New Browser to Make Life Easier on Slow Connections
Software development company Opera could be about to make browsing easier for mobile broadband users on slow connections, with a new ‘Turbo’ version of its Opera browser.
Opera, which sells itself as aiming for the best internet experience on any device, has released a new Turbo version of its browser for limited testing. The company reckons that Turbo could improve browsing speeds by a factor of four – something it does by sending pages to Opera’s own servers first for compression. Pages are then compressed by up to 80 per cent before being sent to your browser.
All of which is great news for anyone browsing the web on a slow or patchy mobile broadband connection, and in particular for the mobile broadband + netbook market. While mobile broadband speeds are improving, no-one can deny that there is still a considerable gap between advertised and real-world speeds, meaning that some users still have a slow or frustrating experience. If you’re contemplating buying a laptop or an upgrade, consider what the different internet providers are offering by comparing their offers for free laptops.
With Opera’s new browser there is some loss of resolution – which is only to be expected with that kind of compression, but Opera claims that Turbo would support extras such as
The whole venture, with its feel for making things better in some way, is a nice counterpoint to Microsoft, which is known to be eyeing the netbook market and makes no secret of the fact that it is doing so in an attempt to increase its revenue.
