Based on Opera's reports of their new JavaScript engine, Caraken, being "7x faster" than the standard Futhark engine built into Opera 10.10, we ran it through Mozilla's Dromaeo JavaScript tests, which combine Apple's SunSpider and Google's V8 JavaScript benchmarks. Pure runs-per-second speed isn't everything, of course, and engines can be built specifically to max out in these kinds of tests. That said, the results of Opera 10.5, rolled into our last round of browser speed tests, were more than a little impressive, using Dromaeo as a measuring stick:

The chart up top is pulled from our most recent speed tests, with Opera 10.5 pre-alpha results rolled in. It shows some, shall we say, notable improvement. The gHacks blog put 10.5 against Firefox 3.6 beta and Chrome's development build in the SunSpider and V8 tests and found that Opera either beat, or came very close to, Chrome, in those separate runs, and usually left Firefox in the dust. We'll have to put Opera 10.5 through its full paces when it's out of its very unstable build.

If you're the adventurous type and do want to give the pre-alpha a try, you'll also find improvements to the page rendering engine, new Private Browsing tabs and windows that don't track any history, and some interface and visual design tweaks, detailed in the post below. The big JavaScript improvements aren't as pronounced on the Mac build as on Windows, according to the development team, but are still there.

Opera 10.5 pre-alpha is a free download for Windows and Mac systems. Tell us if you think there's some real speed-ups in this build, and what else you like, in the comments.

Opera has announced that it's offering Opera Mobile to OEMs—the people who actually make your phones—to replace, or ship alongside, Android default browser. This is very different from Opera Mini, which has been in the Android Market for months now: Opera Mini is a Java-based browser originally intended for dumbphones, which isn't that great; Opera Mobile, on the other hand, is a full, extremely capable browser, which has long been Windows Mobile's answer to the likes of Mobile Safari and Mobile Chrome.

If the Android version is anything like the Windows Mobile versions of late—and it looks like it is—this is worth getting excited about. It's based on a completely different rendering engine than Android's default browser, supports server-side page compression for faster loading, and has too many useful small features to list, making it the first genuine competing browser on the platform—the others, like Steel and Dolphin, are just variations on the default browser.

The only hangup is that as of now the browser is only available to OEMs, meaning that it wil come with some new phones, but won't be listed in the Android Market, at least for now. We'll have to leave it up to the likes of XDA and Modaco to make it more broadly available, which, let's face it Opera, they totally will. [TechCrunch]

Considering this thing will contain "every conceivable luxury," fording the river seems a little dangerous. I wouldn't want to ruin those gorgeous hardwood floors, the motorized beds, or all the wine I'd have stored in this thing's wine cabinet. Yeah, I'd probably float it.

And c'mon Axel Enthoven. You say you took your design cues from the Sydney Opera House, but we all know you're just trying to live your grade school dream: taking a covered wagon across the Oregon Trail. In style. [Axel Enthoven via Dezeen, Likecool via Dvice]

No, it's not Explorer. Originally, Microsoft wanted to order browsers from left to right in order of market share. That meant Explorer was going to go first, then Firefox, then Safari, Opera, and Google's Chrome. The EU objected, so Microsoft complied and offered a very reasonable solution: Alphabetical order.

That puts Apple Safari in the number one position, followed by Google Chrome, Microsoft Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Looks good enough to me, but Jenny Boriss—a Firefox user experience designer—disagrees:

This ordering is about the worst option possible. Microsoft wrote in their proposal that 'nothing in the design and implementation of the Ballot Screen and the presentation of competing web browsers will express a bias for a Microsoft web browser or any other web browser,' but this is exactly what the current design does. Windows users presented with the current design will tend to make only two choices: IE because they are familiar with it, or Safari because it is the first item.

The disproportionate advantage to Safari is what really makes this design poor," she said, citing several studies that claim first position in a ballot gives an advantage, in part because Western voters scan from upper left to lower right when they read.

She goes on and on and on about this, but her basic message is: If Firefox is not first, this design is BAD. She timidly proposes a random order every time the selection screen opens, but she argues that this is bad because "unfortunately does not provide users with any information about what browsers are preferred" (according to who, Jenny? Maybe user would prefer Safari over Firefox—I know I do. Or maybe they would prefer Chrome if they could try it, as it seems to be a lot faster than Firefox).

Then she shows her true colors, proposing the order according to market share—what Microsoft proposed—but excluding Explorer from that ordering and leaving it to the last position. Wouldn't that be unfairly helping Firefox and putting Safari, Chrome, and Opera in a bad position? And why discriminate Microsoft Explorer too?

Finally, she also proposes probability ordering by market share excluding Internet Explorer, which again gives Firefox the advantage over the rest 50% of the time.

In other words, Microsoft and the EU should help Firefox to become the new monopolistic browser, no matter what. Jenny, please: Stop. Saying. Words. [Boriss' Blog via Computer World]

The idea is to mirror the desktop version as much as possible. Open a new tab and you'll see the visual speed dial thumbnails, which you can also customize based on your browsing history. The new version can also be set to store login details on your phone.

As with Opera 4.2, YouTube videos will play via your phone's native media player, and there's still no Flash support. What also sucks: This beta won't support Skins and Opera Link, though both should be reintroduced as development continues.
[Opera: Full Website | Mobile version]

Seeing as most of the time spent on a laptop is spent online, AnandTech ran exhuastive tests on Windows machines, Intel and AMD, netbook and notebook, to see if switching browsers makes any difference in battery life. And hey, it does! In some tests, there was a 30% advantage between the worst browser—always Safari—and the best—Internet Explorer 8. Seriously.

In fact, Microsoft's browser came in front across the board, even inching out Firefox with Adblock by a few percent. It's hard to say why IE8 is so power-thrifty, but the most processor-intensive operations a browser does outside of running Flash content are in rendering Javascript, which IE8 kind of sucks at. So, mystery solved, maybe! Firefox, Chrome and to a lesser extent Opera held up fine, but depending on what kind of laptop you're running, and how willing you are to ditch your browser, there are quite a few sweet battery minutes up for grabs here. Full breakdown at [AnandTech]

The deal, according to ElectricPig, is as follows: If you never dropped those 500 Wii Points on access to the Internet Channel, you can now download it for free. If you for whatever reason had, you're entitled to free access to "a Virtual Console NES title worth 500 points," which, despite the vague phraseology, is pegged with an October release date. In other words, it's a specific game, instead of a simple 500-point credit, or at least a range of titles.

To be fair, they didn't have to give users anything, and no matter how marginally useful the browser is, whenever it was free—like at launch—it felt like a nice value add. [ElectricPig via Kotaku]

The latest build was missing Flash and Gears, but Opera Turbo—speedier page loading with some help from Opera's servers was there. Hopefully it'll have the other two in place by the time it hits Android, which is in the works, confirms Opera's CEO, where it should provide some decent competition to the default WebKit browser, which is already pretty damn good. [App Scout]

Unite is somewhere between a personal web server and a file sharing application, technologically and conceptually. The interface is straightforward, divided into panels for each service that you choose to "host." All of them behave in the same stupid-simple way: you start a service, whether it be photo sharing, music streaming, web hosting, or straight file sharing, select a shared directory, set your privacy preferences and go. There are also hosted chat services, and "Fridge," which is a—you guessed it—hosted quasi-Facebook wall for other Opera users to drop notes on.

Even at this early stage you can find a lot of shared content to explore, including plenty of publicly streamable music, which will almost certainly cause Opera problems even though, strictly speaking, they're not doingthe streaming. There's no video service for now, but Unite is extensible, meaning that anyone can design a plugin to add to the program's default file-serving capabilities.

Opera is proud of the fact that Unite runs against the tide of most new web services, opting for client-side content hosting over cloud-based solutions—so proud, in fact, that they're able to repeatedly, straight-facedly describe Unite as a "Web 5.0" product, which is a bit rich considering it's essentially a collection of services that have been available for years, albeit never in such a simple or consolidated way. As a convenient tool for sharing large amounts of content, I get it. As a game-changer? I'm not so sure.

Try it out for yourself: a technical preview of Opera Unite is available for download here. [Opera]

Opera plainly states in the release notes that this is an early build of the browser, which means a few features are missing, the most conspicuous being full Flash and Google Gears support. But what what about regular browsing?

With compression on, it's fast. The full NYT homepage, images and all, loaded in 10 7 seconds flat over 3G. Formatting is basically unaffected by the optimization, and the sacrifice in image quality is, while noticeable, not that bad. With compression on, though, the browser is crashy, occasionally poopin' the bed when directed to more complicated sites, like Giz.

There are other issues, like near-total lack of support for nonstandard software keyboards in Windows Mobile, and a broken rotation function. But it's a beta, and so far, so good—if 9.7 turns out as good as it sounds like—and now, looks like—it will, it'll give Skyfire a run for its money and/or debilitating kick in the junk.
[Opera]

The thing is, as ridiculous as the peripheral may be, it felt pretty great in my hands. The back is shaped similar to an Xbox 360 controller (complete with triggers for the Wii's A & B buttons), so you can type on the large, split QWERTY with relative ease. I'm not sure the I'd use it to browse the web on the Wii, but then again, I'd probably never browse the web on the Wii in the first place. No word yet on pricing or availability.

It should make browsing on slow cellular and/or modem connections much more palatable, the trade-off being that image content looks like ass, as demonstrated in the above screengrab. [Opera via Pocket Lint]

Attaching to the Nyko Wand (the Wiimote is semi-incompatible because it lacks Nyko's proprietary Trans-Port Technology), the Type Pad Pro transforms an ordinary Nintendo controller into a testicularly spaceshippy full QWERTY keyboard. Through Trans-Port communication, the A and B buttons on the Wand are relocated to the Type Pad while the pad itself integrates with the Wii through a wireless USB dongle. (Yeah, it's a tad confusing. Basically, the pad is incapable of piggybacking its signal onto the Wand's.)

The result is a QWERTY keyboard capable of surfing the internet on the Wii. The other result is the zaniest but most ambitious Wii peripheral we've seen this side of Nyko's unreleased Party Station.

There's a mad, mad man at the helm of Nyko's design team. And we really want to go drinking with him.

(Please, allow me to ramble for five minutes.)

While I'm sure this space age version is amazing, Chuck Jones' parody—which also nails Fantasia's Night on Bald Mountain and chops it to bits—is without a doubt the best interpretation ever released this side of Apocalypse Now helicopter attack. Not strangely, it has been considered repeatedly as the best cartoon of all time by critics and animators since it was released in 1957. If you having seen it yet—or if you can't remember it—enjoy:

Watching it, you can clearly see why it's the be all end all of comedy cartoons—and drama too. Like Chuck Jones said many times, people actually teared up when they saw the ending. It's certainly my favorite, along with some of the craziest Roadrunners and Daffy Duck's classic movie genres parodies, all masterpieces of comedy and movie making.

But if you are in LA and still insist in watching tenor Plácido Domingo playing Elmer J. Fudd dressed up as a neon Darth Vader in the real The Valkyrie, you can do so at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion for the rest of the week.

Or you can spare yourself the pain and see some images right here. [Beautiful Decay]

* Woody Allen dixit.

The in-dash computer has a wireless keyboard and mouse, a 6.5 inch touchscreen. No word on screen res or if the kb and mouse can be swapped with a media center type model for easier lap usage. The setup has 4GB of memory, and a stylus for the touchscreen. It can even output via bluetooth to an optional battery powered printer.

You've got all these upscale marquees, like Lexus, and Audi and BMW and ok, Acura who haven't done it. Never mind the Astons and Ferraris of the world. And none of them can keep up with Ford. Ford is clearly kicking ass in the tech department.

Do we need this kind of thing with the rise of smart phones? Will car computers die like car phones before they've ever born? I hope not, because of the inherent advantages to heavy car integration. Imagine car telemetry, and more advanced connected GPS and media library sharing with the home, as well as road worthy friend finding functions. Stuff like this is best done when fully installed in the vehicle.

Nevermind that this tech will make your car a totally unsafe place to drive, because you are browsing
Fleshbot instead of driving. I mean, the Explorer roll over issues are going to look like child games after this. But I wouldn't say no. Update: For safety, the system only works when the car is not in motion.

April 2, 2009 – Mountain View, CA and Las Vegas, NV –

Owners of Ford F-150, Super Duty, E-Series and Transit Connect trucks and vans will now be able to access the full Web from the convenience of their vehicles, thanks to Opera and Ford Work Solutions. Opera will be the featured browser on Ford's industry-first, broadband-capable, in-dash computer.

With this technology, truck and van owners (contractors, farmers, construction workers, business owners, etc.) will be able to use the in-dash Opera browser to access essential information and applications including sales information, contact databases, job-site plans, inventory lists, calendars, e-mail, or even the weather. The in-dash computer, combined with the Opera browser, Bluetooth printing capabilities, and other features transform Ford's new lineup of trucks and vans into true mobile offices.

"Opera's vision has always been about giving people access to the full Web anytime, anywhere," explains Rod Hamlin, Senior Vice President Americas for Opera Software. "No example showcases this better than delivering a fast, feature-rich Web browser to a vehicle. This solution will allow Ford truck and van owners to maintain a virtual work environment with access to all of the important files, information and applications they need on a daily basis. "

Ford Work Solutions is a collection of factory-installed affordable technologies-including "smart" features that provide full Internet connectivity, tool/inventory tracking, remote computer access, fleet management telematics and security to support Ford customers with mobile office and business needs, even on the job site.

The Ford Work Solutions in-dash computer is integrated into the vehicle's center stack, filling the same space normally occupied by the standard radio. It is equipped with a 6.5-inch, high-resolution touch screen, four gigabytes of memory, a secure digital slot for added memory, a USB port and a wireless keyboard and mouse. A stylus, stored next to the CD slot, is included for use on the touch screen, as well as an available Ford-certified, on-board, Bluetooth-enabled, battery-powered inkjet printer.

All four Ford Work Solutions technologies, including the Opera browser, are available on the new 2009 Ford F-150 XL, STX, XLT trucks; F-Series Super Duty XL, XLT and FX4 trucks; and all 2009 E-Series vans. The 2010 Transit Connect van joins the lineup in mid-2009 and will be available with Ford Work Solutions in-dash offerings.

For more information, visit www.fordworksolutions.com.

To see Opera in action on the in-dash computer, click on the "In-Dash Computer" link and then press "play" on the video (Opera, 1min, 38sec).

How's that, exactly? For one, Flash Lite will be supported, opening up a plethora of previously inaccessible streaming video sites. Google Gears will provide offline Google web apps and better performance, competing with the upcoming Offline Gmail feature bound for WebKit-based browsers. OpenGL ES hardware acceleration will add a missing fluidity to movements, assuming your phone has 3D hardware and drivers (like most HTC handsets). Most importantly, 9.7 will have the option to connect to Opera Turbo, the content compression service used in Opera Mini, which does a lot to knock down loading times for a small sacrifice in image quality.

Fans of Skyfire might notice that these features—excluding Gears—are all available on their browser already. True! But one thing isn't: proper VGA and WVGA support, which prevents it from being usable on every desirable Windows Mobile phone, period. So basically, this is very good news. [Opera Mobile via Information Week]

[Opera via Joystiq]

Changes for this release:

1. added JSR-75 (File API) support which gives access to the SD card for
uploading and downloading and also the possibility to save pages locally
2. added support for video playback (Opera Mini hands over to the
operating system video player)
3. double tap works for zoom/unzoom
4. use of inline url entry instead of native textbox
5. fixed password text entry to show hidden characters
6. fixed problems with exiting application when back button was pressed
7. Improved trackball speed.
8. Using Extra Large font in the builtin pages.

+ many small tweaks and fixes

[Opera]

This IE 8 release candidate is said to be feauture complete, which is to say that we should expect anything significant to be added before the final version ships. Most of what we were expecting is still present, and refined: the porn mo—err, InPrivate, a refreshed interface, stronger find functions, full keyboard navigation and adaptive zoom. Not present, however, are significant increases in Javascript rendering speed or CSS compatibility, areas in which even this mature version of IE 8 was handily beaten by current Firefox and Chrome builds.

Still, the browser looks to be a solid step forward, and despite the one-step-behind spec sheet, aging code base, and TGDaily's convincing assertion that IE 8 won't be able to slow the erosion of Microsoft's browser market share, will provide welcome improvements for that giant, stubborn chunk of the population that just uses whatever their eMachine shipped with. [TGDaily]

There are nearly endless ways to bring a USB stick out of retirement, and they're not just gimmicks: virtually all USB sticks, 32MB USB 1.1 dinosaurs included, can be repurposed into anything from a lifesaving troubleshooting tool to an entire portable OS. Here are your best options:

Turn it into a physical "key" for your computer
For security freaks or the extraordinarily literal-minded, Vista has built-in software to convert your USB key into an actual key, such that your PC won't boot without having it inserted. It might not be ideal if your key may be old enough that it is likely to fail on you, if you have a propensity to lose tiny things, or if your laptop only has one or two USB ports to begin with, but it definitely offers a special kind of peace of mind. For Macs, Rohos essentially does the same thing, but at $30, it's not particularly recession-friendly.

Install a portable OS
This is actually simpler and less esoteric than it sounds—installing a wide array of Linux systems is pretty easy nowadays, and will more importantly net you a fully functional desktop that you can take with you wherever you go. Lifehacker recently assembled a useful comparison of popular USB-able Linux distributions, in which they recommend the fantastic UNetbootin or creating the bootable keys in the first place. It's worth noting that two of these distros will work on keys at less than 128MB capacity (DSL is just 50MB, total) and all carry a legitimately useful range of apps.

Use portable apps to create a pocketable user profile
Most free software now comes in a portable variety, meaning that at least under Windows, programs that normally extend their tentacles into your user profile and registry can be installed completely—user data included—onto a USB stick. All you do is insert the stick and find the desired .exe, and you're good to go.

The most obvious advantage to this is profile portability—in other words, your portable Firefox (or Opera or Chrome) isn't just the app, it's your favorites, history, user preferences and cookies too. The portable version of Pidgin, a multiprotocol IM program, can hold your account data, transcripts and settings. Most of these installations are quite small—Firefox is just 8MB, for example—so you can build an extensive user profile on all but the oldest keys.

The very best one-stop shop for portable apps is the, well, aptly named PortableApps.com.

Create a powerful troubleshooting toolbelt
Portable antivirus and file recovery apps are convenient, but a USB key can be loaded up with much more powerful software. Ultimate Boot CD for Windows is a sort of software panacea which, in addition to including a selection of Windows maintenance apps, carries a veritable treasure trove of low-level troubleshooting programs, made accessible by booting into a sort of temporary "Windows Lite" desktop. It can manage disk deletion and partitioning, software and hardware diagnostics and a huge variety of lifesaving recovery functions. Despite the "CD" part of its name, Ultimate Boot CD for Windows can be loaded onto a USB key, though it requires a Windows installation disc from which to build the aforementioned "Windows Lite" environment. If you don't run Windows but still want a basic DOS-based suite of hardware diagnostics and disk tools, the vanilla Ultimate Boot CD has you covered.

Convert it into a tiny SNES, Genesis, MAME, etc.
Emulators are tiny, and most ROMs are even tinier; a USB key, no matter the size or speed, can probably hold more vintage console games than you can find the time to play. Many popular emulators come in a portable flavor, so your display settings, saved games and cheats will follow you everywhere. Without the need to install anything, this potentially opens up work, school or other public PCs to most pre-PlayStation gaming. Popular portable NES, SNES, Game Boy, Genesis, and arcade emulators. As for ROMs, that's on you. (Pro tip: GOOGLE).

Carry a portal to your home computer
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) sounds more complicated than it is—it simply lets you see and control your computer screen remotely. Whatever OS you run (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux), VNC servers are simple to set up and, if configured correctly, plenty secure. While many provide web interfaces to be accessed through a browser, they're almost always clunky, Java-based monstrosities. A simple VNC client (download the binary archive version) will carry your settings, run responsively and offer more quality, speed and transfer options than its bastard HTTP brother, transporting a home computer's desktop to wherever you happen to be.

Donate it to charity
If you're some kind of ingrate who doesn't see the potential in any of the above options (or you're just a good, charitable person), InVineo, a non-profit tech outreach organization will find someone who does. They'll gladly take your 64MB Cruzers and send them to developing countries to be used in schools or local governments.

Hat tip to Lifehacker and Portable Apps.

Dealzmodo Hacks are intended to help you sustain your crippling gadget addiction through tighter times. If you come across any on your own that are particularly useful, send it to our tips line (Subject: Dealzmodo Hack). Check back every other Thursday for free DIY tricks to breathe new life into hardware that you already own.

Opera Mini is notable for its practice of first loading your requested page on its own servers, which compress the pages and images before squirting it out to your phone over the network for quicker load times. And speed is definitely its forté on the G1—on T-Mobile's 3G network in NYC, pages like the New York Times, ESPN and Gizmodo all loaded with only a second or two of "Processing" delay. Granted, what you see are horizontal lines instead of text and a few shaded boxes instead of images, but zooming in doesn't cause any additional loading delay, except for some images. Zooming is pretty easy with a double tap or trackball click, and it works just like it does in other version of the browser. Hitting the G1's "back" button zooms you back out, which is unintuitive at first but ends up making sense.

Javascript sites that have lots of dynamically loading bits, even those optimized for smartphone browsers like Google Reader or Gmail, will often revert back to their more dumbed down static HTML versions. It's hard to find a page that loads completely bork-tastically though, as all of the pages we used in the Battlemodo loaded without any problems. No Flash, obviously, but YouTube's non-mobile front page still loads as you would expect.

As far as betas go, it's not terrible, but text entry fields have a strange bug which results in them taking up the entire screen (as you can see in the gallery), and the only way to go back is to press the "Menu" button and close out the form. So while you probably wouldn't want to switch to Opera for all of your browsing—it's a great backup to have for a quick load of a newspaper site or anything else fairly simple, especially if your connection isn't great.

As you can see on the left, page rendering still isn't quite at Mobile Safari or Opera levels, but it's a massive improvement over IE5. Inertial scrolling is solid, and the (limited) flash support is a pleasant surprise. Text wrap and zooming haven't been fully sorted out yet, so pulling out on a page often leaves paragraphs wrapped for a higher zoom level.

If these problems are addressed — and I fully expect them to be — Microsoft could have a winner on its hands. Even as is, it's a colossal step forward for Mobile IE, and one that will at minimum bring it into the same generation as its competitors. [MSDN via Slashphone]

* Improved fidelity (support for full fidelity desktop rendering)
* Layout fixes to accommodate a mobile screen (text wrap)
* Enhanced Script and AJAX support (Jscript v5.7 from Internet Explorer 8)
* Improved multimedia experience (Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 for Adobe Flash content)
* Deeper integration with search
* Enhanced cursor navigation model
* Touch and gesture support – pan support
* Multiple zoom levels
* Easy switching between mobile / desktop versions of sites by specifying UA strings.

20 million use Opera Mini worldwide

New beta version and server park launched today

Oslo, Norway = November 11, 2008 - Opera today released a preview of
Opera Mini 4.2, the newest version of the world's most popular mobile
Web browser that works on almost every mobile phone. With this beta
release, Opera celebrates Opera Mini being the browser of choice for
more than 20 million unique monthly users worldwide. As part of the
celebration, Opera Mini users in the United States and Asia-Pacific
region can now experience faster browsing speeds, due to the addition
of an Opera Mini server park in the United States.

Opera Mini is available to download for beta testing at
http://www.operamini.com/beta/.

"The number of people using Opera Mini worldwide proves that there is
a true revolution going on: people want to access all their favorite
Web sites on the mobile phone they have today," says Jon von
Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. "We constantly focus on developing a faster and
more personal browsing experience. Opera Mini 4.2 beta is an update
that takes mobile Web browsing to the next level."

Opera Mini 4.2 beta provides a more personalized experience with its
colorful selection of new skins, improved support for YouTube and
other mobile video services on a wider selection of mobile phones.
Improvements in Opera Link allow users to share notes between their
mobile phones and PCs, in addition to their bookmarks and
recently-visited URLs.

"Opera Mini is a mobile application to be reckoned with," says John
Jackson, Vice President, Yankee Group. ?We have witnessed a 10%
average growth in the number of Opera Mini users worldwide every
month, with every indication that the trend will continue. As the
browser keeps improving in speed and functionality and end-user
awareness expands, Opera Mini's popularity to users worldwide should
continue to grow."

"I love Opera Mini, because when it comes to functionality, there is
nothing 'mini' about it," says Meri-Tuuli Fagerlund, a student from
Finland. "I use Opera Mini daily to access the Web, and the best part
is that I do not have to carry my laptop when I have Opera Mini in my
pocket."

To join the other Opera Mini fans and to show us how you use the Opera
Mini browser, check out Choose Opera at http://chooseopera.com/.

Opera Mini 4.2 beta is a free download from http://www.operamini.com/beta/.

About the use of Opera Mini

Since the worldwide launch of Opera Mini in January 2006, millions of
people have experienced the mobile Internet for the first time. Due to
its unique architecture, Opera Mini does not discriminate between
platforms or networks; it runs on nearly any mobile phone in any
geographic region. During the month of September 2008, Opera reported
19 million unique monthly users of Opera Mini, a 10.1% month-on-month
increase from August 2008 and more than 341% compared to September
2007. Opera Mini users viewed more than 4.5 billion pages during
September and each person using Opera Mini viewed approximately 238
pages on average. On November 11, 2008, Opera reported 20 million
unique monthly users of Opera Mini. For more information, go to
Opera's State of the Mobile Web report http://www.mobilewebreport.com/.

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones
and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser
technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and
small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online
experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with
offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock
Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at

http://www.opera.com/.

Opera Mobile 9.5 adds Opera Widgets to deliver a one-click mobile Internet experience:
Opera Mobile 9.5 beta with Opera Widgets on Windows and UIQ now available for download
Opera Widgets Software Development Kit (SDK) with Opera Widget manager for S60

Oslo, Norway - October 20, 2008 - Opera Mobile 9.5 now introduces Opera Widgets to the mobile Internet experience, enabling one-click Web content access. This release marks the second Opera Mobile 9.5 beta for Windows Mobile and the first-ever beta for UIQ-based phones. A developer version of S60 Widget manager is also available within the Opera Widgets SDK.

T-Mobile has already embraced Opera Mobile with Widgets for their web'n'walk initiative, as previously announced on September 18, 2008. Like T-Mobile, other operators can now incorporate Opera Widgets into their customer offering. This means that customer-selected Web content can be accessed from a list of icons on the home-screen. Widgets can also serve as a means of customer communication, as automatic notifications are now easier to instantly deliver to subscribers.

"Opera has built its second Opera Mobile 9.5 beta based on user-generated feedback following its first public release earlier this year," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "In addition to Opera Widgets, this new test version promises to be a smoother ride than the previous version, as we have improved page loading times and increased our focus on end-user productivity."

Several Opera Widgets are now pre-installed in the Opera Mobile 9.5 beta builds. Additionally, Opera offers downloadable widgets at widgets.opera.com.

Opera always encourages more user-generated widgets and therefore recently updated its Opera Widget Software Development Kit (SDK). This SDK will enable developers to quickly and easily create widgets using standards-based Web technology. The Opera Widgets SDK now includes two new features:

-Opera Dragonfly debugging tool - Develop faster with this tool for debugging JavaScript, inspecting Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the Document Object Model (DOM). Find your errors and get your widget right.
-Widget manager for on-device testing – Widget managers for S60, UIQ and Windows Mobile are included with in the SDK for testing widgets directly on the mobile phone.

Opera is launching the updated SDK with a developer competition called the "X Widget Challenge". Opera is offering $10,000 in cash prizes for the best cross-device widget submissions. Read more about the competition from my.opera.com/widgets.

"Opera has kept developer needs at the heart of this beta release," said Håkon Wium Lie, Chief Technology Officer, Opera Software. "All great developers need great tools to work with. Opera is an industry leader in making the Web a developer-friendly place by constantly innovating within the confines of Web standards. We will continue to create with developers in mind, as we intend to continue to grow our developer toolkit with each consecutive release."

Coming to an event near you Check out Opera Mobile 9.5 with Opera Widgets in Europe, North America and Asia at the following events:
-Smartphone Show in London on October 21-22, 2008
-Mobile Internet World in Boston on October 22-23, 2008
-Web Applications Conference in Seoul on October 23, 2008

Availability
Opera Mobile 9.5 beta with Opera Widgets is ready and waiting for download from www.opera.com/products/mobile/

The Opera Widgets SDK can be downloaded from www.opera.com/b2b/solutions/widgets/

About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.

[Opera via Download]

Choose speed, productivity and innovation with Opera 9.6
Opera's next browser offers advances in convergence, communication

Oslo, Norway - October 8, 2008 - Opera Software today launched Opera 9.6, the newest version of Opera's award-winning Web browser. Opera 9.6 enhances the performance and flexibility of Opera's built-in e-mail client, while adding new features to Opera's free browser-synchronization service, Opera Link. Opera 9.6 is available as a free download from http://www.opera.com/.

What's new in Opera 9.6

Expanded Opera Link: Opera lets you take your favorite search engines and the browser history you enter wherever you go. Opera Link also synchronizes notes taken in your Opera browser, your bookmarks, Speed Dial and personal bar.

Optimized Opera M2: Stuck with a slow connection? Our built-in e-mail client, Opera M2, now includes "low-bandwidth mode" to retrieve mails even faster when bandwidth is limited.

Prioritized e-mail: Opera M2 has two new ways to manage e-mail conversations. Keep an eye on important threads and contacts by following them, or ignore less important threads and contacts with a single click.

Increased speed: Opera 9.6 improves the quick responsiveness and page loading of Opera 9.5.

Previewed feeds: Look before you feed. Now you can see an RSS feed's content before subscribing to it or even bookmarking it. Opera gives you a clean, multi-column preview for each RSS feed so you know what to expect before you subscribe.

Improved fluency: Opera is pleased to add support for Indonesian, Ukrainian, Estonian, Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil languages.

"We believe in making the Web available for people everywhere," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "The people who use Opera need it to adapt to their needs and we're proud to continue that tradition today. Our improved e-mail client is now the ideal communication tool. Opera Link gives you more flexibility to take your personal browsing identity with you to any computer. The new Opera 9.6 gives more people around the world new reasons to choose Opera."

Of course, Opera 9.6 includes many features Opera users have already come to know and love. Speed Dial gives you one-click access to your favorite sites. Take notes as you browse, and connect them to the page you're browsing. Save and restore browsing sessions after you close the browser and never lose a Web site or e-mail if you accidentally close a tab. Surf with ease, thanks to mouse gestures. All these features and many others bring a fresh approach to browsing the Web in Opera 9.6.

Availability

Opera 9.6 is available for Linux, Mac and Windows computers and ships in more than 38 languages. Opera is free from http://www.opera.com/.

Be heard

Opera's mission is to extend the reach of the Web to anyone, anywhere, using any device. To do that, Opera relies on your help and feedback. Learn more and share your thoughts athttp://my.opera.com/.

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.

[Opera]

We've posted our first impressions of Google Chrome, and after extended use most of them have held up. Chrome is fast, feature-rich and stable, not to mention highly usable. But Google's in-house innovations (the multi-threaded engine, Javascript handling and task manager, mainly) make up a tiny portion of the user experience. The rest of the interface features, usage mechanics and touted features have clear and very public parentage—in one of Chrome's four largest competitors.

Now, that's not to say that Google has explicitly "stolen" anything from IE, Firefox, Opera or Safari. They have, as of now, acknowledged that they owe a great debt to some of the other large players in the browser market. After all, they're using Safari's WebKit engine, receive billions of revenue-pumping referrals from Firefox's Google search bar, and have open-sourced much of Chrome. For most users, though, these gestures and acknowledgments will go unnoticed, and features previously incorporated into other popular browsers will be seen first on Google's. I've put together a list of some of Chrome's most interesting features, including the mainstream browsers that "inspired" them.

Feature: Incognito Mode
Who already has it: Safari, IE 8, Firefox w/ extension

Google has cleverly named and advertised this feature as a privacy and safety tool, but we know exactly what it's for. Porn Mode, as we've been calling it, is becoming de rigueur for any browser that may be used by men, which is to say, all of them except this one. It made a recent appearance in a new IE 8 beta, but it finds its roots in Safari, circa 2005, when it was called "Private Browsing." Naturally, Chrome's implementation is a bit more complete, with more complex cache and history management, as well as the ability to have normal and "Incognito" windows running at the same time.

Feature: Smart Address Bar
Who already has it: Firefox, IE 8

When Firefox 3 dropped, there was much fanfare around its so-called "Awesome Bar" which, as it turns out, is pretty awesome. Strictly speaking, Chrome's address bar is slightly smarter than Firefox's, but I would argue less useful for power users who often need to dig up specific pages out of piles and piles from the same domain. Google has also modified the concept by merging the search and address bars into one, but most other browsers have included search functionality (by default or with modifiers) in their address bars for years.

Feature: Custom Panel Start Page
Who already has it: Opera, Firefox w/ extension

This feature is perhaps the most controversial, as Opera is a commercial, closed-source browser from which Google looks to have essentially lifted one of its most advertised features. Over a year ago, Opera introduced Speed Dial, which allowed users to build customized, panel-based pages that showed up whenever a tab was created. The large thumbnails provided easy, quick navigation to oft-visited pages and were a refreshing substitute for layers and layers of menus to access favorites. Chrome's home page is dynamically generated, but clearly took conceptual and aesthetic cues from Opera.

Feature: Tab detachment/attachment
Who already has it: Opera and Safari

Chrome, to complement its separate processes for each tab, allows for easy dragging and dropping from one window to another. In other words, you can rip a tab from its parent window to become its own, then drag it back without loss of data. This makes isolating important tabs as well as maintaining single-window mode both much easier, but —you guessed it —neither feature is new. Safari includes a tear-away feature by default, complete with a snazzy animation. Opera can handle tear-aways AND reattachments, in a nearly identical manner as Chrome.

Feature: Resizable Text Boxes
Who already has it: Safari, Firefox w/ Extension

These are fantastic for anyone who creates content, whether it be full-on news stories or the odd racist blog comment. Google's version in Chrome is functionally identical to Safari's earlier version of the feature, which was recently added with version 3.

Feature: Domain Highlighting
Who already has it: IE 8

Seriously. Internet Explorer 8 isn't even out yet and Chrome has managed to crib a feature from it. When the beta was put up for download last week, we noticed that the root domain name was always highlighted, which helps users keep track of what site they're on to avoid phishing attacks with syntactically confusing URLs. Sure enough, this showed up in Chrome a week later, though there's no telling who was working on it first.

Feature: Pseudo Full screen
Where it came from: Safari

Windows browsers have often included "full screen" modes, which hide interface elements to give as much screen space as possible to content. Chrome finds a happy middle ground between everything-goes full screen and normal maximized mode with its partially, uhh, chromeless look. When maximized, the side and bottom window chrome disappears, but the top navigation and tab elements remain. This feature was found as a default first, strangely, in Safari for Windows. Sure, Safari in Windows kinda sucks (balls, and lots of them), but the slick maximized state stood out as an outstanding feature. Chrome is a marginally more attractive browser, so again, their implementation is an improvement.

As I said before, Google has taken time to acknowledge the debt it owes to other browser projects, but that will be little comfort to the Firefox, Opera, Safari and IE teams if Chrome rises to success on their features. Google has taken the best ideas from the best products, given them a new name, some new guts and a PR monsoon. And, no matter how you feel about it, they've done it well.

Google has taken many (though definitely not all) of the most compelling features from disparate sources and united them in a pretty solid package. This all-in-one approach is much like the one that Opera has taken in the past, with some success. Where Chrome trounces its competition, however, is in polish. I don't mean to say that Chrome is without bugs or room for improvement, but the user experience is fast, simple and intuitive from the start. Each of the features culled from other browsers has been refined to be more obvious, easier to use and more effective in Chrome, which—questionable ethical implications aside—is all that really matters to the end user. [Chrome on Giz]

LED lighting has become a constant in modern architecture—in this case, the LEDs are nested inside the joints of the glass cube, and change color and intensity throughout the day. Though it's not clear whether Hallgrimur Thor Sigurdsson and the design firms Arkitema and Arkthing had this in mind, but the lighting would probably serve the community well, combating seasonal affective disorder on those long long northern winter nights.)

Within the structure are the concert hall, a restaurant and five roof gardens. The square theme continues throughout, where even the box seats in the main hall look like haphazardly arranged cubes.

Great, but what about the elves? It seems the building will be situated atop Borgaholt Hill as a tribute to elves who deep within its caverns (rather like dwarves, if you ask me).

Deep underground, in the highlands and under the cliffs around Iceland live the elves. Their dens are not visible from the outside, but it is believed that they live underground somewhere or other. From the outside the elves’ homes are dark and enclosed, but from the inside a radiant and crystalline space is revealed. The Opera’s expressional form with its heavy and massive lower floor level and its light and crystalline upper floor level refers to the mythical home of the elves.

Sure, every first-year architecture major can see that. [Dezeen]

Unmentioned in Laptop's piece is that the Skyfire browser actually shows you a page that has been pre-crunched by Skyfire's servers, so it's essentially showing you an image. And yeah, since the browser itself isn't doing any heavy lifting, it's going to fly. But stuff like text entry is annoying, since you have to input text, send that back to Skyfire, and then it comes back to you. Flash works the same way, but hey, at least it does flash. We're not really sure what's up with Opera Mobile 9.5 taking twice as long as Safari to render a page, but maybe that's 'cause it's big boned feature packed. [Laptop Mag]

A NEW AGE FOR MOBILE PHONES BEGINS; HTC UNVEILS 'TOUCH DIAMOND'

Debut brings breakthroughs in size, style connectivity and overall user experience, leaves compromise at the door.

LONDON — May 6, 2008 — Born from a unique heritage of innovation and a deep desire to blend design with simplicity, HTC Corp., a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled its new flagship phone, the HTC Touch Diamond. Delivering unmistakable style and meticulous craftsmanship the HTC Touch Diamond is defined by its compact size, game-changing Internet and its new captivating 3D touch interface called TouchFLO™ 3D. The result is an uncompromising mobile phone that sets a new benchmark for phone sophistication and shapes consumer expectations for how a phone can be used.

"Today we mark a new era in mobile phone evolution, an era where beauty and size integrate with uncompromising innovation at broadband speeds," said Peter Chou, president and CEO, HTC Corp. "The HTC Touch Diamond will make browsing the Web and using Web-enabled applications just as practical and easy to use as making calls."

A New Dimension To Touch
HTC has taken a great leap forward in touch screen innovation with the introduction of its new 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. TouchFLO 3D provides animated access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more. In addition, HTC is introducing a new innovative touch-sensitive control for interacting with Touch Diamond.

Making The Mobile Internet Fun
With the introduction of the Touch Diamond, HTC delivers an entirely new mobile Internet experience that utilizes broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless connectivity. Committed to improving Web browsing, HTC provides a new customized mobile Web browser that enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of Websites in the way they were designed. As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan Websites with one-hand and automatically view optimized content that has been specially created to fit the display. Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the web page view from a portrait to landscape view.

In addition to Web browsing, the Touch Diamond includes a customized new, HTC-developed, YouTube application for watching a variety of user generated video content as well as utilizing Google Maps for mobile for mapping and traffic data.

Unmatched Style and Size
The Touch Diamond is crafted with precision to fit comfortably in a user's hand without compromising on features or functionality. Blending contrasting design elements of metal and unique geometric facets, the Touch Diamond complements a user's personal style.

Bursting with Innovation
The Touch Diamond delivers an unrivalled combination of features and functionality that set a new standard for integrating mobile phone innovation into a small package. The 2.8 inch display provides near-print quality viewing that enables beautiful Web browsing and viewing of photographs. The built-in camera includes an optical auto-focus lens that ensures the photos you take will be clear and consistent. Advanced wireless and auto sensor screen pivoting are just a few of the features that make the Touch Diamond experience a stand out.

Availability
The HTC Touch Diamond™ will be available to customers across all major European carriers in June. It will be available later this quarter in Asia and the Middle East. The North American and Latin American versions of the Touch Diamond will be available in the second half of 2008.

"Our long-standing relationship with HTC meant they shared their phone concept and worked with us from the earliest stage. This early collaboration is important to us because at Orange, we know that the right multimedia experience is about more than just the phone," said Olaf Swantee, EVP of Orange's global mobile operations. "Our approach is to select and test the best phones and integrate our applications, combining them with access to the Orange World portal, the best tariffs, integrated billing, a user-friendly interface and excellent customer support. With the Touch Diamond from Orange we have created a unique phone which has taken advantage of our latest service innovation to build upon the consistently rich experience customers expect from Orange."

HTC Touch Diamond Key Specifications
Size: 102 x 51 x 11.33mm
Weight: 110 g
Connectivity: WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA
Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
Display: 2.8-inch VGA touch screen
Camera: 3.2MP, with video calling
Internal memory: 4 GB Internal Storage, 256 MB flash, 192 MB RAM,
Bluetooth: 2.0 with EDR
Wireless: WiFi 802.11b/g
GPS: GPS/AGPS
Interface: HTC ExtUSB™ (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
Battery: 900 mAh
Talk time: GSM: up to 4 hours
Standby time: GSM: up to 300 hours/100 hours with push email
Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM 7201A™ 528MHz

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• VGA Screen
• Quad-band HSDPA 7.2
• One-touch navigation, single-finger dialing
• The accelerometer rotates pictures as you rotate the phone
• One-touch music playback
• An animated weather forecast app
• Full web browser—Opera—with zoom-in
• Microsoft promises IE 6 coming soon
• Youtube app
• Available June in Europe on Orange and the rest of the world TBD
• Orange mobile TV
• No price yet

According to HTC boss Peter Chou, the Touch Diamond is "simplified user experience with fun usability." The word innovation has been bandied around by just about everyone who's got up on stage at the launch.

"In 2008, Vista will make mobile internet fun."
Chou said that HTC is the first company in the world to do a 3-D animated touchscreen interface, and reiterated his desire to make browser and web-based applications as easy as a phone call. "Just a touch. Just one hand. We don't need too many fingers, just one touch." Speak for yourself, mate.

Horace Luke says his team studied the fashion industry as well as the design industry when coming up with the Diamond Touch. He reckons the design is iconic enough to be recognized by people from across the street, and cited the "meticulous craftsmanship like a Swiss watch." The phone's UI is so like the iPhone it's uncanny. You can flick through your contacts rather like a Rolodex, calling is one-click, and your messages are "like beautiful words dancing in the air."

Andy Lees, one of the Senior VPs at Microsoft was playing with his Diamond Touch yesterday. "It makes me smile, but it enables me to get things done that need to be done. With one finger." [HTC]

The software is available for download from today from Helio's web portal. Currently it's optimized for the Ocean, but since this is apparently the "start of a beautiful relationship" we may expect to see other versions in the near future.

Opera Mini Surfs on the Helio Ocean
Opera signs first deal with U.S. service provider

Oslo, Norway and Mountain View, CA - March 19, 2008 - Opera, together with Helio, announced the first deployment of Opera Mini on a mobile service provider in the United States. As of today, Helio members can surf the Web with Opera Mini on their Ocean device with a specially-tailored version of the browser designed specifically for the handset.

Available as a downloadable application from Helio's Web portal, Opera Mini is a perfect addition to the Helio Ocean, a sleek and powerful dual-slide device that offers an incredible breadth of functionality. Opera Mini makes browsing on the Ocean even more fun and addictive with an
elegant desktop-like experience that lets the user dive into the page to access the content they want. At the same time, Opera Mini serves pages at lightning speed so it will not slow down the on-the-go mobile experience to which Helio members are accustomed.

"We're always looking to give our members their choice of great applications so we're excited to be the first service provider in the U.S. to make Opera Mini an on-deck option," said Doug Britt, Vice President of Service Management at Helio. "Opera Mini is a tremendous mobile browser. Optimized for Ocean and running on a nationwide 3G network, its a combination that's tough to match."

"Offering Opera Mini underscores Helio's insight into how the mobile industry is evolving," said Rod Hamlin, SVP Sales and Marketing Americas, Opera. "Helio understands their customers' desire for innovative and engaging mobile experiences and answering this demand with a choice in browsers explains why Helio selected Opera Mini."

More than 39 million cumulative users have discovered how Opera Mini can revolutionize their mobile Web experience. Now Helio Ocean users can enjoy all the features and fun of Opera Mini, including Opera Link, a free service that synchronizes your bookmarks, Speed Dial and personal bar between all your Web browsers.

About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at HYPERLINK "http://www.opera.com" www.opera.com.
Opera Mini Surfs on the Helio Ocean - 2

About Helio
Helio is the mobile brand for the Internet generation. With advanced mobile services, exclusive, high-end, beautiful devices and smart pricing on a nationwide high-speed 3G network, Helio is built for consumers who have mobile at the center of their lives. Helio is a joint venture between
SK Telecom, one of the world's most advanced wireless carriers, and EarthLink, the next generation Internet service provider. www.helio.com.

Claiming to be 2.5x faster than Internet Explorer Mobile, Opera 9.5 has an improved rendering engine to better handle JavaScript- and Ajax-laden web pages. It can also serve web content directly to a phone's idle screen, which will either create some cool web-linked functionality, or allow cellphone operators to splash more branding onto their phones. Opera Widgets, and Opera Zoom and panning make it sound like the iPhone's UI, don't they?

Opera unleashes innovative technology in latest mobile Web browser — Opera Mobile 9.5

Faster speed, new interface and Opera Widgets bring users closer to a full desktop experience
Exclusive preview at Mobile World Congress 2008 (February 11-14, Barcelona)
Oslo, Norway and Barcelona, Spain — February 5, 2008
Opera Software, the only company that puts the Web on any device, today announced the commercial release of Opera Mobile 9.5 — the latest version of its award-winning Web browser for sophisticated feature phones and smartphones. Participants at the Mobile World Congress 2008 will be the first to experience the improved functionality of Opera Mobile 9.5.

According to high-tech market research firm, In-Stat, the smartphone market will grow at more than a 30% compound annual growth rate for the next five years globally, exceeding unit sales for laptops, as users experience significant value from their smartphones. Users are downloading more applications and generating higher usage as measured by average revenue per user (ARPU) for operators. The main driver that has fueled this growth is overall user experience on the mobile Web.

Built on Opera's unique core architecture, the Opera Mobile 9.5 desktop-like browsing experience has been enhanced with innovations such as zooming and panning that make it easier to navigate, load pages quicker and get users closer to the Web content and entertainment they want. With Opera Mobile 9.5, users can experience the real Web and interact with content exactly as they do on their PC.

Faster speed
The new version utilizes Opera's Presto rendering engine to achieve page load speeds comparable to a desktop experience. The Opera Presto engine was modified and improves browsing performance significantly by accelerating the handling of Web pages. It dramatically improves page responsiveness on pages with heavy use of languages such as JavaScript and Ajax, ensuring smooth, hassle-free browsing.

Compelling experience
Opera Mobile 9.5 includes numerous features aimed at elevating the mobile browsing experience. Not only is the user interface (UI) intuitive enough to master in minutes, Opera Mobile 9.5 introduces several new innovations that elevate the Internet experience on a handheld device. Users can take advantage of the intuitive Opera Zoom™ to dive into the page and get closer to the content they want. In addition, productivity tools like the ability to save pages for offline browsing, Web address auto complete and password manager help busy users make the most of their time.

Fully loaded
Web 2.0-enabled, Widget-ready and Flash support turn Opera Mobile 9.5 into a fully loaded browser allowing users to access all their favorite Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace and more. With Opera Mobile 9.5, OEMs and operators will have the capability to include Flash Lite 3, empowering their smartphone users with access to the full Web including the ability to watch videos on YouTube effortlessly. In addition, Opera Widgets, which are mini applications that allow content to be accessed easily from the device idle screen with just a few clicks, are included in the new edition — automatically engaging the user through ease of operation and meeting consumer demands for quick access to information.

New revenue sources, bigger brand
Opera Mobile 9.5's ability to serve Web content directly on the idle screen gets mobile OEMs or operators closer to users. By greatly reducing the number of clicks required to get to content, there is a real potential for operators to increase data revenue and user loyalty. In addition, access to the idle screen allows operators to place their brand strategically to interact dynamically with users. Opera Mobile 9.5 is everything that handset makers and operators have been trying to achieve for years.

"Opera Mobile is the result of Opera's unwavering commitment to a vision that puts a true Web experience in the hands of mobile users," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "The improved functionality of Opera Mobile 9.5 and easy access to information has raised the bar on a more compelling mobile Web browsing experience and will further stimulate mobile Internet adoption."

The Opera Mobile 9.5 experience includes many of the innovations found in Opera's trend-setting desktop browser including:

Intuitive user interface
Tabbed browsing
Improved text wrap
Page overview, zooming and panning
Landscape mode
Save Web page for future offline access
Call phone number from Web page
Send link as SMS/MMS
Send image as SMS/MMS
Small Screen Rendering™
Password manager
Web address input auto-completion
History and bookmarks
Copy text
Opera Widgets
Opera Mobile is currently shipped on more than 100 million phones with many of the world's top mobile OEMs and operators such as HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, and others.

Leading software platform provider, UIQ, has realized the potential of Opera's new mobile browser. "UIQ works with the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers to create the ultimate user experience. Our long-standing partnership with Opera has given users the ability to access all their favorite Web sites and services," says Mats Barvesten, EVP Product Planning and Product Management at UIQ Technology. "We look forward to introducing our upcoming handsets, featuring the groundbreaking Opera Mobile 9.5 browser."

Along with hands-on exposure to Opera Mobile 9.5, Mobile World Congress participants will also have the ability to experience Opera on a variety of devices: Opera Mobile on smartphones, free downloads of Opera Mini 4, improved Web browsing on gaming consoles and the ARCHOS Generation 5 Media players will be just a few of the exciting features of Opera's 2008 exhibit.

Mobile World Congress will be held on the 11th through the 14th of February in 2008 in Barcelona, Spain. Visit the Opera Booth in Hall 2, 2C76 or email conference@opera.com to book a meeting.

Platform Support and Availability
Opera Mobile 9.5 will be available on all major platforms including Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux, as both a standalone browser and as a SDK. The public beta release of Opera Mobile 9.5 will be announced separately. For media inquiries, please contact julies@opera.com.

A video demonstration of Opera Mobile 9.5 is available on http://www.opera.com/b2b/solutions/mobile/video/

About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com.