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TiVo gives Opera browser tech a place inside new Roamio DVR

The new DVR will be able to run HTML-based TV apps using Opera's browser engine and using its programming tools and app store.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
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Stephen Shankland
2 min read
Watch this: TiVo's latest DVR goes whole-home and mobile

TiVo and Opera software announced a partnership in which the digital video recorder company will embed the Norwegian company's browser technology in its newest DVR, the Roamio.

Under the deal, announced on Thursday, TiVo will let programmers develop TV-oriented apps built on a Web technology foundation using Opera's software development kit. The apps themselves will run on Opera's browser engine in the DVR and will make it possible for cable network operators using the TiVo system to write apps that draw on a wide variety of Web content.

Early in 2014, TiVo will add Opera's TV app store, too. At this stage, the browser engine will be able to run only those HTML apps and won't be usable as a general-purpose browser, Opera said.

It's a nice endorsement for HTML-based apps. Although iOS and Android are promising candidates for apps on a range of electronics devices, Web apps fit in natively with Web content that's often already available. And Web apps are relatively portable across different sorts of hardware, since at least in principle all that's required to run them is a standard browser.

Opera is in the midst of a major transition, largely scrapping its own Presto browser engine in favor of Google's open-source Chromium software and its Blink engine. However, the older Presto-based browser lives on in the TV product line.

Separately, Opera this week announced Opera 16, its second version of its desktop browser based on Chromium. Among the changes from the Opera 15 release, according to Opera:

• W3C geolocation API

• form auto-filler

• support for jump-lists on Windows

• support for presentation mode on Mac

• better performance

• tons of bug-fixes

• opera:flags [for configuration]

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