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Opera 10 (code named Peregrine) is slated to arrive later this year. As a long time Opera user I have my own expectations of Peregrine. Here, I present to you ten improvements that I want to see in Opera v10. I am not a codie so my wish-list doesn�t deal with under the hood rendering engine improvements (only exception being Wish #8), rather all of them are noticeable feature additions/improvements.

10. Better Download Manager : Opera already has an excellent download manager. In fact it’s much better than download managers integrated with other browsers. But there is always scope for improvement. I want to see ability to limit the bandwidth being used by Opera’s download manager. The ability to queue downloads would also be a nice addition.

9. Inline Spell Checker : The oSpell userjs is excellent as an inline spell checker. However, this is something that should be provided by Opera out of the box. Heck, even barebones Firefox has it!

8. Prioritize page loading : This feature was suggested by Scott at myOpera forums. He wants Opera to give higher priority to the foreground tab and load that webpage faster than the ones in the background. I think this is a wonderful idea and would definitely make Opera more productive.

7. Private Browsing : Safari has a neat little feature called Private Browsing. Firefox users can use extensions like Stealther and Distrust. Yes, Opera allows users to delete private data. But this is different. When it is enabled web pages are not added to the History, items are automatically removed from the Downloads window and information (including names and passwords) is not saved for Autofill. So only private data collected during Private Browsing is deleted. The utility of Private browsing is pretty obvious.

6. Rich Text Copy : Sometime back Opera removed rich text copy, apparently due to security concerns. Talk about paranoia! I hate the fact that they didn�t even give users the option. I hate the fact that I have to use another browser to copy text with all the formatting. Only other alternative is using a complicated solution devised by Lex1. I hope to see rich text copy back in next version. Plain text copy should remain the default (associated with Ctrl+C), but users should also be allowed to copy text with all formatting via the right click context menu and keyboard shortcut.

5. Activity Monitor : This feature is already present in Safari, and is extremely handy when you want to download streaming content. Currently I have to use Naviscope to monitor browser activity. This is something that should be built into Opera.
Continue reading “Ten Things I Want to See in Opera 10”

Welcome to another edition of Opera Bytes. Since I am blogging fairly regularly now, I plan to do this on a monthly basis. In this edition I look back at the month of May.

Opera v9.21 for desktop was released on 21st May. This release fixes a critical vulnerability present in Opera’s torrent downloader.

Opera is one of the applications nominated for Webware 100 awards. You can vote for Opera here.
CNET is known for being biased against Opera (and towards Firefox). That is again evident from the nominations. How did Greasemonkey get a nomination? Greasemonkey is nothing unique or extraordinary. Opera provides the same functionality out of the box and similar addons are available for other browsers too (e.g. Creammonkey for Safari). Even more surprising is the exclusion of Opera Mini from Mobile category. Opera Mini is innovative and useful. PC Mag had commented that “If you only ever download one cell phone app, download Opera”. According to Hitslink Opera Mini had 0.16% of the browser market share during May. That is huge for a mobile browser. Accoding to Sun Microsystems Opera Mini most popular Java Application for mobile phones in the world.

The next version of Opera Mini (code named “Dimension”) is coming soon. Little is known about it as the moment other than that it would feature enhanced navigation. You can sign up for beta testing here.
Continue reading “Opera Bytes v4”

Couple of weeks ago I had reviewed a startup called Spool.fm. Today I came across an almost identical service called Jiwa Music. Jiwa Music enables users to play the song they want to listen to. Although both the services are appear to be similar there is a major difference. Spool.fm doesnt host any of the music files on it’s servers thus falling in the legally grey area. However, unlike Spool.fm Jiwa allows it’s users to upload songs which are then stored in it’s server. Not surprisingly, majority of the user uploaded content is illegal.

Users can search for their favourite tracks and save them in custom playlists. These playlists can be accessed from anywhere and shared with friends. You can even embed Jiwa Music player in your website. However Jiwa doesn’t allow you to synchronize your Now Playing list with friends. Also missing is the ability to integrate with audioscrobbler (last.fm). The sound quality is decent. Jiwah also seems to have a larger collection of songs. I couldn’t find any Indian songs though. Jiwa has some nice community based features. You can see what other Jiwa users are listening to and can interact with the community through the Shoutbox. The interface is rather simplistic. It isn’t as pretty as Spool.fm but works rather well. However, there are a few bugs here and there. The ability to search for videos is also thrown in. However only videos from youtube are indexed so it offers little advantage over a youtube video search.
Continue reading “Jiwa – Another Web Based Music Player”

Many of you must be wondering “What is Email Bankruptcy?”. Double-Tongued defines it as “choosing to delete, archive, or ignore a very large number of email messages without ever reading them, replying to each with a unique response, or otherwise acting individually on them“.

E-mail is fast, cheap (often free) and supposedly convenient. But, due to rapid increase in volume it is becoming a burden for many. Just separating the stuff you need from all the junk present in the inbox has become a time consuming and frustrating process.

Although venture Capitalist Fred Wilson popularised this phenomenon by declaring email bankruptcy last month, the phenomenon itself isn’t new. Washington Post suggests that Sherry Turkle – a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, had coined this term as early as in 1999. Last September, singer Moby had announced that he wouldn�t be using email for a year. And this trend is likely to grow. Boston dot com is reporting that more people are following suite.

But, the big question is – “If not email, then what?”. Undoubtedly, e-mail has many unique advantages and at the moment it is not possibly to completely replace email. Instant Messages, SMS and Phone calls are emerging as the preferred replacement to E-mail. Fred Wilson himself has discussed the alternatives here.

If you receive large volumes of e-mail everyday and don’t want to get bankrupt you should check out this interview with Robert Scoble. He explains how he absorbs 1000 plus e-mail everyday. The video is included below.
Continue reading “Email Bankruptcy – A Growing Reality?”

Previous Thursday (Wednesday in US time), LOST delivered one of its most shocking episodes to conclude what I consider to be the best season in its short history. I had previously listed my favourite moments from Season Three – Part 1. Now, I am going to list my favourite ten moments from part two of this season.

Room 23 : This is a signature LOST scene from “Not in Portland”. We see that Karl is being brain washed with the help of a mysterious clip. Not only that, apparently when the audio is played in reverse it reveals a hidden message – “Only fools are enslaved by time and space”.

A Grave Prophecy : Desmond revealing In “Flashes Before Your Eyes” that Charlie’s death is imminent definitely had the shock value.
In Demond’s words :

Desmond : No matter what I try to do, you’re gonna die, Charlie.

Continue reading “Lost : Looking back – II”