"Opera Beta 8 continues to innovate Internet browsing

Internet Browsers have been hogging the news since quiet sometime courtesy Mozilla Firefox. However, there is another browser, which has been continuing to innovate and raise the standards since many years. Opera today officially released the much awaited preview of their latest offering in the form of Opera 8 Beta 1.

This version will not bring many changes for users on Opera 7.60 series but for those who try it after sometime would be amazed by the changes and latest features. For starters, it comes with a brand new interface, which is simplified compared to earlier offerings. Most of the advanced features are now hidden from the front view and can be activated if desired.

Opera reaches new levels of usability with this version as it incorporates latest innovations like Fit-to-Window-Width, Fit-to-Paper-Width, improved RSS handling, and Start Bar. It also for the first time brings Voice functionality to the web browsers. Opera can now take voice commands and can read back webpages. In the future, this technology would be enhanced to handle Web sites offering interactive, voice-enabled shopping and booking systems.

Moreover, Opera users can now check for any existing updates from the interface itself. This version was under development in the form of preview releases of version 7.60. However, as per the official press release, the company found the browser to have reached a stage with so many improvements that they decided to release it in the next logical version number. Though the company is yet to announce the official name they would give to Opera 8 Browser Beta when it would be finally released.

One of the most exciting news that would make all the current Opera’s registered users happy is that they have decided to make Opera 8 release free for all Opera 7 owners. In addition, they have changed their licensing and now a registered owner can use one key for all the desktop versions of Opera!

Overall, Opera Software ASA seems to be in festive mood for this Christmas and have given a beautiful gift to their loyal users who have supported them in their quest of creating the best and the fastest web browser on the Internet."

Get Opera here. Only 7.6+ versions support voice, though. And I took the article from here.

I'm really liking the new beta versions of Opera, even though installing them meant hammering my interface into a familiar shape for me yet again. But it's worth it because Gmail now works, those appalling error dialogs are gone and there are some other changes that made me go "ooh" even though I can't remember them right now. Opera 7 registrations also still work, so I won't even have to look at their advertisements.

FireFox does it all for me.. And at least it doesn't show a banner on your screen ... What the free Opera version did. I my opinion FireFox is better, it does about everything Opera does and doesn't have useless things in it I never use (mouse-gestures :S )...

And yech... I don't want a browser that reads the contents to me .

"See amateurs taking it up their ass....."

Hmmm... I haven't really had time to test Opera that much, but anyone think it's better than firefox? I didn't find any advantages of it over firefox...

i gotta say i prefered opera to firefox, and i'm glad to hear of this.
The voice commands sound like one of those things that every gets the borwser for but in the end never use, but it's cool none the less. by owners i guess you mean people who piad for the ad bar to be taken away, so i don't think i can get it.

Lol.
Whats the point in telling your browser what to do??

Doesn't it do what you want normally?
like go to websites play games and all that?

It's standard stuff now, but back when this topic was created, only Opera had it. Opera was the first of many things, and still the best.

Basically, Opera ftw and you bumped a really old topic. You're not really supposed to not use Opera or bump old topics.