Opera Software on Tuesday announced that it is submitting its
Opera Mini Web browser to Apple for use on the
iPhone.
The Norwegian company boasts that Opera is the most-used
browser on mobile devices; it offers a version of the software for
Windows Mobile phones,
Google Android and the
Nintendo DS game system.
The Opera team said they are confident their new browser will be approved for the
iPhone, but the final say is still up to the gatekeepers at Apple who are known to
block applications in the iTunes store for any number of random reasons.
Last week I had a chance to sit down with Opera’s co-founder, Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, to see an early version of the new
iPhone software. The new browser loaded pages extremely quickly, as you can see in the video below, and manages to integrate some unique features that are currently available in its desktop browser. Some of the highlights include unlimited tabbed browsing and the ability to search the content of a Web page — an important feature that is currently unavailable on the Safari mobile browser made by Apple.
The software was missing an important feature on the
iPhone: the ability to resize a page by pinching a page with both fingers. Mr. Tetzchner said this could be added to the software with a later update.
The
Opera browser loads Web pages rapidly by using a technology called server-side rendering, which compresses most aspects of a Web site on a server, sometimes reducing the load time of 90 percent of a Web page, before sending the data along to a
phone’s browser.
Mr. Tetzchner pitched the new Opera browser as a way to reduce roaming charges when traveling.
Opera Software says its mission is to make a browser for any computer and
mobile phone.
source : bits.blogs.nytimes[dot]com
