Mac users can grab the latest beta from the Opera website, the Windows beta 2 release remains, for now, an FTP download.

While the Opera web browser may not have the largest market share, it is the source off many browser innovations. Tabbed browsing got its start in Opera, and the browser was one of the first to broadly support emerging standards like HTML5 and CSS 3.

We took a detailed look at Opera 10.5 when the first beta was released for Windows and found that, aside from some interface design changes, the big news in this release is speed. This is largely due to the inclusion in this release of Opera’s new Carakan JavaScript engine, which boosts the browser’s performance on webapps considerably. Opera 10.5 is noticeably faster than its predecessors and even beat Firefox 3.6 and Google Chrome in our informal testing.

The second beta release is primarily a slew of bug fixes and doesn’t offer much in the way of new features. Still, if you’ve been enjoying the first beta, this release should make the experience a little more stable. And now Mac users can get into the party as well, though 10.5 beta 2 is unfortunately only available for Windows users. Mac users are only caught up as far as Opera 10.5 beta 1.

Also worth mentioning is that native HTML5 video is working in both Windows and Mac version of Opera 10.5 beta. Opera joins Firefox as the second browser to go with the Ogg Theora codec for native web video.

See Also:

• Is Opera 10.5 the ‘Fastest Browser on Earth?’ Maybe
• Opera Looks to the Future With Latest Browser Preview
• Opera CTO Sees Open Video Formats as Key to Web’s Future

Although beta 3 doesn’t contain any significant new features, it does have some welcome bug fixes and is considerably more stable than the previous betas. There is one feature not found in previous releases — add-ons can now access Firefox’s built-in geo-location features.

Unfortunately for Windows 7 users, much of the Windows 7 integration — like Aero tab previews and jump lists — has been removed. It remains to be seen whether or not those features will make it in the final release or will be postponed for Firefox 3.7.

The good news is that more than half of all add-ons now work with Firefox 3.6, including the recently released Weave update and other popular add-ons like Ad Block Plus and Firebug.

One big change on Firefox’s backend being introduced in beta 3 is a new restriction on how third-party add-ons integrate with Firefox. The Firefox components directory is now off limits to third-party tools. According to the Mozilla Developer Blog, “there are no special abilities that come from [accessing the components directory].”

The move is mainly designed to make Firefox more stable by preventing add-ons from accessing lower level tools that could cause crashes.

As the Mozilla Links blog points out, current Firefox 3.6 nightly builds are labeled as “preb4,” which might mean we’ll see a fourth beta before Firefox 3.6 arrives in final form. If Mozilla continues to crank out new betas every week, look for beta 4 around Thanksgiving with the final release arriving during December.

See Also:

• Mozilla Paves the Way for Firefox 3.6 With Second Beta Release
• Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Arrives: More Speed, Better Video, New Tab Tricks
• Mozilla Throws Its Weight Behind Improving Web Type, Adopts WOFF for Firefox
• Mozilla Readies Windows 7 Support for Firefox 3.6

If you just can’t wait another week and would like to start testing now, there is a pre-beta build of Firefox 3.6 available with some of the new Windows 7 features included.

The big Windows 7 news in Firefox 3.6 is support for Aero Peek tab previews — the page and tab previews available in the Windows 7 task bar. As with other Win 7 apps, hovering your mouse over Firefox’s task bar icon will pop up previews of all your Firefox windows and tabs, making it quicker and easier to navigate between them.

Also due to arrive when the final version of 3.6 ships is support for Windows 7 jump lists. The jump lists can be accessed by right clicking on the Firefox task bar icon, which gives you access to a list of your most frequently visited websites, buttons to create a new window or tab and the option to “pin” Firefox to the task bar.

Firefox 3.6 will also offer a number of speed improvements for Windows 7 and other operating systems as well, along with support for fullscreen, open source video and more HTML5 and CSS 3 improvements. For more details on what’s coming in Firefox 3.6, check out our coverage of the alpha release.

Firefox 3.6 is expected to ship some time before the end of 2009.

See Also:

• Firefox 3.6 Aims to Bring Fullscreen, Open Source Video to the Web
• Reach Out and Touch the Web With Firefox’s Coming Multitouch Support
• Mozilla Shows What’s to Come in Firefox 3.6 Alpha Release
• Troubleshooting Firefox Gets Easier With New ‘About:Support’ Page

Microsoft has announced that the next version of Windows, known informally as Windows 7, will be officially named… Windows 7. This marks the first time since Windows 3.1, that actual version number has been part of the name.

While some are mocking the decision, we actually think it’s about time Microsoft ditched the not-so-clever marketing hype and came out with a product whose name actually makes some degree of sense.

We still have no idea what Windows “XP” was referring to and “Vista,” well, who knows — it looks good?

Unfortunately, while we like the change to a simple version number, the number “7″ is a bit misleading. There are several ways you could do the math, but none of them will add up to seven. The kernel is at 6.1 so that doesn’t work, and if you start with Windows 3.1, 95, 98, Me (cringe), 2000, XP, Vista — that’s already seven versions…

Whatever the case, Windows 7 it is. We just hope the release after that is Windows 8.

See Also:

• Windows 7 Arriving Early, Microsoft to Show Off New OS on October 28
• Windows 7 to Dump E-Mail, Photo Editing Software
• Rumor: Windows 7 to Arrive Early, First Beta Due October 27
• Windows 7 Struggles to Balance Performance and New Features

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced that the company is working on a new OS designed for “cloud computing.” Although he offered few details, he did say that the official announcement would happen later this month at the company’s Professional Developers Conference (which will also see the first demo of Windows 7).

So how does Windows Cloud fit with Windows 7? Well, Ballmer says they’re different projects, and reading between the lines we suspect that Windows Cloud (which is not an official name) is much closer to Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) offering than the consumer OS you normally associate with the Windows brand.

Speaking at a Microsoft-sponsored conference in London, Ballmer said that the new operating system is targeted at developers writing cloud-computing applications — think Microsoft Live Mesh on steroids, perhaps with some new APIs and other tools for designing and building web-apps.

So why would Microsoft be interested in competing with AWS? Well, the company has long dismissed software-as-a-service tools like Google Docs, preferring to pursue what it calls “software plus services.” That is, Microsoft’s approach is not to the replace current desktop apps, but to augment them with web-based services.

To get the kind of tight web-desktop integration the company is after will likely require a new platform that gives developers a way to hook into existing desktop apps. And we suspect that’s what “Windows Cloud” will be.

Of course, for now, it’s just speculation, but Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, kicks off October 28 so we won’t have to wait too long. We’ll be sure to update you when the official announcement is made.

[via Computer World]

See Also:

• Windows 7 Arriving Early, Microsoft to Show Off New OS on October 28
• Microsoft Live Mesh Turns the Web Into Your File Sharing Hub
• Amazon Hopes to Speed Up Your Downloads With New Web Service

Windows 7, the much-anticipated successor to Microsoft’s Windows Vista OS, may arrive ahead of schedule. Although Microsoft has previously said that Windows 7 would not arrive until early 2010, new rumors surfaced Monday claiming that the company’s internal calendar puts the release date at June 3, 2009.

The rumor also says that Microsoft will use its upcoming Professional Developers Conference in October to launch the first public beta of Windows 7. Windows 7 could be announced on Oct. 27, during Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s keynote speech.

Microsoft has not yet responded to inquires from Webmonkey, but if the rumors are true it would be welcome news for those unhappy with Windows Vista.

Regardless of when it arrives, Windows 7 should offer a smoother transition than the one many users experienced moving from XP to Vista.

Much of the Vista backlash had to do with the system hardware requirements and the lack of third-party device drivers. Because Windows 7 will reuse the Vista Kernel and the same driver framework, a Vista-compatible PC should be just fine with Windows 7.

See Also:

• Windows 7 Struggles to Balance Performance and New Features
• New Microsoft Blog Promises Windows 7 Details

Microsoft and Novell have agreed to extend the controversial deal the two competitors struck back in 2006. The new agreement will see Microsoft purchase additional Novell certificates that its customers can redeem for Novell’s SUSE Linux service and support.

The two companies also say they will continue to enhance the various tools designed to create better interoperability between Windows Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft, says “our increased investment in the relationship with Novell is intended to give [our] customers and partners the best possible Windows-Linux interoperability solution.”

What’s perhaps most interesting about the extension of the deal that caused a massive uproar in the open source community is that, this time around, Microsoft hasn’t been touting the “protection” component.

When the two rivals first announced their agreement back in 2006, Microsoft played up the angle that it was giving Novell customers “protection” from any potential lawsuits against Linux. The company then went on a blustering “Linux steals our intellectual property” tour, proclaiming that lawsuits against Linux would be forthcoming.

The response from the Linux community was a rather blunt, sue up or shut up, and it would appear that Microsoft has opted for the later. In fact, today’s press release only mentions the intellectual property agreement in passing.

Instead the focus is on making Windows Server and SUSE Linux work better together. The read-between-the-lines message is that Microsoft knows server virtualization tools are a threat and wants to head them off at the pass.

While the open source community may still view Novell with suspicion, at least Microsoft seems to have moved beyond its schoolyard bully tactics.

See Also:

• Open-Source Patent-Holders Ready to Fight Fire With Fire
• The ‘Be Very Afraid’ Tour: Microsoft’s Patent Strategy Explained

The popular, lightweight Windows torrent client, µTorrent, has released its first major update in some time, packing in some significant new features.

From a layout and UI standpoint, not much has changed, but under the hood µTorrent now supports Teredo, which promises much improved IPv6 support. Teredo is a tunneling protocol that allows even IPv6-unaware NAT devices to handle IPv6 traffic.

The end result is IPv6 connectivity without needing to upgrade NAT hardware, meaning better connections and improved torrent performance.

Other features in µTorrent 1.8 include better Windows Firewall registration in Vista, better skin handling for customizing the look and feel and quite a bit more. Check out the µTorrent forums for the complete change list.

Also welcome news is that with the release of 1.8, the µTorrent team plans to focus its effort on the long-anticipated Mac OS X version. No time line has been announced, but µTorrent developer Greg Hazel hints to TorrentFreak that “the first public Alpha version will be released in just a few weeks.”

As always µTorrent is free and you can grab the latest version from the downloads page.

See Also:

• Track Torrent Progress From Your Mobile Device
• First Look: Latest Beta is BitTorrent’s Best Release Yet
• The Best of BitTorrent
• Xtorrent: Mac BitTorrent Client with Integrated Search

What’s Microsoft without the Windows? While the next version of Windows will no doubt be the familiar desktop that still dominates the market, the future may hold something entirely different.

If the rumors are to be believed, Microsoft is hard at work on a project code-named Midori, which will pare down the operating system and might one day replace Windows.

Recently revealed documentation purportedly shows that Midori, while still in the very early stages, appears to be Microsoft’s answer to both “cloud computing” and virtualization. That is, rather than tying the OS directly to hardware, Midori would be available across networks or even possibly the web.

The SD Times claims to have viewed internal Microsoft documents that outline Midori’s proposed design which is, according to the site, “internet-centric and predicated on the prevalence of connected systems.”

Of course Microsoft Research has all sorts of projects under its roof and many will never see the light of day. But longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley looked into Midori earlier this year and concluded that Midori has more legs than some of its Microsoft Research brethren.

Although Midori is “currently in ‘incubation,’” Foley wrote, “it’s likely to be launched sooner than a typical Microsoft Research project.” Of course she went on to say that Midori was unlikely to arrive in time to replace Windows 7 or even Windows 8.

So will Microsoft abandon Windows and start over, rewriting an OS from the ground up? Apple did something similar (though perhaps less radical) when it released OS X and it has proved a very healthy move for the company. Will Microsoft attempt the same sort of move? Let us know what you think.

[via BBC, photo by Sanj@y, Flickr]

See Also:

• Sneak Peak: A Look At What Could Be In Store For Windows 7
• Rumor: an Early Build of Vista’s Successor in the Wild

Humyo.com is offering 30 gigs of online storage for free with every account sign up . The catch is 25 gigs is restricted to media files such as music and video, five is for whatever you want, and anything over that will cost you.

The website interface uses a Java Applet to drag and drop files to and from your online account. You can create folders, sort by type and edit files directly within the browser. Editing and sharing files via the web interface makes the online storage somewhat unique by simulating a shared drive and enabling collaboration.

Downloading via the web page is a little clunky — you can only download one file at a time. Humyo explains that instead of developing a way to permit mass downloads, development will focus on making it easy to access all your files online. Although it is unsaid, it will also probably also prevent software piracy.

Perhaps the most useful feature of Humyo’s offering is its Windows desktop client. The client emulates a network drive, complete with any files or folders you created or uploaded online. You can download and upload just as if you were moving files around on your computer. You can even play the media directly through iTunes or Windows Media Player.

Humyo’s desktop client is impressive because it blurs the line between the “cloud” and desktop software. You would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the Humyo drive or any local area network drive that appears under “My Computer.”

Of course, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Humyo makes their money by getting you to pay for the Premium account which will run you $59.99 for the first year, $79.99 after that. As with any online storage, you will probably want to hold on to the original files in case Humyo goes down. The client software comes with a 14 day trial, after that you’ll have to pay for the Premium account.

Humyo’s service is an example of what is next in store for the web. Apple’s MobileMe, announced in June, promises online synchronization between computers through online, mobile and desktop interfaces. MobileMe will be available to Mac users this summer for a hefty $99/year. Dropbox promises similar functionality for the Mac but is currently limited to beta testers by invite only.

Other services focus on the transfer of files rather than accessibility. Drop.io is a favorite and doesn’t require an account. Drop.io works like TinyURL for files. You can upload a file under 100 mb and share it with friends with a simple URL.

[via Makeuseof.com]