Opera to incorporate BitTorrent and get into set top boxes

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 09 February 2006 06:41

Business IT - Technology

Browser developer, Opera, has announced an agreement with IPTV set-top box and software developer, Amino, under which the Opera browser will be offered as an option with Amino's AmiNET110 set-top box and the Opera browser technology will be incorporated into next generation products. Separately Opera has announced that it will integrate BitTorrent technology into its browser.

Opera claims that its browser was chosen by Amino for its "faster performance, lower memory footprint, and support for advanced Web-based user interfaces for IPTV."

As a part of Opera and Amino's partnership, Amino will also provide application developers with the Amino Software Development Kit with the Opera browser option. Opera's browser technology has been ported on top of Amino's Intact IPTV Software Stack. Middleware vendors including Dreampark, Orca, Industria, Tandberg and Alcatel have solutions available for Amino set-top boxes running Opera.

Opera Software also announced that it had teamed with BitTorrent Inc to include the BitTorrent protocol in the upcoming version of the Opera Web browser, claiming the integration would result in faster and more efficient downloads of large files.

BitTorrent's technology will be made available to users of the Opera browser in two ways: first, users will be able to search for torrent files in the Opera browser's integrated search field, and second, when a file has been selected, Opera's Transfer Manager feature will handle the download. As a result of integrating BitTorrent into the Opera browser, users no longer need separate software for the searching and downloading of torrent conten, Opera claims.

Opera claims it was the first mass-market browser vendor to implement BitTorrent technology when it launched a technical preview of Opera 8.02 with the BitTorrent protocol last July. "As a result of positive user feedback and further testing, Opera has now decided to maintain BitTorrent in the upcoming Opera 9 Web browse," the company said