Just a few days ago we echoed the launch of Vivaldi 5.3 and here is another novelty from the house of the web browser that has nothing to do with what this version brought, even though it is a set of features intrinsic to the project itself : Vivaldi Mail, Vivaldi Calendar and Vivaldi Feeds…, or the integrated email client, calendar and news reader, which finally see their first final version.
In fact, we can leave it in Vivaldi Mail, or Vivaldi Mail 1.0, which is the launch we are dealing with, as well as the component that encompasses the others, despite the fact that they can be used almost independently. Be that as it may, it is, as I have said, a set of features intrinsic to a project that was born in part to recover them, to bring back some of the exclusive features that made the old Opera such a special browser.
Five years after the appearance on the scene of Vivaldi and almost two since the previous version of Vivaldi Mail was launched, Vivaldi Technologies is satisfied with what has been achieved and announces the first round and stable version of email client, calendar and news readeralthough looking back (in the previous link we gave a good overview of the suite) things have not changed much.
In other words, they have done it: the three applications in question have improved a lot, they have added options that they were missing and have corrected lots of typical errors of the development of quite complex components in general; but the concept is the same as it was from the beginning, so if you had already tried or had been using Vivaldi Mail, Calendar or Feeds, you won’t be in for any surprises.
Moreover, although this release that we are now collecting marks a milestone in the Vivaldi project, it has been a long time since both the first start of the browser, and through its configuration preferences, all the components indicated for its use could be activated. . That now the announcement of Vivaldi Mail 1.0 is given, is because of what it entails to present a first final stable versionand it is not something else, but they have taken the matter calmly.
In short, what does Vivaldi Mail offer? This is emphasized by Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder of Opera Software and founder and CEO of Vivaldi Technologies, in the extensive presentation article linked above, whose reading is highly recommended for those interested in this release due to its detail with everything new that arrives: «a powerful email client integrated directly into your browser«, he points. And neither lie nor exaggerate.
If Vivaldi Mail can boast of something, it is that it is not a mere decoration. Quite the contrary, Vivaldi Mail is a powerful, or if you prefer, complete email manager, full of options at the level of any dedicated application. In fact, if there’s anything to blame for Vivaldi Mail, it’s that it can overwhelm a bit of those who aren’t versed in these matters, forgive the redundancy, especially since the arrival of Mailspring-type clients or similar.
Vivaldi Mail
All in all, Vivaldi has an idiosyncrasy that is not misleading: it is a browser full of options and focused on advanced users, but also thanks to its customization capacity, it can be configured to simplify it and adapt it to the needs of each one. The same thing happens with Vivaldi Mail: you can tweak it enough to get rid of anything that doesn’t interest you, although the task requires your dedication and, something that is missing, is the integration with the browser’s synchronization system.
Otherwise, Vivaldi Mail is so feature-rich that even if you don’t use Vivaldi as a web browser, you can consider using it as an IMAP or POP3 email client only.
It seems that the calendar theme has been left in a kind of secondary space, but everything plausible about Vivaldi Mail is shared with Vivaldi Calendar, if not the best. Yes, yes: Vivaldi Calendar, or Vivaldi’s calendar is one of the most complete applications of its category that I have never had the opportunity to try and, therefore, the conclusion with the previous one is equally shared: even without using Vivaldi, it can be considered as a stand-alone application.
Repeating what I said almost two years ago, Vivaldi Calendar includes pretty much everything you could ask for in a calendar app: year, month, week, day and agenda view; date and time options, recurring appointments, by location, description and URL, tasks mode with boxes, private or shared calendars, with support for using it locally without transmitting data to any site, but also with the possibility of adding external calendars through the standard protocol (CalDAV).
Vivaldi Calendar
It should be remembered that Vivaldi Technologies offers, together with the Vivaldi account – as is the case with other browsers, which is essential to use data synchronization – an account in a free email service based on the Roundcube open source software and that also includes a calendar, in case someone wants the all in one. Of course, both Vivaldi Mail and Calendar work with accounts from third-party services like Gmail, Outlook, etc.
Vivaldi Feeds, Vivaldi Reader, Vivaldi Feed Reader… I don’t know how to call the third colliding element, because in the Spanish version of Vivaldi it is simply Feeds or news reader, although what we are talking about is the traditional news reader based on syndication standards such as RSS and Atom. And it’s great that Vivaldi has taken into account a tool of this type to complete the productivity suite, apparently relegated to the past.
Nothing could be further from the truth: I will not get tired of defending the validity of RSS readers -or whatever you want to call them- as the best tool to follow what is published by the sites that one follows, as opposed to the vitiated forms of social platforms shift. However, in the case at hand… Let’s just say that Vivaldi Feeds is, at least for now, the weakest component of the three by far.
Vivaldi Feed Reader
It is possible that for the most basic user it complies, but as soon as you demand it, it falls very short. So much so that it doesn’t even allow you to create folders or labels to organize the sources. Well, yes, you can make a mess of filters by taking advantage of the email client’s tags, with which it integrates in a somewhat undesirable way, but this is, in fact, one of its worst aspects: the same number of email messages unread, includes unread articles and it’s chaos.
If you add to this that it allows you to import sources through OPML, but it is impossible to eliminate them en bloc… Feeds has a few boils left, not to reach the level of the two previous applications, but to be considered by any minimally demanding user. We will give you time.
Vivaldi Mail 1.0 arrives today through a simple update -without version change- to the stable version of the browser. Take note that you have already applied the same thing. But if by any chance you want to try it and you don’t see anything, go to “Settings > General > Productivity features > Enable Mail, Calendar and Feeds” to do the same. We leave you with the presentation video of Vivaldi Mail 1.0… and company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9EJR2TPh78
Finally, another thing that I also commented on at the time, is that the three components are integrated, as it could not be otherwise, with the browser panels, and this includes a fourth element that is linked to the mail reader, but which has its own panel view: a contacts gesture, forming the core of the productivity suite that Vivaldi has definitely become.
But hadn’t he said internet suite? Yes, and I keep it. Both terms apply: productivity suite and internet suite. However, this last term has more history behind it than those who began their journey through the networks in the last couple of decades can remember. Be careful, SeaMonkey is still around, although hardly anyone remembers it. And while there are other examples, Vivaldi’s is the most alive at the moment.
Thus, in honor of the truth, the headline that the “Internet suite” is reborn in the middle of 2022 may be somewhat excessive, but if we stick to the current situation and the actors that move in it, Vivaldi is the most daring, not to say the only one who contemplates the stage in such a way that it deserves the description.
