Opera 10 Alpha preview now comes with Opera Turbo. The compression technology Opera Mini users have enjoyed for years has now been adapted for use with a wider range of devices. Available on Opera Desktop, Opera Mobile and Opera Devices SDK (Windows / Linux / Mac), Opera Turbo compresses bandwidth consumption.
By processing data being sent to a mobile phone or a PC by up to 80 percent, operators will be able to reduce network traffic and save on data transmissions. This helps to extend the longevity of their mobile network investments. For device manufacturers, Opera Turbo provides a faster browsing application that can leverage device capabilities and utilize hardware resources more effectively. By leveraging Opera Turbo, operators and OEMs can provide a faster browsing experience to their end-users, independent of network constraints or hardware limitations.
Because the compression technology is server-side, even older computers with limited hardware see “improved page download rates and better overall performance. ” Web technologies like Ajax and Flash will function normally since they will not be compressed by Opera Turbo.
The turbo feature is enabled and disabled by simply clicking on the icon visible in the lower left corner of the browser. If you're on a site or looking at a specific image where the compression isn't acceptable you can easily toggle the service off and on when necessary and endure the slower load time.
Also, even when Turbo is enabled, encrypted traffic does not go through our compression servers. This means that when you are on a SSL site, we bypass these traffic and let you communicate with the SSL site directly.
After giving it a try on my desktop, I found that several pages actually loaded more slowly, likely due to the additional processing by Opera's servers but its still an alpha version, so let's wait and see where this goes.
