We looked at the Android release of Opera Mini 6.5 last month, but Opera has now updated its ultra-mobile browser with new versions for iOS, BlackBerry and Symbian phones.
Tagged With mobile browsing
At its Up North Web media event in Oslo today, Opera showed off some of the new features in its soon-to-be-updated desktop, mobile and mini browsers, including browser compression for Android devices and webcam access in your desktop browser. Here is a quick overview of the promised highlights.
Opera has long been the most popular alternate choice for people who don't want to roll with their mobile phone's native browser. The newly-updated Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11 add social networking share buttons, pinch-to-zoom support on touch-enabled phones, optimisations designed for tablet users and claimed general performance improvements.
iOS: We've advocated the use of alternative browsers in iOS before, but if you're looking for a really powerful browsing experience on your iPhone or iPad, look no further than Cyberspace, which adds Reader-like functionality and site-specific search to the browser itself.
If you've got a Nokia tablet or other device running the Maemo platform, you can grab the third release candidate of Firefox Mobile, out today with faster page loading, seamless desktop browser syncing through Mozilla's weave platform, and many more cool things.
The developers of Fennec, a.k.a. Firefox Mobile, have stated that support for add-ons will differentiate it from other mobile browsers. Much like Firefox's desktop version, a preview build of reader favourite AdBlock Plus might ensure Fennec gets its proper due.
Windows Mobile: Opera's released an early, partially-featured beta of its Mobile browser that brings the server-side browsing speed-ups of Opera Turbo to touchscreen phones.
Firefox's mobile browser, Fennec, is available in "milestone" (read: very alpha) downloads for HTC Touch Pro phones, but also most any Windows Mobile phone running at VGA (480x640). Early reports say it's working, if slow. As the Mozilla team itself notes, this release has plug-ins disabled, features no soft keyboard input, doesn't allow for program or add-on updating, and a few other "punts" made to get a working release out. Still, if you want to test out Fennec's unique navigation and mobile browsing helpers and you've got a Windows Mobile phone, it could be worth a try—even if web site loading is not exactly snappy at this point. Fennec is a free download, built for the HTC Touch Pro but capable of running on Windows Mobile phones. A direct CAB link can be found right under the "Installation" heading in the link below. Fennec Milestone Release for Windows Mobile
IYHY is a web-based service that acts as a text-only proxy, stripping down websites for faster load times. Like previously reviewed page minimisersBareSite and Finch, IYHY returns just the basic text of the site you plug into it. With Lifehacker.com and and news.google.com as our test sites, though, IYHY beat the two previous sites hands down for clarity and condensation. Formatting is cleaner, no images were mistakenly thrown back into the mix, comments were still visible, and with IYHY there were no annoying
Popular user-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia has released a mobile-friendly version of the web site at mobile.wikipedia.org. The site offers a trimmed down version of Wikipedia proper, supports 14 languages, and even has a mysterious Spoken Wikipedia setting that—though currently not enabled, may presumably one day read Wikipedia articles to you.
Photo-sharing site Flickr's mobile interface (m.flickr.com) got a facelift and a few upgrades today, notably the ability to play back video clips. Right now the Flickr folks say video playback is limited to the iPhone and iPod touch, but despite several tries on my iPhone, I never did see any video movement. (Update: Video playback's rolling out to iPhone/iPod touch users over the next few weeks.) Once it's available to all, mobile Flickrinos will love this upgrade.
Google has revamped its Australian mobile search service - accessible at www.google.com.au/m.The mobile search engine searches through the
web, mobile web, news articles, local business listings, and
image index to get the information needed and provides the most
relevant results. It also remembers your location, so once you've searched for "restaurant Sydney" it will localise your future searches to Sydney results too.In other Google mobile search news, the Google Operating System blog reports that Google will replace Yahoo! as the default search engine for the Opera Mobile and Opera Mini mobile browsers from next month.
Google already released a fast and friendly optimised mobile page for iPhone and iPod touch users, but now they're at it again. The mobile page is sporting an updated look, faster navigating, and improved auto-complete suggestions for everything from search to Gmail contacts. You can also customise tabs and use your iGoogle homepage from the mobile interface. You may be wondering why Google is so gaga for iPhone interfaces, but the fact is, when Google's Andriod phones hit the streets, they'll be running a similar WebKit-based browser, so even if you're not looking to buy an Apple product anytime soon, this interface may be in your future.
galleryPost('Google Mobile for iPhone', 5, '');
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The iTransmogrify bookmarklet for the iPhone or iPod touch converts embedded Flash content to mobile Safari-supported formats so that Flash media—like embedded YouTube videos and streaming MP3s—will play from Safari with the click of a bookmark. Obviously your iPhone or iPod touch has YouTube built in, but if, for example, you're reading Lifehacker and we've embedded a YouTube video, Safari won't recognise that and take you directly to the YouTube app. One click of your new iTransmorgrify bookmarklet, though, and it will. The bookmarklet also supports several Flash-based MP3 players.
iTransmogrify
The iPhone certainly didn't invent the mobile browser, but it does seem to be the mobile device that's bringing mobile browsing to the mainstream. The benefits of mobile browsing are obvious: You can access the web from practically anywhere and at any time—assuming you carry your phone with you wherever you go. Mobile browsing has always had a couple of obstacles, though, namely that carriers' data plans have often been very expensive and most (pre-iPhone) mobile browsers have traditionally been unwieldy. Again, those obstacles are slowly breaking down, so now that many of you are sporting shiny new post-holiday phones, we're wondering:
Google has updated their mobile homepage for iPhone users for quick and easy access to all of your Google apps with a simple, fast, and attractive tabbed interface. The tabs link to the straight- up Google Mobile homepage (which offers dynamic as-you-type suggestions) along with iPhone-optimised interfaces for Gmail, Gcal, GReader, and a More tab that provides access to Docs, SMS, GOOG-411, News, Picasa web albums, Blogger, and Notebook. The recent addition of IMAP in Gmail has made it that much easier to access and sync your Gmail online and off, but with the simple access to Gmail and other Google apps through the new and improved homepage, it may be just as simple if not more so to use their online portal—especially if you're a Google apps junkie.
