Opera Mobile 10 adds Hebrew, Arabic support

December 21, 2009 | By Surur

With the first beta versions of Opera Mobile 10 released in November, Opera is making quick progress in adding features and improving performance on its powerhouse mobile browser. Opera Software continues to improve its Opera Mobile 10 browser for Windows Mobile with the release of an upgrade to its latest beta (beta 2). This critical step towards the final version of Opera Mobile 10 includes several updates aimed at improving the user experience.

Localization for Hebrew and Arabic-speaking regions was prioritized in the Windows Mobile version, and the update brings the following improvements:

Support for Hebrew and Arabic Web sites. Right-to-left rendering now works on Opera Mobile 10.
Faster loading. When the Opera icon is pressed, watch out for even faster loading of the browser.
Increased auto-rotation support. More phones now support auto-rotation.

Said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software:

“With each of our beta releases, we put users first. Their needs are our first priority, which is why it was important for us to add bi-directional language support and the ability to input native characters, such as Chinese, into the browser,” “There are millions of Hebrew, Arabic and Chinese speakers out there, and we want to make sure that Opera works seamlessly for them, allowing them to surf the Web within the comforts of their native language.”

Opera Mobile can be downloaded from this page or directly via this link here.

Via Unwiredview.com

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged browser, browsers, opera mobile 10, software

http://www.avianwaves.com Parrotlover77

I really like Opera Mobile 10 and use it as my primary browser now. However, they really need to fix the things they "broke" from Opera Mobile 9.

First, Opera Mobile 10 has absolutely no text reflow support. The columns are the size of the zoomed-in mode even when zoomed out. It looks really bad and is hard to navigate.

Second, there is no way to arbitrarily zoom in and out by some factor. Why take that out? Not everything zooms nicely when you click to zoom.

Third, covering the title bar? WHY? That has to be the most annoying part of Opera Mobile 10.

Fourth, there is no way to minimize the app. You have to hack the registry so the phone's Back button stops being browser-back and becomes a normal OK button to minimize. This is absolutely nonsense on a multitasking device like Windows Phone.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

all windows phones have a "ok" button and a "windows" button.I use any of those to minimize opera10
hduser

HTC owns a patent for text reflow which means you will only see that on htc builds of opera

http://intensedebate.com/people/Foamy Foamy

HTC has no use for reflow. they should sell it, license it or keep their reflow versions updated. reflow isn't quite enough to stick with the stock browser. especially not when you have something like opera 10. this means that their version isn't being used and so it's a total waste of time for everyone.

hduser

it's a way to gain an edge over other manufactures such as Apple as they cannot include reflow in safari for example. it's a good selling point if you ask me.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Foamy Foamy

It is a good selling point but currently you can't really make use of it. if opera had the patent it would be great but HTC having it and basically stopping anyone from using it pisses me off. HTC make good phones and UIs but that's it. they treat their customers like crap and seem to have no interest in anything other than making money. Their attitude toward reflow is just part of a wider issue they have about supporting devices more than a few days after they're released.

http://www.avianwaves.com Parrotlover77

Also, they need to fix some outstanding complaints.

Some pages format for the mobile phone, despite you wanting a desktop experience, so the whole browser experince sucks on those sites. Not Opera's fault, but still. How hard would it be for Opera to send the Big Opera user agent optionally? Just FYI, the "opera settings" way of doing it no longer works.

Stop popping up the damn SIP when my hardware keyboard is deployed. Annoying!

Kinetic scrolling still has way too much friction. It takes about twenty finger flicks to get to the bottom of a large page. Another way to fix this is to have a way to freely scroll around the page using a zoomed out (all the way) view, or have a scroll bar you can actually grab and scroll all the way up and down (like Old Skool scrolling).

Despite these complaints, I do really like the direction they are going.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

sometimes the kinetic scrolling stop working in opera10 and it's freaking annoying.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Foamy Foamy

Here's a list of things i want from opera mobile:

flash.

text reflow.

better opera link integration.
why do i need to enter my details again just to add some more bookmarks?
a dedicated notes page would be nice.
a separate mobile speed dial would be useful too.

better integration with unite. why not a separate unite app? and let me back things up onto it.

let me use my opera bookmarks with other browsers. currently manually taking them one at a time is so tedious i haven't bothered.

give me an "open" option with downloads.

fix text selection so you can scroll without losing the ability. or at least stop it from going to the top of the page whenever i activate it.

an open in background tab option.

gesture support.

ad blocking support.

Add those things and opera will be the ultimate browser on both desktop and mobile.
netboy

hmm.. is this beta 2.1 ?
the beta2 i download like 2 week ago filenaname has NO "u" on it, now when i download beta 2, filename got a "u" in it.
and i want my CLOCK!
i like to surf web during my break and lunch break, i need to know the time so i wont go over my lunch break!

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

I was wondering the same thing too: if this is a newer version of beta 2

Mxx

it's not.
it's the same beta 2. just they released PR for more hype.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

it is really a different version, this version seems to keep the kinetic scrolling going for me, but now txt entry is as fast as how rock grows

Mxx

what's your browser build?
I have 10.00 biuld wmd-50286

Opera mini build is 5.0.16823

James

I was very excited by the advertised Hebrew capabilities, but I find that although the words are in the correct right-to-left order, the letters are still left-to-right within each word. Anyone else found that?
james

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

lol, emty comment? how did you manage that, I really didn't know that could happen. I thought the site would through an error saying the comment is too small. I guess you really didn't have much to say on this one.

Jeremy MacMull

This is a new beta its got a few updates look on XDA for details. 70% faster load time for example
H.Q

arabic not working well!
Rosy

Arabic doesn't display well all is SQUARES