Opera Browser Emulator
The most recent version of the Opera web browser, Opera 10 was released in September 2009. A lot of new features were introduced in this release like a new skin made by Jon Hicks, Opera’s new application icon and also increased standards support. This time the Opera’s rendering engine is upgraded to Presto 2.2.15 which accounts for Opera 10 being 40% faster than Opera 9.6.
Engine Improvements
As the Opera 10 utilizes Presto 2.2.15, there is an improvement in its rendering speed and existing support for web standards and also added support for web standards such as HSLA/RGBA color. Presto 2.2.15 also passes the Acid3 test.
Opera Turbo
If you are working on a slow connection, Opera 10 automatically detects it and it itself reduces overall download size by compressing web pages using Opera Software’s ‘Turbo’ servers. Because of compressed web pages, data is less consumed and thus the total time for loading a page on slow connections is reduced to a great extent. However, the quality of images is reduced significantly due to the compression of the pages. Opera Turbo is made for people who work on a slow connection or have limited bandwidth.
New skin and Interface improvements
Opera 10 includes a new skin made by Jon Hicks who is famous as the original provider of the Firefox icon. Initially, there were not any plans for a new skin to be launched with this version but as many icons were updated, it was appropriate to have an overhaul. Also, this new skin also eliminates problems which came up with previous skin of 9.5 and 9.6. For example, a higher contrast is given between the active and inactive tabs. A blue dot in the corner called as an activity indicator has also been added to the tabs. Many other parts of the interface also contain this indicator which indicates activities like new mail, completed transfers etc. The menu bar can be hidden easily and there is also a new menu button which gets displayed only when the menu is disabled. This new skin is lighter in color than the previous one and also uses less screen space.
Visual Tabs
In the previous versions of Opera when a tab is hovered, a thumbnail of the page is displayed but in Opera 10 this thumbnail can be shown as part of the tab which enables quick navigation among pages. Visual tabs do not use the default favicon and description rather it uses an image thumbnail. Visual tabs can be displayed by dragging the toggle line between the tab bar and the address bar. You can place the visual tabs on any section of your browser window that is on bottom, top, left and right.
Speed Dial Improvements
This version facilitates easier customization of Speed Dial as a new configuration dialogue has been added to this feature. You can also chose a background image independent of the skin and a number of custom dials can be selected starting from 2*2 to 5*5 tiles.
