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Welcome to Opera Bits

May has been a busy month at Opera and we have lots of exciting news and events in store for you. Widgets are funky new Web applications that are available in the second beta for Opera 9.They have become so popular in fact that we have decided to launch a Widget World Cup. If you want to find out more then keep an eye on Opera's Widget blog.

Bit 2Portrait of Daniel Goldman

Interview: Daniel Goldman

Resident Opera Blogger, Opera Watch

Danny G, as we like to call him, is a well known blogger in the Opera community. His blog, Opera Watch is increasing in popularity and now boasts a readership of more than 2000 people. Featured in The Inquirer, CBS Market Watch, Red Herring Magazine, and Slashdot, Opera Watch has the reputation for being the first to break stories on Opera before they happen.

Read full story

Bit 3Portrait of Daniel Goldman

Why you should love Widgets!

Blog by Arve Bersvendsen

Indeed. Why should you love Widgets? They're just web pages with fluffy design, right? Wrong, they are so much more than that. While a Widget can be just like their real-life counterparts, serving no function apart from decorating the desktop, they also serve useful purposes.

For instance, the TouchTheScreen Widget is invaluable for the couch potato in need of TV listings. No more scouring through newspapers for endless hours to find out when Lost or Rikki Lake will be on. Simply configure the Widget to display the TV channels you're interested in and presto, instant gratification. On a less serious note, Widgets can also entertain if you're sick of playing Tetris.

Try those words again - INSTANT GRATIFICATION. Widgets are all about instant gratification. In developer terms, the user has an instantly available application repository. The installation process is also instant. You don't need to be the Chief Technology Officer of Opera to install a Widget. Simply clicking on a link will download the Widget straight to your computer, and give you the option to keep it or not. Again, those words I love to repeat - instant gratification.

For developers like myself, Widgets are about stress-free development. Within a matter of hours, a developer can have an application up and running, leaving nights free to code and chat on Skype. Since the application is based on Web standards, the Widget is instantly available on all desktop platforms. Deployment is also quick and pain-free, by uploading the Widget to my.opera.com, the Widget is made available to hundreds of thousands of other users, allowing the world witness your true genius in designing a BMI index for your pet poodle.

Widgets also represent a democratization of software development. You don't have to be gifted to be able to learn how to create a Widget. Even if you have little or no programming experience putting together a Widget clock won't require hours of complex trigonometry or expensive tools. A text editor and a simple graphics editor suffices. This is a bonus for most users because it brings application development to a group, well to be honest 99.9 percent of the population, that traditionally hasn't been able to create and deploy desktop applications.

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Backstage at the opera

There are 12,324,637 bicycles and now one Opera office in Beijing. Following a press conference, we invited 40 business partners to the official opening dinner and then went to get a foot massage. Needless to say, the Chinese office opening was a great success. Check out some pictures we took of the event.

Dot Mobi .Schmobi?

Food for thought, by Eskil Sivertsen

Many of you are probably confused about what .mobi actually means. To make it simple and clear, Dot-mobi is all about the creation of a mobile Internet dedicated to providing content for mobile devices. From the 28th of August, trademark holders from within the mobile industry will have the chance to register their trademarks as .mobi domains.

There is *one* Web, and that Web should be accessible regardless of the device you are using. Should the public have to remember a different URL just because they are surfing on a different device?. Browsing on TV's is becoming more popular – does that mean Web developers should also create another version of their site that is optimized for the low resolution of regular TVs and call it .tv? And what about the devices we have not yet seen? We should perhaps have a .whatevertypesofdevicesthefuturewillbring domain, too.

The problem is that almost all Web sites are designed exclusively for PC screens. With Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, we use Small-Screen Rendering to reformat these large Web pages to fit mobile screens, and other rendering technologies to optimize pages for devices like TVs. Sites that use mobile style sheets are left untouched. The URL is the same. That way Web developers don’t have to design and manage several versions of the same site.

Head over to the forum to share your opinion.

Opera Mini around the world

Opera Mini around the world

Tel Aviv, Germany and Finland to name a few - we have had entries from all over the world for our Opera Mini Around the World competition. We had pictures featuring a wild Opera Mini, paradise and Opera employee's busy developing. It was difficult to find just one winner so we picked you all. Congratulations!.