Opera 10 gets a sneak peak airing

Hot on the heals of the release of Opera Mini 4.2, it's big brother version is ready to hit 10. Opera's releasing it as a "sneak peak" alpha version, available for download for your from http://www.opera.com/browser/next/.

It introduces a few new treats, including its latest rendering engine, which promises to boost browsing speeds on "on resource intensive pages" such as Gmail and Facebook by around thirty percent Vs Opera 9.5, which was released in June. Auto spell checking has also been added and, er, the email client now has support for HTML formatting - whoo!

A beta release is expected early in 2009, with the full release later in the year. Click through for another screenshot and the full press release.

Press Release:

Opera 10 sneak peek
Prepare for next-generation browsing

Oslo, Norway – December 4, 2008 – Today, Opera Software introduces the first look at Opera 10. An alpha version of Opera 10 is now available at http://www.opera.com/browser/next/.

This release gives people a taste of Opera's new rendering engine, Opera Presto 2.2 — the foundation of all future Opera 10 products. Opera Presto 2.2 offers approximately a 30-percent-faster browsing experience as compared to Opera Presto 2.1, introduced in Opera 9.5 in June 2008.

Opera has fine-tuned its standards support and, as a result, Opera 10 alpha achieves an Acid3 100/100 Test score. This version also provides Web developers with a whole range of new technologies for building better Web sites.

Other new features in Opera 10 alpha include spell-checking as you type, as well as auto-updating to the latest versions as they become available. Opera Mail also has added support for HTML formatting of e-mails.

“My favorite development in this release is the support for new Web technologies, which allows people to explore new ways of using the Internet," says Johan Borg, Vice President of Consumer Engineering, Opera Software. "Our 100/100 Acid3 Test score is only a first indication of the impact these new Web technologies will have. We look forward to your feedback on Opera 10.”

To read more and download Opera 10 go to http://www.opera.com/browser/next/.