Coast by Opera 2.0 ramps up audio support

Opera Software has announced that Coast, its iPad web browser, has been updated to version 2.0.

New audio support means that this release can play music directly, without requiring an extra app. There are more ways to customize your Coast wallpaper. As well as setting it to your preferred web image, you can point the program at one of eight bundled backgrounds, or use an image from your photo roll. Just long press the home screen and choose whatever you need.

Enhanced PDF support means you can now open the current PDF file in any compatible app you might have available.

Coast 2.0 has also seen some performance optimizations; reportedly, going back to the main page now happens "in an instant" ("most of the time", anyway), while the upgraded Coast security engine is even better at recognizing attacks.

This still isn’t the most configurable of browsers, of course, but Coast 2.0 is adding new functionality while remaining easy to use. If you’re tired of Safari then we’d give it a try.