples who have a special hospitality.

And my most impressed thing was I had been able to meet several Opera users in Okinawa. They always love Opera and introduce our products for their local friends there. It was my pleasure to meet and talk with them.

:star: Photo Album :star:
CSS Nite in Okinawa 2008

I really hope to go to Okinawa next year again to meet them.
See you Okinawa :cheers:

Opera Rest Assured: Continuous Integration: Team Testing

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Esteban Manchado Vel??zquez) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:10:41 +0200

As you know, Continuous Integration is a set of simple practices that reduces software integration time and problems. It also improves general software quality with little overhead. Just having a testrun per every commit is quite handy for two reasons: early regression finding and easier debugging.

One of the most important virtues of CI is giving the tests a "social dimension". Martin Fowler's "Everyone can see what's happening" is actually one of the most powerful, yet subtle virtues of Continuous Integration. Letting everyone know about the status of the tests is not about assigning blame when something fails, it's about making the tests part of the development process. We wholeheartedly agree with the vision of automated tests that are incorporated upstream into the development process and run on a continuous basis.

What happens when you make the tests part of the process? Several interesting things:

The team focuses on avoiding and fixing regressions due to clear and quick feedback - less "getting out of the door quickly" with more stability.
The team has confidence in the code - more refactoring or rewriting of suboptimal modules.
Certain processes like deployment are streamlined - easier, clearer and more reliable.

We feel that these benefits make Continuous Integration a natural extension to automated tests for development teams, a bit like "the version control system of tests". Here at Opera we are using Continuous Integration for selected server-side projects, notably the Opera Link server and My Opera. It has had a huge and positive impact on both of these projects, providing a crucial role when refactoring and improving code.

If you are not using Continuous Integration in your project yet, you should start now!

Opera Community News: Inspiration in a small package

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Aleksander) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:39:39 +0200

Going on its eighth year Opera Mobile has come a long way. Would you like to give Opera Mobile 9.5 beta a try?

The Opera Mobile 9.5 beta is out, and it's available for free download right now! ???We are now answering the call of the people and delivering what we proudly proclaim to be our best Opera Mobile browser to date. It is a totally new user experience.??? - Jon von Tetzchner Opera Mobile 9.5 holds a multitude of upgrades. It's faster than ever loading up to 2.5 times as fast as Internet Explorer Mobile. The new interface is completely renovated, being cleaner and more intuitive, the new UI is designed for quick and easy navigation. Of course Opera Mobile 9.5 is the most standards compliant browser out there. Opera Software remains steadfast in its commitment to make the Web accessible for all. Of course there is tabbed browsing, support for widescreen content and small-screen rendering. The all powerful wand is even back in the game so you don't have to spend your time trying to type in your passwords every time you try to enter the My Opera Community! Check it out at http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/

Opera Labs: All together now: Video, 3D, File access

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:00:00 +0200

It???s here, the newest singing, dancing labs build (so far...). This time we basically have the latest desktop build plus video, 3D canvas, and File I/O. And this time we have Windows, Linux and Mac builds ??? so all you Mac fans, you can now have an Opera of your own in Ogg Theora.

Ars Technica: Hands on: first Opera Mobile 9.5 public beta a real winner

segphault@arstechnica.com (Ryan Paul) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:05:00 +0200

Ars reviews the first public Opera Mobile 9.5 beta and concludes that it offers the best web browsing experience available for Windows Mobile devices.

Dev.Opera: Remote debugging with Opera Dragonfly

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:04:34 +0200

In this article David Storey introduces the remote debugging feature of Opera Dragonfly - Opera???s new developer tools. You'll learn how to set up Opera Dragonfly for remote debugging and how to connect Opera Mobile 9.5 to Opera Dragonfly, so you can debug content running directly on it.

Dev.Opera: Opera Mobile 9.5 - the developer angle

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:04:34 +0200

The beta 1 release of Opera Mobile 9.5 is here, giving mobile users a great new browser to surf the Web with, but what does this mean for developers? In this article Chris Mills reveals just that, looking at mobile debugging with Opera Dragonfly, cross browser development techniques, and more.

Rowan Mulder: Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta released

Alastor — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:27:48 +0200

Opera Software has released one of the most eagerly awaited mobile browsers of the world. As perhaps the only real contender for browsing on Smart Phones, Opera Mobile 9.5 adds a list of new features, giving much more than the popular Safari browser, which is limited to just Apple products.

Much like Kestrel, or rather the desktop version of Opera 9.5, Opera Mobile 9.5 adds much of the same features on smaller devices. The updated Presto engine gives it a speed boost that should result in faster rendering of pages compared with other mobile browsers and improved standards support. Unique in this release is the addition of Opera Dragonfly, a tool previously introduced in Kestrel to assist web developers in making their web sites more compatible. Further features include pan & zoom by default (just like Opera Mini and Safari), a new skin similar to Kestrel, and more. Future beta releases will include Opera Widgets, Opera Link, Google Gearsand Symbian OS support.

As Opera Mobile 9.5 is currently in beta phase, it's available as a free download for Windows Mobile 5 or 6.

Ilya Baranovsky: Esperanto skin for Opera

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Ilya Baranovsky) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:28:11 +0200

Background from old version of Tango skin by towolf combined with my new icons
Esperanto >>

Ilya Baranovsky: Album of miniatures

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Ilya Baranovsky) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:00:57 +0200

Watch it

Opera Press Releases: Mobile browsing gets a makeover

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0200

Opera mobile news

Opera Mobile: The day finally arrives

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Frode Hauge) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:26:50 +0200

The first beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 is finally available for you to download. This will be the first in a series of betas for Opera Mobile 9.5. It is designed for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones with touchscreens.

The market has undergone a series of dramatic changes since our last major Opera Mobile upgrade. Apple entered the mobile browser market with Safari on the iPhone. Mozilla announced it will release a version of Firefox Mobile later this year and many other players are releasing browsers targeted for smartphones.

We have some fierce competition, but we are determined to keep Opera Mobile as the standard in Web browsing on smartphones. To achieve this, we need your help more than ever. Please file bugs and give us feedback in the forums and even feature requests. Our development team is active on the My Opera forums and will answer questions and do their best to help you out as you put the beta through its paces.

As I write this, I've just left for a much-needed vacation. I expect a long list of bugs and feature-requests to be waiting for me when I get back. After I return, we'll get back to our regular programming with updates on the roadmap and subsequent betas.

Happy bug-hunting!

Edit: Head over to dev.opera.com to read more about the browser from a developer angle or to find out how to use Dragonfly with this beta.

Edit2: This beta will only work on touchscreen-based windows mobile devices. We are planning to add compatibility for non-touchscreen phones in the future.

Edit3: Main testing has been done on English HTC devices (Touch Diamond, Touch Pro, Touch, Touch Dual, Touch Cruise, TyTN and Wizard) and Samsung i900.

My Opera News: Bringing back the news...

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Cosimo) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:58:49 +0200

Lots of stuff today :)

Anyway, I don't know if you already noticed. Some of you might, probably. The RSS feeds in your links section is probably already working again.
Not that they didn't work really, but let's say that they have been improved. Or rather, the downloading and update of your RSS/Atom/Whatever feeds is a bit more reliable now. There's still some problems, but for sure I know my feeds never worked and now they do! For a bit less boring feeds, go look at these or these, or you can suggest some or your own.

So, yes, you can use MyOpera as a feed-reader!
Not really wonderful, but... it should work now. Maybe you will have to wait 2-3 days for our feed spider to catch up...