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]

The S30 does improve on its forebear in a few not-insignificant ways, shipping with the excellent (but free and previously downloadable) Opera Mini browser, an improved touchscreen, a refreshed OS and softer, botoxed styling. At heart, though, it's the same old Instinct, and I don't mean figuratively—the spec sheet is almost identical.

The only way a $130 asking price makes any sense is if its considered solely in the context of Sprint's lineup, which is very, very thin on attractive smartphones and high-end feature phones. Among that sad crowd, the S30 looks pretty good at $130, but against a wider industry backdrop of $100 BlackBerrys and WinMo Smartphones—not to mention some vastly more impressive offerings at the $200 price point—it, and in turn Sprint, looks silly. [Sprint via IntoMobile]

Symbian's dominance isn't evident here in the US, as it's driven by smartphones—like Nokia's N series or Sony Ericsson's P Series—that don't really have much of a market/mindshare outside of Europe. We've even gone so far as to declare it too marginal to include in our smartphone OS guide.

But there are still plenty of UIQ and S60 phones around, and they all suffer from the same sense of staleness—a stagnation that's obvious, whether it's because of Symbian's global popularity and fragmented nature or despite it. So what do you do to shake the feeling that you're toting a last-gen device? Try this:

Get a new browser
Oddly enough, lots of Symbian phones actually ship with not-so-bad browsers, like S60's, which is based on WebKit just like Mobile Safari and Mobile Chrome. Unfortunately, most of these phones also ship without touchscreens, and depend on a clunky d-pad navigation system. This makes panning around fully-rendered pages a bit of a pain—a problem not helped by the browser's often slow performance. Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives.

Opera Mobile/Mini: Opera has made an appearance in every last one of my smartphone revival stories, and with good reason. Each version offers its own advantage for Symbian: Opera Mobile brings fast-ish full-page rendering with inertial scrolling—only really a boon if you're lucky enough to have a touchscreen handset like the XpressMusic 5900. The newer 9.5 beta, complete with Google Gears support, can be had for UIQ phones, but S60 handsets will have to settle for 8.65. Opera Mini, a Java app, will work on virtually any phone. It's not the prettiest browser, but server-side data compression and clever formatting tricks make it a good fit for smaller-screened Symbian hardware. Bolt is another Java-based browser in the same lightweight, data-conscious vein, and it matches Opera's app feature for feature. You know, six of one...

Skyfire: This surprising little browser takes the Opera Mini/Bolt rationale a little further, running everything through server-side compression, including Flash video. What does that mean, in a word? Hulu. Unfortunately support is limited to Nokia N and E series phones.

Work On Your Communication Skills
Out of the box, most Symbian phones take you as far as emailing. With a few downloads, though, you'll be privy to the same range of messaging capabilities as your smug iPhone and BlackBerry-toting friends, and then some.

Fring: This isn't your locked down, Wi-Fi tethered iPhone Fring. No, this is the real deal: Multiprotocol IMing, VoIP over 3G and Wi-Fi and most importantly, background processing. Skype is supported, sans video.

Truphone: A dedicated VoIP app that integrates rather seamlessly with your S60 handset, Truphone can save you a pretty penny on international, long-distance and even in-plan calls. By routing calls through Truphone's network over Wi-Fi or a cell data connection, Truphone can connect you to other users for free, and connect international calls for a few cents a minute. Other perks include voicemail-to-email forwarding and Google Talk support, but discounted calls are the star of the show here.

Agile Messenger: It may lack the VoIP accouterments of the previously mentioned apps, but for straight up instant messaging you really can't beat it. All the big protocols are here, accessible through the same simple interface. You can send videos and voice messages, but not engage in full conversations—this app is about messaging, and message it does.

And All The Rest
Once you've updated your browser and messaging software, you've edged much closer to a modern smartphone experience. Now to fill in the blanks:

Google Maps: Google's superb maps app is as good here as it is anywhere else, with GPS integration, local search and a clean, intuitive interface. Perhaps most importantly, it's not just for fingers; Google Maps is well-suited to d-pad navigation.

JoikuSpot Lite: It's tethering+1: Any Wi-Fi-equipped S60 3rd Edition phone can operate as an access point with JoikuSpot. The Lite version is free, and adequate.

Qik: Qik is a cool app that can only be described in ways that sound utterly stupid. Lifecasting? Live vlogging? Either way, with the right phone, Symbian can do it well.

Nokia has some ongoing beta projects to check out, and a few of them are worthwhile. SportsTracker feeds a GPS-tracked record of your run or bike rides to a handy web interface. WidSets is a widget dashboard for a rich variety of web apps. ShareOnline provides basic portals for media uploads, whether it be photo, video or audio content.

And finally, we have Mobbler. A lovely little Last.fm radio client, Mobbler is an iffy addition to this list because Last.fm is cutting off third-party radio support at some point in the near future, so it probably won't work for long. But it's good, so use it while you still can.

If what you see so far isn't overly heartening, hold on: The Ovi App Store for S40 and S60 is on its way, hopefully in May. Symbian's laissez-faire take on the App Store, it promises a slew of applications and media downloads, installable through a handset client. This could end up two ways: As a consolidated Symbian app aggregator, collecting the above apps and others into an easy interface, or as an attraction for new developers, who'll be drawn by the large audience and easy publishing features of the store. That latter scenario may be better, but neither is bad.

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.

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]

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]

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.

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/.

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.

• Overview mode empowers people to browse their favorite websites
• Zooms in and cleanly focuses on the content you want (as seen in Opera's Wii browser)
• Dynamically changes size of text and images, to read without a lot of scrolling
• A virtual mouse to make it easy to scroll in any direction

Another reason is the cute but dorky video that totally rips on the iPhone for being expensive and, I guess, in all other ways quite similar to Opera's little wunderbrowser. Hey, are they even using the same New York Times page in their promo image above? – Wilson Rothman

Product Page [Opera]

The new technology will add video capability directly into the Web browser, so that users can see and play back video content directly in Opera. As of yet, Opera has not commented on whether or not the new native playback ability for Opera Mobile will be able to play existing Flash content.

Sounds good, except the power of Flash is that everyone uses it, market penetration in browsers is sky high, and what good is yet another browser, esp if its specific to mobile phones?

The right thing to do is for Adobe to develop a server side piece of software that can downscale flash content for Mobile devices, depending on browser, connection, etc. They could get rich, and I can get YouTube on my cellphone browser. Unless YouTube is already thinking about this stuff in transcoding to H.264. – Jason Chen, fact checked by Brian Lam

Infoworld [via Ars Technica]

Easy enough to load up, just go to the Opera Mini website and put in your number to have a download link texted right to you. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via A Swedish wolf in Norway]

The download is free and works on any Java enabled phone.

Opera Mini [via PC world]