Opera software shortly released Opera Browsers latest version Opera 12.10. The browser upgrade might not be densely feature packed but apart from handful of decent features upgrade, the best thing is that the new release offers something for everyone, may it be average user or a developer. The post rounds up all the latest features in the new browser, and our thoughts on them!
1- The Display
After upgrading to the new browser when I happened to open it, the UI tool me with a pleasant surprise! The new UI has nice vibrant display and colors thanks to newly added support of ICC profile v4; which means your display is sharper and images will appear brighter! Reportedly the Browser also adds support for high-DPI screens and Retina displays on the Mac; something I am sure Mac users have been waiting for. Notice the fine edges in the UI.
2- Emphasis on Extensions
The new browser brings great support for extensions to make your browsing efficient. Opera states in is press release “You want more relevant content, faster, and preferably without having to check a bunch of websites to get your news, email or other site content,” adds “That’s one reason why Opera launched extensions, small enhancements that extend the functionality of your browser, for its desktop browser two years ago and started deeply integrating them into the browser.” Opera states on it home page “And, in this version of Opera, we’ve put the pieces in place to make the extensions of the future even more powerful.” Opera highlighted extensions for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Readbility, StumbleUpon, TED, Google Calendar and Gmail.
3- Speed
The latest version of Opera now gets SPDY support which means now web pages load faster on SPDY-enabled sites. The speed differences were evidently when viewing SPDY enabled websites like Twitter, Gmail; and specially when posting the post via Wordpress.
4- For Developers
Opera added several new APIs for developers to enhance the extensions and get most out of your extensions most notable of which is the increasingly popular WebSocket API other notable API include Resource Loader API, the Context Menu API (for extending the right-click menu). Opera has added support for ICC color profiles and color management. This update also includes Fullscreen API for video, games, and web browsing. New Opera has a better support for HTML 5 and web standards.
Value-added Goodies for Max & Win
- As for OS X the browser gets incredible more Mountain Lion integration. Opera can now connect with OS X’s Notification Center and take advantage of Mac’s built-in sharing functionality that can be quiet handy for Mac users.
- For Windows 8, Opera adds in Support for touch in opera for Windows 8 (and Windows 7). Though the touch features are pretty much limited to basic touch, inertia scrolling and pinch-zoom; users can still get most out of Windows 8 classic and opera running on desktop. This seems like Opera can quickly grab some Windows Surface audience who dislike the default Internet explorer.
Opera 12.10 launch directly follows the tablet from Microsoft, Surface RT. Therefore it is expected to be quiet a pick on the newly released tablet. Never the less, Opera is one of the browser which is equally popular in Open source community as well. Opera supports all major Linux distributions. RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, etc. Intel, PowerPC and Sparc versions.
