Opera 9 TP2 to be released tomorrow

[alsiladka]

Opera 9 preview to make debutby Antony SavvasMonday 6 February 2006

Opera Software is expected to unveil a second preview version of its Opera 9 browser this week, which includes a number of features to improve functionality.

The new browser will include new support for “widgets” – small pieces of code that support the automatic downloading of applications and content from the internet onto ... a user’s desktop.

Opera will offer about 10 widgets of its own to increase functionality for users, and will encourage developers to introduce others.

Opera's latest browser also supports BitTorrent downloading, a downloading technology that links different computers together to deliver streamlined downloading of shared content.

Instead of multiple users trying to download content from the same machine, with BitTorrent, users can access the same file from multiple machines to speed the process.

The Opera preview enables users to use BitTorrent without having to download dedicated software first.

Opera will be bundled with the official BitTorrent.com search engine.

The final version of Opera 9 is expected to be available in June.

Source: computerweekly.com

Preview 2 of Opera 9 to be released tomorrow (2/7/06)

The second preview of Opera 9 is scheduled to be released tomorrow (2/7/2006), which will include BitTorrent and widgets support.

Source:Opera watch

[prathapml]

Is it what it sounds like? An extension mechanism as in firefox?

Probably might be good to stop the whining of firefox fans, but on the flip-side might introduce the same problems of firefox to opera as well (huge memory usage, CPU-hungry, etc).

[XtremeMaC]

i've been waiting for this

those widgets... i hope they won't be causing spyware problems..programs trying to install by themselves.

hmm torrent download that sounds interesting , i shall look into that but i highly doubt that i'll use torrent functionality, all torrent programs except utorrent use a lot of ram.

opera itself uses a lot + integrated torrent program would be a huge ram hog

[prathapml]

No, torrent functions arent a RAM hog. Remember when 8.10 betas had torrent download ability?

It added only 100 KB to the installed size, & the RAM usage was almost ZERO addition to the base usage of opera.

[alsiladka]

Opera 9 Technology Preview 2

We've released a technology preview of Opera 9, codenamed Merlin, on Opera Labs. There are some very cool features we want you to try:

Opera Widgets – Widgets are small AJAX applications that provide specific functionality – like getting your favorite news, converting currency and so on. We've posted documentation on Opera Widgets – not only how to use them but also how to make them. Go to My Opera Community to download Widgets.

BitTorrent – BitTorrent has become one of the most popular file transfer protocols around. We built it 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.

Improved pop-up blocker – Just try it with some nasty popups. We added more intelligence to help weed out even more pop-ups. But since not all pop-ups are created equal, use the trash can to retrieve pop-ups you may want.

Site specific preferences – For those of you who want to control settings for specific pages. Want to accept some cookies and deny others? How about setting your own style sheet to make the site more accessible? Just right click on the page and select “Site preferences”.

Thumbmail preview – Opera conserves system resources and uses less memory than other browsers so it's easy to have many tabs open at once. But just what tab had that video you wanted? Using the thumbnail feature, you can find out by resting the mouse on any tab.

As with any of our technology previews, this is not meant to replace your current version of Opera. That caveat aside, we welcome you to download the TP and let us know what you think.

Download Opera 9 Technology Preview 2

Edited February 7, 2006 by alsiladka

[Zxian]

First impressions - very nice!

I'm gonna be really happy when the iframe z-index bug is released in a final version. Other than that, Opera is pretty much perfect for me...

[ripken204]

ive been waiting for this

[XtremeMaC]

seems pretty good \..

didn't like the widgets though...

site preferences & block content ==> awesome!!

[alsiladka]

site preferences & block content ==> awesome!!

Opera very own adblock.

Really an awsome release. Has got so many features integrated into it. One does not really see the need of extentions.

Gmail can be notified of using RSS feed.

Individual site preferences.

Image control at a single click.

Realy so neat n sleek