We are releasing Opera Developer 21 today.

This developer release got somewhat delayed due to unforeseen problems. However, we are back on track and eager to show off the new version.

The main highlight is integration of Aura on Windows. Aura is a hardware-accelerated rendering of the browser, including the user-interface. This enables less-taxing UI animations and a general sleeker and more responsive feel to the whole UI.

From big things to a small thing (but which will please many of you): there’s now a setting to make Opera browser always show the absolute address in the address field. While many consumers appreciate the emphasis on the domain name and just the essential information; our power users and web developers often need to see the full URL. Simply go to “Settings | Advanced: Show always full URL in address field” and it’s “Hello, absolute address!” from then on.

Mac now has full keyboard support for web apps such as Google Docs and GitHub.

Hope you are all as eager to try out Opera 21 Developer as we are about shipping it! Make sure to skim through the changelog to find more gems.

As always, please let us know about any bugs or oddities.

Known issues

Non-native scrollbars and buttons on internal pages

Norwegian partner content (Speed Dials) may show up in other regions on Windows XP

Downloads

Full changelog.