This article was published on November 6, 2012

Out of beta: Opera’s new desktop browser (12.10) with better extensions, SPDY support and more


Out of beta: Opera’s new desktop browser (12.10) with better extensions, SPDY support and more

Opera Software, Norway’s finest browser software maker, today released the final version of Opera 12.10, its desktop browser for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

It’s been a little over a month since the company debuted the browser in beta.

The new browser comes with more powerful extensions possibilities and with ‘Live Tiles’-like Speed Dial entries that can display Facebook pictures, Pinterest ‘trends’ and up-to-date weather forecasts, and more.

Opera now also supports Flexbox, an easier way to do page layouts.

API for URL filtering, along with three new APIs (Context Menu API, Screenshot API and Resource Loader API) that essentially enable developers to create more engaging extensions for Opera end users. The browser also comes with a brand new extensions download-progress indicator.

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Operating system compatibility (Windows 8 and Mac OS X)

Opera 12.10 comes with basic touch support for Opera in Windows 8 Classic (and Windows 7), so users will be able to scroll, zoom and browse pages and elements way more smoothly.

Mac users can enjoy new capabilities of OS X Mountain Lion with Opera; they are now able to use Mountain Lion’s built-in share function for your social networking needs, using the new Share button in Opera’s address bar, as well as seeing Opera notifications in the Notifications Center.

SPDY support

The latest desktop version of Opera should be quite a bit faster, thanks to performance optimizations, but also because it now includes support for the SPDY network standard.

SPDY was designed to cut down the time it takes for Web pages to load, and is used by sites like Twitter.com and Gmail’s Web version.

New Web standards support

Opera 12.10 comes with support for some new Web standards, including the Fullscreen API and (partial support for) the Page Visibility API. Opera is also updating its WebSockets standard implementation and enabling it by default, in addition to adding support for the International Color Consortium profiles.

High-resolution display

Opera’s new beta desktop browser should look way better on high-resolution displays, including Apple’s new Retina displays.

Give it a whirl and let us know what you think.

➤ Opera 12.10 for Windows, Mac and Linux

Featured image credit: Ted Aljibe for AFP / Getty Images

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