Opera talks the talk with wordy web browser

Norwegian browser company Opera Software released a beta version of its latest browser on Thursday.

This was intended to be the beta for version 7.6 of the browser, but the company says its new features are so substantial that "it exceeds the next logical version number and warrants a major release." This suggests a major version jump, backed up by the fact that the beta's 'about' page refers to itself as version 8.0.

The beta can be downloaded from Opera's website.

Opera chief executive Jon S. von Tetzchner said people who have licensed Opera 7 will receive free upgrades when the new version is officially released.

The new Opera browser includes an updated and more prominent RSS tool, and rendering technology designed to cut out the need for horizontally scrolling across web pages, regardless of screen size. The same technology also means that online content can be printed on any size of paper without cutting off the edges. The browser will also contain an accessibility feature that allows uses to magnify web pages and view them without scrolling sideways.

The renderer uses a combination of techniques: it reflows page elements where possible, and resizes them to fit where necessary. Depending on how a web page has been written, this can result in either a rescaled version of the page, or some elements being pushed to the bottom of the page.

Opera has been working on the problem of rendering web pages on small screens for some time. It produces versions of its browser for various mobile phones including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens handsets. It also recently added support for Microsoft smartphones, reversing its self-imposed ban on producing software for Microsoft.

The new version of Opera also features voice technology, allowing users to browse the web using spoken commands, such as "Opera next link", "Opera back", or "Opera speak".