If you’ve used a Blackberry or any other device long before smartphones were really a thing, you might already be familiar with Opera mobile and other Opera versions of the browser. Opera’s browser app is still around and actually remains one of the more popular browsers on Android. If you use the beta version of the Opera browser you might have already received the latest update and may or may not have stumbled across what the new additions are. Luckily for anyone who missed the update, is a newcomer to Opera, or just hasn’t noticed what the changes are, they aren’t hard to spot.
The most obvious is the support for the 64-bit processors, which is a great new change, at least for those who already have devices that are powered by processors running on the 64-bit architecture. The unfortunate thing is that there aren’t many devices in that category just yet but more will be launching this year, so as those devices come out Opera Beta will be ready for them. Other new features include a bump up to Chromium 42, a new and improved progress bar, and improved text wrapping which, should help to display content on the web better when browsing on web pages with both images and text that surrounds those images. If you primarily view all your web based content strictly through reader-like sites then you probably won’t notice the improvements to text wrapping.
Opera has also made some changes to the tab synchronization features. There is now a new layout for the tab manager, and a new view for synced tabs. Alongside these changes, there are also improvements and fixes to the stability of the browser as a whole so things should run and feel more smooth when using it. Opera has also gotten rid of off-road mode and replaced it with Opera Turbo. The update should already be live in the Play Store so if you have it installed you can check the “my apps” list and see if the update is available to you. If you’re a new user, you can grab the app from the Play Store as a new install.