Opera Next is now -- download the 11.50 beta

We love to report about betas here at Betanews. Opera has released Opera Next 11.50, codenamed "Swordfish." Opera Next, which is the beta version of the renowned Opera browser, installs alongside Opera, allowing users to road test new features without affecting their main Opera installation.

Opera Next 11.50 introduces two major new features: support for (secure) password synchronization through Opera Link, and support for Speed Dial extensions. These changes are accompanied by numerous minor feature updates and standards improvements, such as enhanced support for HTML5 and CSS.

Opera Link, which allows users to back up and synchronize settings and bookmarks between different Opera installations, has now been expanded to include an option allowing users to securely synchronize saved passwords between installations too. Swordfish also introduces support for Speed Dial extensions, which make it possible for site developers to display live previews or a subset of information (such as updated weather information) from the site through Speed Dial itself.

Speed Dial itself continues to evolve with a number of minor tweaks, including an option to manually zoom Speed Dials out to 30 percent as well as the inclusion of thumbnail previews of suggested websites when using the Add Speed Dial dialog.

Other general interface improvements include the ability to open tabs in the background by holding the [Ctrl] key as the new tab button is pressed, plus improved tab handling, such as being able to stack tabs in the Windows panel.

In addition to this, Opera's core engine, Presto, has been upgraded to version 2.8, and includes support for a wider range of HTML5 commands as well as other standards. The update is rounded off with a host of bug fixes and other minor improvements.

Opera Next 11.50 is available as a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux, and is designed to run in tandem with existing, stable Opera installations.