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Posts tagged Opera Mini
Opera Mini on iPhone!
Feb 10th
ok… First things first. I’m confused. Apple doesn’t allow any other browser to run in iPhone. Any other product which will pose a competition for the Apple Apps are banned from the App store.
So why is Opera even bothering to release Opera Mini for iPhone??? To my query Opera representative responded via email -
“We are bringing Opera Mini to the iPhone to bring the Opera Mini experience to even more users. We hope that Apple will not deny their users a choice in Web browsing experience. “
we too hope that but…. but…. I don’t think apple would do that… Maybe I’ll be proved wrong… Time will tell. Meanwhile jailbroken iPhones can use Opera Mini…. (Everyone jailbreak your iPhone)
Opera Mini is without doubt the most popular and most widely used mobile browser. Opera Mini is renowned for its compression technology, which results in significantly faster Web-page loading and reduces data surcharges. With favorite desktop features in its arsenal, such as tabs, Speed Dial and the password manager, Opera Mini is designed with usability in mind. By bringing Opera Mini to iPhone, Opera is expanding it’s user base by another 21 million (if Apple allows it, that is) Opera Mini for iPhone will be revealed in an exclusive press and partner preview during the 2010 Mobile World Congress (MWC)
Visit Opera’s exhibit in Hall 1, C44, to witness a new way to surf the Web on the iPhone.
Skyfire 1.5 review
Jan 22nd
I’ve never previously used Skyfire, I owned an N70 earlier and Skyfire didn’t used to work in it. Now I’m using the Nokia N97 but Skyfire didn’t support S60 V5 smartphones…. So I jumped at the opportunity when I came to know that Skyfire team was looking for alpha testers. I installed Skyfire on my N97 and was amazed at the speed of the browser. How can a mobile browser that can display flash, silverlight etc. be so fast. it’s awesome.
Fast forward to today – Skyfire team has released the browser in beta for everyone to test. So what has improved and what has not –
Flash Videos – In alpha state audio and video were out of sync, and the experience was terrible… But in this beta I was amazed at the flash video playback, it was very smooth and even on the edge connection the video played without a hitch. awesome.
even the player is controllable (I’m thinking about flash games) –
The website rendering is surprisingly accurate -
of course it is going through some external server which compressed the data and makes Skyfire more faster, but streaming videos?
The controls are minimal and simple -
and it still has the sharable, all customized homescreen which greets you with your mail, twitter, facebook, digg, YouTube feeds etc.
This beta version of Skyfire has got problems too –
the frustrating checker board -
sometimes Skyfire does not connect to web at all, you’ve got to restart Skyfire for that. Interacting with some flash websites is difficult and the flash games are not playable.
So, how does Skyfire line up against it’s biggest competitor – Opera Mini/ Opera Mobile?
Skyfire beta is better than Opera mini 4 ….. but Opera mini / mobile 5 brought in many desktop like features which makes surfing the web on mobile so much simpler like saving passwords, multiple tabs, more speed, less data usage, a download manager etc. which makes Opera mini / Opera mobile better than Skyfire. I really like Skyfire and I hope the final version has password manager, multiple tab etc.
You can download Skyfire from here
or type get.skyfire.com in your mobile browser.
Opera Mini 5 beta = Awesome
Sep 17th
Yup… the next Opera mini, the most popular mobile browser is out and it is going to be more popular.
Popular features
Innovative and Easy-to-use
Living up to our vision of providing the best Internet experience on any device, Opera Mini 5 boasts a powerful new user interface. Merging the best from our desktop browser together with new innovations for mobile phones, Opera Mini is advanced, yet highly intuitive to use.
Tabs
With tabbed browsing, you no longer need to interrupt one session to start another. Use your Web mail in one window, Facebook in another, Twitter in a third and all that while checking the latest sports results. With Opera Mini, you can easily identify the different tabs and jump between them.
Password manager
No more hassle with those hard-to-enter usernames and passwords. Opera Mini 5 will remember your credentials, and you can log on to your favorite Web sites with just a single click. The passwords are stored on your phone for your convenience.
Full Web in your palm
When visiting a Web page, Opera Mini displays the overview of the page and suggests where to begin your reading before you zoom in. Opera Mini also detects when on a Web page designed for a mobile phone and displays it optimally.
Touch & Keypad
The user interface has been designed for both touchscreen- and keypad-style mobile phones. With a touchscreen, you can enjoy even easier navigation with our new zooming and kinetic scrolling.
Speed Dial
Get your favorite Web page with just one click. Speed Dial is a set of visual bookmarks you see when you open a new tab, like a dashboard for your on-line life. To add a new page, simply click on an empty Speed Dial slot, and Opera will make suggestions based on your browsing history and bookmarks.
Built for speed
Time is precious. Opera Mini compresses pages by up to 90% before being sent to your phone, meaning faster page-load times than in other mobile Web browsers.
Find things faster
The new Opera Mini lets you search for text within a Web page, so you can get to the information you need even more quickly than before.
Power scrolling
Scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad or by dragging the page on a phone with a touchscreen.
Above were the feature…. now a short review –
As you can see from the above screenshots…. the interface is completely changed… everything is now visual, speed dial, menu etc. It has got an onscreen keypad, with is cute and works well, I also found copy/paste… though it doesn’t seem to be working outside the application. The password manager is an welcome thing.
Some things missed in this release are Opera link which syncs the bookmarks, notes etc. I’m sure it’ll be included in the final release. The ability to discover and add search engines have also disappeared – there’s only Google and Wikipedia currently available.
skins are missing which is not much of a problem (for me, for the time being)….. it also doesn’t play videos which I was hoping Opera 5 will be able to do, but I’m not sure anymore cause according to an Opera spokesperson there’s no current plan to transcode video, especially when there is a workaround that doesn’t strain Opera’s development resources. They’re focusing on browser speed and compression first. It also triggers an e-mail message when you click a Mailto: link in a Web page. Overall it is a worthy upgrade from Opera mini 4.2 and it even installs separately from Opera mini 4.
Download to your mobile phone
To try Opera Mini 5 beta, simply visit the address m.opera.com/next, using your phone’s default Web browser or download to your computer.
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