OPERA 10 WITH ADVANCED FEATURES

Opera 10 has been very useful to us. Using a feature called Opera Link, you can synchronise bookmarks, speed dials, notes and other browser data between all your PCs so that all your machines have the same feel. Safari and Firefox have add-ons that do the same thing, but with the function in-built, there is a lesser chance of the Opera browser crashing. Opera also makes it easier to manage multiple tabs. Just moving your mouse over a tab produces a live thumbnail of what is on the page. On widescreens, this has the potential to become a great utility with users choosing the location of the thumbnail as per their liking. The search bar is by default set to Google, but users can customise it to any search engine of their choice. You can also stretch the search bar in case your search phrase is too long. But all this is not really new. Where Opera 10 becomes cutting-edge is with Unite. This function allows you to set up a Unite network with your machine as a server so that your friends and family gets authenticated access to shared files through URLs. To do this you have to create a free account with Opera. You are given a URL preceded by your computer name.The application can be used to share anything from simple files to a mediaplayer. Plus it has applications like Fridge which act as a pin board where you can leave messages for friends and Document Courier which lets you upload a file to your PC from anywhere. It can even double as a live messenger. You also have the option of making your shared files public or password protected, but I would have loved it to have multiple usernames and passwords. Since UPNP is enabled by default on most routers, there is no need to change setting to get this feature to work. I have always liked Opera's Notes feature, but would have loved the ability to attach the notes to specific websites. Also users have to configure their email in Opera or use a webmail service such as Yandex, Fastmail, OperaMail or Mail.ru to send the notes to a friend. It would have been better if there was direct integration with either Yahoo or Gmail.