Vivaldi 1.2 Browser now available
Vivaldi 1.2 is the latest stable version of the popular web browser that brings along with it editable gestures, clearer download progress, more tab improvements and a truckload of fixes and minor improvements.
Vivaldi has quickly risen to popularity thanks to a development philosophy that focuses on giving users choice when it comes to the browser instead of streamlining it by removing choice or not giving users choice in first place.
Most modern web browsers fall into the second category and while there is nothing wrong with that inherently, at least some Internet users want control of the browser and options when it comes to their browsing experience.
Vivaldi 1.2
Vivaldi 1.2 is already available for download and direct update. You can run an update check from within the web browser if you have an earlier copy of it on your system.
To do so, simply click on Vivaldi > Help > Check for Updates. If an update is found, it is downloaded and installed automatically.
Anyone else can visit the official website to download the latest version of Vivaldi for their operating system from the site.
Let's take a look at what's new in Vivaldi 1.2
Gestures
Vivaldi supported gestures for a while but the new version introduces options to change existing gestures or create new ones easily in the settings.
Gestures enable you to use the mouse, trackpad or other input devices to run commands such as going back a page, reloading a page or opening a new tab. To use gestures with the mouse, hold down the right mouse button while on a page and draw the gesture on the screen.
You find existing gestures in the settings. The easiest way to open the settings is to use Alt-P to open them, but you can alternatively load vivaldi://settings in the address bar or click on Vivaldi > Tools > Settings if you prefer it that way.
The mouse menu lists all existing gestures the browser supports. Each gesture is demonstrated when you select it so that you know how it is executed.
You can use the controls at the bottom of the list to add a new gesture, or remove or edit an existing gesture.
Gestures are made up of up to five vertical or horizontal strokes, and the list of commands you can associate with gestures that are not configured by default is quite large.
Vivaldi 1.2 supports gestures for certain pages, e.g. the browsing history or extensions, for web panels, to switch to tabs directly, to zoom in or out, focus on the address field and a lot more.
New Keyboard Shortcuts
Vivaldi supports many keyboard shortcuts and version 1.2 adds to that. The browser ships with controls to add, change or remove keyboard shortcuts in the settings, something that most browsers don't offer anymore.
- Alt-Enter opens the URL you enter in the address bar in a new tab.
- Alt-Shift-Enter opens the same URL in the background.
Smaller changes in Vivaldi 1.2
- The zoom function goes down to 20% and up to 500%, and you may enter a zoom level manually in the status bar.
- You may set any web page as the browser's new tab page. To do so, open Settings > Tabs and enter a URL under New Tab Page there. Click save afterwards and you are set.
- Multiple selected tabs can be closed with keyboard shortcuts now, and the context menu of a selection of multiple tabs works now like the context menu of individual tabs.
- Information in the downloads panel give you a clearer estimation of progress in Vivaldi 1.2.
Closing Words
Vivaldi 1.2 adds new improvements and fixes to the browser. While some things still need to be fixed -- the slow loading Settings page for instance -- it is the choice that Vivaldi offers that I find most refreshing. Imagine that, a browser that lets you change keyboard shortcuts natively, what a novel concept.
You can check out my initial review of Vivaldi, and the Vivaldi 1.1 update review as well for the full picture.
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.