Jamie's Random Musings on Video IM
Having spent a good part of the last year struggling with a variety of video chat and IM programs, I have decided to write a few things down and see what other people have to say about them.
Tuesday 8 April 2008, 11:24 AM
Opera Browser "Speed Dial"
I have recently started using "Speed Dial" in the Opera web browser a lot more. If you aren't familiar with it, what they do is give you nine mini-browser windows within the main Opera window, each of which can be preset to a specific web page. You see a miniature version of the web page in the window, and you can go directly to that web page, in a new Opera tab, by just clicking the window. I find this extremely useful when I have a small number of web sites that I want to visit repeatedly (generally every day, or multiple times in a day), it saves me from having to go repeatedly to the Bookmarks menu, or give up space for the Bookmarks or Personal toolbar. Even better, you can set the Speed Dial windows to automatically refresh periodically, at intervals ranging from 5 seconds to 30 minutes, so if I want to just monitor a page for some significant change or update, it's easy to keep an eye on it.
Opera also makes versions for "ordinary" cell phones, "smart" cell phones running Symbian and Windows Mobile, and "devices", such as the Wii, portable media players, set-top boxes and the like. I just downloaded Opera Mini to my Nokia 6234 phone, and it's really quite nice. It does a good job of showing absolutely normal web pages on the ridiculously small display of my cell phone. The appearance and interface are reasonably consistent with the Windows version, and there is even a synchronization utility so that you can keep your bookmarks and Speed Dial between all of the various computers and mobile phones.
If you have never tried Opera, or haven't tried it in quite a while, it might be worth your time to have a look at it. Opera has always been know as a small, fast browser, and it is still that today. They have also always been very innovative, which they obviously still are with the Speed Dial feature.
I'm not quite ready to switch back to Opera from Firefox as my main browser, but I have the feeling that day is getting closer! Now, I have Gizmo5 on my mobile for text chat, and Opera Mini for browsing... a few more utilities, and I'll be able to get rid of my laptop...
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