Vivaldi 1.4 is the newest version of the up and coming web browser that aims to conquer the browser world by improving the user experience through customization features.
It has just been a couple of months since Vivaldi released the first stable version of the web browser to the public.
Much has changed since then, and versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 all added new functionality to the browser.
Vivaldi 1.3 was released just a month ago, and it is clear right away that you should not expect a truckload of new features in Vivaldi 1.4.
While that is the case, it does ship with Theme Scheduling, a feature that I reviewed just a couple of days ago.
Vivaldi 1.4
I don’t want to rehash the whole article and suggest you read it for a detailed look at the feature. Theme scheduling allows you to switch between different themes automatically based on the time of day.
You may add as many “switches” as you like, and the Vivaldi browser will switch between them automatically from that moment on.
It is for instance possible to set a darker theme for night time and early morning hours, and a lighter theme for the rest of the day.
While some users may not find the feature overly useful, it is completely optional and needs to be enabled on vivaldi://settings/themes/ before it becomes available. If you don’t need it, ignore it and all is good.
That’s one of the strengths of Vivaldi, giving users choice instead of pushing them towards the direction the designers consider optimal.
Theme Scheduling is without doubt the primary new feature of Vivaldi 1.4.
Web Panels
Web Panels allow you to pin any website to Vivaldi’s panel listing on the left. You may then open those sites in a sidebar-like area in the browser.
Since sites may require different widths, Vivaldi 1.4 supports different widths for sites displayed as web panels. Just right-click on any web panel to select the “separate width” option.
The context menu holds other features of interest, for instance the ability to load the mobile version of a site if available (or the desktop version if the mobile version is shown).
Another new, minor new feature, is that you may middle-click on the trash can icon to open the last closed tab right away. The trash lists recently closed tabs in the Vivaldi interface, and the middle-click option simply speeds up the restoration of the last closed tab. While I prefer Ctrl-Shift-T for that, others may prefer to use the mouse instead.
You can read the official release announcement on the official Vivaldi blog.