Haavard

Opera Mini now identifies itself as an iPhone browser

Friday, April 16, 2010 3:23:18 PM

The Opera Dev Network article on what Opera Mini on the iPhone means for developers has been updated with a new user-agent string for Opera Mini on the iPhone:

Opera/9.80 (iPhone; Opera Mini/5.0.0176/764; U; en) Presto/2.4.15

The user-agent string is the text string a browser uses to identify itself when connecting to a site. The site can then serve different content to different user-agents (browsers).

What this means for users of Opera Mini on the iPhone is that the sites you visit are more likely to send you pages formatted for the iPhone rather than the desktop version or a generic mobile page.

The old string was "~~Opera/9.80 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/5.0.0176/1150; U; en) Presto/2.4.15~~".

One million downloads: Opera Mini beats Skype, PayPal on the iPhoneFastMail.FM acquired by Opera

Comments

Idan AdarYtseJam # Friday, April 16, 2010 3:27:37 PM

Are there any known websites that now look differently?

Rafael Luikrafaelluik # Friday, April 16, 2010 3:27:39 PM

Oh, thank you, at the end you listened to my feedback!

~~(or maybe didn't actually listened to me but changed the UA-String because that is the best thing to do anyway)~~

Charles SchlossChas4 # Friday, April 16, 2010 3:28:02 PM

Michael BaptistaFrostDust # Friday, April 16, 2010 6:50:02 PM

Hopefully this will placate the reviewers who were upset over iPhone Opera Mini's rendering of some web pages.

d4rkn1ght # Friday, April 16, 2010 7:25:51 PM

Haavardhaavard # Friday, April 16, 2010 7:44:31 PM

Originally posted by mgillespie:

Meh how about some mini 5 love on android? It's been out a month with some horrible/critical bugs like not being able to even enter a url in the address box

I'm using the public build we released for Android, and I can't see any such problems. What kind of phone is this?

Paul GeorgeWolfHook # Friday, April 16, 2010 9:31:24 PM

The obvious site to try to see if this does deliver iPhone specifics is Google Mail. Google Mail has a specific styled iPhone interface, but I am not seeing it in Opera Mini.

Rafael Luikrafaelluik # Friday, April 16, 2010 10:21:23 PM

Nothing changed yet, of course, it will take some time until web developers detect that Opera Mini is running in an iPhone and provide the right version (or even let all Opera Mini users access iPhone designed websites

Charles SchlossChas4 # Saturday, April 17, 2010 12:14:21 AM

Originally posted by rafaelluik:

Opera Mini is running in an iPhone and provide the right version (or even let all Opera Mini users access iPhone designed websites

nope I got it this morning, I think I got the change, I am now getting mobile sites, got mobile npr.org this morning

Rafael Luikrafaelluik # Saturday, April 17, 2010 12:17:00 AM

Originally posted by Chas4:

nope I got it this morning, I thing I got the change, I am now getting mobile sites, got mobile npr.org this morning

Wait more...
Opera Mini for iPhone was launched 3 days ago and the new UA-String was launched today!

Haavardhaavard # Saturday, April 17, 2010 1:38:49 PM

I have a HTC Magic and Android 1.5. Can't test it right now, but will add a bug report internally.

Kamaleshkamalesh # Sunday, April 18, 2010 3:47:59 PM

This is generally a worthwhile UA change, Haavard, but please consider some fixes for mobile Gmail site (which should direct to HTML version, not HTML5) and just noticed that Appleinsider's iPhone-optimized site breaks with OM5 with the iPhone UA string -- with no way to get back to the AI full site.

digitalinksmudge # Thursday, April 29, 2010 9:07:29 PM

Opera Mini update today is better, thanks. Although it looks like you guys have been severely trumped by Skyfire 2.0 on some UI, Social integration, Video, &... Skyfire has more than than 9 speeddials, excellent social media integration, context menu us better (more options than only select), Opera Mini has some catching up to do! ALLOT! If Skyfire gets on iPhone with its full support of Youtube and Flash Video, I see a mass exodus from Opera Mini.

Opera's got to duplicate Safari mobiles features, or iPhone users will think Mini is just incomplete. It takes Mini 5 clicks to bookmark a page and resume browsing.

Pinch-to-zoom is a must have! Mini doesnt forward to iPhone's Maps App (which is MUCH better than google's in browzer maps). Its great that I can add my own searches, but how do I select which user created Search option is Default in Mini?

Great start, I look forward to equal, and better options than Safari Mobile on iPhone.

Put that fox in a cage Opera! http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Cop.gif -

Cheers!

Charles SchlossChas4 # Friday, April 30, 2010 2:04:44 AM

Originally posted by digitalinksmudge:

If Skyfire gets on iPhone with its full support of Youtube and Flash Video, I see a mass exodus from Opera Mini.

Won't happen right now as Flash is banned from the iPhone software

ALso there is already a youtube thing on the iPhone for view youtube videos (in h.264)

prd3 # Friday, April 30, 2010 3:28:17 PM

Originally posted by digitalinksmudge:

Although it looks like you guys have been severely trumped by Skyfire 2.0 on some UI, Social integration, Video, &... Skyfire has more than than 9 speeddials, excellent social media integration, context menu us better (more options than only select), Opera Mini has some catching up to do! ALLOT!

Nonsense.

Skyfire's "speed dial" is just a static page. What good does more than nine do when you can't change them?

It's also slow, laggy, and the UI is cluttered and horrible.

Skyfire is FAIL.

If Skyfire gets on iPhone with its full support of Youtube and Flash Video, I see a mass exodus from Opera Mini.

It doesn't have full support. It does what Opera Mini already does on other platforms: Send the video to a dedicated YouTube player.

Skyfire does NOT play the video inside the page itself.

And when Skyfire can't just use a dedicated player, you get a horribly pixelated, slow, choppy slideshow of a video which is a real pain to watch.

Opera's got to duplicate Safari mobiles features, or iPhone users will think Mini is just incomplete.

Actually, Opera Mini has more and better functionality than safari.

It takes Mini 5 clicks to bookmark a page and resume browsing.

So? Who cares?

digitalinksmudge # Wednesday, June 1, 2011 9:28:49 AM

Opera's new Mini for iPhone pretty much resolves most of the issues I had with the first Mini for iPhone (see my year old irks above). Ive now pushed Apples mobile Safari to the back! Good job Opera!

I do Wish the new Mini had a download file feature like the free iPhone App 'Downloads' has. Its nice to be fully productive and be able to download things on the iPhone as you would on your desktop. Using the Downloads browser App & Air Sharing App allow me to surf, download, and transfer files between the two Apps via the new inter-App file sharing feature. This inter-App file sharing feature provides decent workflow for an iPhone. The next Mini should support the downloading feature for sure.

Cheers!