25 ms·

Opera Mobile 12, and introducing Opera Mini Next

73 points by tbassetto 15y ago

Maxious 15y ago
Omission from blog post but not android market changelog: "Added Flash support on Android 4.0.3" Now I have no reason to use stock Android browser again! Opera Mobile: come for the speed, stay for the HTML5.
majani 15y ago
Why doesn't tech media consider Opera Mini when writing about browser wars? It's always Chrome this or Firefox that, but somehow Opera Mini and its 100 million users are not worthy?
- Gustomaximus 15y ago
  Opera Mini is more than 160 million users now.
- masklinn 15y ago
  > Why doesn't tech media consider Opera Mini when writing about browser wars? Because most of the "tech media browser wars" is about desktop browsers? I mean you could ask the exact same question about Safari, nobody cares about it on the desktop, but on mobile…
- PerryCox 15y ago
  I don't think it would make much sense to talk about Opera Mini in the same context with desktop browsers. Opera Mini is pretty amazing though. If I were forced to use the default browser on a Blackberry I wouldn't own one.
- rplnt 15y ago
  Don't confuse Opera Mini and Opera Mobile: http://www.opera.com/mobile/specs/ http://www.opera.com/mobile/specs/ Although their reported userbase comes from both.
thristian 15y ago
To help you, we've packaged up the Opera Mobile codebase into a desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac, so you can test locally. It's called Opera Mobile Emulator. I wish every mobile browser manufacturer did this.
- masklinn 15y ago
  Yep. Well platform browsers kinda-sorta have this... if you install their SDK and run the bundled emulator/simulator (which may or may not be a pain, and may or may not be possible at all depending on your development platform).
ZeroGravitas 15y ago
I thought I read that, at least on Android, that Opera was going to merge Mobile and Mini early this year. Did I just imagine that?
- rplnt 15y ago
  I'd say that Mini is a subset of Mobile. And if you can use Mobile you have no reason to use Mini. Mobile is not available on iPhone (doe to Apple's market restrictions) and on many older devices.
  - mononcqc 15y ago
    Not exactly. Mini compresses far more than what Mobile can do (when going through the Opera proxies is enabled with Turbo), and is useful on networks that are extremely slow or when you want to use as little bandwidth as possible. The chain of efficiency is basically: Mini > Mobile with Turbo > Mobile. Unless they merge the Mini's mode into Mobile, you might still want to use both.
rohitarondekar 15y ago
Switched to using Opera Mini Next. I don't like the social home page but it can be switched off. The speed dial looks really nice and over all the browser is responsive. Great work as usual from Opera! Allows my aging Nokia N73 to browse the web in a sane way.
vetler 15y ago
Here's a video with some highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtDf2AXCPP0&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtDf2AXCPP0&feature=playe...

73 points by tbassetto 15y ago

Omission from blog post but not android market changelog: "Added Flash support on Android 4.0.3" Now I have no reason to use stock Android browser again! Opera Mobile: come for the speed, stay for the HTML5.

majani 15y ago

Why doesn't tech media consider Opera Mini when writing about browser wars? It's always Chrome this or Firefox that, but somehow Opera Mini and its 100 million users are not worthy?

Gustomaximus 15y ago
Opera Mini is more than 160 million users now.
masklinn 15y ago
> Why doesn't tech media consider Opera Mini when writing about browser wars? Because most of the "tech media browser wars" is about desktop browsers? I mean you could ask the exact same question about Safari, nobody cares about it on the desktop, but on mobile…
PerryCox 15y ago
I don't think it would make much sense to talk about Opera Mini in the same context with desktop browsers. Opera Mini is pretty amazing though. If I were forced to use the default browser on a Blackberry I wouldn't own one.
rplnt 15y ago
Don't confuse Opera Mini and Opera Mobile: http://www.opera.com/mobile/specs/ http://www.opera.com/mobile/specs/ Although their reported userbase comes from both.

thristian 15y ago

To help you, we've packaged up the Opera Mobile codebase into a desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac, so you can test locally. It's called Opera Mobile Emulator. I wish every mobile browser manufacturer did this.

masklinn 15y ago
Yep. Well platform browsers kinda-sorta have this... if you install their SDK and run the bundled emulator/simulator (which may or may not be a pain, and may or may not be possible at all depending on your development platform).

ZeroGravitas 15y ago

I thought I read that, at least on Android, that Opera was going to merge Mobile and Mini early this year. Did I just imagine that?

rplnt 15y ago
I'd say that Mini is a subset of Mobile. And if you can use Mobile you have no reason to use Mini. Mobile is not available on iPhone (doe to Apple's market restrictions) and on many older devices.
- mononcqc 15y ago
  Not exactly. Mini compresses far more than what Mobile can do (when going through the Opera proxies is enabled with Turbo), and is useful on networks that are extremely slow or when you want to use as little bandwidth as possible. The chain of efficiency is basically: Mini > Mobile with Turbo > Mobile. Unless they merge the Mini's mode into Mobile, you might still want to use both.

rohitarondekar 15y ago

Switched to using Opera Mini Next. I don't like the social home page but it can be switched off. The speed dial looks really nice and over all the browser is responsive. Great work as usual from Opera! Allows my aging Nokia N73 to browse the web in a sane way.

vetler 15y ago

Here's a video with some highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtDf2AXCPP0&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtDf2AXCPP0&feature=playe...