The Opera Web browser has been toiling away in the background for years now. Opera’s “small footprint” alternative Internet browser was created in Scandinavia back in the 90s, and in keeping with its northern European roots, provides an efficient and elegant interface for Web surfing that critics went absolutely ga ga for.
The only problem was, Opera never caught on with the mainstream, particularly here in North America, where for years only the most hard-core of computer geeks took advantage of Opera’s superior user interface and miniscule file size.
But these days, Opera has officially grown up. Opera Software ASA is now the official name of the company, and instead of trying to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox, they have turned their attention to the world of mobile phone Web browsing, particularly on the latest generation of web-enabled smart phones.
The latest version of Opera Mobile is designed for bleeding-edge smartphones and claims desktop-like speed and performance from your mobile phone. Opera Mobile 9.5 features a re-engineered software engine which the company claims allows Web surfing at 2 1/2 times the speed of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Mobile.
Page loading is said to be “comparable” to a desktop computer, and Opera Mobile’s new “Presto” software engine provides increased responsiveness on pages that use JavaScript and AJAX code.
Opera CEO Jon Von Tetzner says, “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.” So far, the critics seem to agree, with many Web experts noting that Opera Mobile 9.5 raises the bar for mobile Web browsing, and could easily become the de facto standard mobile operating system.
In addition to increasing page load times, the new Opera Mobile browser adds many new features, like the new zoom and pan control, which makes reading a web page more comfortable on a small screen. There is also the ability to download and save web pages to the phone’s memory for off-line browsing at a later time. The browser also includes a URL auto complete function, an intuitive password manager and support for Flash web applications.
But not everyone will be thrilled by the success of the new Opera Mobile. Of course, Microsoft will not be pleased to hear that independent tests confirm that Opera Mobile is 2 1/2 times faster than Internet Explorer. And Google is also not likely to get any joy from the success of Opera’s new software. Google inc. has developed its own competing mobile operating system called Android, which it hopes will become the standard for mobile smartphones around the world.
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