Skip navigation.

ODIN Blog

Opera Developer Network

Posts tagged with "Opera Mobile"

Opera Mobile 10 and its remote debugging party trick

By Daniel Davis. Tuesday, 3. November 2009, 08:50:48

, , ,

Following on our Opera Mini 5 beta launch, we've just announced the release of another mobile browser — this time it's Opera Mobile 10 beta for Symbian. While they both feature a similar redesigned UI, Opera Mobile 10 makes the most of your smartphone's capabilities, featuring a full JavaScript and layout engine.

Naturally there are many improvements for mobile surfers to enjoy, but what will be of particular interest to developers are the enhancements to Presto, our rendering engine. Not only is it much faster than the previous incarnation of Opera Mobile, but you may also be impressed at its standards support. You can read more about Opera Mobile 10 from a developer's perspective over at dev.opera.

In addition there is one more feature aimed at developers that we're particularly proud of and that is the ability to remotely debug a web page on your mobile phone using Opera Dragonfly on your desktop. Put more simply, as you edit the web page's code on your desktop, its display is dynamically updated on your mobile phone. The process is as follows:

  1. (Desktop): Make a note of your local IP address and fire up Dragonfly.
  2. (Desktop): Enable remote debug in Settings and click Apply then OK in the pop-up dialog box.
  3. (Mobile): Open opera:debug, enter your desktop's IP address and click Connect then OK in the pop-up dialog box.
  4. (Desktop): Click OK in the pop-up dialog box to download the new version of Dragonfly, then click OK.
  5. (Mobile): Click Connect again in opera:debug, then click OK in the pop-up dialog box.
  6. (Mobile): Open the web page you want to debug, ideally in a new tab.
  7. (Desktop): Select the site to debug in Dragonfly and edit the HTML and CSS to your heart's content.




We've made a short video to show remote debugging in action with captions for people that suffer from deafness/limited hearing (or if you just want to watch it without disturbing those around you). Furthermore, the captions are also available in English, Japanese and Russian.

14 comments

Smartphone show: Opera Widgets in 5 minutes

By Bruce Lawson. Wednesday, 22. October 2008, 10:31:16

, ,

Yesterday at the Smartphone Show 2008 I did a five-minute presentation about Opera Widgets (and the $10,000 prizes in our challenge to find the best new widget).

It's called Opera Widgets: uses, development and standards (PDF 2MB), and shows how to use Web Standards to make compelling cross-device single-purpose applications that work on mobiles, now they're included in Opera Mobile 9.5 beta. (It's a tagged PDF as I figured that's the best format for people in suits; let me know if you need an alternative format.)

For those who want to know more, we have many articles for widget developers.

I was thrilled to be awarded first prize for Best Product Pitch by a panel of judges including representatives of Samsung, Nokia and Symbian. I want to thank my Mum, My Dad, my wife and children who timed my ten rehearsals, Divisha who helped me write it, my boss Jan… sob …

2 comments

Opera Mobile 9.5 beta 2, and the X-Widget Challenge

By David Storey. Monday, 20. October 2008, 13:22:53

, , ,

Opera today announced that the second beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 for Windows Mobile has now been released. This is joined by the first beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 for Symbian UIQ. The notable absence is Opera Mobile for Symbian S60, which will be released some time in 2009.

The release includes a number of bug and stability fixes, to improve the overall user experience. The key feature of the launch is Opera Widgets, which allows Widgets to move into new areas. Opera Widgets are already supported on the desktop, Nintendo Wii and Archos media players. Opera Widgets allow you to create web applications using regular web technology such as (X)HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript and SVG. They can be anything from single-purpose small applications, to something as complex as web mail or a word processor. This allows developers that are well versed in web technologies to be able to create cross device and cross platform applications using their existing skill set. As Widgets use the same rendering-engine as Opera 9.5—Presto 2.1—you can use the full set of standards supported by the Opera platform, without worrying about legacy browser support. This opens up the possibility of use of CSS 3, HTML 5 and SVG. Opera Widgets will be aligned to the W3C Widgets 1.0 specification, so developing for Opera Widgets avoids any single-vendor lock-in. When other browsers or user-agents support Widgets 1.0, your Widgets will also work on their platforms, as so long as they support the same specifications as you used to make your widgets.

To aid you in creating Widgets, we've created a Opera Widgets SDK. This SDK includes documentation on creating cross device widgets, reference material, JavaScript libraries and developer tools. You may want to read the fast-track guide to help you get started. As Opera Mobile 9.5 for S60 has not been released yet, there is a Widget Manager for S60 included in the SDK. To enable Widgets to work across different types of devices, there is four different Widget modes, which you can find out about in the SDK article - Widget Modes: Docked, Widgets and More. The tools available for developing and debugging Widgets include the aforementioned Widget Manager, Opera Dragonfly which comes with Opera 9.5 and above (go to Tools > Advanced > Developer Tools), and a Opera Widgets Emulator, which simulates things like screen sizes, rendering modes, constraint connections and more. Dev Opera has an article on Debugging Widgets using Opera Dragonfly, which explains how to use the Widgets Emulator with Opera Dragonfly.

To encourage the creation of cross-device Widgets, we've launched the X-Widgets Challenge. This gives prizes of up to $5,000 for the best cross-device Widgets. I’m looking forward to see what people come up with. The winning Widgets will also be promoted on the Opera Widgets web site.

1 comment

One reason why testing for Opera is important

By David Storey. Saturday, 13. September 2008, 22:41:47

, , , ...

There are many reasons why it is important to test your web sites in Opera. I’m just going to focus on one here–the mobile market. The mobile web has been getting a lot more press recently, and it is a market where Opera is in a very strong position, and is moving from strength to strength. It the last quarter we announced that Opera Mini alone had over 15.8 million unique users in the month of July, up from 3.5 million in July 2007. It grew from 850 million web pages viewed to 3.7 billion, a year on year growth of 330%. This generated 44.5 terabytes of compressed traffic, or 296.6 terabytes if the data wasn't compressed by the Opera Mini servers. This growth is only going to get fuelled as Opera signs more deals with operators for pre-installing Opera Mini. Away from Opera Mini, the first beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 came out recently, and it is already being shipped pre-installed on some popular high end phones.

Operators shipping Opera Mini pre-installed

The following operators are shipping Opera Mini by default on their range of phones. We usually find that traffic and unique users go up quite a bit after we are pre-installed on operators phones. For web developers, Opera Mini being pre-installed means that you can almost guarantee that Opera Mini will be available, and it becomes much more important to support Opera on your site if a major operator in your target markets ship with Opera Mini on their phones. Some operators re-badge Opera Mini to their own branding and some keep it as Opera Mini. The browser will always report it is Opera Mini of you detect the User Agent however.

The Americas

  • Helio (USA) Now owned by Virgin Mobile
  • Movistar (Mexico, Colombia)

Europe

  • Vodafone D2 (Germany)
  • T-Mobile (UK, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Netherlands, Macedonia)
  • O2 (Germany, Slovakia)
  • Telefónica Móviles (Spain)
  • Ten by Orange (France)
  • Swisscom (Switzerland)
  • Telenor (Serbia)
  • PTC Era (Poland)
  • mobilkom (Austria)
  • MegaFon (Russia)
  • Debitel (Germany)
  • Talkline (Germany)
  • Meteor (Ireland)
  • TMN (Portugal)
  • Optimus (Portugal)
  • TDC (Denmark)
  • Pannon (Hungary)
  • Omnitel (Lithuania)
  • TIM Hellas (Greece)
  • HT Telecom (Europe)

Asia

  • Telenor (Pakistan)
  • GrameenPhone (Bangladesh)
  • Mobitel (Sri Lanka)
  • Tata Teleservices (India)
  • Spice (India)

Africa

  • MTN (Uganda)

In addition to those above, in Japan Opera Mobile ships as the default browser on the KDDI network. In Japan Opera Mobile is shipped in preference of Opera Mini as phones are higher-end and networks are typically fast. KongZhong Corporation in China distribute a customised version of Opera Mini called KongZhong Opera 3.0. Many of the networks above are the major players in their respective markers. According to Wikipedia, T-Mobile is 3rd in the UK, 2nd in Slovakia, Austria and The Netherlands and 1st in Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Macedonia. Vodafone is 2nd in Germany, O2 is 4th in Germany and 3rd in Slovakia, Swisscom is 1st in Switzerland, Telefónica is 1st in Spain, TMN is 1st in Portugal, while Optimus is 3rd, mobilkom is 1st in Austria, MegaFon is 3rd in Russia, Meteor is 3rd in Ireland, Era is 3rd in Poland, Omnitel is 1st in Lithuania, Pannon is 2nd in Hungary, TDC is 1st in Denmark and Telenor is 2nd in Serbia. In Asia KDDI is 2nd in Japan, GrameenPhone is 1st in Bangladesh, Telenor is 3rd in Pakistan, Mobitel is 2nd in Sri Lanka, and Tata is 5th in India. In Africa, MTC is 1st in Uganda. In The Americas Movistar is 2nd in Mexico and Colombia.

Phones with Opera Pre-installed

Opera Mobile was shipped on 7.8 million phones in the second quarter of this year, including 35 new phone models this year. Opera Mini has shipped on 78 new phones this year so far.

Manufacturers that shipped Opera Mini pre-installed

  • Nokia
  • Sony Ericsson
  • Motorola
  • Samsung
  • LG
  • Micromax
  • Uriver
  • Fly (India)
  • Spice (India)

Manufacturers that shipped Opera Mobile pre-installed

  • HTC (Windows Mobile)
  • Sony Ericsson (UIQ and Brew)
  • Samsung (Windows Mobile)
  • Motorola (UIQ, Windows Mobile and Linux)
  • Casio (Brew)
  • Hitachi (Brew)
  • Kyocera (Brew)
  • Panasonic (Brew)
  • Pantech (Brew)
  • Sanyo (Brew)
  • Sharp (Brew)
  • Toshiba (Brew)
  • WILLCOM (Windows Mobile)

Opera Mobile is the default browser on the UIQ platform, which is shipped by manufacturers like SonyEricsson and Motorola. Opera Mobile 8.65 is the default browser on select P2K models, post-V3 RAZR. P2K is Motorola‘s mass-market feature phone operating system. Opera Mobile is also the default browser on KDDI’s Brew platform, where it is branded as PC Site Viewer. In the west, some of the more exciting phones that Opera was included on are Windows Mobile phones such as the HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Pro, Samsung Omnia, and the Motorola MOTO Q9e. The Samsung Omnia and the HTC phones are especially well suited to mobile browsing, with large high resolution touch screens and high end specifications. Opera has also recently announced that Opera 9.5 will be included on the NVidea Tegra family of computer-on-chip Windows Mobile and Windows CE solutions. This chipset should be included on high end phones in the future.

As Opera Mini and Opera Mobile run on Opera’s Presto rendering engine, making your site work in the Opera browser will bring you a long way to being compatible with our mobile browsers, and will make your site available to the customers of all the mobile operators and device manufacturers listed above. The number of users on the mobile web and Opera Mini and Mobile will only continue to grow in the future.

1 comment