14 DAY TRIAL // A new release of Opera 10.50 is currently available for download for early adopters comfortable with running software in the very early stages of the development process. At the end of last week, Opera software released a second update to the next iteration of the Opera browser, coming one step closer to fully-fledged Alpha. However, at this point in time Opera 10.50 remains in pre-Alpha phase, with the Norway-based browser maker offering no specific deadline as to when the product graduates into Alpha, or any dates from the version’s timetable. Opera 10.50 is developed under the codename Evenes.
“So what do we have for you so far? Well we have upgraded our core rending engine slightly, done a little work on video support, improved certain aspects of performance, improved Windows 7 integration, fixed some mail issues and added support for IMAP COMPRESS, added 'inspect element' to the right click menu and finally of course, fixed a number of common crashes,” revealed Ruari Ødegaard, from the Opera Desktop team.
Only users of Windows platforms, Windows 7 included, will be able to take advantage of the new Opera 10.50 pre-Alpha release. Opera Software continues to be working on the browser flavors for Linux and Mac OS X. Ødegaard revealed that Unix/Mac builds should be available to testers by the end of the week. Opera 10.50 was released ahead of Christmas 2009, and was refreshed with Build 3186 in the first week of January 2010.
“Given that we still have much work to do, what we are really looking for from you is new issues and bugs that you notice. If you have reported a bug already and it isn't fixed, don't worry, we'll get to it but do keep in mind that this is work in progress. Also remember that whilst it is handy to discuss bugs with others in the comments below, reporting a bug consists of actually submitting a bug report through our bug report wizard,” Ødegaard added.
Opera 10.5 pre-Alpha for Windows is available for download here.