Friday, April 21, 2006

Opera Releases Public Beta of New Browser

Opera Software released the first public beta of Opera 9 on Thursday, giving users the go ahead to put its new Web browser through its paces.

Opera 9 includes a feature called "widgets," which are small Web applications such as newsfeeds or games that reside in a window on a user's desktop.

It also comes with the BitTorrent file-downloading software built in, meaning users don't have to start that software as a separate application.

The beta release follows a second technical preview of Opera 9 that was released about two months ago.

"There are no big feature changes in the beta version. The main difference is that the beta version is stable enough for people to use as their primary browser," said Tor Odland, a spokesman for Opera, in Oslo, Norway.

The software can be downloaded free of charge. It's available for all major operating systems including Windows and the Mac OS, Odland said.

The final version of Opera 9 will be released in the next few months, he said.

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