The processor is the brain of a computer - Chris Long, IT journalist
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Hands on with Opera Unite
HARDENED WEB BROWSER USERS rarely switch ships, but a look at the Opera browser's free Unite file sharing system was revealing, and it might tempt some users away from their accustomed choice, particularly if they want to share their personal media.
The Opera browser has many features, which amongst other things will let you host a web page straight from your computer, but for us Opera Unite was the revelation with its ability to give the user a quick and easy way to share media including photos, music, and other documents. Now out of beta, it worked well for us and never crashed, which is always a good thing.
Unite is a relatively simple idea on paper, but one that has apparently eluded other browser development firms. What it does is create a personal file sharing system on your desktop computer, meaning that you no longer have to load media into third party sites, which often involves surrendering your personal privacy and can lead to loss of control over your content.
Rather than do that, Opera Unite users can choose to share a private URL to their content with their friends - a URL that can be used to enable access to an application, a collection of files or an individual file. As well as being a sharing system, Unite can also be used to access your own computer and files remotely, providing that your source computer is up and running.
As either a home or remote user, you see a very similar page and options such as download, which as you can imagine are fairly self explanatory. File access is easily controlled and you can apply passwords to particular files and users as you wish. Passwords are typically four characters long and a mix of upper and lower case numbers and letters, which some might consider a bit insecure.
Access is cross platform and we tried it on IE, Firefox and a Windows-mobile Nokia. Test subjects enlisted to help try out the remote sharing described it as "amazing", and "pretty bloody sweet".
Compared to a private FTP server Unite was slow, however, presumably because it uses the HTTP protocol. On average music was shared at a rate of about 40 to 45kbps, which was a bit disappointing. Opera quotes seconds for file transfers, but we found that it was actually closer to minutes. The FTP admittedly involved a lot more setting up than Opera did, for sharing, but disappointingly only boosted download speeds to roughly 60kbps. This may have been the fault of the network upload speeds available on the end-machine though.
Other systems might work better, be quicker, or be more appropriate for power users, but as a simple, easy to use and understand file sharing system Unite is great. However, Opera will have its work cut out for it as it tries to tempt less adventurous users away from the long established, and for now, ubiqitous Internet Explorer and Firefox. µ
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You can put buttons anywhere, and you can ZOOM the scale of the toolbars. I tend to disable visual tabs, put buttons where the search box was, and get rid of the status bar.
In my area, I've been able to upload as fast as 1.5Mbps.
Also my.opera.com has 2GB free storage with no outside garbage, in addition to the features of the actual program.
Go to File - Show menu bar (disable the check box).
The whole menu bar goes to a "O" logo in the lower left corner.
Everything in the opera interface is customizable.
Press [ctrl]+[F7] to toggle the scroll bar.
Press [ctrl]+[F8] to toggle the address bar + buttons.
RTFM.
"if you mean the panels on the left
posted by : Darius"
No I mean the top, you can slim that down on FF and IE but the only thing you can do on Opera is keep your favours off. It takes up more space than any other browser and they've done nothing to fix that
"if you mean the panels on the left
posted by : Darius"
No I mean the top, you can slim that down on FF and IE but the only thing you can do on Opera is keep your favours off. It takes up more space than any other browser and they've done nothing to fix that
how do i use an adblocker in opera?
also, how do i use other addons like those that i use in firefox?
thanks!
...and select "Customize". It's as simple as that in Opera, if you have a clue anyway. I have "plenty real estate" with minimal button intrusion.
That looks useful, remote webcam tool so you can check on stuff or broadcast yourself.
Opera are definitely giving google a run for their money. Both are leaving MS in the dust as far as modern, fun n quirky apps go.
The upload speed is limited by two things.
Firstly, your own connection. If you only have a 256kbps upload speed, or are on a office network where terminal users are throttled whilst more bandwidth is reserved for the company servers, then don't expect those at the other end trying to download from you to get fast speeds.
The other factor is the settings. Did the reviewer set the upload speed to unlimited, or leave it on automatic? if it's on automatic, it's going to make sure it doesn't hog your connection so that other apps suffer.
As for passwords, if the random default passwords for your Unite apps (they look like catchpa strings) isn't good enough, set one yourself. Do you really expect other people to provide you with _your own_ passwords when real security's an issue?
But, I have to say I'm somewhat surprised at such a positive article about Opera from The Inquirer! It would have been nice to touch on the apps side of things as well as basic file sharing. Admittedly, it's early days and there aren't many apps. But since they're all web based, I'm sure the list will grow over time, like it did for widgets and skins. But it should have been pointed out that the default apps only let you share documents. Additional apps allow other web users to upload files to you, or play/stream media content from your computer.
Also, some apps, which are clearly made by users taking their old widgets and adapting them into Unite apps, need to be made interactive to be of any use. I downloaded a game called Blobby, which looked fun, only to find that it couldn't be played online with someone else. That kind of defeats the point of Unite, though hopefully that will all be added in later versions.
The whiteboard app is useful, as is The Fridge, which is kind of like your own personal Mini Twitter™.
if you mean the panels on the left thats toggleable with the button left of the tabs and i certainly don't keep it open. other than that the interface takes up about the same amount of space as ff
Opera is fully customizable with buttons and appearance. I's as easy as right clicking onto the bar which you want to change and click on 'customize' - 'appearance' and then drag and drop buttons in the size you want to have, to the place you want them to be.
My preffered layout certainly uses less screen estate as both Firefox and IE standard layouts do, took me five minutes if at all to customize it and find a neat skin.
To Opera unite. Didn't use it up until now because direct sending via IM was suitable for all my needs up until now. Should take a second look at it though, the article kinda made me curious as to what it can do.
The menu's on Opera take up far to much of the screen, certainly more than Firefox and IE.
Whats the point in updating it all the time but then leaving that untouched