Opera puts browsers in Turbo mode
Summary
Topics
Opera Turbo is useful when grappling with overtaxed wireless networks, slower broadband wireless cards, or Net connections through a mobile phone, the company said.
Opera Turbo runs on a person's PC, fetching data not just from the original Web site but also from an Opera server that compresses that site's text and images on the fly, Opera's Roberto Mateu said in a Friday blog post about Opera Turbo.
That's useful when grappling with overtaxed wireless networks, slower broadband wireless cards, or Net connections through a mobile phone, the Norwegian company said, recommending that people test Opera Turbo with connections in the range of networks transferring data at about 100Kbps.
The compression can shrink the data by up to 80 percent, according to Opera's video explanation, in part because it modifies image files.
"Web sites' layout and text will look exactly the same, but image resolution may appear considerably lower, as a result of the compression," Mateu said in the post.
More elaborate Web sites that use advanced JavaScript techniques and Adobe's Flash technology, however, might require manual intervention to work via Opera Turbo. "Dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax and Flash are supported, but some plug-in content will load only after clicking on the empty element," he said. Encrypted sites aren't accelerated or sent through the Opera servers.
The Turbo software is available from the Opera Labs download site but will be included in "future desktop versions" of Opera, Mateu said.
This article was originally posted on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 6 Talkback(s)
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The problem with Opera is printing
I use Opera as my primary browser because it's fast and more secure than the others, but I sure wish the developers would fix its printing function. The pages on many sites come out garbled, or spread out over several pieces of paper. It's a nuisance.
bmeacham98@...17th Mar 2009 -
This is good, now it stands to reason...
that if text/image content could be handled in this way, perhaps flash could be translated for phone use too.
10 years ago when flash was catching on, I told people it was a mistake -- browser plugins should NOT be proprietary. The whole point of the internet is information exchange with hardware anonymity.
Larsix17th Mar 2009 -
RE: Opera puts browsers in Turbo mode
Opera Turbo makes a great deal of sense, particularly in South Africa, held in thrall by Telkom's government owned (despite the hype to the contrary)over-priced, over-extended ADSL capacity. Other countries have similar problems.
RealOne@...18th Mar 2009 -
I'd love to see a producer-independent test of this software.
Perhaps ZDNet blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes will feel himself called ?...
Henri
mhenriday19th Mar 2009 -
MITM
Neat, now hackers can man-in-the-middle attack the market niche they've had such trouble reaching in the past. A quick setup with the bgp vulnerability and you can intercept all of the dialup users traffic in the world. Fun idea.
imbeyondboredom19th Mar 2009 -
I wonder how long it will take Mozilla to implement the exact same function
Mozilla...Start your copiers!
Scrat21st Mar 2009
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