It's time for another version of Tim's Opera Bits. It's been almost three months since the last (and first) version, so let's take a trip around Opera-land. Here's the scoop:
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Today, the Desktop Team announced that Opera 9.1 will include Fraud protection (also referred to as anti-phishing). Hopefully, this Friday there will be a weekly build enabling users to test this functionality.
I've had the opportunity to test this functionality over the past couple of weeks and must say that it is dead simple. The user interface is straight-forward and does what it should. I hope you'll like it.
- Daniel Goldman and I recently hosted the second DC-area Opera User Group meeting in Silver Spring, MD. We had a great time discussing widgets, the future of Opera User Groups, and bug reports. Pictures from the event are up in my photo gallery.
- Opera's CEO, Jon von Tetzchner, will be giving a keynote address at this year's WebmasterWorld PubCon in Las Vegas, NV. David Storey, Opera's Chief Web Opener, will also be giving a talk. There's a chance that I might be headed out there to help out, too. It should be fun!
- On September 21st, Opera Software released Opera 9.02 for Desktop platforms. This is a security and maintenance release. If you're already using Opera, you should have received an automatic notice that a new release is available. If you don't use Opera, there's never been a better time to start.
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It's just over a month until the Nintendo Wii is released in the United States. A recent press release gives details about the Opera browser available for the Wii. Opera will be a free download until June 2007, after which it can be purchased using a point system. Additionally, Opera will take advantage of the "Wiimote" and include Flash support.
In other Opera and Nintendo news, Opera for the Nintendo DS recently went on sale in Europe. I don't think there's a release date for the US version yet, but hopefully it'll be here soon.
- Did you ever notice that eight out of nine of Opera Software's executives were born in the mid-1960s? There's only four years' difference between the eight of them. Young'uns. The only exception is Roger Carlhammar, who was born in 1958. He's not even fifty!
Thus concludes this version of Tim's Opera Bits. See you next time.
Note: Comments with a light blue background were made by the site owner.
Nice bits! Thanks!
You didn't mention developer toolbar:
Non-troppo wrote after Opera Backstage event in London:
Any signs that it will available to Opera 9.x?
Unfortunately, I can't
Unfortunately, I can't really say. Time will tell.
Charging
I'm trying to figure out whether I believe it's likely that a big roup of DS and/or Wii users will actually purchase Opera.
I would, since I'm hooked on the PC version and know it's strength.
But won't the vast majority of users just go with whatevers included or free? It'll be "good enough" for them.
As Opera has a huge advantage as a small device browser compared to it's competitors, am I naive to think that a deal with Nintendo would be struck for some kind of payment for the service that Opera provides, or would that be impossible / not pay as well as the actual users ponying up the dough for Opera on their devices?
The thing is, Opera *is* the
The thing is, Opera *is* the official browser (and free until June 2007) on the Wii. And, it's the official add-on browser for the DS (you need to buy a separate kit to use it). Nintendo contracted with Opera for us to port Opera to the Wii and DS. There is no alternative.
Aaah
Well the no alternatives part answers my questions I think :).
So is it Nintendo that'll set the prices for the Opera browswer or does Opera software decide/play a part in deciding? Or is that part of arrangements you can't comment on?
I don't really know and I
I don't really know and I probably couldn't say if I did.