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>> NEUBERG: Hi, we're here at Google I/O. My name is Brad Neuberg. I'm with the Open
Web Advocacy team. And we've got Charles McCathieNevile from Opera and David Story...
>> STORY: Hey. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Also from Opera.
>> STORY: Yeah. >> NEUBERG: Also from Opera with a great really
cool Opera, heavy-metal t-shirt, very nice. So everyone knows what Opera is. So I wanted
to jump in, what kind of things are you involved in right now. What are some new interesting
things that Opera is working in its desk? >> STORY: Well, it's, one of the big things
we have now which we're developing is Opera Dragonfly which is a Web developer tool. So
it's similar [INDISTINCT] like Firebird, except this is architected that it can work on any
device so you can use it on your mobile phone and you connect through a proxy to the desktop
computer instead of having to use emulators and things like that. You can debug directly
from the phone. So it's something very interesting. We're doing also Opera widgets is something
which is getting big take off in the mobile space with things like phone to phone and
T-mobile, just... >> MCCATHIENEVILE: So they're no longer Opera
widgets, like W3C widgets, 'cause two or three ECO, when every man and their dog was building
a widget or a gadget or whatever you want to call them, Opera went to W3C and said,
"Everyone is doing this. Let's make one version that everybody can use, so developers don't
have to code eight times." And that's something we're doing. We're doing some other stuff.
We're doing--we put out a geo-location builds, like, the Google contributed an editor and
the spec, Opera has done implementation of geo-location [INDISTINCT] so we made a build
that you can do that. We're working on 3D Canvas being Chronos which is, you know, with
Mozilla and looking at the O3D and different ways of doing that. There's a whole heap of
stuff about access to your platforms. >> NEUBERG: Right.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: So being able to use the camera or being able to send an SMS if you've
got a phone connection or a network like a phone card, like, any of that, your laptop,
being able to, you access information like the address book or your calendar stuff. So
you can do things like have your Web information and your local information connect to each
other and synchronize better, just making it more flexible.
>> NEUBERG: What are some, sort of, there's technologies that have been around. They're
starting to mature like SVG... >> STORY: Yeah, sure.
>> NEUBERG: And there are sort of newer technologies coming down the pipe, like, geo-location,
what are some technologies that you're particularly excited about that finally, it seemed like,
they are getting in front of developers, and what are some of the newer technologies that
you're also excited about? >> STORY: I think things are just starting
to get in front of developers, things like Canvas is starting to really take off, a lot
of people are using that, saying which I think is a bit of a sleeper here, as SVG as you
mentioned is getting very support in browser except for one obvious browser which doesn't
support, which I know you're doing work on trying to rectify that with the plug-in you're
developing. So I think as we get things like supported, IE supported, that will start taking
off and it will become a real platform we can develop too, like what Flash has been
for so long. >> NEUBERG: You know, just to add in really
quick, it's, just the JavaScript talk in that point.
>> STORY: All right, all right. Sure. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Right. So, I mean, I think
the location, location in particular, a lot of the device access, it's exciting, you know,
it's going to let developers do cool things. One of the reasons I actually find exciting
is the security aspects are incredibly serious, getting at physical locations is a really
big deal. And the technology, yeah, we've had the technology for a long time.
>> NEUBERG: Right. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: What's bringing it out
to developers is people saying, "You know, if we get the security right then we can do
some cool stuff, it's time to get the security right." And that's actually going back and
translating back to the rest of the Web and saying, you know, if we get security right
and let people understand what they're doing, then, we can do more interesting things across
the whole web. >> NEUBERG: Yeah.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: And I think that's actually a really exciting trend. But, you know, you
won't see it. That's not a technology that you pick up. It's a way of using the Web that
will, you know, just change the paradigm gently and very radically.
>> NEUBERG: I've actually heard this from members of Internet Explorer team that it's
not about functionality as much as it's about security and the user interface surrounding
security. >> STORY: Yeah, sure.
>> NEUBERG: How do you make a UI that can go in front of hundreds of millions of people
that they can understand and it will remain... >> MCCATHIENEVILE: That they get and that
they use. >> NEUBERG: That they get, yeah.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: 'Cause what we have today, you know, we say this if it gets expired.
>> NEUBERG: Exactly. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Do you want to continue?
>> NEUBERG: Okay, okay, okay. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Yes, yes, yes, right.
>> NEUBERG: Yeah, exactly. >> STORY: So...
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: So, yeah, a lot of it is--yeah, there is some technical stuff about securing
things, you know, the technical bits are generally reasonably well understood.
>> NEUBERG: Yeah. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: The UI, it's really, really
hard. >> STORY: I don't think anyone solved that
yet. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: No. It's, it's, and it's
an ongoing and changing problem. And, you know, security in general is. But figuring
out the way people behave is crucial and difficult. >> NEUBERG: Yeah. So I think, one more question,
can I just have one more question? What do you see are some significant unsolved problems?
So lots of attention is happening around... >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Yeah.
>> You talked about. What are some sort of the unique thing that you think hasn't gotten
as much focus, it could be a place for future growth or direction?
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: So security stuff. >> STORY: Yeah.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: Looking at dealing with text, you know, having live text, building
text there, there's some building, authoring software on the web, at the moment it's just
kind of messy. You can build a packaged native application, C++ program and download it.
But getting good authoring systems... >> NEUBERG: Yeah.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: So that people can create content. You know, you look at what people
do and they type some pseudo mark-ups in blogs, stuff, it's garbage, right? Let's figure out
how to make that, you know, a thousand times better.
>> NEUBERG: Yeah. And the hack is necessary to really make it full feature...
>> STORY: Sure. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> NEUBERG: I mean, you can do it but it's hard.
>> STORY: Exactly. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: At the moment, the reason
why we have [INDISTINCT] is partly 'cause... >> STORY: Yeah.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: The technology doesn't actually give us all of the things we need.
>> STORY: Yeah. >> NEUBERG: That's right, that's right.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: And building that up, and the other thing, you know, accessibility is
always a challenge. >> STORY: Yeah.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: And there's a lot of new work that, like always, you know, just ignores
accessibility and leaves it to some other time.
>> NEUBERG: It's a very tricky issue. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: And getting that into front
and center when you start developing, not after you've done it and tried to, you know,
deal with it. >> STORY: And you've got the formats issue
as well with things like video, for instance, there's no standard codec and...
>> NEUBERG: That's right. >> STORY: There's a lot of fear and uncertainty
of things like [INDISTINCT] is a submarine [INDISTINCT]. Then, of course, there's the
fonts issue with their format where Microsoft has their own E or T and there's true type
and there's the issues with the foundries whether we're allowed to use two type fonts.
Getting a cross browser, for everyone to agree which formats to use is to me a big problem.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: And quality. >> STORY: Yeah.
>> NEUBERG: Quality. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Speed and quality...
>> NEUBERG: Yeah. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Is a vehemently unsolved
problem. >> STORY: Yeah.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: 'Cause we want more. >> NEUBERG: Yeah.
>> STORY: Yeah. Always, yeah. >> NEUBERG: It's an infinite problem.
>> STORY: Yeah. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Yeah, yeah.
>> NEUBERG: So any, any final words, any final thought?
>> STORY: Well, I would say, if you can download Opera, give it a try...
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: Yeah. >> STORY: Give us some feedback if your website
works, it doesn't work, give us some feedback. You can e-mail me dstoryopera.com if you have
any issues. >> NEUBERG: What is--so just a close, what
is some really, really unique feature of Opera that would really compel users to want to
check it out? >> STORY: One of the features that users will
really love is speed dial. It's a grid on the front page. When you make a new tab, where
you put your nine favorite sites and you can use a short cut like for the first position,
if you type one in the URL field, it will go to your number site.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: So this is kind of unique, unique. Now it's in Chrome and Safari is copying
it. >> STORY: Yeah.
>> NEUBERG: Opera has always been a leader in UI innovations.
>> STORY: Yeah. >> STORY: Yeah.
>> NEUBERG: You came up with the tab as far as I understand, the browser tab.
>> STORY: On sessions. >> NEUBERG: Things like that. So right, Opera
produces UI innovations. >> STORY: Yeah.
>> MCCATHIENEVILE: Yeah. >> STORY: So we'll probably have [INDISTINCT]
in the next version of Opera which might be in two version of Firefox latest. So if you
want to try the new features... >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Yeah.
>> STORY: Try Opera. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: We will have something
in the next version of Opera and we're not allowed to tell you yet.
>> NEUBERG: Okay, but it's going to be really cool.
>> STORY: Yeah. >> NEUBERG: It's going to be really cool.
Well, thank you so much. >> STORY: Thank you.
>> NEUBERG: Thank you. >> MCCATHIENEVILE: Thank you.