Opera 10 Beta Adds “Turbo Mode”, Visual Tabs

Quick tip on the Visual tab bar:

if you double-click the separator, it toggles between Thumbnail previews, text-only, and text with icons.

kftgr

@SWC:

You can also bind 'Enable menu bar | Disable menu bar' to a mouse gesture.

Further, you can do a timed hide by changing the command to:

"Disable Menu bar | Enable menu bar & Delay, 20000 & Disable menu bar"

This brings up the Menu Bar and 20 seconds later hides it automatically (or you can hide it manually by activating the command again)

Lots of neat simple UI macroing you can do in the keyboard/mouse shortcuts.

kftgr

Opera 9.64 already has a preview feature if you hover over the tab with the mouse.

@balcis:
You can also remove the menu bar in the settings.
opera:config#UserPrefs|ShowMenu

code3

google chrome and firefox (with glasser; yes it's an addon, so what?!) are much way better implemented to windows' aero and looks way better. and also that menubar is so useless compared to its space (chrome by default, firefox by personal menu or tiny menu or hide menubar).

balcis

@EbenezerSquid: I think you may be talking about the Alpha, not the Beta. A lot has been improved and it is much much better.

cybrstudd

this is gonna be an amazing browser. 9.6x was very good, but this is faster yet. incredible.

unruled

Wow. I've never been a fan of Opera, just because the interface wasn't as nice (to me anyway) and not as many features. But this beta is killer. It might pull me away from my oh-so-bloated Firefox after all!

@Phoshi: you can add a menu toggle as a keyboard shortcut. Just go to advanced preferences > shortcuts > keyboard settings and under applications add any available keyboard combo (e.g ctrl g) and make the command: 'Enable menu bar | Disable menu bar'. Now when you hit your KB combo, the menu appears or disappears.

Still doesn't work with Google Notebook :(
I like innovations but I prefer the browser which allows me to browse and use the Web.

jackhab

@ericesque:

I first thought that I wouldn't use Visual Tabs as I've tweaked my opera configuration to have only one toolbar (removed menu bar and other things) to maximize real estate.

But somehow, I love the Visual tabs: I find myself recognising each tab faster due to the thumbnail rather than reading the tab. This works best when only having a dozen of less tabs open and with sites you know.

Jussinen

@Phoshi:

Well, first things first,
Menu bar and icons can be moved to everywhere, though icons (buttons) it's more easy because it's only drag and drop, I don't get what aminus said that he can't...

Second, can you please provide me a screenshot of your ff config?
Opera do have an "Auto Hide" feature in toolbars, so it's doable but I need to see your setup first, it's easier for me.

Can you do that? I'll see what I can do.
People have a wrong idea of Opera UI, you can do almost anything with the UI.
Take a look at my minimal setup:
[img514.imageshack.us]

if you look closely near the gripper, there's an extra arrow below the normal one of the scrollbar, that's my menu ;)

code3

@code3: Basically what aminus said - I have a 3px black bar at the top of my browser, mouseovering it drops down the address and bookmarks bars, tab bar exists only if I have more than one tab, and even then, it's 15px tall. Statusbar shows after a second of hovering down there. I mainly use executor for typing in URLs, see, and mouse gestures/keyboard shortcuts for everything else, so I really don't need a big UI. I like opera, it's fast, and feature rich, but it's missing customisability, from my view :( (if you can help, though, please do :))

@Phoshi: I get what you mean, the menus can't be moved, or the icons just dragged and dropped like in ff.

aminusdominusrex

i will try this in moblin beta! *gg*

@Phoshi:

What do you mean by that?
Can you specify?
Maybe I can help.

code3

Oh wow, that's cool. I'd really love to use Opera, I would, but until it's customizable enough to not show any UI unless I need it (without going through menus), I'm alas FF'd.

I downloaded Beta 10 when it first came out. It was really bad. I had lots of troubles including losing my bookmarks. I couldn't wait to get back to 9. This is not a Beta I would try again.

EbenezerSquid

@contro: There all already at least 2 different Firefox add-ons (memory-hogging or not) that can show tabs as thumbnails in the sidebar (much better for today's wide screens):

[addons.mozilla.org] (released in early 2006!)
[addons.mozilla.org]

@L.Rawlins: Tab thumbnails in the tooltips may be what you're thinking of -- those are the ones that show up on mouseover. Visual tabs is something different and new.

@marjancek:
I hope nobody else implements Visual Tabs. What a waste of screen real estate and at the heart of it... when I see 'Lifehacker' on a tab, I don't need a thumbnail to tell me what it is.

The only occasion that it might be useful is if I'm troubleshooting an issue and have 2 or 3 unfamiliar sites open. Even then it's unlikely to do a whole lot of good.

Eye candy for the sake of eye candy is lame.

ericesque

@Lifehacker Tab thumbnail previews aren't new to Opera 10.

L.Rawlins

I just wish they start focussing on the UI as well; like Chrome's aero and address bar. Nonetheless I'm using opera and gonna upgrade I guess ^_^

Leafy

@marjancek: For firefox someone will jsut make a memory hogging plugin for that feature. I am a loyal opera fan, I can't wait till it comes out of beta version 10.

contro

@itsmoirob: Might have been useful before I downloaded the beta.. But oh well, thanks anyway

The best browser is further improved!

RosaThisbe

Opera does it again; how long until all other browsers implement Visual Tabs?

I just hope google stops treating Opera as a third-class browser; Opera and its users deserve much more than that.

marjancek

"Users of Opera Mini and Mobile might recognize this technology"
Nope, only users of Opera Mini will recognize it. Opera Mobile is a standalone full HTML browser.

(Opera Mobile 9.7 hasn't arrived yet which will indeed use the engine, but not many users know about it yet.)

The_Gas_Man

(Sorry my above comment was supposed to be @Arceus-ed, damn non editable comments.)

Would like to mention that Opera doesnt use hotmail or gmail for webmail, they removed the ability for those clients a while back. I hope they bring it back though. Although you can set up imap/pop3 with the built in mail client.

itsmoirob

@Arceus: Oh haha ok. What if you download the beta and THEN the regular? Will it magically remember the bookmarks of the OLD opera or just the beta? My guess is the beta..

who doesnt have a soft spot for opera? Until firefox choosing any other browser was a non-starter - gestures, tabs, download managers, things we take for granted now opera brought to the table.

I prob have too many odd extensions to give up firefox, but it only seems fair to give the newest opera a whirl.

BishopBlaze

@fispaul: If you use Opera Link you dont have to worry about bookmarks, theyll be imported regardless of where in the World you are using Opera, weather thats mobile, desktop or new install.

itsmoirob

If you use Opera Link you dont have to worry about bookmarks, theyll be imported regardless of where in the World you are using Opera, weather thats mobile, desktop or new install.

itsmoirob

Yay, Opera! Been using the Alpha builds of v10. It is solid.

@Arceus: Actually with the Opera default theme rather than the Mac native theme it looks great, I always prefered the Opera Standard, I just forgot about that

It certainly sounds like the Turbo button on my old desktop, only maybe more useful...

VidurEspi

@Arceus: Re: your last point, I think that's because it's only a beta. IIRC, beta versions of Opera never import bookmarks, but regluar releases do.

Arceus

this looks like an awesome build of opera. I cant wait to tell people about this build. Opera is my favorite multi-platform browser! :)

@Arceus: I just downloaded it to see how it is. Though it does feel generally speedier, it really doesn't feel like a BIG difference. I like the design idea, but how it is executed is horrible! The light blue, rough and pixely-edged plus tab button on the black-purple background juts looks rushed and fugly.

I'd say get it if you don't mind the design, the other features make it well worth it.

BTW: Bookmarks will not be imported, you have to bookmark everyhting again.

This sounds excellent, especially the speed increase. I do hope Gmail (and other Google services like Google Notepad and Picasa) work properly now, they were the only reasons I still have to use Chrome occassionaly.

Arceus

@Arceus: On a side note, the new build passes the Acid3 test now, too; I don't think the last release of the 10.00 alpha build did, and my current Chrome (Safe chan) and FF3.5b4 aren't quite there yet.

@Descent: Wait, I think I was wrong. The interface remained unchanged from 9.5 to 10 alpha, didn't it?

They've been changing their interface with almost every update now since v9.5, no? It's good that they're still experimenting, but as a user who's never really gotten used to the Opera browser, I think every change might reset my meager familiarity with Opera.

One of the greatest features that turned me on to Opera, back in the dial up days of '97 or so, was the ability to, in one mouse click on the bar, turn images on and off. It made browsing soooo much faster.

This ability to quickly turn off flash and Java seems like the modern evolution of that. Bravo.

I still use Opera as my daily browser, even after having given a fair shake to chrome, safari, IE8 (ok, not really). I use Firefox for specialized things where I need the plugins, like pulling MP3s off of youtube.

Bravo Opera on where you are today!

That being said, why is it that after closing all my tabs other than this LH one ten minutes ago, Opera is still taking 170MB?

zyodei

@Wolverine4444: The first version of Opera 10 Beta had it as well.

Opera Javascript Lament.

In Opera, Opera
still a problem
still a problem
still too slow

LH comments--
prime example--
takes too long
for them to show

paintbox

Downloaded it and installed on my notebook and it works very well, and looks pretty good. But one grip I have is they should really use GTK or QT 4 as the menus really look out of place.

motang

@Sam Oiberman: I don't use GMail often, but I use GReader extensively and daily. Opera runs it well, though the only hotkeys I've ever used are J and K for next/previous post.

So can anyone confirm that it's faster with gmail and google reader? I used to use Opera but found that it just isn't as responsive as Firefox and chrome on those sites. Seeing as I use they hotkeys, I found the wrong thing happening too many times.

I tried 9.64 and it was still the same in terms of performance. If this is at least as smooth as Firefox then I'll use it again with some Vimperator style custom keyboard shortcuts courtesy of [my.opera.com]

Opera is definitely the closest browser I have found to what I want in terms of behaviour and features, but the performance on google sites is a deal breaker!

Sam Oiberman

No the killing punch would be to be a Free software.

poboxy

@cyriene:
Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts > Mouse Setup > Edit > "Application"

From there choose any action from the existing ones or create a new one and add the above commands to it.

code3

@fispaul: I just downloaded it, but using the "Opera Upgrade" mode, and it imported my Bookmarks.

rjdsmith

Great Beta! Opera keeps getting better and better! :)

@kftgr: Where do I go to work with these settings?

cyriene

For some reason they backed away from QT4... this means it looks ugly in Linux again.

Of course, it's always looked ugly when using a dark Linux theme, but I grabbed a snapshot of the 10 Alpha (which was great) that used QT4 and made QT4 use my GTK+ theme (easy as pie).

I hope they move back to QT4

LegoAddict

The new skin is ugly as hell but I'm impressed with the speed.

Yerzriknot

opera is getting better. i might start using this, it's far better than that god awful google chrome. this could turn me into an opera fanboi. very good...

@jackhab: You have it backwards. Google makes their web apps incompatible with anything but firefox and chrome.

It's 2001 and 2005 all over again.

[www.opera.com]

[operawatch.com]

P_Smith

@itsmoirob: The problem with gmail is that Google is rudely excluding browsers that follow HTML, Java and Javascript standards.

Gmail's "extra features" are deliberately designed to work only in firefox and chrome, despite Opera, K-meleon and other browsers having the plugins to work properly with it. They're treat the users of other browser as "second class citizens".

P_Smith

As Jussinen said, Visual Tab helps in identifying tabs much faster. I just wish that there will be a keyboard shortcut for that, since double/middle clicking on the handle is such a pain.

ArnoldEros

I have always liked Opera, but I found the ability to delete history and cookies to be extraordinarily cumbersome, if not just shy of impossible. Have they improved this any, or do they have a function similar to InPrivate?

Sgt. Bilbo

I hate the fact they still have no PGP/GPG support in M2, yet. It was promised years ago.

rawfan

I feel so vindicated every time something nice gets written about Opera. Too bad it wasn't opensource in the beginning, like Firefox or else Firefox wouldn't get as many accolades as it ends up getting everywhere. Been using Opera since 2001 and this upgrade looks right up my alley... Three cheers to the Opera folks... :)

abanerjee1983

This is actually a pretty huge advancement to opera for me, who honestly just uses opera as a second browser tweaked for using my phones wap over bluetooth (having a browser preconfigured with things like the wap proxy just saves me time, plus opera seems faster then firefox on endlessly slow connections by a tad). Still not going to convert me from using firefox and the few plugins I feel I need for my broadband browsing though. But huge improvement none the less... I can see myself recommending this to the few dialup users I know everywhere.

fireball87

i want the theme for firefox :D

bl.ueyez

As usual, Opera rulez and everything else droo... er, is not as good. I can see the visual tabs being a benefit to some people some of the time, such as if multiple pages of the same site are open. Opera 9.6 has thumbnails on mouse-over, but this is different. I usually have around 50 tabs open, so the mouse-overing helps, as does the cool trick of holding down the right-mouse button and then scrolling through the tab list that pops up. Try it! Anyone who doesn't like Opera's default skin, there's plenty more available and easily implemented. I'm partial to the mostly-black ones. Pretty snazzy.

AbeniServius

@code3: That's a pretty cool skin/setup you have there. Did you make it yourself because I can't find it on the skins site, mind sharing?

ppack88