RSSOpera releases beta of new mobile browser, now less annoying
By Nate Mook | Published April 3, 2008, 3:04 PM
Opera on Thursday released a beta version of Opera Mini 4.1, the company's free Web browser for mobile phones that runs on Java. Most notably, the new release is now signed, which means the phone will not prompt users every time they run the software.
Aside from eliminating the annoying Java security pop-ups, version 4.1 noticeably speeds up Web surfing by up to 50% thanks to improvements to Opera Mini's rendering engine. Accessing sites will be quicker, too, as the browser saves previously entered URLs and auto-completes them for users.
For the first time, phones equipped with JSR-75 will be able to download and upload content off the Web without being re-routed to the device's native file browser. This means users will be able to upload photos to a blog or add an attachment to a message sent using a webmail client.
JSR-75 will additionally enable the saving of Web pages for viewing later, when not online. Users can then read a previously downloaded Web page when on the subway, plane or anywhere else they have no cellular signal.
Opera says more than 40 million people have used Opera Mini since the software's debut, although the company will soon face more competition with Apple's iPhone spurring developers like Microsoft and Nokia to beef up their own built-in Web browsers.
With the 4.1 beta release, Opera is soliciting feedback from the community so it can continue to improve the software and stay atop the mobile market. Opera makes money from its free browser by sending Web searches to Google and taking a portion of advertising revenues -- much like Mozilla does with Firefox and Opera with its desktop browser.
"I hope everyone enjoys these new features, but we ask for your candor and feedback as we get ready to make Opera Mini even more relevant to the millions of people who use us and the millions of people who discover Opera Mini every month," says CEO Jon von Tetzchner.
I love it when the fanatics of different sides fight here. It's light watching 2 drunks see who can piss their name in the ground the fastest.
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|I believe that the Opera people are on LSD so I think they passed the acid test/:)
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|Yep, already installed and it's great !! Who needs an iphone if you have Opera Mini ?
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|People who don't want to deal with a trash browser and poorly designed hardware.
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|Opera Mini isn't a trash browser but it can't quite compete with a full-sized browser since it won't likely have sufficient RAM. Safari does nicely but gets data so slowly, I could go to another phone, get the information, and tell Safari to stop because I was finished.
As far as poorly designed hardware, iPhone is probably the most lacking phone hardware for the price. It's a poor phone, poor camera, and doesn't offer 3G data access. Having great system software is fine, but not by itself. You need great hardware to back it and iPhone doesn't have it.
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|I just don't understand wtf is wrong with the apple fanboi. Are they that stupid and brainwashed that they have to insult people at every change they have. Ask them a damn question why they like the (apple) product, and responses were always something like this: it's the best product out there. Can't they list at least so features? It's the best product... whatever.
Operamini is the best browser out there period. Name me another browser that can load a full multimedia page in less than 10 seconds and formatted to fit your phone screen.
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|Apple does better software than Microsoft or RIM, no doubt. But iphone software is still far from perfect.
I do have an iphone and I'd love to see opera released for it.
Can anyone report latest opera score on acid 3 test?
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|The other problem with Safari is that it sometimes doesn't secure a ssl connection to a ecommerce sites. Maybe this data stolen is another source of income for the Lord god Jobs?
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|Yes as a matter of fact I can. Eat this Apple Fanboy: http://my.opera.com/desk...id-3-opera-first-to-106
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