14 DAY TRIAL // After no less than five Release Candidate (RC) Builds, Opera 11.50 codenamed Swordfish has been finalized and is now available for download to end users. The Opera.com website sports a download counter for the latest iteration of the Opera browser, complete with the usual tongue in cheek dose of humor that’s somewhat of a trademark for Opera Software’s marketing team.
When this article went live, Opera 11.50 Final had been downloaded approximately 150,000 times, with additional downloads piling up every second.
"We're excited about the work that has gone into Opera 11.50," said Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products, Opera Software. "Before we challenge Lady Gaga though, we've got to surpass the Tom Selleck moustache fan page on Facebook and the number of forum posts Opera fan Tamil has written. We think Speed Dial extensions are amazing enough to do the trick, but we didn't stop there."
Lady Gaga has some 11 million followers on Twitter, and Opera Software aims to pass that number with the volume of Opera 11.50 downloads.
Early adopters that already made the jump to Opera 11.50 RC5 during the testing phase of codenamed Swordfish are already running the final Build of the browser.
Testers already know that the Norway-based browser vendor tweaked the UI for version 11.50. The graphical user interface facelift is not a major redesign, however, users will be able to enjoy a new, streamlined and lightweight UI.
Under the hood, Opera 11.50 sports an upgraded core rendering engine, along with the usual plethora of bug fixes.
“Opera 11.50 is equipped with our newest rendering engine: Presto 2.9.168 featuring up to 20% faster rendering of CSS and SVG, support for HTML5 tag <time>, Session History and Navigation and many enhancements more,” revealed Opera Software’s Remigiusz Bondarowicz. The W3C File API, classlist and the <time> element are among the HTML5 support additions.
The promise from Opera Software is that jumping to Opera 11.50 Final will have users running the fastest and most stable release of Opera ever.
Another enhancement worth mentioning is password support with Opera Link. This means that Opera 11.50 users will be able to synchronize passwords and easily access websites independent of the actual computer they’re using.
In addition, reinvents the browser add-on wheel, with the introduction of Speed Dial extensions.
“Opera Swordfish, with its innovatory Speed Dial extensions, makes your Speed Dial more alive than ever before. Now you can get all the information you need straight from your Speed Dial, without necessity to go to the page. All of this is made possible thanks by the smart Speed Dial extensions, which you can download and install from our addons portal,” Bondarowicz added.
Opera 11.50 Final for Windows is available for download here.
Opera 11.50 Final for Mac is available for download here.
Opera 11.50 Final for Linux is available for download here.