back to article New Opera 12 hooks web apps to 3D graphics acceleration

A new version of Opera's desktop browser rolls out today, six weeks after the public beta. The list of new features hasn't changed much - and the new version also deprecates older features such as Opera Unite and widgets. HTML apps can now take advantage of experimental hardware acceleration and also access to the computer's …

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  1. Spiracle

    If Facebook do buy Opera it'll be purely for Mini and it's tempting mobile ad channel.

    1. CheesyTheClown
      Pint

      Uhhh....

      Or it could be that it's installed in cars, on Nintendo and on pretty much every other device which has a browser and isn't a PC or phone? Take however many copies of Opera you think are out there and multiply it by between a hundred and a thousand and you'll be close. It's even running the front end for Coke Machines. It's the GUI on TV set top boxes... etc...

      Owning Opera would put Facebook absolutely everywhere.

  2. DAN*tastik
    Megaphone

    The author forgot to add the hyperlink to the guy's name

    So I thought of saving the hassle to everybody else :)

    Apparently he kicks things...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Young

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The King of browser just got even better

    I care not for marketshare, I care about features, performance, compatibility and reliability, and Opera is king in all the areas that matter.

    1. Greg J Preece

      Re: The King of browser just got even better

      Hello, Opera employee!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The King of browser just got even better

        Sorry, you are plain wrong.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    "and also access to the computer's webcam"

    Of course this isn't a disaster waiting to happen. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: "and also access to the computer's webcam"

      Why not do what I do and bin your webcam (Obviously notebooks need some sticky tape) when its not in use.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "and also access to the computer's webcam"

      Oh well, that's Leslie Grantham defecting to Chrome then...

    3. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: "and also access to the computer's webcam"

      I presume that the new feature here is that HTML-based apps can access your web-cam. Plug-ins like Flash have been able to do it for years, so I imagine that a bit of googling would show that the disaster you refer to has happened hundreds of times already.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "and also access to the computer's webcam"

        @ "the disaster you refer to has happened hundreds of times already"

        A fair point. So effectively Opera is running head first into an already existent pileup allowing other technologies to enjoy the same disaster. Rejoice.

        Funny, now I come to think on it, I have yet to own or use my first web cam. I don't wish to see peoples genitals being waved at me, or to see the faces of supervisors or clients when its their words I am interested in. Nor do I wish them to see I'm working in my underwear and haven't shaved for several days now; All of these scenarios thus involve dickheads. How wonderful the uses to which humans put their technology. Sex and/or surveillance, and/or exploitation. </cynicism>

        1. LordWilmore

          Re: "and also access to the computer's webcam"

          Oh no, you've misunderstood. A webcam would allow _you_ to wave your genitals in other people's faces. This may or may not change your opinion but pointless pedantry always cheers me up

      2. Steve Knox
        Flame

        Re: "and also access to the computer's webcam"

        ...I imagine that a bit of googling would show that the disaster you refer to has happened hundreds of times already...

        Heresy! The faithful do not leave this site for tech news!

        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/20/acobe_flash_webcam_spying/

        Pay no attention to the typodeliberate misspelling in the article path! El Reg's Staff Are Infallible!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: "and also access to the computer's webcam"

      It pops up a notification asking for permission to use. "No", "Yes", "Always"...

  5. Ralph B

    Memory Leaks?

    I gave up on Opera a couple of months ago after getting frustrated at it eating all my system memory within a couple of hours. It seemed to be related to handling javascript from Google Groups pages, so I suppose it might have been deliberate breakage requested by the Chrome team, but still no excuse for Opera to ignore the problem for so long.

    Guess I might have to give 12 a try to see if they've finally fixed it.

    1. Paul Manzotti

      Re: Memory Leaks?

      I found that MixCloud resulted in memory leaks, but I installed Memory Cleaner (other memory cleaners are available), which trims processes working sets every 5 minutes, and I haven't had a problem with that since.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: Memory Leaks?

        Clearly you don't understand a memory leak....

        What you are referring to is the working set....

        Opera doesn't leak much memory (no worse than other browsers), however "bedroom experts" might easily get memory leak and the ability to use installed memory efficiently confused....

  6. Irongut

    all the stability of Ashley Young racing into the penalty box with a defender on his shoulder

    I gather this gentleman is some kind of footballer but since I don't know who he is the metaphor is lost on me. What makes him unstable? Does he get a blue face of death (BFOD) when he has a defender on his shoulder?

  7. Greg J Preece

    Excellent, another browser getting hardware acceleration. It's one of the things that really impressed me when IE9 got it, and with other browsers rapidly following suit, its absence from Opera was starting to become more and more noticeable. When they say "experimental", how stable is that? The experimental support in VirtualBox is surprisingly solid, for example.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Hardware acceleration is rather good, as the WHOLE APP is hardware accelerated, not just the canvas. However unless you have a decent GPU, it may currently run slower, which is why they disabled it by default.

      Their software rendering is blisteringly quick, but older hardware, the GPU accelerated one is slower.

      1. Greg J Preece

        Wow, really? The WHOLE APP? Not just the canvas, but the WHOLE APP? That's impressive that they accelerated the WHOLE APP, and so well did they accelerate the WHOLE APP that it runs slower than normal? Genius. Why even advertise that?

        1. Greg J Preece

          Uh oh, the fanboys have found me again. Calm down, idiots. I was just messing with the guy's odd capitalisation.

  8. Bronek Kozicki
    Coat

    does it handle ICC profile tags yet?

    no?

    (crawling back under my stone)

  9. Patrick O'Reilly

    Camera

    It's also the first desktop stable to ship with HTML5's getUserMedia API for camera access. Opera Mobile on Android already has access to the camera.

  10. The Bit Wrangler
    Pint

    Awesome!

    They fixed the flash-crashing intermittently on Linux problem ! Now I can listen to the iPlayer while browsing again without a lot of re-loading the iPlayer.

    Thanks Opera!

  11. Hieronymus Howerd

    > "Opera was recently touted as an acquisition target for Facebook"

    Yes, but in the spirit of full disclosure, one should clarify that it was only touted by some guy posting on the Register.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thumbs Down

    Am I imagining it, or has one sad browser fanboi down-voted every single comment under this article, regardless of what they say, just because it's about Opera?

  13. Steve Knox
    Trollface

    Screenshot

    I'd almost forgotten that MacOS has that hard-coded menu bar at the top of the screen. What with all the apps out there building their own ribbons or custom menus or whatnot, I wonder if that old thing will ever die. You'd think Apple would move with the times...

  14. montyburns56
    Stop

    I love you but...

    Great. I wonder which web pages will stop working with this version? Using Opera is like having a child that you love dearly, but you still have to admit that it can be an annoying brat at times.

    1. borkbork
      Happy

      Re: I love you but...

      I checked 2 sites I previously had to open in chrome (google docs (spreadsheet selection box didn't line up with cell borders) and codecademy (cursor position in editor box didn't keep up with actual character spacing)), and they both work properly under opera now. So the tally is at minus 2 pages for me so far.

  15. doveman

    Have they got it working with Hotmail yet?

    Yes, I tried all the "Identify as" options and still found it didn't work half the time with the last version and I had to use IE to access Hotmail, which made it impossible to recommend to my Hotmail-using friends.

    Love it apart from that though.

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