Opera’s special announcement will not be Opera 10
A lot of people are beginning to talk about Opera’s special announcement planned for next week. A special page on the developer’s website states that at 9 a.m. this Tuesday, Opera will “reinvent the web”. But what could they be talking about?
Checking out the page’s source code [thanks to Pallab for this!] reveals this secret message:
<!– We start our little story with the invention of the modern day computer.
Over the years, the computers grew in numbers, and the next natural step in the
evolution was … –>
This little teaser has also begun to show up on Twitter, along with the next part which continues:
“… to connect them together. To share things … #reinvent http://www.opera.com/freedom”
Our natural assumption when we saw all this was: Opera 10’s about to drop. That’d be great news and it’d just about explain a bit of viral hype building on Opera’s side. However, if we are looking at the release of version 10, Opera are being much more reticent than normal. Our request for a preview (which would normally be answered with a URL to download the final version under embargo) was answered with a cryptic message stating that Opera will be unveiling ‘a new technology‘ on Tuesday, and that there’ll be a live webcast.
Operawatch has plenty of interesting comments regarding what the exciting announcement might be (the least exciting of which would be a beta for the new version of Opera Mini - I mean, come on!). The most likely idea seems to be something to do with cloud computing (see the pic?) .
Our best guess is that Opera will announce that their new browser will feature a ubiquitous experience across devices and machines with everything possible (cookies, history, bookmarks and more) handled in the cloud. It’s difficult to imagine quite how far they’ll take server side technology, but looking at the company’s history, this is definitely the direction they’re heading in.
Got a better guess? Let us know….
Posted at 12:41 pm on Jun 12th
So the time and date in the /freedom site is for a webcast? Do you know if whatever technology is being webcasted will be immediately available or will we have to wait 6~12 months?
Also the source code keeps updating, but only updating with the same as Operas tweets.
Posted at 12:47 pm on Jun 12th
@Robbie - there will definitely be a webcast. We don’t know whether it’ll be public or whether whatever we’re shown will be available immediately. I suspect it will be something made available immediately. Or rather, I hope so!
Posted at 3:00 pm on Jun 12th
“which would normally be answered with a URL to download the final version under embargo”
Did a Spanish write this message??? We use “sin embargo”, in English it would be “however”
Bye
Posted at 3:37 pm on Jun 12th
@yottabyte - no, ‘an English’ wrote it! When a website or newspaper receives information ‘under embargo’, it means that we agree not to publish any information about it until an agreed date - the end of the embargo.
Posted at 6:58 pm on Jun 15th
[…] Clarke speculates that this new innovation may have something to do with cloud computing, since the image on the site (shown above) displays a lightning bolt in the clouds. He further […]
Posted at 9:01 pm on Jun 15th
[…] company] will reinvent the Web." This sounds like hyperbole, but it has got people all over the Internet talking. Some believe that this is the date the final for Opera 10 will be released, but […]
Posted at 10:10 pm on Jun 16th
[…] OnSoftware received the following message when they requested a preview of the reinvention… […]
Posted at 12:40 am on Oct 27th
so it’s clearly not the reinvention of the web!