Opera 9.0 Technology Preview 2

Opera released a technology preview of Opera 9. The new Opera 9.0 preview version contains a few new features such as Opera Widgets, integrated BitTorrent downloader, and website thumbnail preview on tab. It is a free download.

Opera Widgets

Similar to widgets of Mac OS X dashboard and Yahoo! Widgets, Opera Widgets are small AJAX applications that provide specific functionality.

Opera Widgets can be accessed from “Tools” -> “Show Widgets”. Once you selected the widget, it will be downloaded and launched. The Opera Widget is visible even you minimized Opera main window. You can also download Opera widgets from Opera Community.

BitTorrent Download

If I remember correctly, the BitTorrent download feature has been discussed by Opera users for some time. But this is the first time I try Opera’s integrated BitTorrent download feature.

I can’t find the BitTorrent options anywhere in Opera preferences but clicking on a .torrent link (BitTorrent download link) will automatic launch the integrated BitTorrent downloader.

It has a simple configuration to set Max download & upload speeds and incoming listen port. That’s all.

However, the Opera BitTorrent download does not work for me! I clicked “OK” button to confirm BitTorrent download but nothing happened. Quite disappointed. :(

Thumbnail Preview

I am quite impressed by the thumbnail preview feature. When you mouseover to a Opera tab, it will show a thumbnail preview and web page information.

Bugs

Since it is “technology preview” version, please do expect some bugs in it. It did closed unexpectedly for me and does not work with some websites’ dhtml menu.

Update: Opera 9.0 TP2 does not work well with Gmail. I can’t reply email in Gmail (“Send” button no response).

My two cents

I feel that Opera 9.0 renders web pages better than 8.50. The rendered pages looks almost alike like the web pages rendered by Firefox.

The Opera widgets helps to expand Opera functionalities but, in my opinion, it is redundant because we already have Yahoo! widgets.

For BitTorrent download, you need to keep Opera open until the download finish. Not a good idea. Stick with your BitTorrent client.