DOWNLOAD: Opera 11 beta 1

Introduces extensions, tab stacking, and better mouse gesture guidance.

• The address field now hides unnecessary information and puts the security status of each page front and center. Now, badges explain the security state of the site, giving consumers clear information about the sites they visit.
• Plug-ins can be set to load on-demand. This can give as much as 30 percent performance improvement.
• Extensions and Opera Unite applications are updated automatically through Opera's update mechanism.
• Even more work has been done to boost browsing speed, particularly for Linux. Opera 11 for Linux is 15 to 20 percent faster on common benchmarks than Opera 10.63.
• Bookmarks are just a click away thanks to a new bookmarks bar that replaces Opera's personal bar.
• Opera 11 is 30 percent smaller than Opera 10.63, despite including new features.

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Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta available for Android

Opera has launched Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta yesterday, the popular browser for smartphones, for Android.

Opera 10.1 Beta for Android brings several improvements to the browser such as pinch zoom, visual tabs, SVG support and Opera Turbo which compresses web data on Opera’s servers, speeding up browsing and saving you bandwidth. But it won't launch on my HTC Hero! I will see if they will send a update for Opera Mini to work on the HTC Hero.

You can grab Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta for Android from the Android Market or at http://m.opera.com/next

Opera 11 Alpha featuring extensions now available to download for PC, Mac and Linux

Opera has always been a fantastic browser with a loyal following, mostly due to the browser's many forward-thinking features… but one area in which they have lagged badly behind the competition is in extension support. Almost every other browser out there supports
extensions - Firefox, Chrome and even Safari - but Opera's add-on functionality has been remedial up till now.

Today's release of the Opera 11 alpha changes all of that. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux, Opera 11 brings support for Opera
Extensions to the browser. It's true that Opera did allow for add-ons
before with the Opera Widgets and Opera Unite systems, but those add-ons were functionally limited. Opera Extensions, on the other hand, allows developers to create new functionality using open standards like JavaScript, HTML5 or CSS, as well as supported APIs. These new features plug directly into the browser.

Extensions aren't the only new thing in Opera 11. The update also comes with a new version of Opera 's layout engine, enhancing support for web standards, improving performance and fixing hundreds of bugs.

Coming Soon: Opera Mobile For Android, Desktop Browser Extensions

Opera just made a number of announcements on stage. Now that things have cleared up on that
front, here are some of the most important things Opera 's executive team announced:

- Opera Mobile for Android
While the company's other mobile browser product, Opera Mini, has been available for Android handsets since July, the platform will soon be getting its full-fledged browser, Opera Mobile. The product will be free of charge and
available in beta sometime next month.

- Opera 11 with add-ons
Finally, Opera's desktop browser will get the ability to be customized by users via extensions. No word on availability but you should be able to download it before the end of the year.

Hardware acceleration and pinch-to-zoom for Opera 's mobile browsers both Opera Mini and Opera Mobile users will soon be able to download a more polished version that – finally – includes pinch-to-zoom functionality, which makes for a much smoother browsing experience any way you look at it.

Also on the roadmap: hardware acceleration for smooth panning and zooming (which will be useful for a number of user interface experiences, as well as more robust gameplay etc.)

Update: in a later Q&A session, Opera's chief development officer said that the later capabilities will be available for the Android-compatible versions. He did mention that all phones that support multi-touch (including the iPhone) will at some point gain pinch-to-zoom functionalities.

Which Android Browser Is Fastest?

One prime attraction of Android? That super-quick —especially on Froyo—native browser. But if you've got a need for speed, is it possible that there's a better option out there? Yes, actually.

The above chart from UberGizmo shows that while the stock Android browser is no slouch, you get significantly faster load times on live sites with Skyfire 2.0. For saved sites, Opera's your best best.

In fairness, they're all pretty fast—except Fennec Alpha, my goodness—and the Froyo browser offers good balance between saved
and live sites.