Opera Mini Updated to v4.1
Published by Ewan Spence at 9:10 UTC, May 13th 2008
Opera has formally updated Opera Mini, the proxy-based web browser, to version 4.1. With a speed increase compared to v4.0, and the addition of URL completion and the saving of web pages, the little browser that lets the server at the end of the connection do all the heavy lifting continues to improve in leaps and bounds. While the built in browsers on S60 handsets have significantly improved over the years, Opera Mini, while targetted at lower-powered phones, still packs a feature set that makes it a contender.
Of course, with flat rate data and WiFi connections on the rise, one of the main selling points to end users, that it kept bandwidth and your data costs down, is no longer one of the leading concerns (but it's still nice).
Also in v4.1 is the ability to save pages to your phone for later viewing or looking up of information. I can see a lot of Wikipedia pages getting saved just before exams start!
"More than 44 million people from all over the world have discovered and fallen in love with Opera Mini," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. "Those people are not just the users of Opera Mini, they are also the co-creators and our most valued critics of the product. We have actively talked to our community members in order to build the best Web browser for mobile phones. I strongly believe that the newest version of Opera Mini will be received with much excitement."
More on Opera Mini here, including the direct download if you browse from your smartphone (using another browser, naturally).
Categories: Software, Links of Interest
Platforms: General
News Discussion
Joar
I agree that flatrate might make Opera Mini less of an "killer app.", but obviously the compression done by the Opera mini servers makes the download time shorter. And even in generally mobile friendly countries like Norway, flat rate is not the norm yet.
Opera Mini seems to be a big hit in less developed parts of the world. Quite logical seing that phones in these areas might not have a decent browser, 3G is not introduced (making download time an important issue), and neither is flat rate.
MIKO
is this newer? i have had my 4.1 version since april 1.
Unregistered
Miko, the 1.4 you have is a beta. The release today is the official version.
Mithent
I much prefer Opera Mini to Web for general browsing, even though I have flat rate data. Since Web has to do all the work on the phone, it takes far longer to render the page. This is especially annoying when you start to read something, then Web re-renders the page again, blanking the page for a couple of seconds and then moving everything around.
ares
yes, its all about speed...opera mini + google reader mobile is a killer combo
krisse
As phone processors and network speeds get faster though, the rendering process will become less noticeable...
Menneisyys
Also, guys and gals, don't forget the other strengths OM has; most importantly, Opera Link and its excellent auto-sync capabiltiies and the excellent (!!!) dialpad shortcuts, not even matched by S60 Web.
Incidentally, I've written a thorough pros / cons list of using Opera Mini in several of my articles; make sure you check them out. An example:
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/ind...&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 . It's WM, but most of the stuff still applies to Symbian as well. (Note that the article is OM 4.0-only. I've also published some 4.1 articles at, say,
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/ind...&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 for both WM and Symbian). Finally, you can find my W3C presentation at
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/ind...&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 , where I've also (quickly) compared OM4.1 to the rest, including Nokia S60 Web.
Also see my other, OM-related "tips and tricks" articles like, for example, the article on making Opera Mini (4.1) your default system browser (
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum...ad.php?t=72453 ).
Unregistered
@Joar:
Opera Mini seems to be a big hit in less developed parts of the world. Quite logical seing that phones in these areas might not have a decent browser, 3G is not introduced (making download time an important issue), and neither is flat rate.
Those assumptions are not entirely correct.
Here in India, flat rate is pretty much the norm.
We have one major provider who charges a flat rate of 500 rupees a month (about 9 euros), another one who charges a semi-flat rate of 500 rupees for 500 MB per month and then charges per kb for anything more than that. Another provider charges nothing upfront for internet access but charges 40 paise per minute (they charge on time, not data). 100 paise is 1 rupee and around 55-60 rupees is one euro. In fact, here we wonder why data rates are so high in the west. After all it is the same kind of infrastructure that is required to be in place.
The best selling phone manufacturer here is Nokia and this is what they sell.
http://www.nokia.co.in/products
As you can see, we are not too far behind. Although it is rather annoying that Nokia has not deemed it fit to release any of their internet tablets here. Even the N770 has not reached here yet :-(
aperes
I have a E61 US English. I have Opera Mini and tried accessing Google Reader mobile today.
The language of Google Reader comes out as Norwegian! I changed it to English but it stayed Norwegian. I changed it to French but it stayed Norwegian.
Any ideas what I can do to have it in English?
TIA
Alan
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