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Opera Mobile

for Symbian and Windows Mobile

Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo

By Helene Lund Engebø. Thursday, 26. March 2009, 13:26:05

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Hi everyone,

I'm Helene, and I work as a project manager in the Windows Mobile team at Opera Software. We are a dedicated team working with developing the Opera Mobile browser for Windows Mobile touchscreen devices.

My group works with the consumer product and new feature development in particular, and we are excited about the opportunity to focus on new technology and our end users. We're happy to announce our upcoming release: Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta for Windows Mobile touchscreen devices.



The Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta will include the following great features:
  • Improved rendering engine
    Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta uses the Presto 2.2 rendering engine, which will also be used in the Opera 10 desktop browser. Presto 2.2 offers faster page loading, and we're excited to use this state-of-the-art rendering engine and be at the forefront of standards support with 100/100 on Acid 3.
  • Opera Turbo
    Finally we can show you Opera Turbo on mobile! Opera Turbo accelerates the browsing experience by reducing bandwidth consumption up to 80%. Many of you will be familiar with Opera's compression technology from using Opera Mini, and with Opera Mobile 9.7 you'll get the best of both worlds - a full-fledged browser with extra Turbo capabilities. It's not the full version of Opera Turbo yet (yes, that's a Beta feature in a Beta release), but we couldn't wait to show you this cool feature.
  • Improved Widget Manager
    Opera Widgets are small, handy Web applications that run locally on your mobile phone. Our new Widget Manager has improved usability and design, and runs independently from the browser.
  • Gears
    Gears is a Google open source project that enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser. Read more about Gears on Opera Labs.
  • OpenGL ES
    Hardware acceleration with OpenGL ES support, ensuring smoother scrolling, panning and a more fluid user interface.

Also, we've tried to iron out some of the major issues with the 9.51 Beta, among other things:
  • Installation on storage card is now possible, and the Beta happily coexists with preinstalled versions of Opera Mobile.
  • Better IME support (although a lot of non-standard 3rd party IME applications still make this a difficult task).
  • Better performance and feedback when clicking links.

We look forward to sharing this great product with you, so stay tuned :smile:

PS: If you're in Las Vegas during CTIA, make sure to drop by the Opera booth (6724 in Central Hall) to test out a preview of Opera Mobile 9.7.

Opera FingertouchWhy didn't we release a final version of 9.5 before skipping to 9.7?

Comments

Tamil 26. March 2009, 15:01

:up:

ColKilkenny 26. March 2009, 15:16

:cheers:

But once again: Windows Mobile.
Where are Symbian (S60) news/announcements/releases? Opera basically manages to miss over 50% of the whole smartphone market. Doesn't really make sense to me.

João Eiras 26. March 2009, 15:46

Originally posted by ColKilkenny:

Where are Symbian (S60) news/announcements/releases? Opera basically manages to miss over 50% of the whole smartphone market. Doesn't really make sense to me.

The main problem with Symbian is that it's controlled by Nokia, and Nokia does not feel like bundling Opera, which means much less market reach unfortunately.

Kiran 26. March 2009, 16:11

I hafta buy a Windows mobile now.
:up: I have read this news on CNET.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10204515-94.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Anonymous 26. March 2009, 17:45

Stefan Constantinescu writes:

This is fantastic news!

Quick question: Will the final version of 9.7 be available to download so I could install this on any WM device?

thobi 26. March 2009, 18:04


nice, but once more i've to whine and raise a hand for the s60...

cousin333 26. March 2009, 18:10

First: when will it be available for public? :smile:

Second: I miss two things from this nice list:
- Flash support
- Opera Link

Is it a typo, a forgetfulness, or we will miss them again? Especially the lack of the second feature would be shame.

Mathieu 'p01' HENRI 26. March 2009, 18:25

Flash support is more up to Adobe than to Opera.
As for Link, I can be wrong but I think it's a default feature of all Opera 9.5+ releases. Regardless of the platform.

bhsand 26. March 2009, 18:54

No, I'm running 9.5 on my HTC Touch HD, and I haven't seen any option for enabling link. And it's really missed! There are two things I dislike with the current 9.5 beta - the first is speed, which will be accounted for in 9.7. The second is the absence of Link, and those are the reasons that I usually prefer Mini over Mobile.

cousin333 26. March 2009, 19:37

I guess Flash is not v10, but Flash Lite is even more, than nothing, I guess...

As for Opera Link, no, there's no such thing for Opera Mobile, although this feature is much older than OM 9.51 beta. An it's completely at Opera's side, so it don't have to wait for any third party. Besides, even Opera Mini has Link. Mobile only has a link to Link... :smile:

bhsand: Yeah, that's the problem. Opera Mini is more modern, than Mobile 8.65, can be used on much more machines, it' faster because of "Opera Turbo" (which is not quite the same though), loads much quicker, and has Opera Link. And it's free, while Mobile costs money. For these reasons, I also use Mini more, although I usually don't browse the web from mobile, for it is still far from being comparable to the PC net experience.

Joe 26. March 2009, 21:13

@cousin333: Flash or Flash Lite is irrelevant as far as Opera is concerned. It's a plugin. It's up to you to get that plugin or the OEM or operator to bundle it.

Chug Worth 26. March 2009, 21:22

Sounds great as long as I can disable Opera Turbo. The reason why I don't use Skyfire is because I don't like its proxy server approach. I don't want all of my web browsing data being passed through a proxy server.

FataL 26. March 2009, 22:48

All that is nice! :up:
But now I'm totally confused...
You have Opera Mobile 9.5 beta for a while already -- no final version released. And now you say that

We're happy to announce our upcoming release: Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta

Does that mean that Opera 9.5 will be never released? Will be there any final Mobile version of Opera? There was no such for couple years already...

torgeirl 27. March 2009, 00:27

@xErath: As a member of Symbian Foundation, I expect Opera to release Opera Mobile for Symbian^2 and that release will be based on Symbian S60v5.1.

I don't think Opera will be able to keep the long term costs down by not working on the Symbian S60 version of Opera Mobile for a so short period of time. Also, Opera Mobile has a huge market in Japan with NTT DoCoMo's MOAP platform, and working on both these Symbian platforms simultaneously will easily make it profitably to make Opera Mobile 9.x for S60v3/S60v5 besides WM and UIQ.

@Chugworth: I have read Turbo can be turn on/off in the program settings, and that SSL/TLS will not be handled by Opera's compression servers.

Charles Schloss 27. March 2009, 00:59

:up:

Илья Шпаньков 27. March 2009, 06:24

@Fatal

All that is nice!
But now I'm totally confused...
You have Opera Mobile 9.5 beta for a while already -- no final version released. And now you say that

We're happy to announce our upcoming release: Opera Mobile 9.7 Beta
Does that mean that Opera 9.5 will be never released? Will be there any final Mobile version of Opera? There was no such for couple years already...



Ha-ha, it's a small trick that still keep Opera Mobile free of charge (betas always not for sell) :wink:

Manrique Lopez 27. March 2009, 07:54

Where is the beta?

Sergii Prosianyk 27. March 2009, 08:12

:worried:
Opera Mobile 9 beta
Opera Mobile 9.5 beta
Opera Mobile 9.5x beta
Opera Mobile 9.7 beta
How many betas we will have till the final release?

Mobile version has a plenty of problems (such as out of memory bug) but Opera Software implements new features instead of fixing existing bugs. Till when? :cry:

Joe 27. March 2009, 09:14

@Mongoose: stop spreading disgusting lies. Bugs are being fixed all the time. And just because YOU don't like a new feature doesn't mean that no one does. Stop spitting in everyone else's face by pretending that your poorly founded opinions represent theirs.

Pathetic :troll:

Yeah, who cares about irrelevant stuff like faster and smoother browsing anyway? :troll:

Sergii Prosianyk 27. March 2009, 11:03

Opera Mobile 9.0 was announced on February 2007. Two years ago! We have no final release till now. And all two years there is a serious problem with memory consumption in Opera Mobile for WM on different devices.

New features is good. I like it also. But users need for STABLE software first.

@GoJoeGo: Please, don't say that I lie because it's true.

Anonymous 27. March 2009, 11:09

Mini User writes:

Another voice in the chorus shouts:

S60 SUPPORT!!!! When????

I really love Mini, it's my prefered browser on the Nokia E71. It's fast, it has Opera Link (which I wouldn't want to live without) and an RSS Reader that I use all the time.

But I'd really love to have a more sophisticated browser with more options from Opera on the phone, ideally with Flash (Lite) support.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Anonymous 27. March 2009, 11:56

Thumb writes:

Great news - any change of a UIQ3 version? Opera Mobile with Opera Turbo would be neat!

prking 27. March 2009, 12:58

Well done to Opera for innovating with these new ideas. However, I just can't believe that yet again S60 has been missed out. I'm beginning to find this ridiculous. I'm sure Opera has its reasons, I just can't for the life of me think what.

Anonymous 27. March 2009, 13:12

XtremeMaC writes:

@Mongoose,
perhaps you would like to donate opera some money? or code for them to speed things up?

stop whining jack ass!

u cannot expect opera to create a version for all os.
I'm sure they've done their market research well enough, decided to only support winMo at the moment.

Joe 27. March 2009, 13:34

@Mongoose: are you trolling or something? Opera 9.5 is a HUGE change from 9.0. Just look at the desktop version. It's like a completely new browser.

And memory problems for two years, eh? Funny, because Opera Mobile 9.5 hasn't even been out for ONE year yet. Where did you get 9.0 two years ago exactly?

You don't need to STABILIZE the software until all the required features are in.

You are lying again.

FataL 27. March 2009, 13:55

Originally posted by GoJoeGo:

Opera 9.5 is a HUGE change from 9.0.

Not THAT huge, actually. Bigger change was from 8 to 9.

Joe 27. March 2009, 14:02

@FataL: yes, that huge. Remember how long 9.5 for desktop took to finish? F**ing ages!

Anonymous 27. March 2009, 14:16

Dmitry writes:

missing Opera on my new Nokia 5800... wish this will happen... someday...

perrisiam 27. March 2009, 14:32

I personally am hoping for the ability to turn off turbo, my network is blazing fast and I don't need compressed content

turbo should be an opt in me thinks, set to on by default but user allowed to turn it off

Anonymous 27. March 2009, 16:50

Fredrik1994 writes:

I just wonder, will this also be released for UIQ/S60?
Anyway, sounds great. :)

Anonymous 28. March 2009, 09:53

Anarion writes:

By the looks of it, you can kiss that chance good bye.

Vidit 28. March 2009, 13:50

What about UIQ3 version? Opera gave out the UIQ3 version of 9.5 the last of the lot. Come on...UIQ3 version please. 9.5 rocks but 9.7 seems way better especially the Opera Mini like turbo feature.

Anonymous 28. March 2009, 21:30

Sad n95 owner writes:

We've been waiting so long for the 9.5 version of the browser, 'cause that was promised to be released but nothing has happened. You can't be trusted. Shame on you...

Anonymous 28. March 2009, 21:33

Névtelen writes:

Hope you'll die on the Xperia. Windows' been being looked by the reaper and I've never heard some one could've hidden from him... ;)

James Lyons 28. March 2009, 21:39

I would love to be a beta tester on this product. I have a sprint HTC Touch pro.

Anonymous 29. March 2009, 05:13

Anonymous writes:

uiq pls!!!

Anonymous 29. March 2009, 13:37

Anonymous writes:

that's great news, one more thing that should be implemented in the next release is Opera FingerTouch. I thought it is obvious that it will be included in the next release.. I hope it is and they just didn't mention it.
otherwise, keep up the good work opera!

Device Used: SW Xperia

Anonymous 29. March 2009, 16:41

Anonim writes:

Haha, people.. the errors are fixed but beta cannt be functional, we must buy that program. Beta cant by too good :)

Anonymous 29. March 2009, 17:03

Anonymous writes:

"We've been waiting so long for the 9.5 version of the browser, 'cause that was promised to be released"

It was? When? Where?

Anonymous 29. March 2009, 17:04

wtf writes:

Who is "Anonim", and why does he sound retarded? Incoherent nonsense.

Anonymous 29. March 2009, 17:09

AsiaInterLegal writes:

I took the time to download the latest that says it runs on Symbian ... which is my Sony-Ericsson P990i, but when I tried to install it, I was told it was not compatible?? What does it take? Will Opera EVER make a decent browser compatible with my phone?

Anonymous 29. March 2009, 21:23

nzgeek writes:

I'm also raising the question of what's happened to Symbian S60 support. The first betas were released several months ago, and yet S60 has seen nothing more than a widgets toolkit.

I'm sure that most S60 owners here would like some sort of statement on the issue, even if it's just that Opera are having some problems with the S60 implementation and that's why it's being delayed. Any news is better than no news.

@xErath: Nokia have very little to do with the problem. They have no barriers in place to stop 3rd parties from creating browsers, unlike Apple with the iPhone. (Apple's position may have changed recently.)

Opera is far better than Nokia's browser when it comes to using memory. The Nokia browser frequently runs into out-of-memory errors, whereas Opera can view most pages without issue. That's why I paid money for a browser, rather than just running what's built in to the phone.

Anonymous 30. March 2009, 05:56

Anonymous writes:

@nzgeek

Apparently Nokia is sabotaging Opera on S60. See links in other posts.

prking 30. March 2009, 08:43

Except, of course, Opera have already released the first milestone towards a series 60 browser. Which would make the Nokia story un-true.

Morten 30. March 2009, 12:16

* Opera announces the new Opera Mobile 9.7 at CTIA Wireless 2009 – a server-accelerated full Web experience for smartphones and mobile devices... * http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2009/03/26/

* Opera Turbo is a cross-platform solution, available for desktop computers, mobile phones, and other Internet-enabled devices... * http://www.opera.com/business/solutions/turbo/

Nothing in statements is suggesting Opera Turbo is not coming for Symbian S60.

Hmm I believe Opera Turbo is also designed to attack Nokias S60 browser which clearly is not competitive. Thus putting pressure on Nokia to pre-install Opera Mobile with Turbo on future Nokia smartphones. All will benefit from that. Users and Opera of course. But also Nokia.

Anonymous 30. March 2009, 15:37

skurakai writes:

Fast browsing is fine. But Opera Link is more usefull :( Synchronize bookmarks (password,...)

And what about flash support? In 9.5 beta it is forbidden.

Anonymous 30. March 2009, 20:08

RWW writes:

Video streaming wasn't mentioned. Will the plug-ins work with the new beta release or will we still have to resort to other methods/browsers?

Anonymous 30. March 2009, 20:35

delfy writes:

how come opera browser doesn't support adobe flash. when some homepage has flash the flash picture doesn't appear. what should i do.

thanks

Anonymous 30. March 2009, 21:39

Matt writes:

2 questions:

1. Will the original Touch Diamond and Pro have openGL ES support from the get-go?

2. Are we going to see it in a matter of days, weeks, or months?

Anonymous 30. March 2009, 23:20

Dave writes:

Hello Helene,

Thanks for the update on the new opera. I wanted to know if this is going to be first released to the carriers and if so will the cell companies offer it as an update to the existing opera on the Diamond, Tpro, and Xperia x1, Omnia, etc? Thanks again.

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