Opera Software today announced the first public Beta of Opera 9. This version includes Widgets, small Web programs running in their own windows that are fun, easy-to-use and live on users' desktops. The Opera 9 Beta also features support for BitTorrent, a popular file downloading technology, in addition to an easy-to-use content blocker and thumbnail previews of tabbed sites.
"We're proud to release this Beta of Opera 9 to Web users around the world," said Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "Opera 9 brings powerful new features to enhance the Web browsing experience and empower Web 2.0 developers. Opera 9 unlocks new levels of productivity for the Internet ecosystem."
The most noticeable new features include:
Download: Opera 9 Beta
View: Changelog
"We're proud to release this Beta of Opera 9 to Web users around the world," said Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "Opera 9 brings powerful new features to enhance the Web browsing experience and empower Web 2.0 developers. Opera 9 unlocks new levels of productivity for the Internet ecosystem."
The most noticeable new features include:
- Widgets - Small Web applications (multimedia, newsfeeds, games and more) that make your desktop experience more fun. Any Web developer can create their own Widgets and share them, regardless of operating system. Try the Widgets in Opera 9 by pressing F6. Look for further development of Opera Widgets in future releases.
- BitTorrent - Instead of having to use a separate BitTorrent application for downloading large files,
- Users can now simply click a torrent file and start the download
- Content blocker - Choose the content you want to view. Remove ads or images - it is up to you. Right-click on the Web page and choose \"Block content\"
Download: Opera 9 Beta View: ChangelogNew features in Opera 9 include:
- Widgets - Small Web applications (multimedia, newsfeeds, games and more) that make your desktop experience more fun. Any Web developer can create their own Widgets and share them, regardless of operating system. Try the Widgets in Opera 9 by pressing F6. Look for further development of Opera Widgets in future releases.
- BitTorrent - Instead of having to use a separate BitTorrent application for downloading large files, users can now simply click a torrent file and start the download
- Content blocker - Choose the content you want to view. Remove ads or images - it is up to you. Right-click on the Web page and choose "Block content"
- Improved rich text editing - Take advantage of rich text editing capabilities when using the latest Web mail or blogging services
- Customize your search engines - Use your favorite search engine in the search box. Right-click on the site's search field and select "Create search" from the menu
- Thumbnail preview - It's easy to have many tabs open at once in Opera. But exactly which tab had that video you wanted? Hover any tab to see a thumbnail preview
- Site-specific preferences - Do you need to view a site in a different way or deny certain cookies? Want to block pop-ups on certain sites only? Site specific preferences hold the key
- Widgets - Small Web applications (multimedia, newsfeeds, games and more) that make your desktop experience more fun. Any Web developer can create their own Widgets and share them, regardless of operating system. Try the Widgets in Opera 9 by pressing F6. Look for further development of Opera Widgets in future releases.
- BitTorrent - Instead of having to use a separate BitTorrent application for downloading large files, users can now simply click a torrent file and start the download
- Content blocker - Choose the content you want to view. Remove ads or images - it is up to you. Right-click on the Web page and choose "Block content"
- Improved rich text editing - Take advantage of rich text editing capabilities when using the latest Web mail or blogging services
- Customize your search engines - Use your favorite search engine in the search box. Right-click on the site's search field and select "Create search" from the menu
- Thumbnail preview - It's easy to have many tabs open at once in Opera. But exactly which tab had that video you wanted? Hover any tab to see a thumbnail preview
- Site-specific preferences - Do you need to view a site in a different way or deny certain cookies? Want to block pop-ups on certain sites only? Site specific preferences hold the key
Anyway, i was using 8367 from the weeklies so this wasn't worth the update for me, just a heads up to anyone else
My ISP continuously blocks the ports. But its very handy to check if a particular port is open or not.
It reset my default mail client to Opera Mail from Microsoft Outlook without asking.
(And before anyone says anything about not using Outlook, it's to connect to an Exchange server at work so
Edit: BTW, uninstalling is a little bitch. There is no uninstall program on Add/Remove programs, no uninstall app on the start menu or in the programs folder. You have to rerun the setup program and select Remove. Also, doing so didn't change my preferences of Firefox and Outlook back!
Last edited by Marshalus on 20 Apr 2006 - 16:45
And the new installer is still experimental, you should report that bug to opera
Widgets? More like Bloats to me. It's a browser ... not a ... thing with other things.
The renderer finally looks decent ... I still found a page that looked bad (it didn't render anything close to like it should have). It looks good in IE 7, FF, and Safari. Opera is the only one that displayed the page all wacked out ...
I don't use widgets, I don't see the point. Opera has a ton of features over firefox and uses up less space then a defualt installation of firefox. It amazes me that people call this 'bloatware'. If you don't need a feature don't use it -easy
Alot of those features, except for the BitTorrent, Widgets and Thumbnail Preview are already in Firefox. (However, you can get something like IE7s view in Firefox via extensions, though I don't see what is so great about thumbnail views).
Seems you dont get the point of having widgets too, you have to run the browser, cos else you would have a separate programme, and it wont be a widget anymore.
And everything Firefox got is a bloated copy of an Opera feature. Opera inovates, doesnt imitate.
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