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Tag: Opera

  • Opera Is Getting In On the ChatGPT Bandwagon

    Opera Is Getting In On the ChatGPT Bandwagon

    Opera is preparing to adopt ChatGPT, with plans to integrate the AI into both its desktop and mobile web browsers.

    Opera is a popular niche browser, providing a plethora of features not found in its bigger rivals. The company has announced plans to include ChatGPT in its desktop and mobile offerings, and will use it to provide webpage summaries in the browser’s sidebar.

    “In more than 25 years of our company’s history, we have always been at the forefront of browser innovation. Whether inventing browser tabs or providing our users with built-in access to generative AI tools, we always push the limits of what’s possible on the web,” said Song Lin, Co-CEO of Opera. “Following the mass interest in generative AI tools, we believe it’s now time for browsers to step up and become the gateway to an AI-powered web”.

    “We see the rise of Generative Intelligence as the beginning of a new future in which consumer app developers like Opera will be able to build experiences on top of AI-based platforms. We are excited to see the rapid roll-out of developer programs for solutions such as Google Bard, for example, and are starting to build and roll out new experiences in web browsing that not very long ago seemed impossible to achieve,” added Per Wetterdal, Head of Strategic Partnerships and AI ecosystem.

    The inclusion of ChatGPT makes a lot of sense for Opera and fits in well with its approach to web browser design.

  • Another Week, Another Round of Serious Google Chrome Security Flaws

    Another Week, Another Round of Serious Google Chrome Security Flaws

    In what is becoming a regular occurrence, Google has issued another Chrome update to fix a number of issues, including seven serious security flaws.

    Google Chrome is the most popular desktop browser by a wide margin. Unfortunately, it also seems to have its fair share of security issues, with Google issuing a patch every couple to few weeks to fix critical ones.

    Google has now issued another fix, addressing seven serious security issues. Even the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is recommending users and admins update immediately.

    This version addresses vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to take control of an affected system.

    CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Chrome Release Note and apply the necessary updates.

    A recent report showed Firefox has dropped 50 million users in the last couple of years, and is now hovering around 200 million. Google’s ongoing issues show why it’s important to not only have a variety of browsers on the market, but also ones that use different rendering engines.

    Safari uses Webkit, Firefox uses Gecko and Chrome is based on the Chromium codebase, which uses Blink. Many others, such as Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge are also based on Chromium, meaning they all use the same engine.

    As a result, with the popularity of Apple’s Safari on mobile, and Chrome-based browsers on the desktop, Firefox’s future as a private, secure third option is more important than ever.

  • Microsoft Is Going Back to the ‘90s, Using Windows to Push Its Web Browser

    Microsoft Is Going Back to the ‘90s, Using Windows to Push Its Web Browser

    Microsoft is under fire for (once again) abusing its Windows platform to push its own web browser, reminiscent of its actions in the mid-90s.

    Microsoft’s history in the mid-90s was dominated by its browser war with Netscape. The company ultimately bundled Internet Explorer so tightly with Windows, that it was simply too difficult and inconvenient for most users to continue relying on Netscape.

    It seems Microsoft may be reverting back to that behavior and, in the process, is drawing sharp criticism from third-party browser makers, including Mozilla, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi. As The Verge points out, Windows 11 asks the user, when they install a third-party browser and try to open a link for the first time, which browser they want set as their default. However, unless the user selects “always use this app,” the default will remain unchanged. There’s also no fast and easy way to go back and do so if the user doesn’t get it right during that initial dialog.

    To make matters even worse, rather than providing a simple method to change the web browser in settings, Microsoft now forces users to select the browser they want to use for each and every one of the various filetypes that often comprise a website. That means the user has to set the default web browser for HTTP, HTTPS, HTM, HTML, XHT, XHTML, PDF, SHTML, SVG, WEBP and FTP.

    While users obviously may want to use a dedicated FTP or PDF client, every other one of those files should all be lumped together, handled by a single default browser.

    Even if a user goes through the tedious process of changing the default browser for each and every one of the necessary file types, it still won’t stop Windows from defaulting to Edge. A number of browser-based widgets will still open Edge regardless of the default setting.

    Inexplicably, Microsoft says this is what users want.

    “With Windows 11, we are implementing customer feedback to customize and control defaults at a more granular level, eliminating app categories and elevating all apps to the forefront of the defaults experience,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge. “As evidenced by this change, we’re constantly listening and learning, and welcome customer feedback that helps shape Windows. Windows 11 will continue to evolve over time; if we learn from user experience that there are ways to make improvements, we will do so.”

    What Microsoft no doubt meant to say is: “We searched long and hard to find the most technologically masochistic users we could find, ones that love having their own technology fight against them, and based our decisions on their feedback.”

    There were a lot of great things about the ‘90s, but Microsoft’s behavior wasn’t one of them. The company should abandon this nonsense immediately.

  • Google Releases Chrome Update Addressing Zero-Day Exploit

    Google Releases Chrome Update Addressing Zero-Day Exploit

    Google has released a major updated for its Chrome web browser, addressing a number of security issues, including a zero-day exploit.

    Google Chrome is currently the most popular web browser on the market by a wide margin. In addition to the success it enjoys as a standalone product, a number of companies use Chrome’s rendering engine, Chromium, as the basis of their browsers. Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi are just a few of the browsers built on Chromium.

    The latest update addresses a number of security issues, the most important of which is a zero-day exploit. Google has published details on its blog, and will roll the update out to individuals who don’t apply the patch on their own.

    Users of Chromium-based browsers should likewise check to make sure they’re running the latest version of their browsers.

  • Opera Acquires YoYo Games, the Company Behind GameMaker

    Opera Acquires YoYo Games, the Company Behind GameMaker

    Opera has announced it has acquired YoYo Games, the company behind GameMaker.

    GamerMaker Studio combines drag-and-drop elements with a scripting language to to help novice programmers create games with minimal programming. While the acquisition may seem out of place for a company long-known for its web browser, the acquisition aligns with Opera’s recent moves.

    The company announced its new Opera GX web browser in June 2019. Unlike its legacy browser, Opera GX was aimed at gamers from the beginning. Still in early access, the browser provides ways to limit its network use to save bandwidth for whatever games are running, as well as quick ways to kill RAM-hogging tabs. The browser also includes built-in Discord support. Discord is a popular communication platform gamers use when playing multi-player and PvP games.

    “We are very excited to start working with the team at YoYo Games,” said Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera. “We see the platform as being an ideal acquisition to complement our global ambitions in gaming, along with our Opera GX gaming browser. We look forward to further growing Opera GX and to driving the growth of GameMaker, making it more accessible to novice users and developing it into the world’s leading 2D game engine used by commercial studios. We are also thrilled to find future synergies between YoYo Games’ products and Opera GX.”

    “It’s been clear to us from the first time we spoke to them that the whole of the team at Opera is incredibly passionate about games,” said Stuart Poole, General Manager of YoYo Games. “Since joining them last week, the positivity and creative energy we are seeing from them has been overwhelming. We have always had big plans for improving GameMaker across all platforms, both from the perspective of improving accessibility and further developing the features available to commercial studios; and now we can’t wait to see them arrive much sooner.”

    Opera’s acquisition illustrates the ongoing digital convergence among industries that, at first glance, appear to have little in common.

  • Google and Microsoft Reigniting Browser Wars

    Google and Microsoft Reigniting Browser Wars

    Some things are too good to last, and it appears Google and Microsoft’s BFF cooperation on the browser front is one of them, as both companies are taking swipes at the other.

    Microsoft’s current browser, Edge, uses Google’s Chromium rendering engine. Chromium is an open-source rendering engine that a number of browsers, including Chrome, are powered by. Microsoft retired its own HTML rendering engine in favor of the move to Chromium in an effort to improve compatibility and reliability. Basing Edge on Chromium also lets Microsoft focus more resources on the browser’s front-end and user experience. Microsoft has even added a number of significant features to Edge that have made, or are making, their way into Chrome.

    The cracks started to show up when Google began using user agents to warn Microsoft Edge users they should “upgrade” to Google’s Chrome. User agent strings are the method by which web browsers identify themselves. In the early days of the web, when Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator were vying for dominance, webmasters would routinely code their websites to primarily work with one or the other browser. Webmasters would check a visiting browser’s user agent, or identity, and warn users they needed to “upgrade” if they weren’t running the browser their website was designed to support. Eventually, as the web started becoming more standards-compliant, the practice largely fell out of favor, with webmasters focusing on creating websites that adhered to standards and worked for everyone.

    Now Google seems intent on going back to those dark days of the early web. According to Windows Latest, “Google services are still targeting Edge with scary warnings. In the past, Google has displayed a warning when users opened services such as Google Teams, Gmail, Google Docs and YouTube Music in Edge.”

    Interestingly, if Edge users change their user agent to Chrome, the warning goes away. Google is also not targeting other Chromium-based browsers, such as Opera.

    Microsoft, in turn, has been warning individuals who try to download extensions from the Chrome Web Store that downloaded extensions from “unverified” sources may not be safe.

    Chris Matyszczyk, with ZDNet, reached out to both companies, as well as did a bit of his own investigating.

    “My sniffings around Google suggest the company may have been taken aback by the positive public reaction to Edge,” writes Matyszczyk. “Oddly, Google doesn’t seem to be offering these scary messages to users of, say, the Opera browser.

    “My nasal probings around Redmond offer the reasoning that, well, Microsoft hasn’t tested or verified extensions that arrive from places other than they Microsoft Edge add-ons website. Why, they’re far too busy to do that. And, well, it’s the Chrome web store. Who knows what you’ll find over there? Oh, and Edge gives you more control over your data, so there.”

    Whatever the motivations of both companies, the back-and-forth, tit-for-tat needs to stop. Dragging users back to the ‘90s-style browser wars that emphasized protecting turf over supporting standards is a losing recipe for everyone involved—especially the end user.

  • Google Chrome Will Get Error Codes To Help With Troubleshooting

    Google Chrome Will Get Error Codes To Help With Troubleshooting

    According to ZDNet, Google’s Chrome web browser will soon receive error codes similar to those shown on the Windows blue screen of death (BSOD) display.

    The feature was proposed by Eric Lawrence, a software engineer working on the Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge. The goal is to provide users with a convenient way to diagnose issues by giving them an error code they can research and learn about.

    The feature is currently being tested in Chrome v81, but there has been no confirmation that it will make the final build of v81, or be included in the next release. Either way, all indications are this is a permanent addition to the browser.

    As ZDNet highlights, since it was an engineer working on Microsoft’s browser that suggested the feature, it will likely make its way to other Chromium-based browsers, such as Opera, Vivaldi and Brave.

  • New Google Chrome Feature May Drive Users to Firefox

    New Google Chrome Feature May Drive Users to Firefox

    The Register is reporting on a new feature in an upcoming version of Google Chrome that has privacy-conscious users worried. A recent API called getInstalledRelatedApps may allow websites to determine what apps are installed on a user’s device.

    At first glance, the API seems to have an admirable purpose. If users have both web and native applications installed, they could be bombarded by duplicate sets of notifications. If a website can determine that its native app is installed, it would then prioritize notifications for the native app. Unfortunately, the API doesn’t really seem to be aimed at improving the experience—not for the user at least.

    In response to a question from Opera developer Daniel Bratell, expressing concern about how this API would help users, Google engineer Rayan Kanso wrote:

    “Although this isn’t an API that would directly benefit users, it indirectly benefits them through improved web experiences,” Kanso wrote. “We received very positive OT [off-topic] feedback from partners using this API, and the alternative is them using hacks to figure whether their native app is installed.”

    In other words, this API is more about making it easier for web and app developers’ marketing needs than it is truly making users’ lives easier.

    The privacy implications are clear: If websites can determine what apps are installed on a person’s phone or tablet, it can provide a relatively complete picture, otherwise known as a fingerprint, about that person’s habits.

    As The Register points out, Peter Snyder, a privacy researcher at browser maker Brave, voiced his own concerns:

    “I don’t follow the claim about non-fingerprint-ability. If I’m a company with a large number of apps (e.g. google), with 16-32 apps registered in app stores, the subset of which apps any user has installed is likely to be a very strong semi-identifier, no, and so be extremely risky for the user / valuable for the fingerprinter, no?

    “Apologies if I’m misunderstanding, but this seems like a very clear privacy risk.

    Put differently, if this isn’t a privacy risk, whats the rational behind disallowing this in private browsing mode?”

    With browsers like Firefox and Safari placing an emphasis on privacy and security, it’s a safe bet this is yet another move that will drive users away from Chrome.

  • Renee Fleming an Opera Star, But Hitting Broadway for the First Time

    Renee Fleming is already a well-known name among opera enthusiasts. But her name is joining Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, and Maria Callas as household words nowadays.

    Renee Fleming sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XLVIII, showing previous pop diva attempters how it’s done. She also “sang” in the recent Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

    Fleming is a soprano, and will open a new opera production on New Year’s Eve at the Metropolitan Opera called “The Merry Widow.” But it is Fleming’s upcoming activity only 20 blocks away from the Met that is turning heads.

    Fleming has been cast in her first Broadway show, “Living on Love,” written by Joe DiPietro, who also did “Memphis.” In the play, Fleming does not stray too far from real life. She is cast as Raquel De Angelis, an opera singer. The interesting thing about this show for Fleming, is that it is actually not a musical, but a comedy.

    The character of Raquel De Angelis is described as a temperamental diva. She and her husband, who is a conductor, end up at odds when he falls for a woman hired to help write his memoirs.

    “I’ve spent my life singing tragic characters, so to be able to make people laugh is an extraordinary joy,” said Fleming.

    “I would have assumed that my only road to Broadway would have been in a musical. And I knew that I couldn’t sing eight shows a week – we’re trained in such a different way. Like weightlifters, we need those two days off,” said Fleming. “So it wasn’t on my list of things to do. Sometimes the most interesting things come out of the blue, in love and in life.”

  • Mobile Shoppers Most Active On Sundays [Report]

    Mobile Shoppers Most Active On Sundays [Report]

    A new report out from Opera looks at mobile shopping habits, and has determined that Sunday is the best day of the week when it comes to sales from mobile shoppers.

    “Unlike desktop traffic to e-commerce sites, which tends to peak on Mondays and remains stronger during weekdays than on weekends, mobile shopping traffic is highly concentrated on Sundays,” Opera says. “One possible explanation is that many consumers use their mobile devices to browse products over the weekend, then revisit and purchase when they return to their desks on Monday. The day with the lowest mobile shopping traffic is Friday.”

    The report also looks at monthly trends by geography:

    “Online shopping has become a major force in global markets. And, with the holiday shopping season upon us in the United States, we see mobile’s share of that market accelerating,” says Larry Moores, Vice President for Consumer Mobile Reporting and Analytics at Opera.

    As you might expect, Amazon and eBay dominate mobile shopping traffic with Amazon leading at a 36.3% market share in the U.S. That’s compared to 16% for eBay and 11.5% for Craigslist.

    For big-box retailers that offer mobile shopping, Walmart saw the highest volume, followed by Target and Sears. Walgreens, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Barnes & Noble, Kmart and Nike saw notable increases.

    The full report is available here.

    Image via Opera

  • Andrea Bocelli Talks Opera and Fatherhood

    Andrea Bocelli Talks Opera and Fatherhood

    Andrea Bocelli can’t get away from singing opera, even when he’s in the role of ‘Dad.’ The 56-year-old says even when he’s singing his two-year-old daughter Virginia a lullaby, she prefers opera.

    “My daughter … likes every kind of music, but in particular there is a song that she loves very much, ‘Funiculi Funicula,’” Bocelli said of the Neapolitan song, which he is known for performing at live shows. “She wants that I sing (it) for her always.”

    The singer and longtime partner Veronica Berti tied the knot earlier this year, on their daughter’s second birthday.

    Andrea Bocelli has been touring Europe, and launched a short U.S. tour on Saturday. His first performance was at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The tour will take him to Houston, Texas; Dallas; Chicago; and Detroit, with his last stop at Madison Square Garden in New York on December 17th.

    If you’re unable to catch Andrea Bocelli on one of these stops, rest assured, he will be back in the U.S. in 2015. He will perform three shows at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida in February. He also has a concert planned at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on June 7th, as well as other shows.

    Andrea Bocelli is heard on pianist Jan Mulder’s new album, “Christmas,” and is promoting his own album, “Opera–the Ultimate Collection.” On it fans will hear a recording of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut,” with an accompaniment by Ana Maria Martinez.

    “I loved this opera since when I was a child,” Bocelli said of “Manon Lescaut.”

    Do you suppose little Virginia has Daddy sing excerpts from this to lull her to sleep at night?

    Can you imagine being sung to sleep with a live lullaby, courtesy of Andrea Bocelli?

  • Shareaholic Browser Report: Safari Is On The Rise

    Shareaholic has released its latest Browser Share Report, which indicates that Safari is creeping up in market share.

    The data comes from 250 million web users visiting over 200,000 publishers in Shareaholic’s network. Here’s how it shook out over the past eight months:

    “As someone responsible for a website, you should make it a point to know which the most popular browsers your audience uses are,” notes Shareaholic’s Danny Wong. “Armed with that information, you can go ahead and build digital experiences that work seamlessly across those specified browsers. The following data reveals the world’s most popular browsers, including their respective market shares and how much those shares have grown or declined since our last published study.”

    Chrome hasn’t seen much movement in recent months, though it still dominates the landscape. Safari’s combined share of Safari plus Safari in-app has jumped about five percentage points to approximately 26%. This is attributed to “explosive growth” in Safari in-app usage.

    “Last month, Apple announced its Q2 2014 earnings report which revealed earnings that beat Wall Street analyst expectations due to still strong iPhone sales. It is no wonder why Safari is performing so well,” notes Wong.

    Out of all the browsers analyzed, only Safari’s in-app browser and the stock Android browser saw significant growth. Over half of them were actually in decline. Opera Mini’s share grew, but at the expense of Opera’s desktop browser.

    Check out Shareaholic’s blog for more visualizations.

    Image via Shareaholic

  • Andrea Bocelli Weds Longtime Girlfriend

    Andrea Bocelli Weds Longtime Girlfriend

    Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli married longtime companion Veronica Berti Friday, in the coastal town of Livorno, Italy. Bocelli, 55, had been dating Berti, 30, for 12 years, and the couple has a two-year-old daughter together named Virginia. The newlyweds married on their daughter’s second birthday.

    Singer-songwriter Bocelli was born on September, 22 1958 with with poor eyesight, and eventually went blind at twelve following a soccer accident. The singer has recorded fourteen solo classical and pop albums, and nine full operas, selling over 80 million units worldwide. Bocelli’s 1997 pop album, Romanza, became the best-selling album by an Italian artist in history, and his Sacred Arias became the biggest selling classical crossover record ever, moving 20 million units.

    Seven of Bocelli’s albums have reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, and a record-setting 10 have hit number one on the classical crossover albums charts in the U.S.

    Here Bocelli performs Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria:

    Bocelli was previously married to Enrica Cenzatti, but was divorced in 2002. His sons, Amos, 19, and Matteo, 16, attended the intimate ceremony Friday, along with other close friends and family. A small reception followed at the newlyweds’ home in Forte dei Marmi, near Pisa.

    Bocelli with daughter Virginia:

    While some classical purists have criticized Bocelli’s vocal ability and technique, he’s been widely praised – During her Christmas Special for These Are Special Times concert in 1998, French Canadian singer Celine Dion said while introducing the tenor that “if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli,” Oprah Winfrey had once commented, “when I hear Andrea sing, I burst into tears.” Late actress Elizabeth Taylor once said, “My mind, my soul were transported by his beauty, his voice, his inner being. God has kissed this man and I thank God for it.”

    Bocelli is set to perform next on May 30th in Sofia, Bulgaria at Armeets Arena.

    Image via Twitter

  • Renee Fleming Nails National Anthem

    We wouldn’t have known it before kickoff, but Renee Fleming’s rendition of The Star Spangled Banner may have been the highlight of the night. The Seattle Seahawks handily defeated the Denver Broncos in yesterday’s Super Bowl 43 – 8. But at least audiences got the pleasure of hearing a LIVE version of the national anthem accompanied by a grandiose 32-voice military choir backed by a pre-recorded track of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

    Ms. Fleming is the first opera singer to get a chance at performing the anthem for a Super Bowl. We are typically accustomed to hearing pop singers and divas take a swing at Francis Scott Key’s nearly impossible song to sing. Last year, we heard Alicia Keys. The five years priors were all female pop superstars: Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks. Interestingly enough, four of those five were American Idol standouts.

    If you were wondering if perhaps Fleming was aided by some sort of backing vocal track, like Whitney Houston was in her remarkable performance in 1991, the opera singer set the story straight before the big game. “It would be a disaster. I only know how to sing live.”

    The 54-year-old soprano is a four-time Grammy winner. She’s quite famous among the opera crowd and is known for her powerhouse voice. The fans in the stands and players alike seemed mesmerized by her lyrical performance. Fleming has performed at the White House for President Obama. The Metropolitan Opera regular also sang the national anthem at the 2003 World Series in Yankee Stadium.

    Music appeared to take center stage last night, as the game seemed to be over by the end of the first half. In fact, today most people are talking about the performances of Fleming, Queen Latifah (who sang America the Beautiful before the game), and the half-time show which featured Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

    .

    Image via Twitter

  • Harriet Tubman: The Underground Railroad Meets Opera

    The story of Harriet Tubman has recently hit the performance arena in New York.

    “Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line To Freedom,” is an opera written by a third-generation Nigerian-American who practically grew up on the stories of Tubman and The Underground Railroad.

    Presented by screenwriter Nkeiru Okoye of American Opera Projects, the opera is a product of three years of research.

    Okoye reason behind her extensive research was to accurately portray the details of Tubman’s life as a slave and a liberator.

    Tubman is largely remembered throughout history for helping slaves escape to freedom through a system of safe houses and hiding places. As a runaway slave herself, Tubman became labeled as the most notorious conductor in the U.S.

    Over time, people have likened her to Moses, a Hebrew character in the bible who led his people to freedom from the Egyptian enslavement of Pharaoh.

    So, who wouldn’t want to see the depiction of this woman’s contribution to history on stage?

    However, this is not your ordinary opera show. The production will not only portray Tubman’s involvement in The Underground Railroad but also her personal life.

    “I think most people like to think of Harriet as a born liberator and it robs them of an important part of the story,” she told Voice America in an Interview. “We don’t get that there’s this vulnerable person who’s there.  We don’t get the full picture.”

    Okoye says that the production will incorporate “folk opera”, music rooted in African-American customs. Genres such as gospel and jazz will be heard throughout the show. However, “work songs” and spirituals of that time will bring the opera to life even more.

    Okoye hopes to reveal the human-like side of Tubman. Ultimately, she hopes that people come to understand that Tubman’s life was so much more than just being the “Moses” of that time.

    Scheduled performances are set for February and March at a historical Underground Railroad station in Fort Greene, N.Y.

    Image via Youtube, American Opera Projects

  • Maria Callas Gets A Google Doodle (Watch Her Perform Here)

    Google is celebrating famed opera singer Maria Callas with its homepage doodle today, which would have been her 90th birthday. She died from a heart attack at the young age of 53 in 1977.

    Callas, born in New York, is widely considered one of the most influential opera singers of the 20th century. She was a soprano, and often praised for her range.

    Here’s a concert from the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London.

    Maria Callas

    Image: Wikimedia Commons

    We also notice that Google is advertising its Nexus 7 on the homepage on this fine Cyber Monday morning.

  • The New Opera Is Out Of Beta And Available On Windows, Mac

    Earlier this year, Opera said that it would be ditching its own rendering engine in favor of Google’s Blink. The new browser launched in beta in May, but now a final version is available for all who want to try out a new, faster Opera.

    Opera Software announced today that the new chromium-powered Opera is available to download today for Windows and Mac. The browser vendor hopes that its long time fans and newcomers embrace this new browser for its speed and better compatibility with emerging Web technologies.

    “The world of fascinating web content is expanding faster than space, and we’ve delivered a browser that helps you to truly discover it,” says Lars Boilesen, Opera Software, CEO. “Get inspired by new ways of exploring web horizons, and stay tuned for some of our most beloved features, as we continue to develop the next generation of Opera.”

    Here’s what you can expect from the new Opera:

  • New Speed Dial: Speed Dial shortcuts can now be gathered into folders and easily filtered with the drag and drop option.
  • Discover: Get fed articles based on your interests right in your browser and all in one place.
  • Stash: Easily save and compare websites by collecting them into your Stash.
  • Search: You can search directly from the new combined address and search bar.
  • New look: Includes a modern, sleek deeply integrated interface integrated with the platform and built from the ground up.
  • Off Road Mode: Opera Off-Road mode now supports SPDY protocol, which enables faster loading of webpages, even in the toughest of network conditions.

    • To coincide with the launch, the team at Opera have created a launch ad featuring very little Web browsing and a lot of base jumping:

    If you want to try out the new Opera browser, you can grab it here.

  • The Chromium-Powered Opera Is Finally Here

    Opera made a big stink a few months ago when it was announced it was ditching its own Presto Web rendering engine in favor of Webkit. After Google announced it was ditching Webkit in favor of its own forked version called Blink, Opera followed suit saying it would be using Blink as well. Now the Blink-powered Opera is finally here.

    Opera Software announced today that it has launched what it’s calling Opera Next. You can think of it as a beta release, but this is the version of Opera that everybody’s been talking about. It’s a completely redesigned Opera that’s faster and more feature rich.

    Finally available on desktop, Opera Next comes with a number of new or rethought features. For instance, the shortcuts start page has been transformed into what Opera calls “Speed Dial:”

    Speed Dial shortcuts can now be gathered in folders and easily filtered. Drag and drop one Speed Dial entry on top of another to create a folder, or use the new Speed Dial search field to experience the power of visual Speed Dial entries combined with the flexibility and organization of a classic bookmark folder.

    Another two new features are called Discover and Stash. With Discover, think of it as a smart RSS feed built right into the browser. It will collect news articles from your country of origin and feed you the content without having to navigate to any particular Web site.

    As for Stash, this feature allows users to easily compare Web sites when shopping online:

    Simply hit the heart icon in the address bar to collect the websites you want to compare easily while shopping, or to keep your travel research on hotels, sights and flights at your fingertips. Scan your Stash by resizable page preview, or search what you’ve saved, with keywords.

    On top of all the new features, Opera’s UI has been completely redesigned from the grou up to look “modern and sleek.”

    Of course, the biggest change is the move to the Webkit/Blink Web rendering engine:

    With the Chromium engine, users get a standards-compliant and high-performance browser. Opera’s Off-Road mode, previously called Opera Turbo, now supports SPDY protocol and enables loading webpages faster, even in the toughest of network conditions.

    The new Chromium-powered Opera is available for both desktop and mobile. You can grab Opera 15 for desktop here and Opera 14 for Android here. It may be hard to let Presto go, but a faster, standard-compliant Opera can only be a good thing, right?

  • Risë Stevens Dies; Opera Singer Was 99

    Opera singer Risë Stevens died this week at the age of 99. Stevens was best known for her title role in the opera Carmen during the 1950s.

    According to her New York Times obituary, Stevens died at her home in Manhattan on March 20.

    Stevens was born in New York City in 1913. She later attended the Julliard School for three years before being trained by opera singers in Vienna, Austria. After developing her voice in the Vienna State Opera, Stevens joined the Metropolitan Opera (Met), where she was the company’s lead mezzo-soprano for 22 years, from 1938 until 1961. The Met has stated that Stevens sand 337 performances at the met, 124 of which were in the role of Carmen.

    After her retirement from opera singing, Stevens went on to be the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera National Company for several years during the 60s. She also continued to coach younger singers at the Met.

  • Google Updates WhatBrowser.org; 43 Languages, Mobile Support

    Google says that no matter which browser you choose, you should at least be informed on whether or not it’s updated and what the other options are. Three years ago, they created a site that answers those questions and more.

    Although WhatBrowser.org is a Google creation, they don’t simply recommend that everyone switches to the newest version of Chrome. For instance, accessing WhatBrowser with Firefox will suggest that you can try Chrome, Opera, or Safari. Not IE, it’s important to note.

    For the truly technologically-challenged among us, Google also provides a short description of what a browser actually is. They also let users know that updating your browser, whichever one it may be, is necessary because it’s faster, safer, and more feature-rich.

    With that in mind, Google has made some changes to the site, which they announced in a Chrome blog post.

    “To reflect the changing browser landscape, we’ve completely revamped whatbrowser.org. The site has been fully rebuilt in HTML5, localized in 43 languages, and now works on mobile, too. The site also highlights why it’s so important to use a modern browser and keep it up to date: doing so saves you time, keeps you safer, and lets you do more online. The browser you choose is up to you; hopefully whatbrowser.org can help,” says Google Product Manager Jeff Chang.

    With the internet reaching more and more people across the world every day, searches like “what’s a browser” and “what browser am I using” will continue to see volume. Google’s WhatBrowser.org ranks near the top for many of these types of searches.

    For fun, if you’re interested, you can take a journey through four years of the browser wars here. The visualization takes you from June 2008 to June 2012 – from a world dominated by Internet Explorer to one where Chrome and Firefox take up plenty of real estate.

  • Opera And Google To Remain BFFs Until 2014

    Most major browsers currently available on the market use Google as their default search provider. Mozilla continues to utilize the search engine in Firefox after announcing an agreement in December that will extend their partnership for at least three more years. Opera has just entered into a similar deal.

    Opera Software has entered into a new agreement with Google. The Opera browser will continue to use Google search as the default until 2014. The deal contains a number of perks for both Google and Opera as they continue their mutual friendship.

    It was revealed in Opera’s quarter two report that the deal with Google will last until August 1, 2014. The deal will see Opera serving as a vehicle to promote various Google products and services. The agreement also covers Opera’s desktop and mobile browsers in all global territories.

    Opera’s desktop browser has never really taken off, but its mobile browser is one of the most popular on the market. It plans to grow its mobile and desktop business throughout the year to gain more of a foothold in the highly competitive browser market. It remains to be seen if their agreement with Google will help the company realize its goal.

    Opera itself runs a number of online advertising services that directly compete with Google’s own AdSense. The agreement doesn’t seem to be slowing down Opera’s own expansion of their online advertising business. The company expects to generate far more revenue in mobile advertising in 2012 than it did in 2011.

    The increased focus on mobile will definitely be a strong point for Opera this year due to their already popular browser. Compared to Google’s mobile Chrome browser, Opera Mini can be installed on far more devices than any other competing browser. Google might be using that reach to advertise their own products and services through Opera’s mobile browser.

    Google’s agreements with both Opera and Firefox will end around 2014. It will be interesting to see if these companies will still continue to use Google’s search engine as their default or switch to a competitor. Another possible scenario would see Chrome growing so large that Opera bows out of the browser market entirely. The Web can change a lot in a year with such disruptions becoming more commonplace. We’ll check back with Opera in 2014 to see how they’re doing.