Suffering from tab overload? Vivaldi unveils Session Panels
- Reference: 1702559165
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/12/14/vivaldi_unveils_session_panels_to/
- Source link:
On the desktop, the most notable new feature is the addition of the Sessions Panel. This is aimed at users who simply can't let go of all those opened tabs. According to Vivaldi: "A Session can contain tabs from a single window, all your windows, and optionally your Workspaces too."
Or you could tidy up after yourself and not have dozens of tabs open.
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The Sessions concept is a neat way to deal with tab overload and start afresh with a clear browser, secure in the knowledge that all those ever-so-important tabs you were looking at earlier are safely stored in the Sessions list
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The Sessions Panel in the sidebar of the Vivaldi browser (click to enlarge)
If managing those Sessions proves too much, the browser can also be set to back up snapshots of all open tabs once an hour, with a 30-day history.
Other tweaks include making Synced Tabs available from the Address Field and Windows Panel rather than requiring a click on the cloud icon on the Tab Bar, and Workspace Rules to shunt tabs into the correct Workspace – for example, if you accidentally open a "work" tab in a "travel" Workspace, a rule can be set to shift the tab to where it ought to be.
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However, the most eye-catching feature is synchronizing a user's entire browser history across all devices. Vivaldi would like you to use its browser across multiple devices. While typed history, searches, and addresses typed into the Address Field are synchronized, the lack of browsing history has been a notable omission. Similar functionality has been [5]present in Chrome and [6]Edge browsers for quite a while now.
For Vivaldi, the new feature may also be a useful hook for persuading existing users that they need to set up an account.
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Although Vivaldi is playing catch-up with rivals in some respects, its obsession with privacy is still a thing it higlights as all users' data is end-to-end encrypted: "We cannot read it on our servers," the company [8]explains , "only you can access your data! We don't profile or sell your information to advertisers because privacy is our top priority."
The iOS version of the company's browser was also updated today, which unsurprisingly supports the updated synchronization functionality. An Android version is due imminently.
[9]Steam client drops support on macOS, but adds it on Linux
[10]In quest to defeat Euro red-tape, Apple said it had three Safari browsers – not one
[11]Microsoft seeks EU Digital Market Acts exemption for underdog apps like Edge
[12]Chrome, Firefox and more caught with their WebP down, offer hasty patch-up
For iOS users, Vivaldo has added the ability to move the Address Bar and Tab Bar to the bottom of the screen or leave them at the top and change the order of the search suggestions. Fans of customization can also change the wallpaper for the Start Page, and the color of the user interface will vary to match the colors of the web page being visited.
Version 6.5 is a useful release, particularly the improvements around synchronization for users with the necessary account. The Session Panel is one solution to the modern problem of tab overload. If your tab habit is anything like ours, though, you'll soon find yourself needing a Session Panel to deal with all the other Session Panels you end up creating. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZXs0tbKKzWZPVXzUFf9ApwAAAE0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/12/14/desktop_session-panelx.jpg
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZXs0tbKKzWZPVXzUFf9ApwAAAE0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZXs0tbKKzWZPVXzUFf9ApwAAAE0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/185277?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid
[6] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/learning-center/sync-your-browser-across-devices?form=MA13I2
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZXs0tbKKzWZPVXzUFf9ApwAAAE0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://vivaldi.com/#browser-features
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/steam_mac_lin_changes/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/02/apple_safari_browser/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/26/microsoft_dma_exemption/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/12/chrome_browser_webp_exploit/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: So now we have "Nested Tabs"
Trust the sarcasm…
Users aren’t great at decision-making, so as the options increase, the decisions become more random.
Session? Yeah, my non-tech friends know what those are. Just like they know what passkeys, FIDO, SSO (or was that meant to be SSL? Who knows!), SSD, SSM, SAS, SAAS, SOS, etc, are. Some of my tech friends might have a problem with many of these, too.
What a mess.
But Im sure it’s Made with heart-emoji, so that’s great.
— Shaza DuPunk —
I already have a goddamned window manager on this machine
If I wanted a tabbed window manager, I would be running one.
I was able to turn it off on Firefox but I still have to fight Edge about it.
Now if only
If only they would add reply-to header support in their email app, I might finally have a viable alternative to Thunderbird.
Now if only 2
On Vivaldi mobile... I could remember how to find my bookmarks, they got shot of that stupid "preview" mode, didn't reload a half completed form when I move to another app.. E. G. Email to get a bit of info the form requires and recognises that my Dragino gateway/router was not the spawn of the devil.
Apart from that it's a shite site better than Opera.
I've been using Vivaldi as my main general-purpose browser for a while now, but it's looking as though I'm not the target audience. A previous "feature", stacks of tabs, came enabled after one update, and I had to search the internet to find out how to disable it. We'll see if this new, superfluous facility is "opt-in" or "opt-out".
At most, I might have 3 open tabs at once, and even then, I can only read one of them at a time.
When UI changes are not OK
UI experiments are great for new browsers, but NOT OK for stable products, like Chrome.
The recent Chrome Refresh 2023 made me panic. Firefox lost me as a user for many radical and non-intuitive UI changes.
Why or why to change a stable product. Make a new experimental one and see it it sticks, if your hands are itchy.
So now we have "Nested Tabs"
The feature itself is fine. But my first thought was, of course, sarcastic.