The development process of the Opera 10 web browser has reached another milestone with the release of Opera 10 Beta 1, marking the move out of Alpha and closer to a final, stable Opera 10 – albeit that may take a while. If you want to put the software through its paces, or if you just want to see how the Beta looks like, then you should know that Opera 10 Beta 1 is available for public download. We will advise you to be cautious with this release; as with any software that carries a Beta tag, you will encounter bugs and other problems.

“Your Web browser is the most important piece of software you will ever use. We think Opera 10 will redefine how you can enjoy the Web. We have more surprises on the way, but when you try the features, enjoy the accelerated performance and get a glimpse at our shiny new wrapping, I think Opera 10 beta will excite both long-time users and those new to Opera,” explained Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner in an interview for Pocket-lint.

Before you rush off to download Opera 10 Beta 1, here are some of the features you can expect to get:
- Visual tabs, which are hidden by default.
- Speed Dial with support for more than 9 sites.
- Customizable Speed Dial background.
- Opera Turbo for faster browsing speeds on a slow internet connection.
- Automatic updates: the browser will update itself automatically whenever a new version is rolled out.
- New crashlogging tool.
- New inline spelling checker.
- Automatically remove messages from POP servers after a specific amount of time has passed.
- Improved Opera Presto 2.2 rendering engine.
- Several UI (user interface) changes.
Keep in mind that these are just a few highlights. If you want, you can view the complete changelog here.

If you would like to get Opera 10 Beta 1, a download location is available here.