Opera 11.50

Description

The Opera Desktop Browser version 11.50 sports improvements to Speed Dial and Opera Turbo. According to the release, the Opera browser has been introducing new ideas to stay ahead of the curve for over 15 years.

More versatile Speed Dial
Speed Dial allows for faster access to your favourite sites. The new browser version gives an unlimited number of dials to customize, thanks to the new Speed Dial flow feature. New layout choices, and an improved zoom slider in the configuration menu lets you arrange your Speed Dial to fit any monitor. While Speed Dial automatically adjusts layout to fit your screen, you can define the layout depending on your preference. (Video of new Speed Dial in action)

Better-looking Opera Turbo

Opera can now download and install the Flash plug-in automatically in the background.

Ever deal with slow Internet connection speeds? By reducing the size of the webpage, the Opera Turbo feature in Opera 11.50 can boost browsing speeds by four times or more. In previous versions, this sometimes meant reducing the quality of images. Now, in the Opera 11.50 browser, overall image quality is improved. In lab tests using a slow network, the new Opera Turbo is claimed to produce pages that are, on average, 54 per cent smaller and almost 40 per cent faster to load, than without Opera Turbo. (Video and webpage explaining Turbo)

"The Opera Turbo feature is crucial for anyone who travels or just has a slow Internet connection," said Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products, Opera Software. "By reducing the size of the page, we can make browsing so much faster. So whether you're at a crowded Starbucks in San Francisco or are using a 3G modem in Sri Lanka, Opera Turbo can give you a better browsing experience."

Easier Plug-ins
When you visit a page that requires Flash, the Opera browser can now download the plug-in automatically and install it in the background - a seamless, simple process.

More support for web developers
A new browser core (Presto 2.8 rendering engine) makes the Opera 11.50 their fastest browser yet, but it also adds support for CSS3's multi-column layouts and linear gradients, the Web Open Font Format (WOFF) and Google's WebP image protocol. (further information for web developers is at the Desktop Team's Blog)

The changelog and release notes can be found here. You can download the Windows installer, or installers for Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Linux 32/64-bit OSes. Below is a screenshot of the browser with some Speed Dials configured: