For those who are looking for an alternative browser next to IE, Chrome and Firefox, the latest Opera release delivers a few new features, most notably experimental hardware acceleration.
If you have been following browser technologies, you may know that Opera has been promising hardware acceleration for more than a year and originally promised this feature to be available with version 11. It's not final, but explicitly described as "experimental", so don't expect to function flawlessly just yet.
Opera 12 also comes with new themes, as well as webcam apps that include PhotoBooth, as well as Polaroid and Facekat. Polaroid even implements WebRTC functionality. Also new is an overhauled security engine that is much more transparent to the user, 64-bit support on Windows and Mac, improved JavaScript performance as well as right-to-left text support.
And just in case you are wondering, yes, Opera declined to comment on the rumor that it may soon turn into the official Facebook browser. Opera 12 can be downloaded from opera's homepage.