gHacks technology news » opera turbo http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:55:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Opera 10.10 Final http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/23/opera-10-10-final/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/23/opera-10-10-final/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:06:37 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=20282 The Opera desktop developers have released the final version of Opera 10.10 after releasing several beta builds in the past weeks. The final build is exactly the build that was released as a beta on Saturday, users who have installed that build are still encouraged to download and install Opera 10.10 from the Opera website.

Opera users who have already been working with beta versions of the release will not find many (if any) changes to previous builds in this final versions. That’s however different for Opera users who have been waiting for the final version release before making the switch.

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Opera 10.10 has Opera Unite build in. Opera Unite is probably the biggest change to previous Opera versions as it makes it possible to use the Opera web browser as a web server to use it for things like file sharing, photo hosting, media streaming, file synchronization or chatting. More than 30 applications for Opera Unite are already available and Opera is getting the community involved by running a competition for the best Opera Unite application where developers can win prices.

Opera 10.10 does make use of Opera Turbo as well, a compression based data transfer option to retrieve websites faster which works quite well for users with slow Internet connection. Opera 10.10 final can be downloaded from the main Opera website where it is available for download for all supported operating systems.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/23/opera-10-10-final/feed/ 1 Opera 10.10 RC http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/13/opera-10-10-rc/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/13/opera-10-10-rc/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:28:28 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=18478 The Opera developers have released the first – and likely – final release candidate for the upcoming Opera 10.10 web browser. The download of the web browser is available for all supported operating system (Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux) and can be used to either upgrade an existing version of Opera or to install as a separate version which is recommended for users who are still running an earlier stable release of Opera.

The changelog of this new version lists several bug fixes in the interface, core, Opera Mail, Opera Unite and some more that are operating system specific. The full changelog is available at the blog post announcing this lucky Friday the 13th edition.

The release candidate comes with Opera Link, Opera Unite and Opera Turbo. All of these features can be activated in the left corner of the status bar of the Opera browser. Opera Link can be used to synchronized bookmarks, notes, speed dial settings and other information. Opera Unite to use the web browser as a web server and Opera Turbo to speed up page loading and connection by using compression.

All available versions can be downloaded from the Opera website. Watch out for Jason, though..

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/13/opera-10-10-rc/feed/ 0 Proxy Server Usage To Extend Jailtime In The US http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/15/proxy-server-usage-to-extend-jailtime-in-the-us/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/15/proxy-server-usage-to-extend-jailtime-in-the-us/#comments Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:10:44 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/15/proxy-server-usage-to-extend-jailtime-in-the-us/ torA proxy server can be used for a number of things. People can use it to overcome censorship in their country, to access contents they could otherwise not access or to remain anonymous while performing research on the Internet. Proxy servers to provide a level of anonymity and privacy that makes them a good choice in many situations. A new federal law in the United States is up for voting at the united States Sentencing Commission that can increase the jail time by up to 25% if a proxy server has been used.

Privacy advocates have already expressed great concern as proxy servers are not only in use by individuals who want to protect their privacy but also by companies and even Internet Service Providers, sometimes without the knowledge of the end user. VPN (Virtual Private Network) would for example be classified as proxy servers under the new legislation. As is the popular Tor client that has been created specifically to counter censorship in the world. Several web browsers like Opera Mini or Opera 10 are also making use of proxy servers to compress data to decrease the time it takes to load websites.

The United States Sentencing Commission will vote on the new legislation on April 15. It is set to take effect on November 1 if is is passing the voting process. You can read up on the EFFs stance here

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/15/proxy-server-usage-to-extend-jailtime-in-the-us/feed/ 8 Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta Announced http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/30/opera-mobile-97-beta/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/30/opera-mobile-97-beta/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:47:53 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=11542 A recent blog post at Opera.com revealed the near release of Opera Mobile 9.7 for Windows Mobile touchscreen Devices. The new beta version of Opera Mobile will come with several interesting and important enhancements but unfortunately no Symbian support. Among the features are the new Presto 2.2 rendering engine that is passing the Acid 3 test with a score of 100/100 which seems to be a first for mobile web browsers. This is the same rendering engine that the preview version of Opera’s latest desktop web browser Opera 10 makes use of.

Opera Turbo has been added to the mobile web browser which is a compression technique that is routing Internet traffic through a server that is compressing the contents so that they can be delivered more rapidly to the user. The monthly bandwidth bill will also benefit from Opera Turbo as compressed data reduces the overall bandwidth consumption of the mobile device.

Other improvements in Opera Mobile 9.7 are the improved widget manager which runs independently from the web browser, Google Gears support and hardware acceleration with OpenGL ES support. Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta has not yet been released but it is expected to be released soon. Opera created a speed comparison video between Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo enabled, Opera Mobile 9.7 without Opera Turbo and Microsoft IE Mobile.

The loading times differ widely. Opera Turbo speeds up the page loading time of that specific page by more than 20 seconds when compared to Opera Mobile 9.7 without Opera Turbo and an amazing 3 minutes 7 seconds in comparison to Internet Explorer Mobile.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/30/opera-mobile-97-beta/feed/ 1 Web Browser: Opera Turbo Preview http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/13/web-browser-opera-turbo-preview/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/13/web-browser-opera-turbo-preview/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:51:10 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=11196 Opera Software has made available a preview version of their much acclaimed Opera Turbo technology. Windows, Linux and Mac OS X users can download a preview version of Opera 10 containing Opera Turbo, a new function that is using proxy servers to compress the traffic before it reaches the Opera browser on the client’s computer system.

Opera Turbo has been designed for computer systems with limited bandwith. Users with fast connections will see no huge differences in the speed that the websites are displayed but will notice a traffic reduction thanks to the compression. Users with limited bandwidth on the other hand will notice both a website loading improvement and traffic reductions.

The layouts of websites that are accessed with Opera Turbo will look exactly like they did before. The major difference is that image resolutions may appear lower which can be attributed to the compression. Please note that text and other elements are also compressed.

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Encrypted traffic will not be routed through the Opera compression servers. This means that accessing your bank’s website, PayPal or any other website that is using the SSL protocol will make use of direct connections.

Please note that Opera 10 with Turbo is still in alpha stage. Opera Turbo will display an icon in the Opera status bar that is giving the user indications whether it is enabled or disabled. It will also display the average compression ratio as an icon and the saved Megabytes when hovering over the Opera Turbo status bar icon.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/13/web-browser-opera-turbo-preview/feed/ 6 Opera Turbo http://www.ghacks.net/2009/02/14/opera-turbo/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/02/14/opera-turbo/#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:07:31 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=10551 Opera positioned itself as one of the marketing leaders in web based compression software solutions with their Opera Mini web browser which utilized Internet traffic compression to reduce the load time on mobile devices. This was achieved by sending all network traffic through specifically crafted Opera servers which compressed the traffic before it was send to the client’s mobile device.

Opera Turbo builds up on the experience that the Opera development team gathered during the development of Opera Mini. The new service will be officially announced at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The information that can be gathered from the available whitepaper suggests a broader service that allows businesses to run Opera Turbo servers which will manage the compression for their clients. Internet traffic will be routed through Opera Turbo servers which compress it and send it to the clients. The browsers on the client side will also compress any data before it is send to the Opera Turbo server which unpacks it before it is send to the actual destination.

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According to the whitepaper Opera Turbo will be able to compress network traffic by up to 80%. The benefits of Opera Turbo should be obvious. The service will save businesses bandwidth, speed up web surfing for clients and reduce costs thanks to the reduced bandwidth requirements. The main Achilles’ heel of Opera Turbo is the requirement to use Opera software to make use of the technique. Opera currently has a web browser market share of about 1% which means that about 99% of all Internet users will probably never be able to test Opera Turbo. Existing Opera users on the other hand might be able to benefit from Opera Turbo as Opera has the intention to utilize the technique into the Opera web browser and Opera mobile browser.

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