Solo Technology

My favorite “not IE or Firefox” browser released a new version yesterday: Opera 9.5. Faster than ever and with a new look (finally!).

My favorite feature is the Opera Link. Bookmarks and such easily sync’d to all your Opera browsers. As I like to use Opera Mini on my windows mobile phone and have Opera installed on a few PCs, this is a great way to keep my favorite links the same between all of them.

Opera’s Speed Dial also remains one of my favorite features (and is kept in sync by Link). I set it as my start page so that when I fire up Opera I have 9 “live” thumbnails of my most commonly used sites to chose from.

For the web developers, have you seen Dragonfly yet? Still only alpha, but shows promise:

Debug JavaScript, inspect CSS and the DOM, and view any errors – Opera Dragonfly makes developing using Opera easier than ever, both on your computer and mobile phone.

I haven’t used it much yet, but the few times I’ve poked around I’ve been pretty impressed.

To start Dragonfly, go to the Tools menu. Choose Advanced and then Developer Tools. It’ll show up in the bottom of your screen. You can pop it out to a second window (like the screen shot) if so desired.

First thing you’ll miss? The ability to edit CSS on the fly. However, that is promised for the future so all is not lost!

Security is another angle being promoted with this latest release, especially around Fraud Protection:

Not all Web pages are what they say they are. In Opera 9.5, Fraud Protection is enabled by default, automatically detecting and warning you about fraudulent Web sites. Fraud Protection is powered with phishing information from Netcraft and PhishTank, and Malware protection from Haute Secure. Malware is malicious software hidden throughout the Web.

(I added urls to that quote)

Did I mention that it’s faster? Seriously, noticeably faster. I keep saying “vroom” to myself as I surf around.

If it has been a while since you last gave Opera a shot, this is a good release to come back on. If you’re already a loyal fan, this one just improves things.

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