We recently released Opera with built-in VR video player and today there’s another update ready for you to test out.

Smoother videos on macOS

Opera 45 introduced significant performance improvements to video playback on Windows. Opera 49 makes videos better on macOS. You will get smoother playback, snappier seeking, high-resolution videos will load faster and the overall video experience should be noticeably better. The new solution has positive impact on both CPU and RAM usage, as well as power usage. Improvements are more visible when playing high resolution videos.

VK messenger added to sidebar

Opera comes with three messengers already: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram. Today, VK joins that list. Users in Russia should see the icon instantly, while others need to right-click the sidebar to open the context menu and select it from the list. It’s worth reminding about the handy shortcut to show (and cycle through) messengers with ctrl + shift + m (⌘ + ⇧ + m macOS).

Others changes and fixes made in this build that are worth mentioning:

• [Mac] Icons in the right corner of the address bar weren’t aligned.
• Adblock/VPN pop ups were totally misplaced.
• Fix for “My sources” in personal news.
• Fix for cursor moving to the beginning of address bar.
• Fixed typo in experiment’s name #personal-news-notifications.
• Belarusian ruble (BYN) added to built-in currency converter.

The problem with personal news that manifested itself last Thursday is already fixed. However, your configured list of sources is gone. We have extended our set of automated tests to catch such a situation before it becomes a problem. It’s worth reminding that this is the developer channel, which is meant for testing the latest code and, unfortunately, such things can happen. Either be sure to do a manual backup of your whole profile, or stick to the stable branch. While you’ll be adding back your favorite sources, keep in mind that you can select sources from our catalog (over 8,300 sources), but in case something is missing you can just enter a site’s URL. If there’s any readable web feed, Opera will allow you to add it your sources. Alternatively, you can also paste a direct link to the web feed.

Chromium version 62.0.3202.18.

Check the changelog for the full report.

Known issue:

– DNA-64403 Crash on creating pop up windows

Installation links

• • Opera developer for Windows (Using Opera developer for Windows installer means Opera for Computers EULA is accepted)
  • Opera developer for Windows (Portable version)
  • Opera developer for macOS
  • Opera developer for Linux – deb packages
  • Opera developer for Linux – RPM packages

Test machine: Macbook Pro 17-inch, Early 2011, Intel Core i7 2,2 GHz, 8 GB 1333 DDR3 RAM, Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB, AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB, Samsung EVO 840 SSD Drive 500 GB, macOS Sierra.
Test methodology: Laptop connected to power adapter, brightness set to 100%, volume to 50%, automatic graphics switching enabled. Three different videos were tested (480p H.264 AAC, 720p H.264 AAC, 1080p H.264 AAC). Each video was played with #media-avf-demuxer flag ON and OFF. Ten samples were taken using Activity monitor and iStat Menus tool for energy DC value. Each sample measured as:

1. Run Opera with video opened in tab.
2. After one minute of playback, gather CPU and memory usage from activity monitor and DC in value from iStats Menus (sensors tab).

Here are the raw results.

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