A new version of web-browser Opera has been made available for download.
The update, which bumps the browser up to version 11.60, comes with the usual smattering of improved web standards support, bug fixes and rendering engine updates – but that’s not all.
Opera’s ‘built-in’ mail reader – an oft-overlooked feature of the browser – sports a new ‘two paned’ look, with mail grouped by date, ‘conversation’ threads, and a whole host of other small improvements.
If you’ve ever used Mac mail client Sparrow and longed for something similar on Linux: here it is (albeit not very well integrated).
The full Opera Mail change-log looks like this: –
- Two-lined message list: Opera Mail will now default to “list on the left, message on the right”, with the newest message on top, and showing message threads.
- Mail grouping: Opera will automatically group messages by date. You can also group them by unread status, by pinned status, or not at all.
- Cleaned up look: The mail toolbars are simplified, and icons have been redesigned.
- New settings dialogs: The “View” dropdown menu with all its sub-menus has been replaced by an overlay dialog that can be reached by clicking the “wrench” button.
- Pinning: You can now “pin” messages with one click in the message list or in the message headers, to mark a message for attention. This pinning is mapped to the IMAP \Flagged feature, so it corresponds to “starring” and “flagging” in other IMAP clients, and with Gmail’s starred messages.
Elsewhere…
Opera 11.60’s only other ‘new feature’ for Linux is the addition of a ‘star’ icon to the ‘featherweight’ URL bar. This provides an easy way to add a site to your bookmarks or the speed-dial: –
