opera

Opera Mobile 9.7 beta leaked

June 8, 2009 | By Surur

We are still awaiting an official beta, but in the mean time a cab file for the new version has wound its way onto the internets.

~~The file can be downloaded from http://rapidshare.com/files/242130082/operabrowser_wm_97b1.cab.html here.~~

Edit: This download is no longer available, but the can can be downloaded directly from Opera here.

So far I have not been able to install it on my Touch Diamond 2, but you may have better luck.

Thanks Derek for the tip.

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Opera Mobile 9.7 almost definitely coming tomorrow

June 7, 2009 | By Surur

There has been a rumour of Opera Mobile 9.7 being released tomorrow, but this has been difficult to coming. It seems Opera has joined the game, by adding a link to a as yet non-existent story on their home page about “Opera Mobile being ready to rev up your phone”.

Opera Mobile 9.7 is set to bring a faster rendering engine that uses the built-in graphics acceleration on your smartphone plus the Opera Turbo compression server.

See the video below of the browser in action:

[flv:http://www.opera.com/media/video/mobileturbo.flv 640 360]

Via FuzeMobility.com

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Opera and Skyhook Wireless Bring Geolocation to the Web

March 27, 2009 | By Surur

Opera Software and Skyhook Wireless today announced their partnership to bring geolocation to the Web. Users can now simply choose to share their location with any Web site and get a range of information about related products and services around them. Whether it is local searching, social networking, geotagging photos, local advertising or discovering nearby content, geolocation is a key factor in creating a relevant and meaningful experience on the Web.

Traditionally, geolocation was considered as being only a part of a downloadable mobile application, but, with Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), any computer or mobile phone with a wireless adapter can take advantage of its advanced positioning technology and locate a user, making this service available to any Web site.

“Location is always relevant when someone is browsing the Web,” said Tatsuki Tomita, SVP of consumer products at Opera Software. “By embedding Skyhook’s technology into Opera and making it available through the W3C Geolocation API, we ensure that every Opera user gets the same, high-quality, location-based experience out of the gate.”

With the new W3C Geolocation Application Programming Interface (API), Opera will make Skyhook Wireless’ groundbreaking location platform available to any Web developer with just a few lines of JavaScript. For example, a popular coffee chain will write the necessary JavaScript code on their Web site, Opera will ask the user for approval, then the location will be submitted to the Web site servers and their service will display the coffee shop locations nearest to the user on a map.

“Making accurate and reliable geolocation available over JavaScript to any Web developer means Skyhook’s market leading platform will be in the hands of a whole new world of developers and we expect to see the explosion of location-based services on the Web,” said Ryan Sarver, director of consumer products at Skyhook Wireless.

A technology preview for their desktop browser is available for download at http://labs.opera.com/.

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Opera Mobile 9.7 promotional video

March 26, 2009 | By Surur

Here’s Opera’s promotional video for their new browser.

Via Dialymobile.se.

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Opera Mobile 9.7 will be great

March 26, 2009 | By Surur

According to CNET News, Opera Software has just announced an update to Opera Mobile, version 9.7, which is is intended for Opera’s business clients, like carriers and cell phone manufacturers, that will bring many desirable features to our Windows Mobile phones.

The first is a much faster rendering engine, in the form of Presto 2.2. This engine has also achieved 100/100 on the Acid 3 test, which should promise even more compatibility with AJAX heavy websites. Performance of Flash video is also said to be much improved.

In addition Opera Mobile 9.7 will feature Opera Turbo, Opera’s new compression engine that is said to be able to reduce data transfer by 80 percent and thereby speed browsing, mainly through image compression.

The new browser also feature hardware acceleration with OpenGL ES support, ensuring smoother scrolling, panning and a more fluid user interface, and also better widgets and Google Gears support.

We are likely to first see the browser bundled with OEM devices like HTC’s new Touch Diamond and Pro 2, but it should soon be available for download from their website in beta form. In addition Opera is shopping around its technology to carriers, and the browser may soon come bundled even with phones not traditionally thought of as smartphones.

Source: Opera via CNET.com here.

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Opera Turbo comes to Windows Mobile

February 12, 2009 | By Surur

Just when you thought browsing couldn’t get any faster, Opera unveils its latest innovation for better browsing, Opera Turbo.

Opera Turbo is a compression solution, similar to its Opera Mini, which will be usable on the desktop with Opera and also for Opera Mobile. It reduced data transfer by up to 80%, thereby speeding up browsing. By taking the processing load onto Opera’s servers it will also allow low-end devices to enjoy a good web experience and fully supports dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax and Flash.

In a press release Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software said “We are living in a time and place where access to the Web should be a universal right to all. Technology has advanced us to the point that we can very nearly access the Internet anytime and anywhere from a growing number of devices,”, “As part of Opera’s commitment to provide the best experience on any device, Opera has developed the Opera Turbo solution.”

The service is to be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress, and is to be sold to cell phone carriers and OEM’s as a way to conserve resources and provide end users with a good web experience independent of the hardware or network conditions.

Read the full Opera press release here.

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Widgets galore for WM users on T-Mobile Germany

January 21, 2009 | By Surur

T-Mobile Germany, with the help of Opera, introduced Widgets to TouchFlo3D in September last year.

Now theunwired reports T-Mobile is to extend the number of widgets available and also extend to other handsets that will offer the interesting interface to web services.

The widgets will now not only be available on HTC’s devices, but also on the Samsung Omnia, a device who’s interface actually consists largely of widgets already at present.

Services offered would include eBay, YouTube, Facebook as well as several Yahoo! services like Yahoo! oneSearch, Yahoo! weather and more.

Windows Mobile browsers: Full comparison chart

January 4, 2009 | By marios96

Menneisyys at Mobility Site did a (very) detailed comparison between every available Windows Mobile browser with the benchmark set as the iPhone’s Safari. Opera 9.5, Skyfire, Opera Mini, Iris, Internet Explorer 6, Pre-6 Internet Explorer and NetFront, all in their latest versions were put to the test.

Since the benchmark was Safari, Menneisyys included in his comparison only finger friendly browsers, and he used the Pre-6 Internet Explorer with SPB Pocket Plus that adds finger scrolling on IE.

The comparison covers stuff like, Real-world rendering tests, Scrolling-related tests, Input, Stability, Full screen and VGA support etc.

As for a definitive winner, I am afraid you have to read the comparison chart by yourself to come to a conclusion, since this is just a comparison and not a competition. It seems though, that most Windows Mobile browsers outperform Safari in most aspects, especially in Stability tests, Memory Management and of course Copy/Paste functions.

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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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