Opera 10.0 Alpha 1:Passes ACID3 Test
Whats new:
# Presto 2.2 Engine
# Performance boost
# 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
# Auto-update
# Inline spelling checker
# Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days
# Widget Improvements on Linux
Presto 2.2 Engine
Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 includes Presto 2.2 (Kestrel includes Presto 2.1.1), an updated version of Opera’s Core. Presto 2.2 features numerous new features and loads of bug fixes, such as:
* 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
* New regular expression engine, which greatly improves performance
* Improved CSS performance
* Pretty-printing of unstyled XML
* Web font support
* RGBA and HSLA support
* Selectors API support
Auto-update
The long awaited auto-update functionality is here! That’s right, Opera will now update itself as new versions are released. And for those of you who want every single snapshot release just enable the "Download All Snapshots" setting (opera:config#AutoUpdate). Please be aware that if you do so, you will be upgrading to all snapshots – and as you know: snapshots contain the latest changes, but may also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all. You have been warned 
Inline Spelling Checker
Opera now checks your spelling as you write! The inline spelling checker is enabled by default for multi-line edit fields and this Alpha comes with a US English dictionary. Use the context menu of input fields to change the settings, and to correct spelling errors. See the detailed changelog for information about using other dictionaries.
Opera Mail Improvements
Rich Text Composition
Opera Mail can now send rich text messages! You can insert inlined images, styled text, links, custom HTML, and more! You can also forward and redirect rich text messages or reply to them with styled text.
In the account settings select "Prefer HTML formatting" in the outgoing tab so that you can start writing rich text mails by default in our WYSIWYG editor!
Remove from server after X days (POP-only)
This new feature is for our POP users with limited server space. Opera Mail can now remove messages from the server that have been there for X days. Of course you can limit Opera Mail to only remove read messages from the server, and/or only fully downloaded messages, which works great in combination with low-bandwith mode.
Other Changes
When viewing a message, the message subjects are now a text field again instead of a button. We have added also a "Thread" button to the message list toolbar to make some features more visible.
Widget Improvements on Linux/UNIX
We have added experimental support for true transparency for widgets on Linux/UNIX. For this to work you have to have an X Server that provides a 32-bit visual device and a running composite manager. If you start Opera from a terminal it will print this message if it detects a suitable 32-bit visual device: "(experimental) ARGB visual detected: Use ‘-visual 0×6f’ to activate it".
If you have a composite manager running you can then try it out by starting Opera with: "opera -visual 0×6f" (0×6f may be another number on your machine).
::Download::
Official site: Opera Desktop Team Blog
About blacknoise
Other posts by blacknoise
Pretty cool.
on December 5, 2008
I can’t … this … HOW! … this
on December 5, 2008
So does that mean Opera 10 render every website perfectly? I have used Opera 8 and 9. They were good. Until came Firefox 3, I jumped boat. Then came Chromium, I jumped boat again.
Let see if Opera is good enough for a second thought. I wonder how many people use more than 1 browser? I use Chromium primary and FF3.
on December 6, 2008
hewbewbew?
on December 6, 2008
@ Nam
Chrome is good except, it doesnt have two things I look in a browser,
Ad-blocking
and
Bookmark Sync
Firefox has both and loads n loads of addons. Therefore I like it.
on December 6, 2008
Ya, Firefox is superior but I have to use Chrome for its speed and its safe from-crash-feature (each tab is a process) on my Samsung NC10.
However, Firefox is a bit slow on it and it builds up memory overtime. Beside, I have an ad-blocking solution that works for all browser. It’s called “Privoxy.” Just install it and set IE proxy to 127.0.0.1:8118 then boom I get what adblock plus’ function.
No solution for bookmark sync yet but it doesn’t bother me.
on December 7, 2008
I use Opera 9.62 and (bleh) IE7. Clearly out of the two I prefer Opera. Also, it’s faster to download due to the smaller filesize, which saves me time and space. This new Opera version is definately something I’ll be using, especially with a 100/100 score! Woo! It’s mine and it’s free! YEAH! *ahem*
>.>
<.<
*quietly sits back down*
on December 10, 2008