There is an updated benchmark including Opera 10.50b and Chrome 5.0 here!

A newly released pre-alpha version of Opera promises to radically improve the browser’s performance and speed of displaying and loading websites. The official developer website even claims that “[Opera 10.50] is fast, more than 7x faster in SunSpider than Opera 10.10“. Since Google Chrome has been the fastest browser on the market so far, followed by Apple’s Safari browser, we may have a new player among the best-performing browser.

I downloaded and tested Opera 10.50 and found out that it actually is much faster than before, but also very unstable. I ran Peacekeeper three times, the first time it went well, the second time it was much slower and the third  time it didn’t start the benchmark and showed just a blank page. I had to re-install Opera in order to fix this problem. But please keep in mind that this is a pre-alpha release and not meant for everyday use.

In comparison to Chrome 5.0.307.1, Opera 10.50 lost by 12.8%, which is actually a big improvement compared to Chrome 2.0.170 and Opera 9.64, where Opera lost by 60.2%. Safari, once the fastest browser, scored 28.6% less than Chrome, thus giving up its second place to Opera.

Considering the fact that Opera is still pre-alpha and that the development team will improve it before releasing the final version, one can expect Opera’s Peacekeeper score to increase again, bringing it dangerously close to Chrome.

Have you got an iPod touch or iPhone and want to play cool games like FIFA10 or Assassin’s Creed, but don’t want to spend money on buying them? Then this tutorial will definitely help you.

Warning: Jailbreaking your iPod/iPhone will void your warranty. Downloading cracked applications is illegal and may have legal consequences. It is not my intention to motivate people to do illegal things, everything you do will be on your own risk!

Notice: This will only work with the latest generation of iPods/iPhones with Firmware 3.1.2 or higher! The blackra1n jailbreak will probably not work with the MC models (iPod  touch 3G with 8GB).

1. Jailbreak your iPod/iPhone

Before you will be able to install applications other than the ones from iTunes Store, you must jailbreak your iPod. Please consider the warning above before jailbreaking your iPod.

The easiest jailbreak for the 3.1.2 firmware is blackra1n. This tutorial will only focus on blackra1n.

Warning: blackra1n is a so-called “tethered jailbreak”, meaning that everytime you reboot your iPod (e.g. due to empty battery or after switching it completely off) you will have to run blackra1n again. Running blackra1n again won’t install or uninstall any applications but just enable the iPod to start again.

1. Download blackra1n either from the official website or from this server.
2. Make sure you have installed at least firmware version 3.1.2 in iTunes.
   
3. Close iTunes but keep the iPod connected to your computer via USB.
4. Open the downloaded blackra1n.exe file and click the “make it ra1n” button
   
5. Your iPod will go into recovery mode now and reboot. You should see this on your computer:
   
   
   And this image on your iPod:
   
6. Now wait for the iPod to reboot, shouldn’t take longer than a few seconds. Once done, launch the “blackra1n” application that appeared and install  Cydia and Rock.
   

2. Enable the installation of cracked application

1. Open Rock, the application you just installed with blackra1n.
2. Go to Manage -> Manage Sources -> Edit -> Add and enter http://cydia.hackulo.us to enable downloads from hackulo.us, then click Add Source
   
3. Go to Search, search for AppSync and install “AppSync for OS 3.1″
   
4. That’s it,  your iPod is now able to install cracked applications.
   For the case that cracked apps won’t work, try installing AppSync again with Cydia instead of Rock.

3. Download and install cracked applications

1. The biggest cracked application repository out there is Appulo.us, so you should try getting your desired application there first. The website is quite slow and sometimes offline, so be patient.
2. If Appulo.us doesn’t find the application you want or is offline, you may use downloadipa.info, apps.su or search torrents and rapidshare for “<app name> ipa” (ipa is the extension of cracked apps).
3. If the downloaded app came in a zip file (which is the case with most apps downloaded from Appulo.us), rename it to .ipa
4. Double-click your ipa files to add them to iTunes
5. Sync the iTunes applications with your iPod
6. Launch the application on your iPod!

I hope this tutorial was helpful. If you encounter any errors, please comment to tell me about it!