Remember the Opera browser? Now in version 9 for PCs, it’s free and has advanced features you won’t find in Firefox or Internet Explorer 7. It also works with a range of devices and not just PCs, meaning that ‘a night at the Opera’ can now be a 24×7 browsing experience!

World peace might be one thing, along with a larger share of PC users choosing to use the Opera browser as their default might be another, but all jokes aside, Opera www.opera.com is one of the few real alternatives to a world of Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox for PC, Mac and Linux users, Safari for Macs and a host of PC based other alternatives such as Maxthon, Avant or even the Crazy browser.

Its latest version 9 is a real alternative to the newest browsers from Firefox and Microsoft, and offers unique features all its own, including mouse based gestures to navigate between pages and perform other functions, while an improved range of keyboard shortcuts helps you save more time.

And yes, it has tabbed browsing, it’s had it for ages, and these days, Opera is finally completely free. And free of those ads which ‘supported’ the free version in the past. 

Now Opera is available as version 8.6 for Windows Mobile 2003 and 5.0 for Pocket PC, Microsoft’s true ‘mini-PC’ OS for handheld devices. Unfortunately there is no new version as yet for Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone devices, which are phone first and PDA-style device second. 

At US $24, it does cost money, but it’s far better than the built-in Internet Explorer 5.0 for Mobile that is shipped with most Windows Mobile devices, with proper support for tabbed browsing and a host of other advanced features, such as:

Advanced small screen rendering, zoom feature, download capability, navigation and history, easy bookmark saving and retrieval, and landscape and portrait mode, a full screen/fit to screen mode, a pop-up handle, a pad-lock icon to advise you you’re on a secure site, web address auto complete,a single column display and more.

That’s *much* more advanced that Microsoft’s Pocket PC browser.

The only major issues reported so far are that Opera tries to render some web sites in their PC mode, instead of automatically defaulting to their friendlier handheld versions, and reports of the browser crashing as well have surface, although these things will presumably be fixed quickly with a new version offered for download.

Unfortunately you can’t download a version that downloads direct to the phone and installs from there – for now you still have to download it to your PC and install it from there.

As reported elsewhere, this seems a dreadful waste of time, devices today should be able to easily handle the direct downloading of software, especially as many now connect to 3G and Wi-Fi services making larger downloads on a mobile device no big deal whatsoever.

There’s also a version of Opera Mobile 8.6 for Nokia phones, and while it doesn’t offer tabbed browsing, it too offers a range of advanced features to outdo the browser that Nokia ships as standard. It’s slightly more expensive at US $29.

The other major version of Opera is the one for a range of different devices. It’s being deployed on TVs and set-top boxes, consumer electronics devices, in cars, on a fridge mounted display (a la the LG Internet Fridge) in IBM’s labs and is available to purchase for the Nintendo DS handheld games console and will come as standard with Nintendo’s Wii games console.

For a browser that has a tiny share of the PC market compared with Firefox and a miniscule one when compared with Internet Explorer, Opera is a browser company that continues to innovative and most certainly punches way above its weight, especially with the wealth of capable browsers available for non PC devices.

The fat lady is far from singing when it comes to the Opera browser – and she may even have the last laugh!

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