Opera Next 16 Now Available As Public Beta

Opera’s Magnus Peter Langeland blogs that a brand-new version of Opera Next was released last Friday. Opera Next is an experimental version of Opera that gives you a sneak preview of what’s to come.

New features and improvements in Opera Next 16 include if you write opera:flags in the the address bar you get a list of experimental features that you may enable or disable. As the title of the page says, “Careful, these experiments may bite.” Due to the probability of crashes and bugs, Opera Next is only for advanced users who like to tinker with the latest technology (although your editor has found that past Opera Next versions have been admirably stable for beta releases).

The sW3C Geolocation API xlets you share your location with trusted websites. This enables websites to do cool things like finding local restaurants or your location on a map.

A handy new Form Filler feature can fill online forms with a click of a button. Simply fill out the forms in your “Privacy & Security” settings, and let Autofill boost your productivity.

Other noteworthy features:
Presentation mode is now available also on Mac. This means that the top-bar will not be visible when you enter presentation mode.

Opera 16 is based on Chromium 29.

For more information, you can read the full changelog here:
http://files.myopera.com/sebo/blog/Changelog_16_next.txt

Keep in mind, Opera Next doesn’t overwrite the stable release. Both browsers can co-exist and can be used simultaneously. Opera Next 16 will also automatically update itself so you’ll always have the latest build.

Opera Next 16 can be downloaded here
http://www.opera.com/developer/next