Opera Browser Beta Adds Voice, More

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article at DesktopLinux.com, the first public beta of Opera 8 is available for free download. It adds voice input/output and a host of other niceties. Key new features include improved RSS handling, fit to window or paper width, a start-bar for easy access to the most commonly used functions, and automatic update checks. The beta release supports Windows only, but a general release is scheduled for early 2005. Opera and IBM have partnered on XHTML+Voice (X+V) technology for several years, co-announcing a Multimodal Browser and Toolkit early in 2003."

Comments

Voice Output

[andreMA]

So now we can hear the fat lady sing?

And the countdown begins

[vcv]

T minus 3 posts until Firefox is mentioned. T minus 5 posts until Opera not being free is mentioned T minus 10 posts until someone calls Opera bloated. Anyone want in on a pool?

The new beta is awesome.

[beeswax]

I think everyone here that likes firefox should give the Opera beta a try. I've used it since yesterday and it's a top quality piece of software in my opinion.

Firefox might be better than IE, but Opera is much nicer, faster than firefox.

Re:The new beta is awesome.

[DigitumDei]

I hadn't even looked at Opera because of the slashdot crowd screaming about the "Oh So Annoying" ads. Then, due to the fact that I wanted to test my web site with opera, I downloaded the free version. You have a choice to display this ultra thin text ad at the top of the browser that really does not seem to get in the way of anything other than maybe a few buttons that could be there.

The browser itself is really nice, and the tiny advert does VERY LITTLE to detract from this. Why oh why is this such a huge issue?

Re:The new beta is awesome.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no such thing as free lunch, economics 101. The fact that you didn't pay a single $ for the software you use doesn't mean it didn't cost money to develop. Someone has to pay for that, either the developers have another job, or they get paid to develop free software.

Some software cannot be developed with the open source business model, it doesn't work. I'm sure the Opera guys would love to release their software as OSS if they could make money another day. Other niche products won't be OSS any time soon, e.g. Softimage|XSI, Maya, etc. And no, Bender doesn't even come close to them. When will some people understand that not all software has to be free? I don't care what Stallman says, it's not true.

--
HawkinsOS, kicking Smorgrav in the ass since 2004.

Re:The new beta is awesome.

[typhoonius]

The internet is information, and information should be free IMHO. No browser is worth $39, especially a closed source one.

To be honest, I think a lot of the open-source faithful have gotten so caught up in the philosophy that they've forgotten the pragmatism. Open source isn't important, open formats are. When your file formats are open, your data is yours forever, you're not subject to vendor lock-in, and all that crap. Open-source software is simply a means to this end.

Both Mozilla and Opera support open standards. So what is the practical difference besides price? Is paying for software really that awful? There's obviously still a market for a pay-browser. The closed-source-phobia around here is silly.

Also, I think it's misleading to criticize the browser for costing $39 and then slam it for having ads (which are inobtrusive text ads by default) when there exists no version of the browser subject to both these criticisms.

Re:The new beta is awesome.

[hkmwbz]

"The internet is information, and information should be free IMHO. No browser is worth $39, especially a closed source one."

It's well woth 39 bucks, considering that Opera innovates, and the rest try to keep up with Opera. Do you think tabbed browsing, popup blocking, mouse gestures, etc. would have been around if no one came up with them? Most of the features Firefox brags about on its front page were either invented by Opera, or implemented in Opera ages before it was available in Firefox.

The same is true for Minimo. Did you read the CNET article about Minimo and all the "fantastic innovations"? Guess what, Opera invented all those things, but the Minimo spokesperson tried to make it sound like they were Mozilla firsts.

There's a pattern here. Opera comes up with all these new things. Without Opera, Firefox and other browsers would have been in the Browser stone age.

This is why a company which makes money is a good thing: They are forced to do research and development beyond what everyone else is doing, to come up with new stuff to stay ahead.

Re:The new beta is awesome.

[Taladar]

1) You can switch from graphical to text ads

2) I tried to switch from Opera to Firefox more than once but was back after a few days because Firefox clearly is inferior, the integration of the plugins is far worse than the corresponding features in Opera and the Browser is often unresponsive for several seconds.

3) I use Closed Source Software when it is clearly better and at the Moment Opera is although I use Open Source Software for anything else

4) I started with the Ad-Supported version, then I cracked it for a few months but since it is the Software I use most and I now earn money I thought it was worth to buy it so I did even though I did not get any advantages over the cracked version simply because I wanted to support the Development of my favorite Browser

5) Opera uses very little Screen Real Estate now as I use a minimal theme, deactivated the big button bar and the Panel Selector on the left. the only things I have left are the Tab Bar, the Address Bar, the Menu Bar and one bar with my favorite Bookmarks (and the Scroll Bar on the right). Combined with the Ratpoison Window Manager that does not use a Window Bar I can use over 90% of the Screen for the current Webpage.

Get Opera got to Slashdot.org by voice..

[Orm]

Start Opera, and start saying:
"double-u, double-u, double-u, dot, slashdot, no.. wait... backspace, backspace, slashDOT, nooo, backspace, backspace, SLASHDOT!! NOOO, ARGHHH"

Link says Opera 7.54u1

[Alien Venom]

Linked page says Opera 7.54u1.

Opera 8.00 Beta 1 - ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/win/800b1/en/std/ow3 2enen800b1.exe
Opera 8.00 Beta 1 w/o Java - ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/win/800b1/en/std/ow3 2enen800b1.exe

They should fix things instead of adding crap.

[elfarto]

Who cares about the voice thing ?? How many of the readers will care to actually speak to their browser, imagine a office full of people all talking to their browsers.. that's simply stupid.
I think that Opera people should care most about fixing things in it's browser instead of adding features that nobody (95%) will use.
Like M2, it simply sucks with IMAP, i was using it till i tried Thunderbird, did the switch about 5 minutes of starting it up for the first time.
The opera forums are full with complaints, why don't Opera listen to them, i'd do so before my userbase flies right into the open (and free) arms of Firefox.

Re:They should fix things instead of adding crap.

[oliverthered]

Bookmarks, down, down, down, up, down ,up ,down, up, down, yes,yes,yes.

Output?

[Cantide]

It adds voice input/output

I can't let you go to that URL, Dave.

I know you and Frank were planning to change to Firefox, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.

Et Cetera...

Gmail Support

[vikramrn]

From the Changelog

Support for XMLHttpRequest; Gmail Web mail is fully supported.

Now that should get the attention of slashdotters :)

Re:Face it

[vcv]

Better formatting: Opera is the most innovative browser on the market, bar none. This is fact, whether people like it or not. Firefox would be not where it is today without Opera.

Why I like Opera better:
- Gestures are implemented better, more customizable, and can be used across the WHOLE browser app and not just the browser window.
- Tabbed browsing is better, more natural.
- Rewind and fast forward
- The way Opera handles cache on windows, by cache'ing the GDI objects instead of just the page data.
- The start bar
- Better and easier customization
- Smooth image zoom
- Simply faster
- Sessions and reloading all my pages after a crash.
- MSR/Fit to width/SSR
- The option to have the progress bar pop up at the bottom of the window and hide when it's done.
- Wand, it's simply better.
- Author/user modes
- All images/cached images/no images toggle
- Native windows skin. With OpusOS, it's great.
- Paste and Go
- That a page is actually a window and I can break it off from the main window if I want.
- Trashcan that keeps track of closed pages.
- Reload every
- Hotclick

And all the little details that aren't features. Firefox simply can't provide all this, even with extensions. And if there were an extension for each thing.. it would use a lot of resources, be slower, and they would not work as well together.

Opera: still leading the pack

[RAMMS EIN]

It amazes me that, after so many years, Opera continues to lead in browser innovation. Sure, Mozilla has copied tabbed browsing, popup blocking, mouse gestures, and a few more, but Opera has so much more. Small screen rendering, WML support, slideshows, keyboard shortcuts everywhere, ... And it's a lot faster and smaller, even with mail and IRC client built in.

And now they bring voice recognition. If they get that to work on Linux, I'll be happy to buy a couple more licenses from them.

New and improved Licence as well

[zxSpectrum]

What also needs to be mentioned is that the Licence has changed for paid customers. Quoting:

In fact, we've just given all Opera 7 customers a free upgrade, and added to this, we've changed our license terms so that there is only one license for all desktop platforms, which means that you can install Opera on any number of computers in your own home, regardless of the (desktop) operating system used. Yes, that's right. You can install the registered version of Opera as many times as you like with just a single license.

Your feedback welcome!

[ijablokov]

Hi all,

I'm the IBM program director over this product, working in partnership w/ Opera. Some quick comments: The X+V spec unifies HTML & VoiceXML and is currently undergoing the W3C process for standardization. We wrote it together w/ Motorola & Opera and have made it open. We also have an Eclipse-based SDK available at http://www.ibm.com/pvc/multimodal and a prototype one at http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/mmtplus that allows you to visually build these multimodal apps.

Some of you may wonder why you should voice enable your Web content. First of all, one of my lead researchers is blind, and it's quite amazing to see how much he can accomplish today. Given that, in the future, I'm hoping a lot more content will be open to people with various disabilities.

Secondly, how useful is your cellphone for accessing the Web? It has a small screen & limited input. Now imagine just speaking into a multimodal portal: "weather forecast", "my portfolio", "eBay bids", "any high priority mail?", "am I free tomorrow at noon?", etc. The portal understands your input & fetches relevant info, which may also be tied into location based services. 50% of you will use multimodal services by 2010; this is intended as the replacement to WAP.

Warm regards!

Igor Jablokov

Re:Your feedback welcome!

[ijablokov]

Forgot to include feedback links. :)

Be sure to post your questions to Opera here:

http://my.opera.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=e4 7b 2a7f796603541134f9feaae4a8e1&forumid=95

or to IBM here:

nntp://news.software.ibm.com/ibm.software.speech .m ultimodal/

Thanks!
Igor Jablokov

Changed licence conditions

[ironfrost]

They changed the licence conditions too for version 8. Instead of having to buy Opera for Windows and Linux, you now buy one licence for "Opera for desktop", which allows you to install it on as many computers as you like within your own home.

Let's be clear on a few things here

[Anonymous Coward]

Opera is many things. Before the bashing continues, however, I'd like to make a few things clear:

- it is NOT bloated; it's a 3.5 MB download
- it is NOT crashy
- it is NOT bad because of flashy ads because you can look at tiny, non-flashing google ads
- it is NOT unable to display pages propperly; it handles every webpage I'ver ever been to just fine
- it has a much nicer, more customizable UI than Firefox
- it is considerably faster than Firefox
- it has everything you'd ever want in a browser suite without needing any additional downloads or plugins
- you don't EVER have to use anything in it you don't want to, and even with email and chat turned on, it's still not bloated, and still has less of a footprint than Firefox
- if you turn off everything except web browsing, you'll never hear from it and Opera will have even less of a foot print
- it was well worth the $20 student price I paid for it. I rarely ever register software, and it was one of the few programs I did register without any regrets.

Opera is a magnificent piece of software. Who cares if it's not open source? Not every god damn thing in the world needs to be open. Who cares if it costs money? They're running a business, and selling a product, and a damn good one at that. You get what you pay for. Firefox is good too, but you also get what you pay for with Firefox.