I’m happy to report that it seems livelier and more stable than the version 10.62 release, which was already very good. Since the upgrade conveniently runs in the background and allows you to keep doing other things, even surfing, it makes the process easy and painless.

What Opera Offers That Others Don’t

Opera Turbo

Opera offers some unique features, such as Opera Turbo, which uses Opera’s servers and proprietary compression technology to compress webpages, boosting your browsing speed on crowded Wi-Fi hotspots, tethered mobile phones or even dial-up, letting you browse up to 2x faster than its competitors when connected at slower speeds.

Encrypted traffic remains that way around the compression servers, so when you’re on a secure Web site, such as your bank’s, you’re still secure and communicating directly. Turbo can be instantly toggled on and off using a button on the interface window margin, or you can set up Opera Turbo to be enabled automatically when a slow network connection is detected.

Mouse Gestures

Another unique feature of Opera — mouse gestures —  lets you perform common browsing actions with small, quick mouse movements. Gestures can be stacked to perform more complex actions. You can enable or disable mouse gestures in the Opera preferences. There’s even a tutorial to get you started.

Opera Unite

Opera Unite turns your computer into a web server. With Unite, you can share content directly with friends without having to upload anything, stream music, show photo galleries, share files and folders, or even host your own website directly from the browser. It’s a great feature that other browsers don’t really come close to offering, at least not in an all-in-one package.

The Little Things

Opera has a raft of small touches that keep me coming back to it as my most-used browser, such as a very convenient Zoom menu on the interface window that lets you infinitely magnify page content using a slider control to read websites with small text easily, or get an bird’s-eye view of an entire site. Unlike some other browsers, Opera’s zoom resizes all elements of the page, not just the text. You can also toggle images on and off from this menu to improve readability and speed up page loads.

With Opera, you can also search in the address field. Opera uses several keywords to provide quick access to several popular and useful search engines. You can also add any search engine.

Opera’s Closed Tabs button, also on the user interface window, provides a pull-down list of recently closed tabs, so you can easily return to where you left off. Finally, in case you’re concerned about speed, Opera is also very fast, in the same league as the latest versions of Safari, Firefox, and Google’s Chrome browser.

Good for Those Who Appreciate a Fine Vintage

Opera is evidently an acquired taste, with about four percent of global browser market share outside North America, and around 2.4 percent overall, which puts it in fifth place behind Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. But it’s also one of the dwindling crop of current browsers that still support older Power PC Macs and OS 10.4, although the Opera folks tell me that version 10.6x will be the last with Tiger support, alas. All the more reason to enjoy it while it lasts.

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I’ll be testing Safari 5.1, Safari 4 beta (thanks to its tabs-on-top design), Chrome 5, Firefox 3.6, Firefox 4 beta 3, Opera 10.6, Camino 2, Shiira 2.2, Sunrise 2.1, and iCab 4.8 .

Testing so many browsers presents a problem: Not all browsers use the same UI conventions. For example, Opera doesn’t have a bookmarks bar; its bookmarks are contained in a sidebar. To remedy this, I’ve broken the tests into two sections, showing different parts of the browser chrome. Section one will be with the bookmarks bar hidden, so only the tab bar and toolbar are showing, so I’m able to include Opera. Section two will be with the bookmarks bar shown, so Opera will be excluded from it. I’ll also include a third section that shows the data overall. I omitted testing status bars because Chrome doesn’t really have one, and I’d argue that most people don’t use them.

Tab Bar and Toolbar

I’ll go ahead and say that there are two winners here: Chrome 5 and the Safari 4 beta. But why is Chrome also a winner when the Safari 4 beta so clearly trumps it? My reasoning is that Chrome is a current browser, and that I had to go through a strange rigmarole process to even get the Safari 4 beta running, and it still crashed every time I opened a new tab, so it’s not really usable.

The loser here, by a large margin, is iCab. This was using the default configuration, so I messed with it a little, used small icons and hid the text beneath them. It still came in last, right behind Shiira with 91 pixels, only beating itself. iCab developers, if you’re reading this, please make iCab less space-hungry.

What’s interesting about the comparison between Firefox is that tabs-on-top actually uses slightly more pixels than tabs-on-bottom. Also, using small icons will save you eight pixels.

Here’s a screenshot comparing the top six browsers in this section:

With Bookmarks Bar

Unsurprisingly, the winner here is the Safari 4 beta. However, I was surprised to find that the second winner was Safari 5. Yes, Safari 5 narrowly beats out Chrome by just one pixel. iCab is last in place, by a large margin, again.

I also figured out that, on average, you can save about 20 pixels without the bookmarks bar.

Here’s another screenshot showing the top five browsers in this section:

Overall

I’ve made two graphs that show the data overall: the first by number of pixels in ascending order, the second by browser. I’ve also included a couple of bonuses: I measured Internet Explorer 5 for Mac and Netscape 9. IE doesn’t have a tab bar, so I just measured it with the bookmarks bar. It makes a good watermark for big browsers. And yes, iCab still comes in last, even behind IE. Netscape was surprisingly small, with the minimum being 83 pixels, just behind Sunrise.

Is pixel-friendliness important in a browser? Does it affect which browser you use? Sound off in the comments.

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The free browser application, which prides itself on its speed, was sent off to Apple for approval on March 23, nearly three weeks ago, and at the time many were unsure as to what Apple’s final decision would be. Therefore, today’s decision comes as somewhat of a welcome surprise.

But does this move display a possible turn in Apple’s strict policy on not allowing apps that compete with the pre-installed software applications, in this case Safari? It would seem not, as Opera has cleverly made its browser just different enough to not upset the guys in Cupertino. Unlike Safari, Opera Mini does not make use of the WebKit engine, instead, the new mobile browser loads websites via a proxy, which in turn means pages are not rendered directly on the device itself, bypassing any possible problems Apple may have with how code is seen.

Opera’s proxy compresses up-to 90 percent of data, resulting in a faster load time. The app also promises to reduce bandwidth consumption. In addition to packing in attractive speed features, the app also boasts a feature similar to that of Safari’s Top Sites. Known as Speed Dial, the feature offers visual access to nine of your favorite sites.

Whether this will open the app store up to more browser choice is yet to be seen, but the introduction of Opera’s browser to the store is an interesting one. You can find out more about Opera’s journey to the app store in Liam’s post.

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Macworld’s Joe Kissell observes that there are many fine Mac Web browsers to choose from, and there’s no reason not to have several installed so that you can switch among them as needed. Indeed, I virtually always have at least three up and running at any given time.

Safari vs. Firefox

However, most folks are inclined to rely primarily on one main browser, and for that purpose, Kissell recommends using one of the two most popular ones — either Apple’s Safari or Mozilla’s Firefox  – which he says both make excellent all-around choices and work well as a default browser, which I don’t dispute, although neither are my own choice as my number one browser. Kissell notes that certain situations may make one or the other of these two browsers an especially good choice, outlining several areas where in his estimation they respectively excel. Of course such evaluations tend to be somewhat subjective.

For example, Joe likes Safari’s built-in PDF support. I’m personally not a big fan. While the built-in facility means you don’t have to switch to Preview or Adobe Reader to launch a PDF file you still have to wait while it loads in the browser window, and saving it is another step. I prefer the download and view mode, but that’s just me. Joe mentions that if you like inline PDF viewing, a free extension called Firefox-Mac-PDF will add similar functionality to Firefox.

Another Safari feature Joe likes is the ability to resize text area controls (multi-line text fields) by dragging the handle in the lower right corner of the field. This is indeed handy, but not a killer feature, in my opinion.

How Often Will You Want to Do That?

I do agree that Safari’s full-text history searches (Safari’s Top Sites view>History -> Show Top Sites) and search field for words that appeared on Web pages you viewed recently even if they’re no longer open is pretty cool, and he likes Safari’s ability to display graphics in non-Web TIFF or JPEG 2000 formats, although how often will you want to do that?

When Firefox May Be a Better Choice

However, Joe thinks there are also instances where Firefox is a better choice than Safari, such as when using Google Toolbar — another free extension for Firefox that adds a long and user-configurable list of features to the browser, including quick access to various Google Gadgets.

He also likes Firefox’s more flexible and versatile privacy setting configuration that lets you configure many privacy settings per domain, as opposed to Safari’s all-or-nothing privacy setting limitations, and praises the vast range of choice in Firefox add-ons and plug-ins compared with the lack of an officially supported plug-in API for Safari. For folks who like to tweak their browser functionality, Firefox is the way to go.

Firefox (and its sibling Gecko-based browsers like Camino and SeaMonkey) can also display inline mathematical equations, while Safari and other WebKit-based browsers only support display of linear strings of characters.

Why I Use Opera and Chrome More Than Safari and Firefox

Personally, I use Firefox more than Safari, but Opera 10 and lately Google’s Chrome for Mac each respectively get more hours of surfing on my machines than Firefox and Safari combined, and both Opera and Chrome have features I miss when using the more mainstream browsers, such as their superior download managers, Opera’s up-front and versatile Zoom menu, and Chrome’s raw speed, fast startup, and “right now” Finder response. Opera and Chrome both seem more nimble and less inclined to be memory hogs than Safari and Firefox (although the latter has cleaned up its act in that regard somewhat in recent iterations). I prefer the looks of Opera and Chrome as well, but as Joe Kissell noted, we have an embarrassment of choice in browsers these days, and everyone should be able to find a browser (or two or three) that suits their needs and tastes to a tee.

What’s your favorite OS X browser, and why?

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I usually have at least three browsers open at any time. One will be a Mozilla Gecko app (Firefox, Camino, or SeaMonkey) and one an Apple WebKit based program (Stainless, Cruz, iCab, Shiira, OmniWeb, or especially since Safari 4 was released, Safari itself). Interestingly, I find I like Safari 4 better on my old Pismo PowerBooks running OS 10.4.11 than I do under Leopard on my Core 2 Duo MacBook where Stainless tends to get the nod.

However, the browser I consistently use more than all of the others combined is Opera, and it’s an abiding puzzlement to me as to why Opera has thus far been unable to carve out a more substantial market niche in North America.

According to NetApplications’ HitsLink Market Share statistics watch for August, Opera now has a cumulative global two percent share (2.35 percent when Opera Mini is included) behind Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Google’s Chrome, thanks largely to its popularity in Eastern Europe and Asia, where it has about four percent of the market. Opera claims that in some regions of the globe, such as Russia, Ukraine and parts of Europe, it is now the most popular browser with growth last year of 67 percent and roughly 100 million users worldwide (translation into 39 languages probably doesn’t hurt either). But its penetration in the U.S. and Canada is more like one percent. Indeed, Google’s Chrome, still a beta with no general release Mac version, has now bumped Opera from forth to fifth place in the U.S. browser market.

“The reality is that in the U.S. we have some work to do,” Opera boss Jon von Tetzchner recently told BBC News.

Opera 10 reportedly hit 10 million downloads in its first week, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out in the September Hitslink stats, but there’s no indication that Opera 10 is taking the U.S. market by storm.

Personally, I warmed slowly to Opera, which has been around since 1994, and released its first Mac versions in the late ’90s, at which time it had an interesting interface and some unique features, but was pretty awful performance-wise. However, Opera’s Mac support is now impressively strong, and since the release of Opera 8, it’s been a fixture on my desktop, and most of the time it’s the browser I reach for first for general surfing and a lot of my work-related browsing as well.

Probably one of the things about Opera that handicaps it in North America is that it’s a bit — and in some instances more than a bit — different from other browsers, which is partly why I like it, but North American consumers tend to be conformists, which explains why Windows has 90-odd percent of the desktop operating system market. When there’s the slightest learning curve to scale, many people balk. With Opera, the learning curve is not steep, but it’s there.

Have you given Opera a try? Did you stick with it? Why or why not?

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Right on schedule, Opera released Opera 10 for download last week, and, as expected, it’s a solid and lively performer — no major visible changes from the late betas and release candidate builds I’ve been reporting regularly. Opera 10 has been my default browser on all three of my production Macs for the past six months or more, ever since the first public alpha level preview was released, and it’s by far the best Opera yet.

Opera, which supports the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms, is the fifth most popular browser on the planet according to NetApplications HitsLink stats for August, trailing Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google’s as yet Windows-only Chrome. But it’s not far behind Chrome if you include the Opera Mini mobile version with the main browser suite app. Given my abiding enthusiasm for this browser, I hope that this version 10 release will enhance Opera’s prospects even further. It’s well-deserved given Opera’s history of solid innovation.

It was one of the first, if not the first, with session restore, tabbed browsing, and tab thumbnail previews. Not to mention, its Speed Dial thumbnail bookmark feature was the model for Safari 4′s Top Sites feature. Some Opera features, such as its built-in and fully integrated BitTorrent download client and mouse gestures support have not yet been adopted by Opera’s competitors, and along with Mozilla’s SeaMonkey it’s the last of the suite browsers with a built in POP 3 email client module.

Opera 10 is speedy, with Opera claiming up to 40 percent better performance on pages such as Gmail and Facebook, however my seat-of-the-pants impression is that Safari currently has the speed edge and reportedly Chrome is even faster, but Opera 10 is certainly no slouch.

In terms of looks, Opera 10 gets a fresh look and feel, and a new application icon designed by Oleg Melnychuk. The red “O” will continue to represent Opera, but has now received a facelift.

Learn more about the features that make Opera unique here and go ahead and download it for free.

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The real power of OS X lies in all of the hidden gems beneath what you see at first glance. Technologies like Expose, Spaces, Stacks, Spotlight and others help users tap the power of their Mac, while keeping the experience sleek and elegant. Aptonic’s Dropzone, a third-party application designed to further simplify your Mac experience, fits into this group perfectly and naturally.

It’s Like an Intern for Your Dock

Dropzone is an application that resides in your Dock like any other app. The power of Dropzone comes into play when you begin dragging files onto its icon. Similar to the appearance of a Stack, Dropzone will expand giving you options of what to do with the file or files you’ve selected. Think of it like Automator for your Dock.

For example, if I have a handful of files selected, and drag them onto my Dropzone icon, I am presented with a series of choices, one of which is “Zip files and email.” As simple as it sounds, dragging the files onto this icon zips the files automatically and attaches them to a new email message inside of Mail. Gone are the days of right-clicking to compress the files, attaching that to an email and then deleting the zip file when I’m done.

Another “destination” included is the ability to install applications quickly by dragging a DMG onto the “Install Application” destination. Behind the scenes, your Mac will mount the DMG file, locate the application inside, copy it to your Applications folder and launch it, unmount the DMG and move the DMG file to the trash.

Other destinations include quick access to uploading images to Flickr (including copying the image URL to your clipboard when its done) or upload files to your FTP server. Want those files zipped before upload? No problem. Just hold down the option key as you drag the files onto the icon. It’s quick and simple and really does save time.

I’m the type of Mac user who likes to keep my Dock as simplified as possible, but I do enjoy the ability to be able to drag files onto an application icon and force the file to open in that application. Dropzone allows me to throw applications I use frequently inside of it and then I have the ability to do just that. Compared to attempting the same thing with a stack in Leopard, I only spawn Finder windows.

Taking It Further

Several optional downloads can extend the functionality of Dropzone. There are add-ons to allow you to start your screensaver, mount/unmount firewire drives, and set your computer to sleep, in addition to many others. Dropzone even includes support for popular web services, including the ability to quickly share photos via TwitPic, shorten a dropped URL via the Is.Gd service (and copy it to the clipboard automatically), and quickly share photos and documents on Posterous.

If you are comfortable programming ruby scripts, Dropzone also offers a scripting API to allow you to create your own “destinations” to further extend the application.

If you’d like to try out Dropzone, it’s currently available for Leopard or Snow Leopard users. Aptonic does provide a trial version of the software, and the cost is only $10 to purchase the full version. The trial does limit you to 15 days of use and up to five “destinations” at a time. I spoke with the developers at Aptonic and they informed me that updates through 1.0 will be freely available to users who register, but the $10 price is likely just an introductory price. Download the demo version here.

I’ll be the first to admit, much like Quicksilver or Spaces, once you get used to integrating this app, it really does save you time. If you have tried out Dropzone, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Back in March, I reviewed the Opera Turbo Labs preview version of the Opera 10 alpha browser incorporating server-side optimization and compression technology that Opera claims can speed throughput over slow connections by reducing the amount of data needed to display Web pages by up to 80 percent — music to my ears, being stuck at present with a rural dial-up Internet connection that gives me 26,400 bps throughput on good days.

Initially skeptical, I was delighted to discover it wasn’t just hype. Opera Turbo provided such a dramatic speed boost it seems silly to use any other browser. There was some image quality degradation from the compression, but you can always turn Turbo off when you need full image resolution.

Earlier this month, Opera released the first public beta of Version 10 with the Turbo feature, joined by a raft of other enhancements. The alpha build of Opera 10 Turbo I’ve been using for three months has proved amazingly stable and bug-free, but I’ve run into some issues with Opera 10 Beta 1, especially on my Intel Mac.

But to first accentuate the positive, the new Opera 10 beta (code-named Peregrine) includes an array of other new features such as an interface facelift by designer Jon Hicks, including etch effects and border highlights, giving extra crispness to edges. Text Shadow has a new parameter to reproduce the etched text effect that is standard on OS X and some Windows applications.

The Mac default skin gets a fresh look that’s OK if you like Safari-esque gray. I don’t, and will install a skin I like better — easy to do from Opera’s large selection.

I won’t revisit the Turbo feature in great detail, since how it works was outlined thoroughly in the previous article, but a new configuration option enables an Opera Turbo setting to activate only if a slow network is detected. New in Opera 10b1 is a resizable tab bar that displays thumbnails of your open Web pages on mouseover, and can now also be used to show all open tabs as thumbnails.

Opera’s Speed Dial bookmark thumbnail feature can now be customized to suit your taste by using the “Configure” button to display from 4 to 25 favorite web sites, and you can add a custom background. (Some downloadable alternate Opera skins also include Speed Dial backgrounds.)

If you use a Webmail service as your default mail client, you can configure Opera 10 to do the same, so clicking on email addresses or the Send by Mail in Opera will open the compose page from your Webmail service provider. The same is true with the Feed reader — you can now also add any RSS/atom feed into your favorite online feed reader from within Opera 10.

Opera 10′s new Presto 2.2 browser engine is claimed to to be up to 40 percent faster on resource-intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook, and Opera is reportedly the only browser besides Safari 4 to achieve an Acid3 100/100 score. There is also enhanced Web Fonts support, RGBA/HSLA color and SVG improvements. Spelling errors are now red underlined as you type in all fields where you can input text, using the Hunspell dictionary format. A contextual menu includes spelling suggestions, the ability to change dictionary languages, or to select additional dictionaries.

The program’s integrated Opera Mail email client now supports rich text messages including inline images, styled text, links, and/or custom HTML, and a new “Delete after X days” feature automatically removes messages from POP servers after the specified interval.

That’s a ton of new features added to what was already one of the richest feature sets of any browser.

Now for the Problems

Turning to the problems, after my first attempt at downloading an installer didn’t work (corrupted disk image that wouldn’t mount) I tried the online update feature, which seemed to install OK, but after I applied it, the browser refused to start. Frustrated, I downloaded the Intel-specific version of the installer and ran it. No joy; Opera 10 Beta 1 would still abort on startup.

Trashing the Opera Preferences and letting the program create new preference files proved the key (I made sure to save my Bookmarks and cookies files first) to getting it to launch, but my troubles weren’t over. For some reason, it refuses to load certain graphics, just displaying a placeholder, while others seem to load with no problem, and general performance doesn’t seem quite as smooth and solid as it’s been with the Opera 10 Turbo alpha.

I hasten to add that the online update worked like a charm on my Power PC Pismo PowerBook running OS 10.4.11, although the graphics non-loading glitch afflicts it there, too. Hopefully, some bugs will be squashed with the next release, and I remain a fan.

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I use a bunch of different Web browsers — Opera, Camino, Firefox (or lately the Shiretoko Intel-optimized build of Firefox), Safari, Netscape 9 on my OS 10.4 machines, and iCab — but my favorite continues to be Opera. I’m specifically using the Alpha Turbo 10 version, which is far and away the fastest browser on my dialup connection, so long as some degradation in image resolution is tolerable, which it usually is.

However, the default Mac user interface theme for Opera, generically named “Macintosh Native,” is a bit drab and boring, meaning there is a lot of battleship gray, er, “Platinum.” It’s an improvement over the execrable “Brushed Metal” UI theme of unpleasant memory, but still dull and uninspiring. It’s not quite as enervating as Safari’s UI theme, which just about puts me to sleep, but still no feast for the eyes.

Happily, Opera is exceptionally simple to re-skin, with a vast selection of alternate UI themes available for quick downloading, allowing you to customize the look of the browser with literally a simple click of a button.

My current favorite Opera skin is “Opera Small with SuperNova SpeedDial” by DarK_007, which is basically an Opera 9.5 default skin (not the Macintosh Native one) with some modifications. The tab bar is a little smaller — there is much more color in a shade of midnight blue that particularly appeals to me, a likewise dark blue scrollbar which stands out nicely, and a spectacular blue supernova burst background for the Opera Speed Dial window, the stock version of which has been looking kinda drab lately compared with Safari 4′s Top Sites implementation of the corresponding function — providing an at-a-glance preview of your favorite web sites when you open a new tab or browser window.

Opera Small with SuperNova SpeedDial has also recently been updated for Opera 10 turbo. However, it’s just one that particularly appeals to me out of dozens of attractive Opera skins available.

The Opera skins page conveniently lets you browse skins by a variety of category parameters, including color, OS Integration, other software, and so forth. When you find one you think you like, just press the download button, and Opera will automatically install the skin. You can also save skin files to your hard drive without installing them.

If you’re creatively inclined, there’s a tutorial by Lars Kleinschmidt on learning how to make your own skin for the Opera browser, which you can upload and share with the Opera Community.

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Opera Turbo is described as a server-side optimization and compression technology that speeds up data transfer by reducing the amount of data that needs to be downloaded in order to view web pages by up to 80 percent, thereby providing significant improvement in browsing speeds over limited-bandwidth connections like mine, which gives me stone-age 26,400 bps throughput on good days at times of the day when not too many of my neighbors are online.

However, Opera Turbo also sounded a lot like so-called “Dial-up Accelerator” software, activation of which I’ve been paying $4.95 a month extra to my “only game in town” ISP over the past 18 months for. The Dial-Up Accelerator is actually a product of Slipstream Data Inc. — a Canadian software development subsidiary of BlackBerry smartphone maker Research In Motion. It helps somewhat, mainly by compressing, and therefore degrading the quality of web page images to varying degrees depending upon how much speed (ie: compression) you specify using a slider on the interface window. Although to get substantial improvement you really have to nuke the image resolution. It’s been helpful enough that I’ve kept paying the premium, but certainly no panacea.

This Thing Smokes!

However, Opera Turbo turns out to be a totally different story. This thing smokes! Well, relatively speaking. Broadband it isn’t, but it’s a whole lot faster than what I’m accustomed to. There’s a cost of course in terms of image quality. A lot of the time that’s a tolerable trade-off, and if you turn the images off entirely, page load times begin to approach the speed I get on my local library’s Wi-Fi hotspot (with images on in the latter case) fed by a DSL line.

Downside: Image Quality Reduction

This screenshot illustrates the degree of quality reduction with Opera Turbo enabled and reading out a 6.8 times speed improvement. It’s actually something of a worst-case example and some images don’t look all that bad for casual viewing.

As for the browser itself, it looks and behaves pretty much like the non-turbo Opera 10 alpha preview I’ve been checking out for the past few weeks, which is to say very well. Opera is in most respects my favorite browser already, and for me this turbo booster is icing on the proverbial cake.

The only interface difference is a small icon in the lower left corner that toggles the Turbo compression on or off and indicates status and the degree of compression achieved on a particular page load.

Still Needs Some Refinement

This is alpha level software in a time limited test phase, and Opera’s Turbo technology still needs some refinement. For example, I couldn’t get it to load the radar image on Environment Canada’s site, although other images on the site loaded fine. Dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax (XmlHttpRequests) and Flash are supported, but some plugin content will load only after clicking on the empty element. Note also that for undiminished security, even with Turbo enabled, encrypted traffic does not go through Opera’s compression servers, so when you’re on a SSL site, bypass kicks in and you communicate with the SSL site directly.

Works With Any Type of Connection

However, where Turbo works, it kicks butt, and I’m already addicted. Opera says it will work with any type of connection, but obviously you’ll get the most out of it when you’re stuck with limited bandwidth, not just poky dial-up connections, but also in circumstances like when too many people are on the Wi-Fi in the cafe or you’re surfing the Web through your mobile phone when commuting on the train.

Opera says Turbo will be part of future desktop versions of their Opera browser, and I can’t wait for a fully debugged final version to be released.

In the meantime, you can watch it in action or just download the preview on the Opera Labs site and try it out for yourself.

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Having prevented the listing of any web browser apps in the App Store since it’s launch, the past 24 hours has seen Apple begin to authorize this type of application on a widespread basis. The company has been reluctant to sell any applications competing with those found on the iPhone by default, such as Safari, Mail and the iPod app.

The applications in question would seem to have been submitted several months ago, and the bulk approval today marks a shift in Apple’s policy towards this area. These new applications include:

Edge Browser (Free) – A full screen browser with no intrusive toolbars.

Incognito ($1.99) and Squeaky ($3.99) – ‘Stealthy’ browsers, which doesn’t record any browsing history.

WebMate: Tabbed Browser ($0.99) – The first ‘tabbed’ browser for the iPhone

Shaking Web ($1.99) – Aims to assist in reading web pages through a technology to compensate for the movement of your hand.

This ongoing approval of browser-based apps is likely to continue over the next few days. It’s great news for Apple fans, as a whole new range of functionality can be introduced to your mobile browsing experience. It remains to be seen whether this will encourage mobile browser releases from competing developers such as Firefox and Opera. Whether any of the browsers approved over the past few days offer a real potential replacement to Safari is debatable, but releases from Firefox and Opera could really push Apple to innovate their own mobile browser at a faster pace.

Many hope that this change of policy will carry forward to areas such as email — an area where the iPhone is arguably not making the most of the technology available. Personally, I feel that any extra competition to keep Apple on their toes is a great thing.

What are your thoughts? Are there any other areas for which you’d like to see Apple relax the restrictions placed on developers?

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