Opera Software has released Opera 42.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux. The final update of the year has just one notable new feature: built-in currency conversion. Elsewhere, the browser promises smarter – and therefore faster – start-up times, and an overhauled design of its newsreaders, with discovering feeds made easier than before.
The update rounds off a remarkable year for Opera, which has introduced a host of innovative new features that make it stand out in an increasingly staid browser market.
The new built-in currency converter is available within web pages and capable of performing instant conversions on selected figures, saving users the hassle of having to use a third-party add-on or input figures into a separate website.
Opera ends 2016 with an in-browser currency conversion tool.
To use the converter, simply select the price (including currency symbol) on a page with the mouse and a pop-up conversion in the local currency will be displayed.
By default, this matches the user’s own local currency, but can be changed to any of 32 supported currencies, with exchange rates refreshed daily from the European Central Bank. Go to Settings > Browser, then look under ‘User Interface’ for the ‘On text selection convert currency to…’ setting.
Opera’s Personal News feature – another 2016 introduction – also gets some updates – alongside a fresh new design is an opt-in feature that makes news feeds easier to discover.
Users need to switch the feature on via Settings > Browser – look under ‘Personal News’ for the ‘Show available news feeds on address bar’ box. Once enabled, look for the news feed icon appearing in the Address Bar when browsing sites with RSS support – click this and choose the type of feed (typically RSS 2.0 or Atom 1.0) to subscribe to via the news reader.
The final update for 2016 sees Opera’s new start-up mechanism tweaked further to boost start-up times – now it determines which tabs to load first based on the most recently accessed ones rather than the tab order.
The update rounds off a year of major changes for Opera, which celebrated its 20th birthday in 2016 and – last we heard – was negotiating a sale of its family of browsers (as well as the Opera name) to a Chinese consortium led by Qihoo-360. Amid that uncertainty, the browser has evolved rapidly, introducing a raft of new features, including native ad blocker, battery saver, video pop-out, personal newsreader and built-in VPN.
Opera 42.0 is available now as a freeware download for Windows, Mac and 64-bit Linux users. Existing users can update from within Opera itself – simply open the Opera menu and choose About Opera to do so.