opera

The 404 829: Where money is the root of all evil (podcast)

Say what you want about Vin Diesel's current choice of movie roles, but we have to give the guy credit for his performance in "Boiler Room." One of Jeff's friends found a peculiar flyer referencing the movie at a job fair at Rutgers University, so we spend the first few minutes of today's show chatting about that, then move onto the strange phenomenon of Opera Software receiving e-mails from Oprah fans who can't spell her name right.

We're also excited about today's Google press conference, where it announced a new mobile payment system featuring NFC technology. Stay tuned for more!

The 404 Digest for Episode 829

Oprah e-mails sent to the Opera browser company. Tricked! Botox mom was lying all along! Google Press conference-- Google Wallet. Obama says hi on someone's phone. Stormy video voice mail from Rich in Cleveland.

Episode 829 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Hands-on look at Opera Mini 6 for iPhone and iPad

Opera Mini 6 (universal) was released earlier today for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, bringing this version of the alternative browser to iOS devices for the first time. We have had a chance to put the slimmed-down browser through its paces and think it offers several features that users will like. With the right tweaks, it may even become the favorite over Apple's Safari--if people are willing to give it a try.

The clean, elegant interface hides multiple useful features, with only five buttons to choose from, along with the address bar and search box. The main Opera menu … Read more

Opera Mini 6 comes to iPhone and iPad

This morning, Opera announced the release of Opera Mini 6 for Apple's iOS devices, including iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad 2. Known for being an alternative Web browser with innovative features, Opera Mini 6 boasts faster page load times than other browsers even when on slower or crowded networks, thanks to compression and its proxy browser technology.

Available for the first time on iOS devices, Opera Mini 6 features an updated design optimized for iOS; smooth pinch-to-zoom and two-finger panning; support for the iPhone 4 Retina Display, iPad, and iPad 2 devices; sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and Opera's … Read more

Opera Next makes it easier to get 'dev'

A significant update to the Opera browser's Speed Dial feature launched today in Opera 11.50 alpha (download), along with Opera Next, which includes a mechanism that makes it easier for Opera fans to automatically download under-construction builds of the browser. Opera Next will install separately and alongside the "stable" release of Opera, sporting a silver Opera logo much like Google Chrome Canary is visually distinct from the other versions of Chrome with its all-yellow icon.

The new version of Speed Dial introduces support for Speed Dial-specific extensions. Originally developed by Opera, and now in use in … Read more

IE9 passes Opera in browser usage

Microsoft's browser continues to lose share of worldwide usage, but its new IE9 version managed to gain enough usage that new statistics show it surpassing one smaller rival, Opera.

Internet Explorer 9 accounted for 2.41 percent of browser usage in April, its first full month on the market, according to Net Applications. Opera accounted for 2.14 percent. And IE overall dropped from 55.9 percent in March to 55.1 percent in April.

Two browsers, Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari, outpaced the overall growth in Web usage. Chrome rose from 11.6 percent to 11.… Read more

Madama Butterfly to flutter in 3D

If you can't make it to London this summer, you can fake it with a 3D virtual visit to the Royal Opera House's production of "Madama Butterfly."

RealD, the 3D technology developer, will team up with one of opera's greatest venues and production companies to film the Puccini masterpiece in 3D for release in RealD 3D-equipped theaters.

The obvious challenge here is to get a decent-size moviegoing audience to care about the technology-rich extravaganza.

Don't shoot the singing-telegram messenger, but the truth is the average moviegoer isn't going to rush out to two-plus hours of opera regardless of how legitimately cool the technology that captures it. If they find opera stuffy and pretentious under normal entertainment circumstances, the advanced filming techniques will only render that tedium in unsurpassed depth and detail. … Read more

Faster Turbo in updated Opera

The latest stable version of Opera 11 debuts today with a faster Turbo, an expanded Speed Dial, and some plug-in tweaks. Opera 11.10 for Windows (download), Mac (download), and Linux (download), also makes a handful of other changes to the browser, notably adding in more HTML5 support, mail client improvements, an updated rendering engine, and better battery management on laptops.

The changes to Opera Turbo and Speed Dial are the most apparent changes in Opera 11.10. The Norwegian company says that Turbo is four times faster than before, and Opera spokesman Thomas Ford said that those speed improvements … Read more

Why browsers differ on Web sites' safety

For all the tens of billions of dollars a year spent on Internet security a year, on everything from antivirus software to intrusion prevention, there's one component that's vital but remains obscure: which Web sites browsers decide to trust.

Each of the major browser makers has compiled a different list of who possesses the master keys to Web authentication--namely, who can be trusted to issue the secure digital certificates to create encrypted channels--and each has different procedures for approval. A closed lock icon typically appears in a browser and an "https://" connection is displayed when a … Read more

Hands on Opera Mobile 11, Opera Mini 6

Opera announced last week that it would launch two new mobile browsers at CTIA--Opera Mobile 11 and Opera Mini 6--but when it came to new and enhanced features, it mostly kept quiet.

We were lucky enough to get our hands on a preview build before the show, and can share a lot more about what's in store for Opera on mobile phones and tablets.

Starting with the interface, the Opera browser gets a little bump in sophistication on an already graphically rich display. Opera loyalists will note some subtle changes--Opera has shaved off the title bar … Read more