14 DAY TRIAL // Opera may have seemed distracted with the release of Opera 11.60 and the subsequent minor updates, Opera 11.62 is just around the corner, but it's been working on the grand Opera 12 all the while.
It's ready to unveil some of the progress being made on Opera 12, which promises to be a major release. What's more, it's also debuting the first native 64-bit builds of Opera 12 for Windows and Mac OS X.
HTML5 drag-and-drop
The latest Opera 12 snapshot, technically an alpha, also comes with an updated Presto, the layout engine in Opera. This brings support for HTML5 drag-and-drop, meaning that you'll be able to drag files from your desktop to add as attachments in Gmail for example.
Note that drag and drop doesn't actually work in Gmail since Google doesn't support the Norwegian browser, it's just an example of how the feature would be used.
The feature isn't completely working at this stage, partly because the HTML5 Drag and Drop specifications aren't always respected by websites that implemented the feature.
CSS3 animations
Opera 12 is also expanding support for CSS3 features with experimental support for CSS Animations. Animations are more complex than transitions and should enable web designers to really push the envelope of what a site can look and work like just standard CSS.
64-bit and OOPP for Windows and Mac
The biggest step forward is support for 64-bit platforms on Windows and Mac. There have been 64-bit builds of Opera for Linux for a while now. Opera is only now able to release a 64-bit version for the two most popular desktop Oss, since its out-of-process plugins technology is stable enough.
OOPP enables the browser to run plugins, like Adobe Flash Player, in separate process, which has two main advantages. One, if the plugin crashes, it doesn't take down the browser. Two, a 64-bit browser can run a 32-bit plugin.
Opera has been working on 64-bit support for a while now, but has only released builds as part of Opera Labs, the experimental arm. This is the first snapshot (a combination of a nightly and alpha build) that comes with 64-bit support.