Opera's Browser Hits Version ? Beta

As longtime readers of ResearchBuzz know I've been hitting the drum for Opera for a long time. And I used it exclusively for years. Nowadays I find my time being divided pretty equally between Opera and Firefox/Mozilla; there are some sites that just don't like Opera. The announcement of the new Opera is not enough to make me want to switch back to using Opera 100%, but there are some really interesting ideas here.

The press release is available at http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2004/12/23/ . Quote: "Still keeping some secrets up their sleeve, Opera has yet to reveal the name of their newest browser version." Um, Opera? Thanks to some other software companies, browsers which keep secrets up their sleeves make me VERY NERVOUS. Anyway. The changelog is available at http://www.opera.com/windows/changelogs/operabeta/ .

Some of the new changes mentioned: a voice component (details at http://www.opera.com/voice/ ) that allow you to both control the browser and have content read to you; an RSS reader that's usable without invoking the e-mail client; compatibility with GMail (well, that's one issue resolved); and an "automated weekly check for updated versions" which in conjunction with the secrets-and-sleeves comment does not make me entirely comfortable.

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