A bit behind in the news, but Opera Software released a maintenance build of their popular Opera web browser. As always this is a recommended release, as it contains several security fixes as well.

User interface

• "Fraud Protection" renamed to "Fraud and Malware Protection"
• Relative paths not working in the Filename setting for Speed Dial background
• Premature shutdown when using vBulletin's WYSIWYG editor
• Loading an animated png causes high CPU usage with no response from the browser
• yahoo.cn mailproviders SMTP entry not using a submission port
• Changing the default cookie preference to "Accept all cookies"
• Installing Opera 10.60 windows overwrites saved search preferences

Display and Scripting

• Google Calendar compatibility
• Unite listening on UDP 1900 even if UPnP service discovery is off
• Several cases where widgets will not run
• Premature shutdown when loading qq.com
• Setting the onload property of XMLHttpRequest blocks document memory from being garbage collected
• Opera treating binary files as plain text (opening it in the browser instead of showing a download dialog)
• Premature shutdown when loading the Canvas demo
• Printing from print preview results in either a freeze or corrupted page
• Widgets not having access to a network after restart
• "Accept cookies" and "only from the site I visit" settings being incorrect in Preferences dialog
• Premature shutdown occurring on startup of Opera under Windows 98
• Disk cache not working correctly in turbo mode

Security

• Fixed an issue where heap buffer overflow in HTML5 canvas could be used to execute arbitrary code, as reported by Kuzzcc
• Fixed an issue where unexpected changes in tab focus could be used to run programs from the Internet, as reported by Jakob Balle and Sven Krewitt of Secunia
• Fixed an issue where news feed preview could subscribe to feeds without interaction, as reported by Alexios Fakos

You can download Opera 10.61 from Opera's official web site, or if you already have an older release an update notification will appear automatically (or manually from the Help menu).

Opera Software has released the latest version of their web browser, Opera 10.60. Unlike previous 10.x releases there is no limitation on platforms, Windows, Linux and Mac releases are simultaneous once again.

Besides being the first stable Linux release there are some other goodies inside this package. Carakan, the newly written JavaScript engine found in Opera 10.50 has been tweaked and enhanced to bring up to 50% more speed, staying on the heels of Google Chrome. Other changes include support for more HTML5 standards and WebM, the open video codec from Google used for instance on YouTube. Lastly there is now geo-location support as well as search suggestions, helping you to make the right search queries.

Existing Opera users may find their web browser prompting for the update, but it's also triggered from the Help menu. The full download is available from Opera's site, and includes all the changes inside described in the changelog.

Opera Software released a new version of their web browser, Opera 10.54. This release includes several important fixes, and is therefore a recommended update to all existing users.

• Prevented Opera from being used as a vector for a font issue in the underlying operating system, as reported by Microsoft's security team; see our advisory.
• Fixed an extremely severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date.
• Fixed a highly severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date.
• Fixed a moderately severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date.
• Fixed a less severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date.

You can update Opera by selecting a check from the Help menu, if it didn't appear automatically. It's also possible to download and update your current release with the installer.

Opera Software released the first beta of Opera 10.60. As the version number increase suggests, it's a minor update. As an Opera release suggests, minor in Norwegian terms means more than the average release.

The focus on this release has been performance and core updates. First is Carakan, which was already impressive to start with. Opera Software seems reluctant to let Google Chrome win the race, so Carakan performs even better in this release, with up to 75% improvement. HTML5 support has been increased to allow features like WebM codec support for video (from Google I/O), geolocation, web workers, offline web applications, cross-document messaging and more. Other noticeable features are search suggestions (for selected search engines), polished visual effects (such as tab thumbnails and Speed Dial), Opera "Menu" button (instead of just the "O"), iconic representations of features (history, downloads), and much more.

You can download the release from Opera's official site and includes the English language version for Windows, Linux and Mac. As always, you can leave your feedback behind on the Opera Desktop Team's blog. Enjoy your ride!

Through the means of the Opera Desktop Team's blog, a first alpha build of Opera 10.6 has been made available. Although minor its version increase, it does offer some interesting tidbits.

I guess the most important promise coming from Opera Software is that Opera 10.6 is the very first synchronous release of Opera in a while, meaning it will be simultaneously be released for Windows, Linux and Mac. But there is more! Carakan in Opera 10.5 was a big first step, a direct confrontation with V8, leaving behind Nitro (Safari) and TraceMonkey (Firefox). In this release Carakan has been improved even further, causing a noticeable increase that possibly beats Chrome 5's V8 update.

Other changes include UI tweaks, such as "menu" text next to the "O" button on Windows in the top left. This button, as the label suggests, holds the replacement menu for Opera (although you can swap back to the traditional menu bar as well). Other tweaks include widescreen thumbnails for Speed Dial, nicer animations when hovering tabs and their thumbnails. For the Mac more Carbon was removed (and dynamically loaded) leading to better performance overall.

You can test this early build by downloading it from the Opera Desktop Team's blog, be sure to leave some feedback for them to find!

During the first day of the Google I/O conference in San Francisco the good fellows of the search giant announced WebM a new open web media format. Why is this important? Well, it seems that this could be the end game for the HTML5 video element.

Not as in the end of HTML5, but the controversy surrounding the video element itself, which didn't limit the codec used to render video. This led to fragmentation as both Mozilla Firefox and Opera only supported open and patent-free standards like Ogg Theora. The competition, including Apple Safari and Google Chrome did add support for the software patent infested H.264, making it hard to target all browsers at once. The newly announced WebM project is here to end it. With a new standard based on the VP8 codec from the recently purchased On2 Technologies, Google is opening up a new codec that offers better quality than Ogg Theora (while still using Ogg Vorbis for audio), as well as keeping it open and patent-free.

But announcing just a new codec isn't going to help by itself. For it to succeed Google needed friends and here there! On the software side both Mozilla and Opera have joined the league, Microsoft announced that IE9 will enable VP8 if it's installed, making Apple the only one left. But there is more, yes Adobe Flash is there too. Other software parties are: (Google/OHA) Android OS, CoreCodec, Skype and more. But software isn't everything, hardware acceleration would be nice too, so the following hardware companies joined as well: AMD, ARM, Broadcom, freescale, Imagination, Logitech, Marvel, MIPS, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and more. Of course, being Google means that this time all videos on YouTube will be available in an HTML 5 with WebM combination.

Google promises that tonight the new codec will be added to Chromium (and end up somewhat later in the development stream of builds), while both Mozilla and Opera already released the first test builds of their respective browsers. Hopefully the world will adopt this one standard so we can all enjoy the unity.

Soon after the long awaited Opera 10.52 releases comes 10.53, which focuses on a highly severe security fix. Suffice to say that this is a recommended update for all Opera users.

Both the Windows and Mac platforms have received this update, and also includes two small changes: CORE-29447 (Possible vulnerability (SA39590: Writing Uninitialised Memory Vulnerability)), CORE-28262 (Fixed order of dialog.ini loading to make the one in the custom folder work), and CARAKAN-1278 (Freeze on Google Maps).

Those with Opera should receive the update automatically, but it can also be triggered from the Help menu. If you (also) want the full binary, you can get it from Opera's web site.

A new maintenance build for Windows, but the first final build for Mac. Opera Software unleashed Opera 10.52, which shows that the Norwegians are still capable of simultaneous releases on multiple platforms.

Of course Linux users will be disappointed that they still don't have a final release, even no beta release. But the good folks of Opera Software are working hard on it and at the very least you could say that they give love to each and every platform. Just take a look at the Mac build, which according to Opera's own benchmarks is one of the fastest browsers (after Chrome 5 Beta), and now integrates nicely with the Mac look and feel (and even Growl).

For Windows users this release comes with some well deserved fixes: a crash on closing tab with PDF plugin, issues with pages never stop loading, issues with caching, an issue with opening email attachments, an issue with access to Unite administration pages, a crash with various third-party apps on Facebook, and an issue were mails could be lost when upgrading from Opera 9.27.

For more information, the downloads and of course a place to leave feedback, go to the Opera Desktop Team's blog.

While Windows users can enjoy the Opera 10.5 for some time now, Mac users are still limited to beta releases. Today Opera Software released the second beta for the Mac, after which the final should follow in the coming month. Linux users will have to wait a while longer until their first beta appears.

Of course users of all three platforms can also try out the latest snapshots posted on the Opera Desktop Team's blog, but for a more stable experience, the beta are recommended. The highlights in this release are: generally improved scrolling with added support for scrolling with momentum , support for VoiceOver screen-access, faster domain name lookup on Mac OS 10.6, and support for Mac OS 10.4 and greater on Intel and PPC.

You can find the full download and the entire changelog on the Opera Desktop Team's blog.