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Opera Mobile 10 features tabbed browsing, disses WinMo

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Nov 4th 2009 @ 2:37PM

Symbian freaks, do we have a treat for you! While all your WinMo-lovin' friends are out there with Opera Mobile 9.5 (or possibly 9.7), a beta of version 10 has just been announced exclusively for Nokia / Symbian smartphones. As well as being as speedy as ever (fifty percent faster than previous Symbian versions, or so it's been claimed), this release features a new-and-improved user interface, a "speed dial" page that displays all your fave sites as icons, and tabbed browsing. Not too shabby, eh? Hit the read link to get the thing for your Symbian/S60 phone -- but not before peeping the video after the break.

[Via Mobile Tech World]

Continue reading Opera Mobile 10 features tabbed browsing, disses WinMo

Sprint temporarily loses its mind, wants $250 for Samsung Instinct HD

by Darren Murph posted Sep 24th 2009 @ 10:32AM

And you thought T-Mobile and Sprint were sniffing the good stuff when they demanded $350 for the HTC Touch Pro2. Shortly after Instinct HD boxes began showing up at select Sprint stores, the flagging carrier has finally come forward with an official ship date (9/27) and price. Try as we may, we still can't figure out why exactly "HD" is tacked on the end of this thing; the 480 x 320 display is decidedly average, it can't play back high-def content on the device itself, and the "HD" video output is a feature that approximately 3.8 Earthlings will ever use (on a phone like this, anyway). Compounding the problem is the remarkable lack of detail in the specifications -- Sprint simply swears that its 5 megapixel camera and video record mode are HD, but it fails to provide any elaboration whatsoever. Other specs include WiFi, EV-DO Rev A support, Opera Mobile 9.7, an ambient light sensor, haptic feedback and an accelerometer, but even those can't help justify the $249.99 (after a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year agreement) asking price. Hey Sprint -- we thought you guys were actually looking to gain subscribers. Right?

Opera Mini hits version 5 in beta form

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 16th 2009 @ 11:32AM

The great thing about Opera Mini is that it works with a ridiculous number of handsets -- that's probably Opera proudly proclaims it's "the world's most popular Web browser for mobile phones" -- and a major new release has just hit the streets in beta form. Version 5 adds a few key features, including "speed dial" for calling up your favorite bookmarks quickly, improved touchscreen support, an integrated password manager, and most importantly, tabbed browsing. You've gotta be careful with this sort of stuff while it's in beta, of course, but hey -- it's a browser -- what can go wrong? Grab it now (including a customized BlackBerry build) from Opera's site.

Opera Mobile 9.7 goes live

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 8th 2009 @ 3:00AM

Opera Mobile, already considered by many to be the premier browsing platform for WinMo handsets, has just benefited from a big boost today in the form of version 9.7. The headline here is that 9.7 is the first version to employ Opera's Opera Turbo technology, which offloads pages to Opera's servers (in much the same way as Opera Mini) where they get compressed to tiny fractions of their original sizes before being sent down to the phone. A demo on Opera's site shows the tech in action (using an EDGE connection for added drama), and if the claims hold up, Turbo should clearly make a noticeable difference in end user browsing speed. Next up, 9.7 upgrades to the Presto 2.2 rendering engine, which is exactly the same engine used by Opera's desktop browsers and is said to offer up to a 25 percent boost in rendering speed over previous versions. Anyhow, Opera Mobile 9.7 is available now for your WinMo phone -- much to Internet Explorer Mobile's chagrin, we imagine.

MediaFLO lives: LG "Opera TV" is probable Vu successor for AT&T

by Chris Ziegler posted May 26th 2009 @ 10:10AM

We suspect the image they've got on the slide here is a placeholder derived from the Arena, but the point is well taken: LG will be drawing heavily from its high-end global feature phone when the time comes to sunset the Vu. Indeed, we've heard that there'll be some S-Class-ish interface on the Vu 2, so this lines up nicely -- as does the 5 megapixel camera, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 3-inch wide VGA display, and MediaFLO support. Those are some heavy-duty specs, so we're hoping beyond hope that these guys can hold to the August '09 timeframe they've seemingly targeted for this. Catch a slightly larger glimpse of the phone -- which, the more we look at it, we're pretty sure is just an Arena stock photo -- after the break.

Continue reading MediaFLO lives: LG "Opera TV" is probable Vu successor for AT&T

Opera locks down agreement to bring Opera Mini to Virgin Mobile USA

by Darren Murph posted Apr 1st 2009 @ 3:37PM

Opera Mini has definitely seen a good deal of face time here lately, but it's looking to up its presence even more by inking a new partnership with Virgin Mobile USA. Starting April 14th, Opera Mini will be available as a free application download on select devices -- Slash, Arc, Shuttle, Super Slice and four others -- for Virgin Mobile USA prepaid customers via the VirginXL download storefront. Going forward, the browser will come pre-loaded on other "select" Virgin Mobile USA phones. So, one carrier down -- who's next?

Gallery: Opera locks down agreement to bring Opera Mini to Virgin Mobile USA

Yahoo! to distribute, cheer for Opera Mini

by Darren Murph posted Feb 19th 2009 @ 5:32AM

Maybe we're just imagining things, but it sure seems like a lot of deals are going down here in Barcelona. The latest partnership to arise from the middle of nowhere is this one, a tie-up between Yahoo! and Opera that will see the search engine company distribute and pimp the Opera Mini web browser to its many Yahoo! Mobile users. Under the deal, Yahoo! is expected to begin distributing Opera Mini via Yahoo! Mobile (gratis, of course) and also as a standalone download from Yahoo!'s mobile Web sites in the near future. A curious matchup, yeah? Should be interesting to see where this leads -- we get the feeling this is just the beginning of something much, much bigger. Or maybe just bigger.

[Via phonescoop]

LiMo Foundation gains another half dozen members at MWC

by Darren Murph posted Feb 17th 2009 @ 7:29PM

While Android is sure enjoying the spotlight underneath that HTC Magic display, the LiMo Foundation is quietly building an army to rule the mobile realm once and for all. Dramatics aside, the Linux consortium did manage to secure another six members here at Mobile World Congress including Telefónica SA, Aromasoft Corporation, Casio Hitachi Mobile Communications, Marvell Semiconductor, Opera Software ASA, and Swisscom. Of course, all these formalities really mean nothing if the group can't manage to get a reputable handset out the door, so for now, we'll say "congrats" and "hurry up, why don'tcha?"

Opera commercializes its server-side web compression with Opera Turbo

by Chris Ziegler posted Feb 12th 2009 @ 5:13PM

Part of the reason why Opera Mini is so dang good at what it does -- provide desktop-esque web experiences to devices with limited horsepower and bandwidth -- is because Opera has become really good at acting as a proxy, compressing each and every nugget of data before it's sent down to the phone. The company's now looking to capitalize on that expertise, announcing its Opera Turbo initiative that's being pitched to both carriers and device manufacturers as an easy way to reduce bandwidth consumption by up to 80 percent. We love you, Opera, but if this gives carriers a good excuse to delay 4G rollouts, we hate you.

Opera Mini 4.2 escapes beta, arrives for Android

by Darren Murph posted Jan 29th 2009 @ 10:40AM

It's tough to find someone who doesn't appreciate the amenities in Opera Mini, and we have to say, that hamstrung version that hit the Android Market in November just made us yearn for the real deal. Thankfully, that waiting window has finally closed. As of today, mobile surfers can suck down the non-beta version of Opera Mini 4.2 for Android, complete with easier URL entry, upload / download support and the ability to zoom in / out on double tap and handle multimedia files. Give it a go and report back with any praises / gripes, won'tcha?

[Via phonescoop]

HTC Advantage emerges as Xda Flint for O2

by Darren Murph posted Dec 9th 2008 @ 8:32PM

Believe it or not, the polarizing HTC Advantage is still kicking around, and now it has sashayed its way over to O2. Based on a relatively informative product page hosted up by the carrier, we're looking at a pretty standard Advantage X7510 with a swank O2 logo (though rechristened the Xda Flint), detachable QWERTY keyboard, 5-inch VGA touchscreen, a 624MHz processor, ATI graphics chip, Windows Mobile 6.1, 16GB of internal storage space, a 3.0-megapixel camera, HSDPA, built-in GPS and quad-band GSM connectivity. Mum's the word on a price or release date, but we'll keep you posted.

[Via coolsmartphone]

Opera Mini comes to the Android Market

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 25th 2008 @ 3:57AM

Perfect timing, eh? We're really not too concerned about the supposed browser hijack being reported on G1s the past couple days -- there's no proof at this point that it's actually a browser issue, and even if it is, we expect Google to be Johnny-on-the-spot with a patch -- but it's still cool to see a viable alternative getting developed in the form of Opera's venerable Opera Mini in its latest 4.2 beta form. We've played around with it for a few minutes and it seems to work pretty dang well, so if you G1 owners are feeling wild and crazy enough to switch up your browsing routine, give it a go -- it's free, after all.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Symbian Foundation nabs Opera, KTF... UIQ?

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 9th 2008 @ 1:13PM

The Symbian Foundation has definitely managed to quickly reach a quorum in the few months since its inception, and the group has just announced yet another round of heavyweights to have thrown their support behind the effort. This time around, Sharp, Opera Software, South Korea's KTF, and UIQ are among nine new firms to throw their hats into the ring (in other words, if the Windows Mobile and Android camps aren't paying attention yet, they probably ought to be). UIQ might be the surprise here, considering that S60's perpetual second fiddle had already made moves to get ready for the Foundation's activities -- but whatever, good to hear that they're officially on board now.

Opera Mini finds its way onto Android

by Sean Cooper posted Apr 11th 2008 @ 6:32PM

Got Android and lack lovely browsing experience? No worries, Opera mini is ~~coming~~ here to help. Opera's Chris Mills explains that rather than start from scratch they've used the existing code base and binary package with a wrapper that converts the Java ME API calls to Android API calls -- think translator. Of course, this has all only been run in software so far, though we just know now that it's hitting the wild, you can be sure that people playing with early hardware are going to be all over this. We love Opera Mini and are pretty stoked about Android, too, so you go gents, make us proud.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Put away the hacks: Helio now offering Opera Mini officially

by Chris Ziegler posted Mar 17th 2008 @ 6:42PM

Back in the days of yore, the world was a simpler place. The Helio Ocean had just one browser -- its own -- and if you wanted Opera Mini instead, you got it the old-fashioned way: with hard, manual labor. Times are changing, though, and both Helio and the Ocean are changing with 'em. Opera Mini is now available as a direct download from Helio itself, a nod to the community's desire to have access to what is commonly considered the premier mobile web browser, and maybe -- just maybe -- an admission that Opera Mini is better than the Ocean's integrated app. Whatever the implications, it looks like hitting 67372 from your Ocean's home screen will get the show on the road.