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Opera updates Coast browser for iOS with music and PDF options

Those who want to control Web-based music or save PDFs have some new options with an update to Opera's browser for iOS.

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Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Opera Coast icon

Opera Software has finished a new version of its Coast browser, an attempt to get a better foothold on Apple's iOS, with new music and PDF controls.

When a Web page can play music, Coast will indicate that with a graphic-equalizer animation in the page's tab and let people control the music with a lock-screen control. Coast also now offers options for saving PDFs or opening them with other apps, the Norwegian browser company said.

The updated Coast also lets people set a home-screen image. Last, for moving among Web pages, Opera dumped its older buttons and moved to swipe gestures instead.

Opera has moved to Google's Blink browser engine for most of its products, but that software isn't allowed on iOS, so Coast is an attempt to build a new user interface atop the browser engine Apple ships for third-party apps on iOS to use.