Opera 11.10 beta improves Speed Dial, user interface

pera has released a new beta version of its web browser with various enhancements to the user interface, features and performance. Codenamed Barracuda, Opera 11.10 has an improved Speed Dial implementation with clearer previews, and the ability to see live content from sites. The beta also allows you to have unlimited dials instead of the 5x5 matrix cap imposed on previous builds, there are new Speed Dial layouts, and the zoom function has been improved.

Barracuda sees the addition of Opera's Presto 2.8 rendering engine which brings compatibility for Google's WebP image format as well as CSS3 gradients for background and background-image properties. Among the less obvious changes, Opera says plug-ins are easier to install and use. As an example, the company noted that Adobe Flash Player installs "seamlessly and automatically." Opera also cites interface tweaks that make it easier to discover the browser's features.