Developers, Want to Win Some Gift Certificates from Opera?

By Vygantas Lipskas | October 23, 2009 | 16 Comments

Developers, Want to Win Some Gift Certificates from Opera?
Opera will be giving away gift certificates every week (with the value of a Nintendo Wii or mobile phone) for the best Opera Unite application developer.

Prizes will be given away every Monday and deadline is Friday morning, 10 AM CET.

Want to learn more? Check out developers guide and visit the following page for more contest details.

[digg-reddit-me]


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas Lipskas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • nobody

    oooh i can see that crowd of developers willing to waste their time developing already dead technology for dying browser using tools that do not exist..

    opera has some nice ideas (best of them are already copied and implemented) but as for marketing, creating developer environment they simply s..

    • cousin333

      Why would it be dead? It hasn’t even started…

      And yes, if Opera would be half as successful in promoting their browser solutions than you being an Opera hater, than Opera would have 90% market share. Or more…

  • cousin333

    It’s a good thing to promote Unite services, for the most important to have many fine applications. But I find ‘every week’ a bit optimistic. Anyway it would increase the chance to win for the developers.

    It would be even better, if they would bring out Opera Mobile with Unite soon. So than everyone could see its multiplatform nature.

    • nobody

      every week? without any sort of tools (dragonfly is sh..) i cannot see many serious applications appearing at all – prizes or not.

      opera unite is a concept that, well.. wasnt well received outside opera’ little world – there are still many various security/privacy concerns floating around, with only ‘trust us’ from opera.

      and secondly – because what opera wanted to exploit with unite is already 90% covered with preinstalled services – fileSharing (piracy), musicStreaming (illegal radios), some kind of IM and what else? people use internet for years now, and spectrum of possible uses of Unite is just that small – filesharing and IM. bonuses of using opera cant outweight limitations that Unite places on creators. not mentioning lack of any sort of developer tools.

      opera promised developer tools to developers almost 2 years ago. dragonfly is still a complete and utter sh.. – given their attention to details with dragonfly, expect Unite to be fully usefull in about 2013.

      btw. better if they release Opera Mobile 5 fast, because if not, soon noone will remember what that is. webkit browsers mop the floor with opera mobile now..

      • Daniel

        Nobody, please leave.

      • cousin333

        “i cannot see many serious applications appearing at all – prizes or not.”

        I’ve already said that. But, considering the small amount of Unite applications a week, you got a greater chance to win ;).

        “opera unite is a concept that, well.. wasnt well received outside opera’ little world”

        Well, I have other experiences in this matter. Many people, who could think further then you do with that “Unite is for file sharing and IM” mentality actually saw some concept in it. Anyway, did you know, that Internet is for porn… :P

        “people use internet for years now, and spectrum of possible uses of Unite is just that small – filesharing and IM”

        luckily not everyone is as narrow minded. Although Unite is just beta, there are some interesting apps in the list like the userJS manager or the Collection manager. They might not be extraordinary applications but they do show, that there is lot more in Unite than you think. I guess many features of Firefox add-ons can be implemented that way (video downloader, ans so alike), and you can’t really say, that FF add-ons are for IM and file-sharing…

        The other thing is the ease of use. I don’t really think, that you can show me a faster and easier way to share some of my files, than Opera Unite…

        “not mentioning lack of any sort of developer tools.”

        You’ve missed it again badly. Dragonfly might not be good enough for developing, but the whole point of Opera widgets and Unite applications that they require mainly HTML, CSS and JS, some web developer skills and web developer tools – of any kind! You can use Firebug, if you prefer, or anything else.

        “expect Unite to be fully useful in about 2013″

        And then? Will there be no Internet by that time, or what? In fact I hope to see Unite evolving over and over again.

        “better if they release Opera Mobile 5 fast, because if not, soon noone will remember what that is. webkit browsers mop the floor with opera mobile now..”

        Opera Mini is the most popular web browser on mobile. WebKit with its ‘full power’ is available only for iPhone, which is far from being the whole market. Yeah, the rivals are strong but I do not have any doom’s day feeling.

        • nobody

          “Well, I have other experiences in this matter. Many people, who could think further then you do with that “Unite is for file sharing and IM” mentality actually saw some concept in it. Anyway, did you know, that Internet is for porn… :P”

          what concepts that rely on what Unite is/was hyped for? ‘data for the users’, userJS or videoDownloader only show how badly Opera misses extensions framework, not that Unite as a concept is usefull besides these few uses i mentioned. if all Unite is good for are extension-like applets, then ok, but that means complete and utter fail of what Opera wanted Unite to be.

          “luckily not everyone is as narrow minded. Although Unite is just beta, there are some interesting apps in the list like the userJS manager or the Collection manager. They might not be extraordinary applications but they do show, that there is lot more in Unite than you think. I guess many features of Firefox add-ons can be implemented that way (video downloader, ans so alike), and you can’t really say, that FF add-ons are for IM and file-sharing…
          ”

          same as above – Unite, by Opera own words – was/is about users keeping their data, not about extending Opera. If you want to extend Opera with Unite apps, that should tell you two things – first: opera doesnt have any extension framework aside from Unite, that fails very short to FF implementation, second: opera Unite as a CONCEPT failed, because users use it in another way than opera wanted and anticipated

          “You’ve missed it again badly. Dragonfly might not be good enough for developing, but the whole point of Opera widgets and Unite applications that they require mainly HTML, CSS and JS, some web developer skills and web developer tools – of any kind! You can use Firebug, if you prefer, or anything else.”

          FAIL. if you want Unite APP it has to work in Opera for at least one user. If you had any clue about developing for Opera, you’d know, that firebug isnt enough to fix opera induced bugs. each rendering engine has to have its own tools. and opera is the only one now that hasnt. because dragonfly is utter cr..

          “Opera Mini is the most popular web browser on mobile. WebKit with its ‘full power’ is available only for iPhone, which is far from being the whole market. Yeah, the rivals are strong but I do not have any doom’s day feeling.”

          opera mini is by definition browser for something that soon will not exist – poor and weak phones in remote countries. these phones will be trashed and replaced with iphone-like stuff in few years time in modern and even not so modern countries. because even cheapest phone now can run modern browsers no problem.

          webkit is in iphone – yes, ‘just’ the most popular, the most praised and still – the best phone out there. it is in all android phones, phones spawning like zerglings everywhere. and webkit is free for developers and carriers alike. given opera biz model, they cant offer it for free. lets see who is right in few months time, because i have a strong feeling that there will be not so many opera mobile announcements. not helping opera is a fact, that opera was so certain of its position, that theyve overslept touchscreen revolution, and current opera mobile is awfully outdated.
          and if you even take desktop opera and webkit you see all known picture – opera is not compatible with modern and popular websites.. mobile users do not like this, same as desktop users, and if choice is there..

          • cousin333

            “only show how badly Opera misses extensions framework”

            The main problem I see in Opera, is that it doesn’t have really good support (or user interface) for its “extensions” (userJS, userCSS and so on). I do not miss (FF-like) extensions from Opera! Can you get it? You can say, that Dragonfly is a crap, but it would be only your opinion.

            “if all Unite is good for are extension-like applets, then ok, but that means complete and utter fail of what Opera wanted Unite to be.”

            Well, not really. First of all Unite is good for those things you’ve mentioned: file sharing, music streaming an so on. AND it is good for other things, that may not be a client-server based application as Unite itself suggest. If someone use a combustion engine from a car in his or her boat, do you call it a fail for the engine manufacturer because the engine is not used in a car? You say fail, I say versatility. One can see also the convergence of widgets and Unite apps.

            Anyway, Unite is based on the following concepts:

            - can be made with web development tools (HTML, CSS, JS, Firebug… whatever)
            - cross-platform by nature
            - can act as server and client

            A lot can be accomplished with these concepts, and yes, even a userJS manager, or a collection manager. Unite apps can use the web but they don’t have to. Not using all possibilities at the same time is not a fail.

            “If you had any clue about developing for Opera, you’d know, that firebug isnt enough to fix opera induced bugs.”

            I’m sure, that by making standards compliant apps with any available tool will make t almost Opera compliant. If you make a page, you should check it in Opera, that you can do with Unite apps as well. The fraction of the work should be made with Opera if any. And this all is only necessary, when you simply hate Dragonfly as you do.

            “opera mini is by definition browser for something that soon will not exist – poor and weak phones in remote countries.”

            I bet, that would take more, than a few year. Besides, Opera Mini also constantly evolves with each iteration, and there is also Opera Mobile.

            “because even cheapest phone now can run modern browsers no problem.”

            And Unite’s viability is based on this. ;) Although this sentences is not true today. Maybe in 5-10 years. Today even the finest mobile browsers are far from desktop experience anyway, so there’s a plenty room for development.

            “webkit is in iphone – yes, ‘just’ the most popular, the most praised and still – the best phone out there.”

            Very popular, maybe. The best? Well… Anyway, it’s only one product of one company.

            “webkit is free for developers and carriers alike”

            The code maybe. Do they give any support to implement? If everyone has a cool browser, aren’t Unite apps or widgets (or so alike) that can make a difference?

            “opera is not compatible with modern and popular websites”

            Yes, some sites have problems with standards, but I guess this problem is overreacted (like H1N1). What I see, that Opera is more compatible than ever before, I hardly get any problem with sites. besides, there are Explorer and Firefox, the two most popular browser on desktop. If people would like to see some PC-mobile convergence, than only standards can be the answer, it won’t help WebKit at all, if they capture the mobile market, because that would mean fragmented web based on browser instead of today’s fragmentation PC vs. mobile.

            “opera was so certain of its position, that theyve overslept touchscreen revolution, and current opera mobile is awfully outdated.”

            Opera Mobile for everyone is outdated, but there are beta’s, but exp. HTS’s have more modern versions of it. Considering the touch oriented Mini 5, your statement seems flawed to me.

            ” lets see who is right in few months time”

            OK.

            “and if choice is there..”

            Like iPhone, or not iPhone? :) The new wave is only rising now, and only in the smartphone area, which is globally a small minority. I guess Opera will be ready for the new challenges. It not only survived the last 15 years against many odds, but it’s stronger than ever, even if the competition is also bigger than ever.

            And if it fails in the end, than it fails, but I’m sure it won’t be because of Unite…

          • nobody

            “Well, not really. First of all Unite is good for those things you’ve mentioned: file sharing, music streaming an so on. AND it is good for other things, that may not be a client-server based application as Unite itself suggest. If someone use a combustion engine from a car in his or her boat, do you call it a fail for the engine manufacturer because the engine is not used in a car? You say fail, I say versatility. One can see also the convergence of widgets and Unite apps.”

            well, for me it is fail of opera’ concept. that company wanted to ‘reinvent the web’. problem is, that this client-server architecture has only limited number of uses, most of them already covered by unite services. look at general application market – how many concepts are there using what was the Unite main hype point? not so many. so what opera did was introducing system with almost no use that users couldnt care less about, and at the same time, by accident, they gave them most wanted extensions-like framework. this is example of company loosing touch with market, users and general common sense. and when questioned, all they can say is ‘you cant see big picture’. problem is, that they cannot word their version of ‘big picture’, or maybe it doesnt exist at all.

            “I’m sure, that by making standards compliant apps with any available tool will make t almost Opera compliant. If you make a page, you should check it in Opera, that you can do with Unite apps as well. The fraction of the work should be made with Opera if any. And this all is only necessary, when you simply hate Dragonfly as you do.”

            as i’ve said before, you seem NOT to be a webdeveloper by any chance.

            standards compliant is LAME excuse, a buzzword, a phrase without meaning. if you have some spare time, read trough w3c specs and see what these ‘standards’ are. they are contradictory, full of gray areas, leaving lots of details and even non-details to browser vendors to decide. 3 browsers can be standards compliant, code can be standards compliant, and it might fail in all three! simplest example? look at how opera and firefox format Date object and tell me, which isnt standards compliant? becase they both are. and both display it differently. there are thousands of such stuff in the specs, browser vendors arent cooperating and each one interprets it in its own way. opera is the smallest, and should follow the bigger players, but no, they know better.

            for situations as such webdevelopers need dev tools, without them, they are forced to debug this mess by hand/alert combo. or leave certain browser out. this happened to opera, and if you once drop certain browser, you never pick it up again. i’ve worked in that industry for 4 years, noone of my colegues and competitors gave any damn about opera – just for the lack of tools. and those who had any sympathy for this company lost it after dragonfly was ‘released’. dragonfly was thrown at developers as a poor excuse ‘we are doing something, arent we, so why you dont develop for opera’..

            no number of widget, unite, speeddial crap will make these people back to develop for opera, and because of that stuff like youtube, digg, facebook and others will more and more often fail in opera, to the point when people will get fed up and leave sinking ship. unite nor widgets will not keep them, because browser has to work first as a browser. opera forgot about that years ago.

            most of the popular pages are working just because tens of people in opera are writing browser.js patches for them. but at some point they’ll stop, because this file is too big already. delete this file and roam around the net for awhile..

            this is all because opera couldnt care less about developer tools.

            “Yes, some sites have problems with standards, but I guess this problem is overreacted (like H1N1). What I see, that Opera is more compatible than ever before, I hardly get any problem with sites. besides, there are Explorer and Firefox, the two most popular browser on desktop. If people would like to see some PC-mobile convergence, than only standards can be the answer, it won’t help WebKit at all, if they capture the mobile market, because that would mean fragmented web based on browser instead of today’s fragmentation PC vs. mobile.”

            standards? read obove what standards are and why this is somebody’ wet dream. this is alternative reality, that misess two things: reality and facts.

            btw safari and firefox handle code in such way, that if you make an app for one of them, second will most probably run it okay, so it is quite smooth transition between desktop ff and mobile webkit

          • Thoe

            opera Unite as a CONCEPT failed, because users use it in another way than opera wanted and anticipated

            You fail again. If you pay attention to what Opera has been saying, they are anticipating exactly unexpected things to happen. For example, someone wrote a BitTorrent tracker for Unite.

            opera mini is by definition browser for something that soon will not exist – poor and weak phones in remote countries

            LOL, dream on. Even most of the UNITED STATES is not on broadband!

            even cheapest phone now can run modern browsers no problem

            Nonsense. But this just shows your ignorance again.

            webkit is free for developers and carriers alike

            Only a child thinks there is such a thing as a free lunch.

            Why did RIM have to hire even more C++ programmers when they already bought a browser company working on a WebKit browser?

            Do you really think hiring people to create a browser is free?

            Google spent more than 2 years to create the basic and anemic Chrome based on an existing engine.

            Nokia has spent many years and billions of dollars for the same thing.

            You obviously know nothing about browser technology and how extremely hard and expensive it is to create a decent browser.

            opera was so certain of its position, that theyve overslept touchscreen revolution

            LOL, most phones don’t even have a touchscreen. And the most recent versions of Opera have full touchscreen support.

          • Thoe

            when questioned, all they can say is ‘you cant see big picture’. problem is, that they cannot word their version of ‘big picture’, or maybe it doesnt exist at all.

            Or rather, you are too ignorant to get it.

            btw safari and firefox handle code in such way, that if you make an app for one of them, second will most probably run it okay, so it is quite smooth transition between desktop ff and mobile webkit

            The same goes for Opera.

            The problem isn’t Opera’s capabilities, the problem is browser sniffing.

      • Thoe

        opera unite is a concept that, well.. wasnt well received outside opera’ little world – there are still many various security/privacy concerns floating around, with only ‘trust us’ from opera.

        Sorry, but Opera Unite got a very good reception, with lots of sites recommending it. However, your irrational hatred of Opera compels you to ignore the evidence.

        what opera wanted to exploit with unite is already 90% covered with preinstalled services

        Speaketh a man without vision. If you can’t think of any other applications for Unite, you are extremely narrow-minded.

        btw. better if they release Opera Mobile 5 fast, because if not, soon noone will remember what that is. webkit browsers mop the floor with opera mobile now..

        It’s too bad that Opera is the #1 browser for mobile phones worldwide, then.

        • nobody

          “Sorry, but Opera Unite got a very good reception, with lots of sites recommending it. However, your irrational hatred of Opera compels you to ignore the evidence.”

          links? because what WAS cited around the net by major webpages were security, privacy and stability issues. prove me otherwise

          “Speaketh a man without vision. If you can’t think of any other applications for Unite, you are extremely narrow-minded.”

          show me your ideas then, ‘man with a vision’

          “It’s too bad that Opera is the #1 browser for mobile phones worldwide, then.”

          counting opera mini? yes. counting opera mobile only? i’m not so sure anymore. webkit now is in every android, in iphone and other companies are adapting it, fast.

          “That’s interesting, because Mozilla doesn’t even have a proper mobile browser. They are lagging way behind. But you never hear the troll mention that.”

          http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/firefox_is_coming_to_android.php – this browser has better website compatibility than desktop opera, has extensions and is considerably less bloated with its UI. quite a lot for a browser that doesnt exist.

          “The same goes for Opera.

          The problem isn’t Opera’s capabilities, the problem is browser sniffing.”

          simply put – bulls…

          “Google spent more than 2 years to create the basic and anemic Chrome based on an existing engine.”

          and it took google 6 months to surpass even the most optimistic opera marketshare. with a browser that is faster than opera in everything you can think of. or in your case, troll of.

          • cousin333

            “links? because what WAS cited around the net by major webpages were security, privacy and stability issues. prove me otherwise”

            What I’ve read was positive or neutral. Except one: http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2009/06/16/thoughts-on-opera-unite/ But this turned out to be flawed at some points, and even he gaves credits to Opera and Unite. Besides, you talked about negative reception from ‘major pages’ and yet, we ain’t see any link from you to prove it.

            Security – apart from some security-wise assumption, that are much more theoretical, I didn’t see any real problem. And yes, Internet is dangerous, don’t use it if you are afraid that you’ll catch something. It’s not like you can’t do it easily without Unite. Unite inherits dangers, that’s true, but gives you possibilities also.

            Privacy – that’s based on the fact, that data transfer and making links are based on Opera’s server (but not necessarily). Otherwise it has more privacy than other methods, that’s the whole idea.

            Stability – I don’t know, what do you mean, and really, what do you expect from a function being in alpha (now beta) state…

            “show me your ideas then, ‘man with a vision’”

            We have already told you some application that exists. And that only is more, than you could think of (file sharing and chat).

            “counting opera mini? yes. counting opera mobile only?”

            Why not counting them together? Besides the market of smartphone is small compared to the whloe phone market, you simply ignore tha fact that Opera also creates browser for other devices like the Nintendo Wii and DS(i). I think both of them are free now, so even price can’t be a problem any more.

            “this browser has better website compatibility than desktop opera, has extensions and is considerably less bloated with its UI. quite a lot for a browser that doesnt exist.”

            We are now pretty far from the topic, you know… Have you seen Opera Mobile recently? Because by default it ony has one opaque button on the right bottom corner of the screen. I wonder what can be less bloated, maybe mind reading. The menu is also nice and logical, I find Fennec not to be better. ANd tell me, when this superior browser will actually work on my PDA phone (WinMo), because every time I’ve tried it, it didn’t even start. That’s for better site compatibility.

            “simply put – bulls…”

            The fact is, that’s mainly true. Or sites use some capability that not supported in Opera, and lacks the ones Opera excels in. But that main problem with sites not Opera even if you don’t agree.

            “and it took google 6 months to surpass even the most optimistic opera marketshare.”

            In USA, yes, wordwide not so sure. Let’s not forgat that Google is one of the biggest IT companies in the word, based on its existence on marketing. They can sell you shit if they wanted. And yet, they have got abou 2-3% globally, and it won’t be much I guess. Now I’m awaiting for your list of companies that might release an other browser, and have the same power and trademark/marketing possibilities as Google.

            “with a browser that is faster than opera in everything you can think of.”

            And yet it doesn’t do better, than Opera (1% difference – if it exists – is error margin). And to be fast is simply not enough. Cosider Firefox user who won’t change browser because of addons. Chrome might have them some time, but it would take a while, and while by Firefox it was a novelty (pushed further by open-source hype) now it’s not.

            Anyway, thanks to some Opera features, like Mouse gestures, I do think that there are areas where Opera excels. Speaking of speed, wait for Carakan, and we will see where they stand.

            ps: anyway the main problem with you that even if you’ve accidentally right, the Opera hatred of yours clearly make your comments look heavily biased.

  • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

    I haven’t read any comment. *applauses for me* – Thanks!
    =D

  • Thoe

    The obsessive troll writes:

    opera was so certain of its position, that theyve overslept touchscreen revolution, and current opera mobile is awfully outdated.

    That’s interesting, because Mozilla doesn’t even have a proper mobile browser. They are lagging way behind. But you never hear the troll mention that.

    And guess what, Opera is the leading mobile phone browser. And most phones don’t have touchscreens. Still, the latest Opera versions do support that.

    Now go troll elsewhere.

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