14 DAY TRIAL // Opera 11.60, codenamed Tunny, yet another entry in the "fast fish" series, has landed. Its existence came as somewhat of a surprise, since Opera 12 was supposed to be the next major release, but it does bring quite a lot of new features and improvements.
Opera 11.60 came about after an increasingly large number of features, planned for Opera 12, were completed, while work on some of the harder problems, like hardware acceleration and WebGL support also slated for Opera 12, carried on.
The decision was made to take all of the features that were ready, polish them up a bit to get them ready for a stable release and launch them as Opera 11.60.
A new HTML engine, Presto 2.10
Opera fans will be pleased, there's plenty to like about the new build. For one, it comes with a brand new HTML engine, Presto 2.10 if you're keeping count. The new version boasts better compatibility as well as better performance.
HTML5 parser and JavaScript 5.1 support
There is also a brand new HTML5 parser, dubbed Ragnarök, which should ensure that sites behave more like they were supposed to, even with sloppy coding.
Opera 11.60 also boasts full support for the ECMAScript (JavaScript) 5.1 standard. At this time, Opera is one of a few browsers that can say this. The Carakan JavaScript engine has also been updated.
Featherweight UI improvements
The latest Opera boasts some improvements to the new Featherweight theme introduced in Opera 11.50. There is now a star menu in the address field enabling users to bookmark pages or pin them to the Speed Dial. At the same time, the native Windows UI has been removed.
New email client
There's a brand new email client in Opera 11.60. The UI has been revamped and there are changes throughout. The default layout suits wide screens better, with a three-column design which enables you to view the full message but also navigate through your inbox faster.
The new email client also adds message grouping, emails can be stacked by date, unread status or pinned status. If you've been using the built-in email client in Opera, the changes should be very noticeable and, hopefully, for the best.
Opera for Windows is available for download here. Opera for Mac is available for download here. Opera for Linux is available for download here.