Opera has just unveiled the newest version of its mobile web browser:
. The software, which will be officially previewed at next week’s
in
Barcelona, introduces several enhancements to the prior version including faster
speeds, a re-designed UI, and Opera Widgets. The Opera Mobile upgrade will be
available for the major mobile operating systems (Symbian, Windows Mobile, and
Linux) as both a standalone browser and as a software development kit.
What’s New and Improved?
Several innovations make the new version of Opera Mobile an exciting mobile
upgrade, and one that brings us closer to a desktop experience on our mobile
devices. Here are the highlights:
- Speed Increase: The speed increase comes from an improvement to Opera’s
Presto rendering engine, which has been tweaked to be improve performance by
accelerating the way it handles web pages. The new engine is more responsive,
even if the web page uses a lot JavaScript and AJAX. This means that sites like
Facebook and MySpace are entirely functional. Opera claims Presto can achieve
page load speeds comparable to those on a desktop PC. - Flash-Ready: The new Opera Mobile is Flash-ready so it can be used for
viewing sites such as YouTube (mobile). However, equipment makers and wireless
carriers will be the ones with the option to include Flash Lite 3 with Opera
Mobile, if desired, so it will be up to them to give their customers this
functionality. - ZoomT: The addition of Opera’s ZoomT technology lets you quickly take a
closer look at what you want to see and then choose between viewing the entire
page or zooming in to focus on the details. - Offline Browsing: Web pages can be saved for offline browsing when you travel
into a dead spot and the internet/data connection is weak or not available at
all. - Productivity Tools: New built-in tools make Opera Mobile even easier to use.
These include things like a Password Manager, Address Auto Complete, Copy Text,
and a Pop-Up Handler. - Tabbed Browsing: Just like on your desktop browser, you can have multiple
tabs in your Opera Mobile browser. - Opera Widgets: (Yes, widgets!) Widgets are mini applications that sit on the
mobile device’s home screen and allow you to access web content with just a few
clicks. Opera Mobile allows for the rapid development of web apps for mobile
phones and other handheld devices so handset providers can create widgets that
are preinstalled, like widgets fro weather, traffic, news, and email. Widgets
can also be downloaded over the air by the user or delivered via push. - And More: Opera Mobile 9.5 will also include features like improved text
wrap, landscape mode, the ability to call a number from a web page, the ability
to send a link or image via SMS/MMS, web history, and bookmarking.
Where and When?
Opera Mobile is currently shipped on more than 100 million phones including
devices by HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, and others.
Now, a leading software platform provider, UIQ, will be working with handset manufacturers
and carriers to get Opera’s new mobile browser on future devices. The public
beta release of Opera Mobile 9.5 will be announced separately.
For more information, check out this video demonstrating some of the new features:
Uploaded by operasoftware
