When it comes to alternative browsers for desktop users on Windows or Mac platforms, there are many options. However, those who use Chromebooks didn't have any alternatives to Chrome until now. Opera has announced that it has launched the world's first alternative browser optimized for Chromebook users.
Video chats, be it personal or meetings, have taken over people's online lives these days in more ways than one. On the one hand, it has become the prevalent way people communicate safely with family, friends, and colleagues. On the other hand, video conferencing apps are designed to take up your entire screen or even just your browser. In Opera's latest release, it is giving a little bit of control back to users by letting you go through your other tabs while your video chat is happening in some corner of the web browser.
Opera is actually one of the oldest names in the web browser market, long before Chrome was even born. These days, however, it has been pushed to the sidelines but still manages to get a loyal following in some niche services and markets. One example of that is Opera GX, a browser designed specifically for gamers, that's now getting a version for Android and iOS. Strangely but not surprisingly, Opera GX Mobile is just getting its desktop counterpart's gaming looks but not the features that actually make it notable.
Opera has announced that the Opera browser has improved performance on the new Apple M1 Mac computers. Opera now natively supports the newest Apple M1 processors. Apple moved its Mac computers from Intel to its own silicon chips giving it more control over the performance of Mac hardware and software.
Long before there were smartphones, Opera made a name for itself with mobile web browsers running on devices you never thought could run such software. With the arrival of smartphones, however, Opera was slowly pushed to the sidelines as the likes of Chrome and Safari on iOS take center stage. Opera hasn't completely disappeared, of course, and is now doing a slight revamp of its looks and embracing a shorter name that gets rid of a legacy branding.
Some might say that the age of browser-based games is long gone, especially with the death of Flash that also heralded the demise of Farmville. At the same time, browsers and Web technologies have advanced to the point that more sophisticated games can be played on a browser, not to mention the growing market for game streaming through browsers. It is against this backdrop that Opera announced its acquisition of YoYo Games, most popular for its easy to use 2D game-making tool, but few are able to divine what Opera plans to do with it in the long run.
Opera browser has been updated and, among other things, brings a new integration with Twitter. Starting with version 69, Opera users can open and browse their Twitter account directly in the browser's sidebar, eliminating the need to keep it open in a browser or toggle to the Twitter app. Opera has already integrated a variety of other popular social media platforms and messaging services.
Google Earth can be a handy - or at least fascinating - tool to use, and though it's available as an iOS and Android app, its web implementation has been fairly limited. Thus far, Google Earth on the web has only been available through Chrome, and though Chrome is a popular browser, that ultimately limits the number of people who can access Google Earth on the web.
Opera R2020 (aka, Opera 67), the latest version of the popular web browser, brings new features that enable power users to better manage their tabs and the features they use most often. The biggest part of the new update is tabbed workspaces, which are customizable and separate workspaces that feature tabs related to each workspace's category. As well, the browser's sidebar can now be customized and more.
Last week, Opera browser for Android was updated to version 56, adding a couple of important features alongside a bunch of smaller, but no less important, tweaks. The biggest change to arrive in Opera 56 for Android is the addition of a new Reader Mode, a feature that makes it easier to read cluttered, messy web pages. As well, users can now customize the browser's action button.
Back in the days when phones weren't exactly smart, the only way people could browse the Web was often through Opera. In the age of smartphones and Google Chrome, however, Opera has become almost a legacy, a legacy that might soon be tarnished by the company's own actions. It turns out that Opera is using what can only be described as predatory loan apps on Android to make a profit but could, in turn, get it banned from Google Play Store for good.
With Google Stadia's launch and developments in browser technology, you might think that browser makers like Mozilla and Opera will be jumping onto the game streaming train. That idyllic future might still be far away and, until then, browsers and games will exist separately and sometimes in competition for computer resources. Despite that situation, Opera wants to paint itself as a gaming-friendly browser developer, which is why it created the Opera GX "gaming browser" that it is now making available in early access on macOS.