OSLO – February 12th, 2020: The Vivaldi Browser releases Vivaldi 2.11 – its first desktop update of the year. The latest version gives its users a new and improved Pop-out (Picture-in-picture) mode so that they can watch videos outside of the page they found them.
Pop-out video easily
When Vivaldi first launched the Pop-out video, the response was fantastic. For this release, Vivaldi decided to roll up their sleeves and revisit this feature to make it even better.
For the uninitiated, Pop-out video allows users to watch a video in a separate, floating window. The always-on-top window can be moved wherever the users like while they carry on browsing in other tabs.
There was room for improvement in this feature, though. Earlier, launching the window was hidden behind menus and extra clicks. Not anymore.
Now, enabling picture-in-picture is much more straightforward. A single click on a small video box icon displayed in the center of the video will launch it in the same movable, resizable, floating window.
The perfect solution when users want to catch a match while also get on with their work.
“Watching videos in Vivaldi should be intuitive and useful. If you’re watching a video that’s part of a playlist you’ll also see forward and back buttons in the new pop-out, letting you skip tracks or go back to something that caught your fancy”, says Petter Nilsen, Vivaldi developer who has worked on refining this feature.
Theme updates
Vivaldi has worked further on its Theme-Scheduling in this version. Earlier Vivaldi did not follow the operating system’s Dark/Light mode by default.
From now on Vivaldi will change its default theme to match the user’s operating system’s light/dark settings. For example, if a user has set MacOS to dark mode, Vivaldi will be launched in dark mode by default.
Focus shifting via the keyboard
One of Vivaldi’s strengths is the host of keyboard shortcuts it provides so that users can browse a lot faster.
This update introduces a unique accessibility feature that allows users to focus between different areas of the User Interface and active pages using F6 (and Shift+F6).
Users can use F6 to cycle (or Shift+F6 to reverse) keyboard focus between the webpage, bookmarks bar, tab bar, and address bar. From there, users can move between other sub-elements.
More in Vivaldi 2.11
Improved full-screen tab casting that adjusts to fit in the current window.
Upgraded developer tools.
“At Vivaldi, we are constantly reimagining the way our users interact with the Web. And with much more on the anvil this year, we’ll continue to improve every part of the browser and add more useful functionality to it,” says Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner.
Learn more about Vivaldi and download the latest version at vivaldi.com.
