After a long break (in fact very long) I am back with another edition of Opera Bytes.
Yesterday Jon Hicks formally joined Opera Software as a Senior Designer. He was a part of the team that developed the ubiquitous Firefox logo (it was created by Hicks based on a concept by Daniel Burka). He has been previously critical of Opera’s Mac Interface and especially Opera’s Icon.
Neither browser has an updated icon (a new FF icon is awaiting approval!), but Opera in particular really needs to. The shadow is the first thing that strikes you as being wrong, not just the lack of transparency, but the fact that it has highlights in it! I really fancy having a go at updating the Opera icon.
With him officially being a part of Team Opera, I certainly hope that Opera will finally get a better icon in Peregrine. He will be also be working on Opera Mini, Mobile and Widgets.
In related news Opera expanded it’s Desktop Developement team recently and now Opera Desktop will be developed from Poland and Sweden. Opera seems to be on a rapid hiring mode. And why not? Their Q2 2008 profits are up approximately 10 times, Opera mini has grown 351% since last year (in terms of number of users) and number of weekly Opera users has increased by 25% since 9.5 was launched. Opera 9.6 released a couple of days ago has already surpassed a million downloads. Keep it up Opera!
Opera community member Dustin Wilson has come up with a way to Tweet directly from Opera’s address bar. Also dont forget to check out the new and updated Opera Twitter Widget. And btw, my twitter id is indyan.
Details about Opera’s next built (v10 – codenamed Peregrine) are still scarce, but Olli did confirm that it would have inline spell checking. I also expect it to have an update manager among other things. You can view my full wishlist here and my initial blogpost covering Peregrine here.
Nintendo DSi – the successor to handheld gaming console Nintendo DS will also feature Opera Browser. It’s not clear though if it will come pre-loaded or will be made available later.
That’s all for now. Will be back soon with another edition of Opera Bytes.
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