According to her New York Times obituary, Stevens died at her home in Manhattan on March 20.

Stevens was born in New York City in 1913. She later attended the Julliard School for three years before being trained by opera singers in Vienna, Austria. After developing her voice in the Vienna State Opera, Stevens joined the Metropolitan Opera (Met), where she was the company’s lead mezzo-soprano for 22 years, from 1938 until 1961. The Met has stated that Stevens sand 337 performances at the met, 124 of which were in the role of Carmen.

After her retirement from opera singing, Stevens went on to be the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera National Company for several years during the 60s. She also continued to coach younger singers at the Met.

Although WhatBrowser.org is a Google creation, they don’t simply recommend that everyone switches to the newest version of Chrome. For instance, accessing WhatBrowser with Firefox will suggest that you can try Chrome, Opera, or Safari. Not IE, it’s important to note.

For the truly technologically-challenged among us, Google also provides a short description of what a browser actually is. They also let users know that updating your browser, whichever one it may be, is necessary because it’s faster, safer, and more feature-rich.

With that in mind, Google has made some changes to the site, which they announced in a Chrome blog post.

“To reflect the changing browser landscape, we’ve completely revamped whatbrowser.org. The site has been fully rebuilt in HTML5, localized in 43 languages, and now works on mobile, too. The site also highlights why it’s so important to use a modern browser and keep it up to date: doing so saves you time, keeps you safer, and lets you do more online. The browser you choose is up to you; hopefully whatbrowser.org can help,” says Google Product Manager Jeff Chang.

With the internet reaching more and more people across the world every day, searches like “what’s a browser” and “what browser am I using” will continue to see volume. Google’s WhatBrowser.org ranks near the top for many of these types of searches.

For fun, if you’re interested, you can take a journey through four years of the browser wars here. The visualization takes you from June 2008 to June 2012 – from a world dominated by Internet Explorer to one where Chrome and Firefox take up plenty of real estate.

Opera Software has entered into a new agreement with Google. The Opera browser will continue to use Google search as the default until 2014. The deal contains a number of perks for both Google and Opera as they continue their mutual friendship.

It was revealed in Opera’s quarter two report that the deal with Google will last until August 1, 2014. The deal will see Opera serving as a vehicle to promote various Google products and services. The agreement also covers Opera’s desktop and mobile browsers in all global territories.

Opera’s desktop browser has never really taken off, but its mobile browser is one of the most popular on the market. It plans to grow its mobile and desktop business throughout the year to gain more of a foothold in the highly competitive browser market. It remains to be seen if their agreement with Google will help the company realize its goal.

Opera itself runs a number of online advertising services that directly compete with Google’s own AdSense. The agreement doesn’t seem to be slowing down Opera’s own expansion of their online advertising business. The company expects to generate far more revenue in mobile advertising in 2012 than it did in 2011.

The increased focus on mobile will definitely be a strong point for Opera this year due to their already popular browser. Compared to Google’s mobile Chrome browser, Opera Mini can be installed on far more devices than any other competing browser. Google might be using that reach to advertise their own products and services through Opera’s mobile browser.

Google’s agreements with both Opera and Firefox will end around 2014. It will be interesting to see if these companies will still continue to use Google’s search engine as their default or switch to a competitor. Another possible scenario would see Chrome growing so large that Opera bows out of the browser market entirely. The Web can change a lot in a year with such disruptions becoming more commonplace. We’ll check back with Opera in 2014 to see how they’re doing.

Ok, “a little less reliant” is putting it a bit mildly. In July of 2008, IE held over two-thirds of the browser landscape (66.87%). Nearly four years later, in June of 2012, IE owned just 32.49% of the share – a figure that puts it in a dead heat with Google’s Chrome browser.

All of these figures come from independent web analytics company StatCounter, who today released their “Evolution of the Worldwide Browser Landscape.” It’s a pretty fascinating look at how the world diversified in terms of how they browse the interwebs.

Check it out below:

And for the lazy, here are the two graphs from July 2008 and June 2012 back-to-back:

Of course, it’s hard to look at this and see anything other than a story of how Internet Explorer lost its mojo – but StatCounter makes a point to say that IE is not giving up browser supremacy without a fight:

IE is not taking Chrome’s challenge lying down. From May to June, IE increased its usage share by two-tenths of one percentage point, the first monthly increase since October/November 2011. On a weekly basis, while Chrome overtook IE in week 20 (14 – 20 May 2012), by week 24 (11 – 17 June 2012) IE had staged a fight-back and was exactly equal with Chrome in terms of browser usage for that seven-day period.

Still, we have to declare that the last four years have been won by Chrome, and it’s not even close. While Firefox, Safari, and Opera barely made any gains (and lost a bit of share in Firefox’s case), Chrome was basically the sole browser stealing all of IE’s pie.

Outside of the improvements from the beta, Opera 12 has added three features that are great for developers and users alike. One of the features in particular is pretty exciting from a development standpoint.

First up is the obvious change for every new browser – speed enhancements. Opera 12 promises “faster startup and quick page loading.” It will do this through a new responsive tab loading sequence that allows the browser to start up or shut down relatively fast. The improvements also extend to general browsing with page load speeds being increased.

Opera 12 now has support for new themes. It has borrowed from what both Firefox and Chrome has done in the field of themes to allow users to create their own or use one that has already been created. What’s even better is that Opera can update themes without having to restart the browser. Check out the community to see the themes that are available.

The most exciting new feature of all, however, is the browser’s ability to use your webcam. Web sites with support for the feature can take control of your webcam for all kinds of applications. The most obvious of course being on the spot photographs for new profile pictures on social networks. It could be applied in many other ways though. One inventive idea would be to figure out how to make gamified apps using the webcam as the input method. I’m sure somebody will figure it out.

Features carried over from the beta include the aforementioned security badges and HTML5 support. It doesn’t stop there, however, as the browser is also host to new APIs, right-to-left script support, experimental WebGL support, and the discontinuation of Opera Unite, Opera Widgets and Voice.

It’s easy to see why Opera has such a fervent fanbase even when its user count is far below that of Firefox, Chrome and others. I’ve always appreciated the browser for its dedication to quality by making sure everything is in perfect working order before shipping the stable version of its latest release.

You can grab Opera 12 at the official site. If you haven’t used it before, I suggest giving it a try. I’m still a Firefox diehard, but I appreciate Opera and what it does. Besides, it’s still one of the only browsers to ship a stable 64-bit version. That’s worth all the praise in the world.

You can’t check out that page though, as it no longer exists – you’ll be redirected to the homepage (if you try to access it via Safari on mobile you get an error page). But you can check out this cached version.

Of course, the significance of this lies in a recent rumor that has Facebook acquiring Opera Software, makers of the Opera browser.

Now, as far as that rumor goes, it makes sense. Facebook hasn’t been shy about big acquisitions lately, and this would in no way be as earth shattering as a recent sepia-toned purchase. Then again, it’s not like Facebook has a clean plate right now.

Naturally, an Opera sighting on an official Facebook page will perpetuate the rumors. But it’s not like Facebook has gone nuclear on Chrome. A quick look at Facebook’s help page on supported browsers looks like this:

There are a few reasons for why this sounds plausible and one or two for why it doesn’t. The most obvious reason that lends any validity to this rumor is the fact that Facebook’s money has been burning a hole in its pocket lately. In a little over a month, Facebook has acquired or absorbed Lightbox, Karma, Bolt Peters, and, perhaps most notable, Instagram. The company just ballooned its coffers after the company’s initial public offering one week ago and, in spite of seemingly everyone except Facebook being very upset with the its shares’ performance so far, Facebook does have some more money to burn.

More, Facebook has been upfront about the fact that it’s losing revenue traction due to more users accessing the site via mobile app than through the actual webpage. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, heading into the company’s IPO, tried to assuage investors’ concerns about Facebook’s mobile problem by telling them that the mobile frontier is the company’s top priority. If Facebook were to pick up Opera, the acquisition would add a very established mobile browser to the company’s inventory of mobile tools. Also, assuming that time is of the essence in turning Facebook’s mobile platform into a source of revenue growth, purchasing a respected browser like Opera would curtail any time lost spent on building a Facebook browser from scratch.

Beyond adding a slick, respected browser into its quiver, an acquisition of Opera would give Facebook a really nice browser-based email client, too.

It’s been all but officially verified by Facebook that it is developing its own search engine, too. Analysts have already speculated that a Facebook search engine would take a huge bite out of Google’s dominance of internet search. Combine a Facebook search engine and a Facebook browser and a Facebook email client and, well, you’ve got yourself some pretty plump Facebook fruit to attract advertisers.

Plus, if Facebook really wants to take a legitimate run at toppling Google, this would be a pretty firm push in that direction.

However, Facebook’s passed on big-time purchases before. Microsoft reportedly tried to sell its search engine, Bing, to Facebook last year. Zuckerberg declined the offer, though, saying that Facebook had too much on its plate at the time.

Facebook’s plate has hardly gotten any less crowded since then; really, the company’s added a second and third helping onto the plate without even clearing off what was there in the first place. Between the IPO mess and the impending class action lawsuits happening as a result of it, an FTC probe into the company’s acquisition of Instagram, and trying to find a way to earn back investors’ trust, Facebook’s got its big, blue hands full.

In the end, it’s a matter of what Facebook wants to prioritize: cleaning up its act with its nascent yet lackluster existence as a publicly traded company, or trying to keep moving forward with its agenda as a technology company. Then again, the company could take the Double Dare challenge and go after both goals at once. Not impossible, but it could lead to some haphazard decisions.

For what it’s worth, Thomas Ford, Opera System’s senior communications manager, says Opera Systems is mum on the subject of a Facebook acquisition. He told WebProNews, “We do not respond to market rumors and we have no comment to the rumor addressed in the question.”

Opera announced the availability of the Opera 12 beta today that features a lot of great new features that puts the browser on par with recent Firefox and Chrome releases. It just lost a few of its more unique features to get there.

Let’s cover the good news first though. The first update you’ll see is some enhanced performance from the browser in the form of 64-bit support on Windows and Mac. It has also sped up page loading even on secure pages.

Even though I can hear the “copycat” calls now, Opera now has themes that users can apply to the browser. Just like all the other theme extensions, you can apply these themes at the click of a button without having to exit the browser.

Remember when I said that Opera security was awesome? It just got more awesome and helpful with a redesigned security badge system. It has added color coded security badges in the address bar to let you know if the site in question has enough security in place.

They have also enabled camera and extension API support. This is for face tracking applications, but also for cool future stuff like WebRTC. More on that later.

There is now right-to-left scripts support in Opera which enables those who speak such languages to enjoy the browser natively. On top of that, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Hebrew are now supported in their native format.

Opera is now getting into hardcore support for Web standards and HTML5 with this release. The first is support for WebGL which enables the browser to take advantage of your video card to display 3D images in browser. On top of that, there is now support for new Web standards including WebRTC, HTML5 Drag and Drop, CSS3 Animations and Transitions, Do-Not-Track, and CSS Generated Content for Paged Media.

Now for the bad news: Opera is discontinuing support for Opera Unite, Opera Widgets and Voice. Unite and Widgets are removed by default, but you can move these solutions to the extension platform if you so wish.

Overall, this is a fantastic release for Opera and it sets up the browser to be even better. Now if only we can work on its notoriety.

Opera Software, developer of the Opera browser, announced today the launch of the Opera Payment Exchange program. Their goal is to provide the world’s best experience in mobile payments. OPX allows users of Opera Mini to carry out mobile transactions “securely and simply with payment instruments they know and trust.”

OPX offers an API that Web sites can use to offer an easy way for Opera Mini users to make mobile payments on their sites. They claim that every Web site that integrates OPX into their mobile site stands to gain these benefits:

For Opera Mini users, OPX will provide a secure and trustworthy mobile-payment experience that is ubiquitous, convenient and easy to control.

For publishers, OPX helps maximize the potential of their existing billing connections with carriers, payment instrument providers and payment gateways, by increasing conversions through merchandising intelligence based on transactions performed on the publishers website, and through a trusted user experience.

For operators, OPX provides a new revenue stream with standardized integration, better support and retailing insights based on carrier billing.

For payment providers and payment gateways, OPX will overcome inconsistent user experience and fear of fraud with one-click, native support for payment instruments.

“At Opera, it is all about giving the user the best possible experience,” said Mahi de Silva, EVP for Consumer Mobile, Opera Software. “Mobile payments have so far been a privilege for users of high-end devices in developed markets. With OPX, Opera is expanding this to all devices, no matter the location, carrier or payment instrument by giving the stakeholders in the ecosystem the right technology to carry out the transactions.”

It’s an ambitious plan that already has secured a few partners including InMobi SmartPay, Yandex.Money and Bango who will use OPX for their mobile payments in parts of the world that aren’t serviced by the big players yet. They expect OPX to be rolled out to more parts of the globe throughout the year.

Opera will be showcasing OPX at their booth at the Mobile World Congress this week.

Also available from Opera is something they call, Opera Mini Next, a preview version of what’s going to be offered in a future complete update of Opera Mini. Both, Opera Mini Next and the version 12 Mobile web browsers feature WebGl support, hardware acceleration, and an updated speed dial with unlimited shortcuts. How exciting!

Android versions of the mobile software is available through the Android market and Opera Mini Next is available at http://www.opera.com/mobile/. So if any of this sounds good to you, go check it out.