There are at least three good utilities for backing up your Firefox profiles, passwords, and settings. Which is all fine and good if you use Firefox. But if Opera is your web browser of choice, you're going to need a different tool. And that tool is called OperaFly.
OperaFly is an incredibly powerful and easy to use Windows utility for backing up Opera preferences. You can either install OperaFly to your PC or just unzip the no-install version and click the OperaFly.exe icon. The program will try to detect your Opera installation directory, and then you can select which aspects of your profile you want to backup. Want to save your bookmarks, but not your cookies? No problem.
Your settings will be saved in an FLY file, which you can then use to restore your settings. OperaFly could be a lifesaver if you're setting up a new computer or doing a clean install of Windows on your own system. Or you can make backups on a regular basis so that you won't lose your preferences in the event of a catostrophic PC issue.
While there are dozens of excellent web browsers for Windows, Mac, and Linux, many of them have a problem: There are a handful of web pages and services that are only designed to work properly with Internet Explorer, Firefox, or both. So as much as we love the speedy little Opera web browser, we've been reluctant to use it on a day to day basis. And then we discovered Neptune, a plugin that lets you open an Internet Explorer-compatible tab within Opera. Note that Neptune will only work on Windows, since you need to have Internet Explorer installed for the plugin to function properly.
In order to install the free plugin, download it, close Opera, and click the Neptune executable. Next, you'll want to find your Internet Explorer plugin folder (which will probably be something like "c:\program files\internet explorer\plugins," and copy the file called npmeadax.dll to your Opera plugin folder, which will probably be something like "c:\program files\opera\program\plugins."
Next you'll need to add a button to your browser toolbar to let you open a window using the IE rendering engine. You can find several buttons at OperaWiki. Just drag the button with the function you want to your toolbar. Make sure to drag it to the "Main bar" and not your "Personal bar." Because these bookmarklets use Javascript, if you put them in the Personal bar, they'll be converted into bookmarks that don't really do much of anything.
You can choose from several buttons that let you open a URL using the IE rendering engine in your current tab or in a new tab. Alternately, you can use the InIE and InFF buttons to open a URL in an external window using Firefox or Internet Explorer.
The Opera team has released the second public beta of Opera 9.5. The web browser packs all the features we've seen in earlier test builds like an improved tab manager, plus a bunch of new features and fixes. Here are just a few:
Full text history search from the address field
Spatial navigation highlighting similar to that used in Opera Mini 4 and Opera for the Nintendo Wii
Opera can now be set as the default mail application from the Windows Control Panel
Improved IMAP performance in email client
Improved Acid3 test performance (although like all browsers, Opera 9.5 beta 2 still fails the test)
Improved compatibility with Gmail 2
Improved fraud protection
Support for Extended Validation certificates
In other words, most of the changes won't be that noticeable to the average user. But the latest browser is more secure and should do a better job of rendering some web sites. Opera 9.5 beta 2 is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Microsoft isn't the only company releasing a point upgrade to its mobile software this week. Opera has released Opera Mini 4.1 beta, which is a minor update to its Opera Mini web browser for cellphones with Java virtual machines. For a minor update, Opera did manage to pack a few useful features into Opera Mini 4.1:
Opera claims the new version is 50% faster than Opera Mini 4.0
There's a new URL autocomplete feature based on your browsing history
You can now search for text in a web page
Web pages can be saved for offline viewing
You can upload and download files from within the browser
Google search has been integrated with the URL bar, allowing you to conduct a web search from any page.
Opera Mini 4.1 is available as a free download. If you've got an older version of Opera Mini on your device, note that Opera Mini 4.1 will install alongside it, not over it. So you will have to uninstall the older version manually.
SXSW is a junction of film, music and interactive folks with the iF! trade show floor reflecting that eclectic mix. We found a healthy smattering of music booths, some film schools and lots of web app companies. Big booths included Sony, Mapquest, Opera, Yahoo and O'Reilly while smaller booths from Axiom, Kyte and AIM provided a smorgasbord of interactive wares. You can see the full list on the SXSW site or just peep our gallery for a virtual tour.
Trade show floors often take on a circus-like atmosphere, with booths doing what they can to lure you to their wares. At iF! the "cool thing" was Guitar Hero. We counted no less than four booths with the ubiquitous guitar controllers and LCD screens (even if they were often unmanned). One booth broke with tradition and had Rock Band. Brave, no?
Our money for Most Fun Demo is on Bitstrips, a killer app for making your own comic strips online. Imagine mixing Mii-creation tools with Comic Life and you get the idea. Lots of fun, diverse and powerful, and stupid simple to use. Most boring? Well, hard to say because by the time we hit the floor a few booth attendees had left, leaving their booths sitting there, dejected and stickerless.
StumbleUpon is a web discovery service that makes it easy to find cool and interesting web sites. All you have to do is install a browser toolbar and start hitting the "stumble" button whenever you're bored. The service also begins to get a sense of your tastes as you give various pages a thumbs up or down.
But there's at least one problem with StumbleUpon: There're no toolbar for Opera, Safari, or any web browsers besides Internet Explorer and Firefox. So what's a bored Opera users to do? Well, fortunately StumbleUpon has a nifty demo feature that lets you stumble pages using a virtual toolbar. All you have to do is enter http://www.stumbleupon.com/demo/#url= into your browser's URL window, and then add the site that you want to start at. For example, http://www.stumbleupon.com/demo/#url=http://www.downloadsquad.com/.
You should now see a virtual toolbar with all the features of the regular StumbleUpon toolbar. But since this is just a demo, you can't actually vote on sites or submit new sites. And there's no way to enter your account information. But you can hit the stumble button as many times as you like.
Not happy with the way the Opera web browser handles tabbed browsing? Just download the latest snapshot of Opera 9.5 beta. The newest build includes advanced tab management features that let you choose how Opera reacts when you close a tab. When you close a tab, you can decide whether to activate the last active tab, activate the tab to the right, or the first tab opened from closing tab. In other words, you can make Opera act a bit more like Firefox, Safari, or other web browsers.
Opera already had other tab management features, like the ability to drag and drop tabs to arrange them in your browser. If you drag a tab outside of the Opera window, you can even load that page in a new browser session.
The new tab management option is the sort of thing we don't expect most users to need or even notice. But advanced customization features are one of the areas where Opera really shines. Now if it could just render every web page we visit as well as Firefox or Internet Explorer, we'd be truly happy.
Opera plans to show off its next generation mobile web browser at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. While Opera Mobile 9.5 won't be available commercially until this spring, the company has released a video previewing some of the browser's more exciting features.
Opera also has a tendency to release public betas of its mobile software several months in advance of a commercial release. So there's a good chance you'll be able to use Opera Mobile 9.5 beta for free for a while before buying it.
In a nutshell, Opera Mobile 9.5 appears to have many of the features that have made Opera Mini popular. But unlike the Java-based Opera Mini, Opera Mobile is designed to run on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. Opera Mobile 9.5 allows users to view full screen versions of web pages, or to zoom in for more detail. You also get tabbed browsing, fast page rendering, and convenient bookmark, transfer, and history managers.
The browser will also include a mobile version of Opera's widget engine which allows you to access some web content like Flickr images without opening a web browser. It also packs Flash Lite 3 integration for accessing Flash-heavy web pages like MySpace or YouTube.
AM-DeadLink, while lacking a creative name, does serve a creative purpose. The program will scan through your bookmarks: Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera; and locate all the dead links that have taken up unwelcome residence, like those malign spirits in the movie Poltergeist.
Can you believe Poltergeist was rated PG? We still think about it...about the clown...it's not under the bed, it's right behind you Robbie!
Okay, where were we? Yes, AM-DeadLink. Like we said before, the program detects dead links and duplicates in browser bookmarks. If a bookmark has become unavailable, or if you find a duplicate, you can verify it in the program's internal browser and delete the bookmark permanently.
The program itself is easy to operate, with simple toolbar buttons and drop-down menus to select the browser you wish to clean up. AM-DeadLink can also scan .CSV files and tab-delimited text files for dead links. If your bookmarks are lacking favicons, AM-DeadLink can import them into your bookmarks, with the option to pass over or overwrite all existing favicons.
Opera Software is going where many have gone before, and filing a complaint against Microsoft. In a nutshell, Opera is asking the European Commission to force Microsoft to take two actions:
Divorce Internet Explorer from Windows
Make sure Internet Explorer supports web standards
The first part makes sense. Microsoft has an unfair advantage in the web browser wars because it bundles Internet Explorer with its widely used Windows operating systems. This isn't the first time someone has cried monopoly and pushed for Microsoft to unbundle software from Windows. And in fact, the European Commission has already ordered Microsoft to offer versions of Windows without Windows Media Player.
Opera wants Microsoft to either unbundle IE and Windows or to bundle alternative web browsers as well as Internet Explorer.
As for the supporting standards bit, are you serious? Opera's argument is basically that Microsoft is breaking the web because many web developers design pages to render properly in IE without paying much attention to competing browsers like Firefox or Opera. But should the European Commission or any regulatory agency be issuing rulings about what version of CSS, XHTML, JavaScript and other software developers should be supporting?
Application are moving online at a frighteningly speed. People are increasingly using their computers as little more than internet terminals and media players. All of this innovation has happened, in part, because HTML and the browser marketplace has been relatively stable (even FireFox's original goal was to work like IE - only better). All that said, we've started to push Javascript, CSS, and HTML about as far as they can go.
Let's face it, HTML 4 is old. Really old. No doubt older than your PC. Older than your iPod (older than the very first iPod). It was built and designed solely for document rendering in the days before NetFlix added ratings to their website and Google started mapping. Now we have spreadsheets, word processors, work flow engines, games, and outlook style email clients running within the web browser. All on HTML 4. All with multiple hacks to make the code run correctly in as many browsers as possible. All with inherent security vulnerabilities . Isn't it time for a new version of HTML?
Douglas Crockford thinks so. The man behind JSON, JSLINT, and Manic Mansion (of all things) has a lot to say on the subject and offers so very timely and useful suggestions on what the next version should look like.
Here is the a quick summary of his wish list and an explanation of why Google (of all people) may make fixing HTML impossible.:
Want that iPhone-like mobile web browser without the iPhone price? Opera has released the final version of Opera Mini 4, which can probably run on the phone you already have.
The stable version of Opera Mini 4 has pretty much all the same features as the beta version we told you about a few weeks ago, plus a few bug fixes here and there. But it's a huge step up over previous versions of Opera Mini, and most mobile phone browsers. Here are just a few of the things it can do:
Synchronize bookmarks and Speed Dial preferences with your desktop Opera browser using Opera Link.
View full web pages and then zoom in to areas you want to see close up.
Dynamically changes text size to fit your screen.
Images fit to screen
There's also support for RSS feeds and keyboard shortcuts. Opera Mini 4 uses the same rendering engine as Opera's desktop browser, which means you should be able to visit pretty much any site on the web from your mobile phone. Oh yeah, we almost forgot. Opera Mini 4 is a free download. [via The Opera Mini Blog]
Now you can stay in touch with friends using Facebook for Blackberry, a standalone application. Sure Facebook can be accessed normally through the likes of mobile browsers like Opera, but this new application provides more streamlined and optimized mobile access for Facebook.
After installing the application, users can send and view messages, photos, pokes, and wall posts. They will also be able to take a picture and directly send it to their profiles complete with tags if their Berry's have cameras. Although this is good for long commutes and waiting for meals to be served, it could be encouraging a new level of unproductiveness in the workplace!
There have been reports of Facebook for Blackberry not working with older handsets and on some mobile networks.
Opera's desktop web browser isn't the only browser getting an update today. Opera Mini 4 beta 3 is also out, and there are a ton of new features since beta 2.
Support for Opera Link (synchronize your bookmarks and speed dial settings across multiple instances of Opera)
Added Speed Dials
Added RSS feed support
Added shortcuts
Images fit to screen better
Page position and scaling preserved after page reloads
Changed some options and descriptions
Opera is a pretty good desktop browser with a few innovative features you won't find in any other browser (without add-ons). But some pages still don't render properly, particularly Google services.
Opera Mini is hands down one of the best, if not the best browser for mobile phones. It renders pages quickly, and has the iPhone-like ability to view a full page or zoom in on particular areas. So while it's nice to see Opera continuing to build new features into the desktop browser, we're most excited when Opera focuses on what it does well: mobile browsing. [via Opera Mini Blog]
The folks behind the Opera web browser have launched a public beta of Opera 9.5 today. We kind of knew that was coming, but it's still nice to get a slightly more stable release of the updated web browser. Probably our favorite new feature is the full history search that lets you do a full text search covering every web site you've visited recently from the URL bar.
Opera is has also launched Opera Link, which lets you synchronize your bookmarks and Speed Dial preferences. Have Opera on your home and work machines, and Opera Mini 4 beta on your cellphone? Opera Link will let you keep the same preferences on each.
There's no synchronization love for Opera Mobile, the Windows Mobile version of the web browser. That's kind of sad, considering Opera Mobile is the only browser of the bunch that you have to pay for. It costs $24 while Opera Mini and the desktop browser are free.
