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Opera Mini goes landscape!

Published by Steve Litchfield at 7:24 UTC, August 31st 2007

The best loved (and free) phone browser in the world just got better. Opera Mini 4 has just hit beta 2, with a mountain of changes, including 'landscape' mode, detailed below. The usual caveats about it using Java and being RAM hungry apply, but that aside, it's just about perfect!

"12 reasons to love Opera Mini 4 beta"

1) It's fast and it's revolutionary

Impress your friends and wow yourself with Opera Mini 4 beta as you quickly navigate the entire Internet on the world's only super fast and free mobile phone browser. Access any site at any time, anywhere, and on almost any phone.

Opera Mini 4 gives you the power of full Internet browsing — all inside of your mobile phone.

2) It really is that easy

When you go to a web page, Opera Mini will show you the overview of the page, then suggest where to begin reading. Then, Opera Mini zooms quickly in on the web page and focuses on the content you want to read.

3) Text and images just fit — less scrolling

Opera Mini dynamically changes the size of text and images, making it more convenient to read, and saving you a lot of unnecessary scrolling!

4) View pages in Landscape mode

Want to view the Web on a wider screen? Just hit * # and flip your phone to the side to enjoy browsing in Landscape mode. Change your default view to landscape by turning "Landscape mode" on inside your Settings menu.

5) Search just multiplied

Now you can search for and access info even quicker on the go. Find whatever you need using Opera Mini's multi-search Start Page. Several starter search engines, including Yahoo!, are available directly from your Opera Mini Start Page.

6) Create or grab search!

Just like in Opera for your computer, now you can create your own Web search from any search field on the Internet using Opera Mini. Simply click on the search field that you want to grab on a Web page and then choose "Create search" within your menu alternatives. Then you can enjoy making frequent searches without having to type in the site link again.

7) Opera Mini's got a mouse!

Opera Mini now gives you a virtual mouse, so you can easily scroll in any direction. Move the mouse cursor towards what you want, and then it quickly snaps your view to the link or content.

8) Become a power scroller

Now you can scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad. Find your way around on the web pages quicker using simple keypad commands. Simply hit 2 to go up, 4 to go left, 6 to go right and 8 to go down. Opera Mini will snap the view to the content. Hitting 5 zooms you in and out.

9) Fast = cheaper browsing

Because Opera Mini 4 quickly delivers the Internet to your phone, this drives the cost of your data bill down. Since Opera Mini loads your requested web pages at over twice the speed of the other mobile browsers on the market, that means you get more content in less time. Since Opera Mini compresses the data before it is delivered, that means less data has to come through. Since less data means less money, you actually pay less to get faster service!

10) Too wide? Just resize!

Opera's unique "Small Screen Rendering" feature (the function is titled "Fit to width") lets you better enjoy web pages on the small screen. Fit any web page to width and Opera Mini 4 beta will adjust the page structure on the fly, so you can see more and scroll down a single column. That way you can browse up and down without also having to worry about horizontal scrolling.

11) Keystrokes for quick browsing

While browsing with Opera Mini 4 Beta, you can take control over your viewing options with a few quick keystrokes. Just hit 1 to open the Context Menu, where you can turn on Small Screen Rendering (Fit to width) or reload the page.

Or, before you click on a link, focus the cursor on a link to check where the link will take you. You can then choose whether you want to open the linked page with images turned off. If you choose to browse with the images turned off, you can still choose to load these images in the page you are browsing by selecting "Load images." You can even load the image in its uncompressed, high-quality, original size by choosing "Open image."

12) Tools and support for web designers

Because Opera Mini 4 Beta strives to deliver the best web browsing experience possible for every device and medium, we offer great support for web designers who want to make their websites look even better to those browsing with Opera Mini. In this latest beta, we have included all of the cool CSS support that web designers need to make their web pages look pixel perfect on in the mobile web world.

Categories: Software, Links of Interest
Platforms: Series 60, Series 90, UIQ, General, S60 3rd Edition, UIQ 3

News Discussion

Unregistered
Sounds really promising. Using Java as a universal platform to minimise recoding etc. sound like a winner.

BUT

I am/was a big fan of Opera Mobile and was really hoping it would be an alternative option for the E90.

With all the frantic efforts going on around Opera Mini and no apparent work going on around Opera Mobile. Is Opera Mobile in effect now just a legacy product with no major development or porting to newer devices like the E90 ?

One particular problem I can see with mini is I can't see it supporting plugins like flash etc. or am I wrong.

Zuber
Ratkat
Steve, you always have a pop at Opera Mini for being Java and therefore 'ram hungry'.

Whilst not Java the surely same applies to Nokia S60 browser which is just as ram hungry, in fact I would argue that Opera Mini now offers a better browsing experience than S60 Browser, certainly on phones like the current N95 etc with limited ram.

On the N95 I surfed for two solid hours this morning using Opera Mini over 3.5G and still had according to Handy Taskman 6.5mb of free ram, the same thing is impossible using S60 Browser which is usually down to about 3mb of ram after 20 minutes (dependent on the sites you are browsing of course) before running out of memory and needing an exit/restart to continue.
Ratkat
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
Sounds really promising. Using Java as a universal platform to minimise recoding etc. sound like a winner.

BUT

I am/was a big fan of Opera Mobile and was really hoping it would be an alternative option for the E90.

With all the frantic efforts going on around Opera Mini and no apparent work going on around Opera Mobile. Is Opera Mobile in effect now just a legacy product with no major development or porting to newer devices like the E90 ?

One particular problem I can see with mini is I can't see it supporting plugins like flash etc. or am I wrong.

Zuber
Checkout http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/ for details of the new Opera Mobile 9 which is coming soon
slitchfield
Oh, I'm not defending S60 Web - that's ridiculously hungry too. I just think it's worth warning people when they install *ANY* Java app that the mere act of running it will knock them for up to 10MB of RAM even before the app itself starts asking for more.

Of course, on the newer devices, RAM won't be a problem, but in the meantime....
Unregistered
Hi Guys... currently running this on P1i.... works like a dream... havent tested it on any heavy java script type sites... but this looks like a strong competition for Safari on S60... Great work!
steffi
So let's say it supports whatever how do I override the User Agent header?

I'm sick of websites only giving me their mobile versions and the only way to avoid that is to be able to override the User Agent header unless each site provides an option like Google Search.
alfabob
I just love Opera Mini! I just wished it would install on my 9300i... but so far I've only been getting the Opera Mini 3.0 file downloaded. Anyone can help or is there no support for S80 devices anymore?
ako 'to
hi, this opera mini beta 4 really sounds very good and promising, the thing is its not working on my phone... the installation works fine, its there in the list of program, it even opens but not running after the loading bar reaches on like 95%, it will prompt that there's a connection error. anyone got the same problem with this opera mini??

thanks :D
Unregistered
I run Opera mini on my 9300i no problem. I wouldn't know what to suggest to fix your problem, it worked out of the box for me (and for a colleague)

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