Opera 40 is the new release candidate among Opera Software's desktop browser versions. (Photo : YouTube/ Iwasnamedian)
Opera Software developers have released Opera 40 browser, which comes with numerous improvements and features, among them, an easy and convenient VPN, a reworked battery saver, and enhanced RSS feeds.
According to Beta News, the Opera's VPN server allows Opera users to browse securely via encrypted, tunneled connections on any network, including insecure Wi-Fi hotspots. It also helps one to spoof the user's location, enabling them to access geo-locked content.
Even better, Opera 40's VPN feature is free to use, although disabled by default. To open it, users need to go to settings dialog and select "privacy and security. From there, they can enable it by clicking on a clickable VPN button that appears in the Address Bar.
Users can then proceed to configure the connection by clicking the VPN button. A pop-up window will appear with a simple "on-off" switch for either enabling or disabling the service, a graph for showing data the usage, and a drop-down menu that allows one to switch from the 'optimum' location to a given country.
However, the latter feature that allows spoofing is currently available for Canada, Germany, Singapore, Netherlands, and the United States. Also, the Opera Turbo feature is not compatible with Opera 40's data-saving feature.
The feature helps with re-routing web page requests to special Opera servers, which further compress the content to reduce bandwidth and increase download speeds. One last thing Opera 40 users need to note is that the VPN connection will be much slower than a regular one due to the special processes of securing it.
Alongside these cool features, Opera 40 also revamps the battery saver tool, which Opera asserts is capable of extending battery life by 40 percent. This is achievable due to several tweaks such as the reduction of background tab activity, pausing idle plugins, and dropping video frame rates to 30fps, according to Opera website.
Other changes will see Opera 40 users enjoy the addition of customized RSS feeds to the browser's reader feature. One only needs to click the "Add source" button, then proceed to paste the RSS feed URL to the "Search catalog" box.
Opera 40 is available as a free download for windows, 64-bit Linux, and Mac users. Watch the video below for a review:
