opera mobile 9.5

Opera Mobile comes to the Gigabyte GSmart S1200

November 30, 2009 | By Surur

Despite Microsoft’s efforts Opera Mobile is still the best native Windows Mobile browser and has recently become almost the default browser on many new handsets. With the improved Pocket IE this has changed however, with many handsets shipping only with Internet Explorer.

The Gigabyte GSmart S1200 was one of these, but this decision was recently reversed. Opera Software announced that GIGA-BYTE Communications has selected Opera Mobile 9.5 to power the “Hami” widget service on the Windows based Gigabyte GSmart S1200. Hami, developed by Taiwan’s leading operator Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), delivers local, online information directly to the GSmart screen. With Opera Mobile 9.5, GSmart users can not only surf the Web with a full featured browser, but also easily access news, weather, live stock quotes, local search engines, and other online services with just one-click.

“Browsing is one of the main features on the GSmart S1200, and Opera Mobile is widely recognized as the best browser for smartphones,” said Dr. Stanley Jenq, CEO of GIGA-BYTE Communications Inc. “Because of Opera’s leadership in developing widgets for mobile phones, we predict a seamless delivery of CHT’s Hami services, giving users an even easier way to search, socialize and simply enjoy the Web,” continued by Dr. Jenq.

Taiwan-based CHT developed the Hami concept for smartphones so that their subscribers could access local, online information. In the future, Hami will extend its offer to paid services, such as e-book stores. Currently Hami can be accessed by three major smartphone operating systems: iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile.

“Opera Mobile has been shipped on more than 130 million phones globally and has gained its international renown largely through successful partnerships and word-of-mouth. Widgets are a key focus on Opera Mobile, and we share Gigabyte and CHT’s vision of improving the user experience through easy, one-click Web solutions,” said James Wei, President, Asia Pacific, Opera Software. “With this partnership, Opera is extending its reach in Taiwan and bringing the convenience of widgets to more people, in more places.”

New shipments of the GSmart S1200 will come with a preinstalled version of Opera Mobile 9.5. For the existing registered GSmart S1200 users, Opera Mobile 9.5 is now available through a firmware download from www.gigabytecm.com.

Via JustAMP

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Opera Mobile 9.7 vs Opera Mobile 9.5 vs Skyfire

June 20, 2009 | By Surur

TeknoReview.com has published a quick comparison of Opera Mobile 9.7 vs Opera Mobile 9.5 vs Skyfire.

The accelerated rendering of Opera Mobile 9.7 with Turbo mode on appears rather amazing, and I cant wait for the software to become available with the better browser UI as found in HTC’s version (easier tab closure, column with re-rendering depending on zoom level etc).

Of note is that Opera Mobile 9.7 achieves 100/100 on the acid 3 test, a score that’s beyond the reach of even the latest iPhone browser.

Via Dailymobile.se

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Opera Mobile 9.5 outclasses Blackberry Storm browser

December 13, 2008 | By Surur

Pocketnow has put together a video comparing the Opera Mobile 9.5 browser as found on the HTC Touch Pro with the browser on the Blackberry Storm and has found the latter to be pretty lacking.

Complaints include poor rendering, unresponsive touch screens and lack of flick scrolling (sounds like they are talking about Windows Mobile browsers of old, doesn’t it ). See the video below for a demonstration of why Windows Mobile currently has the best browser selection of any platform.

Source: Pocketnow.com

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SE Xperia X1 vs HTC Touch Pro – browsing experience

November 21, 2008 | By Surur

Today we look at the browsing experience in these two competitor phones. They both use the Opera Mobile 9.5 browser, build 2005 on the Xperia X1 and build 1522 on the Touch Pro. For this test I used default settings, with no added software tweaks. The conclusion may surprise you, and I am aware the outcome may be different after some configuration changes and 3rd party software, but most users will not know about these.

As can be seen in the video, text entry without a stylus is nearly impossible on the Xperia X1 in portrait mode. By necessity you have to slide open the keyboard. The same situation does not apply to the HTC Touch Pro.

We are loading the Slate website, a web property apparently inaccessible to Opera Mobile according to Gizmodo.

When it comes to rendering the page its clear the zoom level is lower on the Touch Pro than the Xperia, resulting in the device showing more of the page, both in portrait and landscape mode. Of course due to the higher resolution and higher zoom level, the text is more readable on the Xperia, but you still need pretty good eye sight to read text at those small sizes. Additionally zooming is much easier on the Touch Pro, which uses the navi-wheel to zoom in smoothly in and out. The Xperia uses the OK key to zoom in, but there is no key to zoom out with, and because the OK key is tied up with zooming you cant use it to minimize Opera anymore.

Edit: I have just discovered one can zoom in and out using the volume keys also, but again not as smoothly as the navi-wheel.

On the Touch Pro the text also reflows to fit the zoom level, a feature which is strangely missing from Opera on the Xperia.

All these issues combined results in the browsing experience being much slicker on the HTC Touch Pro than the Xperia X1, despite that device’s larger, higher resolution screen.

As mentioned earlier, installing a 3rd party keyboard or even the same one the Touch Pro uses, and fiddling with Opera Mobile’s settings on the Xperia may cause both devices to behave similarly, but again, these are really issues Sony Ericsson sorted out before releasing the device.

Both the Xperia X1 and HTC Touch Pro are available on Expansys (affiliate link).

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Tip: Adblock for Opera Mobile

November 8, 2008 | By Surur

If there is any doubt that Opera Mobile is a grown-up browser this bit of news should put it to rest. Desktop Opera has a built-in mechanism to remove ads, using a file called urlfilter.ini. It turns out the desktop file works just as well for the mobile version, removing ads and increasing load times significantly.

Also, because many ads are animated gifs, which uses processor cycles to animate, this should also make your browsing experience snappier, and also allow more screen real estate to see content.

See the difference below:

(Click for a larger version)
Notice the Bebo and Slingbox ads

(Click for a larger version)
Ads gone. Despite appearances, the Macbook ad is actually an Engadget article… supposedly.

Download a known working copy of urlfilter.ini from here, or see this site for regularly updated versions. The file needs to be copied into your \windows\opera\ directory on your smartphone.

Thanks Adshun for the tip.

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New Opera Mobile 9.5 beta released, supports widgets

October 20, 2008 | By Surur

With the release of the latest Opera Mobile 9.5 beta, Opera has introduced Opera Widgets to the mobile Internet experience, enabling one-click Web content access. This release marks the second Opera Mobile 9.5 beta for Windows Mobile.

T-Mobile has already embraced Opera Mobile with Widgets for their web’n'walk initiative. Like T-Mobile, other operators can now incorporate Opera Widgets into their customer offering. This means that customer-selected Web content can be accessed from a list of icons on the home-screen. Widgets can also serve as a means of customer communication, as automatic notifications are now easier to instantly deliver to subscribers.

“Opera has built its second Opera Mobile 9.5 beta based on user-generated feedback following its first public release earlier this year,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “In addition to Opera Widgets, this new test version promises to be a smoother ride than the previous version, as we have improved page loading times and increased our focus on end-user productivity.”

Several Opera Widgets are now pre-installed in the Opera Mobile 9.5 beta builds. Additionally, Opera offers downloadable widgets at widgets.opera.com.

Download the latest beta at Opera.com

Source: Opera Press Release

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New Opera Mobile build features ZoomSlider, now for your phone too

September 26, 2008 | By Surur

As first seen on the videos demoing the HTC Touch HD, the latest version of Opera Mobile 9.5, build 2181, features a new way to zoom into web pages as much or as little as you want.

As can be seen in the demo video above, in full screen view a magnify icon pops up, clicking on it produces slider, which allows easy selection of zoom level (which works pretty smoothly).

The app is downloadable in the the usual thread at XDA-Developers.com

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Official O2 XDA Orbit 2 update brings WM 6.1, Opera Mobile 8.65

September 13, 2008 | By Surur

Another device getting a Windows Mobile 6.1 update is hardly news these days. Of course of you are a German XDA Orbit 2 user you would of course appreciate the improved battery life, threaded SMS and other advantages WM 6.1 brings. What is news is that German Obit 2 users will also be getting an official version of Opera Mobile 9.5 included in the ROM, bringing the ground-breaking Windows Mobile browser to their devices too. This browser instantly corrects Windows Mobile’s greatest weakness, its weak internet browser, and would transform the web browsing experience Windows Mobile users.

Edit: One of our commenters have said it is in fact only Opera 8.65, which is nice but hardly as good as Opera 9.5. This unfortunately brings the update from a solid 10 to a rather more disappointing 6. Of course the Opera Mobile 9.5 beta can still be installed, but a copy included in the ROM would have been much better.

This move by HTC also indicates some ongoing support for now legacy devices, which can only be good news. In combination with TouchFlo 2D it means our old QVGA devices are now not so obsolete after all.

Download the ROM update for German O2 XDA Orbit users here.

Via the unwired.net

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Nvidia and Opera partner up for accelerated full desktop browsing on Windows Mobile

September 9, 2008 | By Surur

Nvidia has made clear its intention to storm the netbook market with its Windows Mobile solution by providing a full desktop browsing experience using an optimized Opera Mobile browser which will be available when bundled with its chipset and powerful Tegra processor.

“Seamless, effortless Internet access is critical to any state-of-the-art connected mobile device, and the combination of Opera 9.5 and NVIDIA Tegra will deliver the full Web experience into the palm of your hand,” said Neil Trevett, vice president of mobile content at NVIDIA. “Opera and NVIDIA are cooperating to create a powerful browsing experience that will truly make the Internet an integral part of the advanced Tegra mobile visual computing experience.”

“Full Web browsing is a key feature for mobile phones and mobile Internet devices today. End users are demanding a mobile-browsing experience that mirrors that of their home and work computers,” says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera Software. “Opera 9.5 combined with NVIDIA Tegra will deliver a powerful and visual browsing experience for the next generation of smartphones and mobile Internet devices.”

The Tegra family of computer-on-chip solutions integrates high-performance ARM CPUs, extensive media acceleration and integrated GeForce(R) GPUs that enable Opera 9.5 to provide mobile users a compelling browsing experience with the following features:

Support for full desktop Web content with hardware-accelerated rich media, image and in-page video playback;
GPU acceleration delivering a smooth, highly-interactive panning and zooming browsing experience with significantly-reduced battery consumption;
Hardware-accelerated 3D touch browsing experience with Opera integration into NVIDIA’s OpenKODE-based composition framework using the power of OpenGL ES 2.0.

Devices with the Opera browser powered by NVIDIA Tegra hardware are expected to be available to consumers in 2009.

Source: Nvidia Press Release

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Latest version of Opera Mobile 9.5 now out

August 21, 2008 | By Surur

Via the dark underground of XDA-Developers.com, the latest version of Opera Mobile 9.5, build 1938, is now available for download. The last build officially available was build 1780, and a major let down versus the leaked HTC-customized versions.

Like most leaked builds, who sadly come without release notes, knowing what changed is difficult. Besides the usual bug fixes, this build works better with the mobile version of youtube by diverting the stream to the HTC Streaming Media player.

Download the application from here.

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Minor update to Official Opera Mobile 9.5 beta fixed notification bug

July 29, 2008 | By Surur

As the title says, Opera has come out with a 0.1 update to fix the bug in Opera Mobile 9.5 where it would suddenly stop your notifications (new mail sound, reminders etc) from working. They also endorsed moving your cache files to memory card (from internal storage), a fix suggested over at WMExperts.com

Read the Opera blog post here, or download the new version here.

At present our recommendation is still to stick with the leaked version, mainly due to the poor text warping in the Official version.

Via theunwired.net

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New leaked Opera Mobile build

July 24, 2008 | By Surur

After the rather disappointing release of the official Opera Mobile 9.5 beta surprisingly we still have to turn to the leaked version for a fully functional browser, that has proper rendering and doesn’t kill our notifications.

Thankfully it seems the secret mole continues to deliver, and now Opera Mobile 9.5 built 1660 is available for your download pleasure from the usual XDA-Developer thread.

Hopefully some day Opera will make good on the promise of the Opera Mobile 9.5 browser, but in the mean time, happy browsing!

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Opera Mobile now available – Verdict: stick with the HTC version

July 17, 2008 | By Surur

After a long wait and much anticipation, Opera Mobile 9.5 beta has finally hit the download chutes of the internet. And of course its good – its after all the best mobile browser on the internet. However, for some reason, the version Opera has released is worse in many ways than the one tweaked by HTC as found on the HTC Touch Diamond.

Firstly, one of the great features of Opera was how it preserved page lay-out in full screen mode but when one zoomed in would re-format columns of text so one could read it easily without horizontal scrolling.

The official beta unfortunately does the formatting of the text columns even in zoomed out view, leading to a distortion of the layout the author of the web page intended, and of course making navigation more difficult.

Secondly, the handling of multiple tabs have taken a step backwards. While in the old version it was a 2 step process to close a tab, in the new version you have to take 3 steps: Menu>Tabs>Close tab and the process is less intuitive, as its less clear which tab you are closing.

Thirdly, the new default font is Courier, which I simply hate. It turned my against Netfront until I found out how to change it. I have not found out how to do it in Opera 9.5 beta yet.

Lastly, while HTC’s Opera Mobile can handle flash plug-ins, the official beta can not.

Of course, the Official beta scores even better than the leaked one on the Acid 3 test, scoring 76/100, and has some nice features such as importing PIE favourites. Overall however my experience with the HTC version is much better than the official beta, and I know which one I will be sticking with.

The official version is available for download here, but otherwise, Google is your friend.

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