For those of you using Opera, the latest version will make happy. Opera 12 is indeed a piece of marvel as graphics or security and these words are spoken by somebody using Firefox for a couple of years, so you have to try it to see the major differences. A little bit behind the schedule, Opera 12 makes its public debut today with numerous changes that mostly focus on faster browsing. The Norwegian browser can be downloaded for Windows, Mac or Linux.
Opera Gets Beautiful, Secure And Interactive
Let's start our review with the most important improvement, the speed. After an online petition written and signed by customers, Opera understood the importance of hardware acceleration, occurring when the browser uses the graphics processor to render animations faster and more smoothly. Opera 12 got a surprise for you: it's in the browser, but you must manually activate it, since it's still a beta test. Jan Standal, vice president of desktop products for Opera, is positive that any flaw will be solved out in four to five months, but the company wanted users to benefit of the latest improvements, as soon as possible.
The Norwegian brand has continued to incorporate HTML5 support into Opera 12 as the still-developing HTML code standardizes. In Opera 12, web sites can access your local hardware, such as webcams. However, because of its slower update cycle, Opera is hardly leading in this area. Google and Mozilla are further ahead, as Google uses Chrome as gaming platform and Mozilla prepared a mobile operating system.
What you will definitely appreciate about Opera 12 is its separate processes for plug-ins like Flash and QuickTime, so that when they crash, the browser doesn't stop right on the spot; a lightweight add-on structure powered by HTML5, JavaScript and CSS emphasized for extensions and themes redesigned the entire process, so that you won't lose important time waiting for the system to recover.
Opera 12 has a lot to offer Web developers. The new version includes preliminary support for WebRTC, an emerging standard being drafted by the W3C Web Real-Time Communications Working Group. WebRTC will eventually enable standards-based audio and video chat in Web applications. To be more concrete, with WebRTC you will be able to capture live media streams from your microphone and webcam.
Opera Gets Beautiful, Secure And Interactive
Another note worthy feature for Opera 12 is Do Not Track header. When the user enables the Do Not Track feature, the browser will append a flag to every HTTP request to inform servers that the user wants to avoid any of behavioral tracking. Do Not Track isn't yet universally supported, but can be an efficient solution for those of your fearing about their privacy online.
In version 12, Opera has extended its rich themes. The lightweight theme mechanism, which works alongside traditional Opera skeleton and seen in our article is funny indeed, but seems to familiar to Firefox's popular Personas. Let's imagine that users asked for more color and beauty, probably you will get used to it. Another feature, that was subject of change since customers weren't pleased about it, is Opera Unite, the browser’s built-in programmable Web server. First introduced in 2009, Unite was meant to give users the ability to share content on the Web without having to control their content. Unite was a fascinating concept, but it proved to be too esoteric and impractical to attract a large audience.
The competition is harsh and Opera knows it well. Besides Chrome and Firefox permanently updating, Internet Explorer and Safari are preparing big changes and Opera seems to be caught somewhere in the middle, with a middle speed of feedback. Jan Standal strongly believes that Opera will face the world, by offering a variety and higher quality applications. It's up to you to decide whether the latest Opera managed to fulfill its mission.
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