A Blog From Behind the Trenches

Originally posted by haavard:

According to Norwegian IT site Digi, Apple gave Opera a call (Norwegian)

Translation.

Very good news indeed for iPhone users

That's came up searching "opera mini" in GoogleNews

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/02/15/idroid-mini-browser-for-iphone.html

Haavard, do you know if they'll submit it today?

Here's a nice review, indeed

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/opera-mini-for-iphone-is-fast-like-a-rocket/


OperaMini rocks!!!

I won't hold my breath, but fingers crossed. Would be interested to take Opera mobile for a spin.

One thing I have just considered is setting it as default for all web browsing, I doubt this will be possible will it?

iDroid Mini Oh my... More the reason why Apple should allow others to send browsers to App Store as well

iDroid sounds fake as an 11€ bill

Originally posted by DanielHendrycks:

Haavard, do you know if they'll submit it today?

According to this article (dutch) they will announce Tuesday or Wednesday if they will submit it.

The relevant part:

zegt een marketingmanager van Opera tijdens het Mobile World Congress in Barcelona tegen Tweakers.net. "We nemen dinsdag of woensdag de beslissing en dan komt er een aankondiging", aldus de medewerker.

Loosely translated to:
says an Opera marketing manager during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to Tweakers.net. "We'll take the decision Tuesday or Wednesday and we release an announcement" said the employee.

I wonder if Apple will want its very own custom branding for the iPhone model. Or perhaps they'll want Opera to put a price on it, so Apple can get something out of the deal too?

I somewhat doubt that this will be a straight porting of the ATT.NET version, unless AT&T has a LOT of leverage...

want to hear if they allowed through, I will call my friends and have them get Opera Mini on there iPhone ASAP

"want to hear if they allowed
through, I will call my friends
and have them get Opera Mini
on there iPhone ASAP"

There isn't any Official Opera Mini available in the Apple Store! yet !!!

LOL..and you are getting this news from the media? Wow! I guess they are really secretive over at Opera.

That would be great.

http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Good.gif -

I don't have an iPhone to check, but.... it sounds like iDroid is (like all the other browser apps already available) a new UI for Apple's existing Webkit engine. In other words, the Mini influence is probably cosmetic.

Originally posted by johnnysaucepn:

I don't have an iPhone to check, but.... it sounds like iDroid is (like all the other browser apps already available) a new UI for Apple's existing Webkit engine. In other words, the Mini influence is probably cosmetic.

Probably not, the problem to release a browser for the iPhone is that Apple doesn't allow applications which interpret code, and browsers may only use webkit as back-end, but Opera Mini doesn't render HTML code on it's own (Opera servers render the HTML and send pages in the OBML (Opera Binairy Markup Language) back) so is Opera Mini a browser, as in is the same as Safari Mobile? The Opera folks seem to think it's not. And does Opera Mini interpret code? Probably not, it only reads a file and does what the file tells it to do. The same as a doc. file contains markup for a Word file. You can't program in a doc. file, and you can't program in a OBML "file" so Opera Mini doesn't really interpret code.

Great news!

Oops, grab some coffee Robert

That other person meant to say that iDroid's appearance and features only make the Safari engine look like Opera Mini. He was not speculating that the actual Mini release would be cosmetic.

My image of OBML is a very simple two-way communication method. You get text, pictures, and boxes. You mostly only send text. Apple may decide that OBML qualifies as an interpreted language, but it reminds me more of a video stream. I do not think Apple has a legal reason to deny the product.

Originally posted by hellspork:

He was not speculating that the actual Mini release would be cosmetic.

Yes he was

Originally posted by johnnysaucepn:

In other words, the Mini influence is probably cosmetic.

Originally posted by hellspork:

You mostly only send text. Apple may decide that OBML qualifies as an interpreted language

But then what? What is qualified "legal" and what isn't? If you make a twitter client, it sends XML to twitter and receives a XML text back, which gets interpret to display it in the app. is this allowed?
I think both OBML and XML are "legal" because they both aren't meant as a programming language but only as a way to transfer data.

I searched for the license to find the relevant part, but am unable to find the license on an Apple site (you first have to download the SDK, for which you need an Apple ID, and there I quit, why is it so difficult to display the license on a separate page, before downloading and registering).
However I was able to find a part of this restriction on another site

No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).

The keyword in this is "code". OBML and XML aren't code in the form of a programming language, so it should be valid. (and HTML and CSS also could be valid, the only problem is JavaScript)

Originally posted by hellspork:

I do not think Apple has a legal reason to deny the product.

Agreed, and that's the same what the legal persons at Opera seem to think (otherwise they wouldn't develop and announce the announcement it in the first place )

A brief interview with Jon

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?newsid=28682&pagtype=allchandate

Originally posted by Robert90:

Yes he was

No, he really wasn't!

Robert, he apparently reads scarygoround! That means British humor and that means you need to parse his sentences differently! iDroid LOOKS a lot like Mini, which is what he meant by "Mini influences". As in, iDroid is the Safari engine with a near-clone of the Mini menu system.

Yes, I was saying that Opera Mini's influence on the iDroid browser was cosmetic only - it doesn't appear to operate in any way like Opera Mini, it seems to use Apple's standard rendering engine.

Engadget.com has a good writeup. "At the very least, the whole effort has been one of marketing genius whether intentional or not even if Opera never submits Mini for approval."

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/17/opera-mini-on-iphone-is-fast-but-why/

I do believe as the ball gets rolling, Opera needs to be very transparent on security issues. I think the idea of web pages that are processed by Opera's servers before sending the results to the iPhone concern people. With Opera's purchase of AdMarvel, coming to the iPhone, Opera could collect some serious information about browsing habits. You'll start to hear more and more people question Opera, and then it will get verrrry negative.

Clear it up first!

Cheers!

Opera Mini in Apples App Store?

Originally posted by haavard:

There's so much going on at Opera it's impossible to keep track of everything (and I can't talk about things I do know about anyway, unless they are public knowledge). The public probably doesn't know half the stuff we're working on at any given time. You are in for some major "surprises" this year, I think.

Thats good stuff to hear Haavard. Importing my Opera bookmarks into Safari just to get them on the iPhone is a pain, as Ive got 10 years worth of bookmarks (10,000+ pages) and it reeallyy sloooowwwsss down Safari on my iPhone.

Is there a way around this? Safari only uses html, no adr.

Opera should team up with the Aids outreach and paint the iPhone RED and put your red O on the home screen! Great cause, great PR, great opportunity for Opera.

Mini will save the day, red O's will fall from heaven, and the ladies will sing Opperrrraaaaa!!!


Cheers!

Originally posted by digitalinksmudge:

I do believe as the ball gets rolling, Opera needs to be very transparent on security issues. I think the idea of web pages that are processed by Opera's servers before sending the results to the iPhone concern people. With Opera's purchase of AdMarvel, coming to the iPhone, Opera could collect some serious information about browsing habits. You'll start to hear more and more people question Opera, and then it will get verrrry negative.

Clear it up first!

Clear up? Transparent? Opera is already the most secure browser.

Purdi. Please. Read. The. Paragraph. You. Just. Quoted.

I did read it. You were rambling incoherently again.

Originally posted by digitalinksmudge:

I think the idea of web pages that are processed by Opera's servers before sending the results to the iPhone concern people. With Opera's purchase of AdMarvel, coming to the iPhone, Opera could collect some serious information about browsing habits.

Purdi, you missed all of the above. The fear he mentioned has NOTHING to do with security against normal attacks. He asked about taking action to prevent Opera's products from having the same "big brother" reputation as Google's products.

Opera's privacy policy is very good. Opera's personal security policy is very good. Opera's MAMA and State of the Mobile Web demonstrate that the company gathers aggregate statistics for page-hits. Same as Google, Opera could use that information to provide more relevant ads while users are browsing. I do not see this as an especially harmful feature.

Bingo! Thanks Cutting Spoon.

Cheers!

Congrats Opera!

Glad Apple and Opera are able to work together! http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/ROFL.gif -

Cheers!