Opera 46.0 is out: find out what is new
Opera Software released Opera 46.0 on June 22, 1017 to the Stable channel brings along with it stability improvements and quality improvements.
Opera states that the release is the second stage of the Reborn project, a project to improve the look and feel of the Opera browser.
Opera users can use the browser's automatic update functionality to download and install the Opera 46.0 update, or download it directly from the Opera website.
A click on Menu > About Opera runs a manual update check in the browser. If the new version is detected, it will be downloaded and installed automatically.
Opera 46.0
The first major release after Opera Reborn introduces a number of improvements, visually, usability-wise, and functionality-wise.
The Speed Dial page, the New Tab Page of the Opera browser, received several improvements in the new Opera browser version.
Users who use the dark theme without wallpapers will notice that Speed Dial itself is now dark as well. Opera Software cooperated with industry artists to bring a new set of custom wallpapers to the browser.
You can set those with a click on the customize button on the Speed Dial page, and the selection of one of the available wallpapers there.
Some backgrounds are animated, but there is no indication right now to highlight that in the selection menu.
Opera 46.0 ships with stability improvements. According to Opera Software, Opera 46.0 will crash 35% less on average per user than the previous stable version Opera 45.0. This was achieved by fixing crashes, memory leaks, and glitches that impaired the user experience.
Another new feature is support for animated PNG files. The format has risen to some prominence, largely thanks to Apple introducing the APNG format in iOS 10 iMessage applications. What's particular interesting about this is that Opera Presto, used by the classic Opera 12 browser, supported the format already.
Opera 46.0 uses Chromium 59 as its core. The new Chromium release introduced several new technologies, among them expensive background tabs throttling to improve battery life and browsing performance by limiting the access of background tabs to resources.
Other improvements mentioned in the changelog:
- Videopopout support live videos now
- New View in Bookmarks option to Bookmarks pop up.
- If you import bookmarks from other browsers, those that were on the bookmarks toolbar of the source browser are now placed on Opera's Bookmarks Toolbar as well.
- Bookmarks sync using Chromium's sync protocol.
- opera://plugins redirects to opera://settings?section=plugins now. Opera followed Google and removed the local plugins management page from the web browser.
Closing Words
Opera 46.0 introduces some new features and improvements to the browser. Probably the most important one is the improvement of browser stability. The remaining features are not overly spectacular however.
Now You: Have you tried a recent version of the Opera browser?
Its bad for removing turbo option from “O” …..i think developers should bring back in next version. Thank you.
Martin,
It is a stupid thing to remove Opera Turbo item from Menu, right?
Yes, it removes control which is always not good.
Forget it being owned by a Chinese company. In fact for a Western user it’s better to use Chinese products, because if they collect data, it will be for the sole purpose of helping them develop product that will help them compete in the Wesern markets. While Western data collection will surely be used against you in a court one day if it comes to this.
The problem I have with Opera is with 45 (I think) they completely botched the UI. Now it doesn’t blend with Windows 7 at all and there are so many useless elements, like this sidebar on the left which holds absolutely no meaning to me.
Martin,
Do you think the Opera Turbo selection disappears in Opera 46?
I couldn’t find it.
search turbo in setting section ,you will find it easily
Have you checked whether it is enabled in settings? It should still be there.
I found it in Settings, but it didn’t show up in Menu list.
You are right, it is no longer highlighted in Menu.
Opera looks like it’s developing its own personality again! I’ve always hated the previous chromium look…
Getting to the subject of Opera 46.0. I like it, and would use it as my default, but it has one, really important, missing feature . While I can add other search engines, Opera only allows one of six to be used for the default search. Google, Yahoo!, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and for less useful reasons, Amazon and Wikipedia. Oh to be able to switch to something else…
Also, the update process is a bit odd. After checking for, and finding, a new version. It downloads the new version, but doesn’t always ask to install it. So far, I’ve had to shut down the browser, restart, recheck and THEN it initiates the install. One more thing about Opera that’s a bit annoying. It runs and updater program after every complete shutdown which visibly tasks my computer for 5-15 seconds.
The built in adblocker is okay, but I miss the versatility of uBlock Origin (which is available so I could switch). The built-in does allow me to add other blocker lists, but all of those have to be manually installed, Opera won’t auto update those.
I won’t touch Opera not only because of privacy concerns regarding Chinese takeover but also because it’s just another webkit/blink/pick-fancy-engine-name/chrome-based clone. The original Opera died long time ago.
I wish that Opera would launch in full screen mode in Ubuntu like the other browsers, and as it does in Windows.
As long as something is free you will usually pay with your personal data. Only government could change this by creating applicable laws. Now guess why government does not show too much of an interest to do so. Excactly.
@Jod
Jod, how can you be so sure that Mozilla hasn’t/isn’t collecting loads of personal info on you? Everyone can say that their software is safe and collects no personally identifying information on you, right? I mean, it is a free browser, after all. Why is it free, and how does us using their free browser benefit them?
There really is no such thing as privacy anymore.
because they’re open source? someone can check the source code if firefox is sending data or not, just like certain addons that were found out doing it.
as for me, I don’t really care about the privacy things like Klaas Vaak said. it’s fair trade for using their software for free. those who care about privacy seems to think their data are really important like secret spy agency’s data or they just don’t want their porn browsing behavior data leaked I guess.
You can never be 100% sure, but you may do a simple risk analysis. It seems likely that Mozilla will be nearer to the “likely to be trusted” side of the analysis. Would not you agree with that?
I honestly have no idea whether Mozilla is any more trustworthy than any other major browser out there, but you would think it would be near the top. Again, how can we be 100% sure about the trustworthiness of any browser or software? The fact is, we can’t. We just have to make the decision on what we want to use, based on what we’re told by the developer. I simply chose Opera as my primary browser many years ago, and have stuck with it. I am certainly not saying it’s the safest browser out there, in fact, it could be the least trustworthy of the bunch, but how can I know? I like the Mozilla browser, and would use it in a heartbeat if I started having issues with Opera. Mozilla and Opera are my favorite two browsers of all time.
I understand everyone’s concerns regarding privacy, I feel the same way- I mean, who can we trust? How do we REALLY know the software we’re using isn’t collecting info on us to be used in a bad way?
I’ve used Opera for over 10 years, and I am still using it to this day. I’ts a great, feature-rich browser. Is it safe? Is it spying on me and collecting all sorts of information to be used in a bad way? I really don’t know, but, I certainly hope not.
I wish all this data collecting on us would stop- it has gotten way out of hand, no doubt. But I think there isn’t much we can really do about it, other than stay off a computer.
It will only get worse. I have used IE, FF, Chrome, Opera, and I must say I prefer Opera. And all those privacy-smart people don’t (seem to) realise that all the corporations have lots of data about all of us already, esp. the US ones, and the US government.
Opera has been an excellent browser since it was originally released. While owned by a Chinese investment group, of which Qihoo is a part, the development is still being done in Norway. I don’t know why anyone would think that Opera has some special spy techniques built in that haven’t yet been discovered. The only think that I’ve noticed is the ads that appear in Speed Dial. That’s likely how they pay for development. The free VPN works well. When I set it to Germany, I get Deutsche ads on websites, and so on. The price of using the VPN is about half of the download speed. That’s well worth it to me.
Mozilla has no data on me and I’ve been using their browser for more than a decade.
Google has a lot of shit on me even though I actively try to avoid anything Google, but it’s impossible to succeed completely.
All I can hope for is that they won’t be able to connect all those small profiles they made on me without knowing it’s me. Should they be able to, they would have a disturbing amount of information able to pin down who I am and therefore know more about Jod Buckethead than most people who got to know him intimately.
Governments are privacy threats, Google is a threat, Microsoft and Facebook are threats. Not Mozilla.
Chinese spyware is always better option than american spyware.
Try to use some open source browser.
Chinese spyware
Chinese owned now. User beware.
And the CIA never spies on your GMail or Outlook or Yahoo accounts…
No one is saying that’s not possible. We’re only trying to granulate the level of risks we’re willing to take and have as much insight as we can about these risks based on what we know. Some risks have bigger implications than others obviously.
I’d rather use Vivaldi or Yandex
Still owned by Qihoo 360? No thanks. Privacy concerns. Better safe than sorry and there are thankfully options these days in the browser market.
I use it for the VPN mostly, to access blocked sites or open disposable accounts on sites that demand sign up. So these sneaky Chinese spies are only getting a bunch of spam from me.
What I want to know is how to get that telemetry-free Chinese version of Windows 10! :p How are these Chinese spies getting better service from Microsoft than Americans and Europeans?
You mean that all the browsers are completely privacy safe? Keep dreaming baby.
I Hate how the devs remove the “turbo” option in O Menu button and put it hidden in the konami code in settings instead
made me mad.
i hope they bring it back in O47 for easy access.