Opera 15 is the first Chromium-powered Opera browser and it has officially launched today for the Mac and PC. The browser was first previewed back in May, with the software built from scratch and powered by Google’s Chromium engine. The final version of Opera 15 comes with a whole new design and a couple of interesting features, like a new Speed Dial page, Discover page and Stash.
The new Speed Dial page allows for faster access to your favorite sites, while the Discover page helps you filter through new content. It works sort of like Flipboard, where it filters and delivers current and relevant content based on the user’s interests. The articles you’ll see will come from different categories that you can choose yourself.
Another feature is Stash, which is sort of like Evernote’s ability to clip webpages. Opera suggests using Stash for making travel plans and “stashing” your flight and hotel information, as well as any other relevant information you might need and organize in it all in one place. Stash could be used for just about anything else though, like keeping track of recipes you like, staying on top of your online shopping addiction, or organizing all your home reno projects.
This is the first time Opera has decided to drop its own Presto engine in favor of Google’s Chromium engine, which should make this version of Opera significantly faster than previous versions. It’ll also be more compatible with websites you like to follow.
Opera 15 for Mac can be downloaded now directly from the Opera website.