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Opera Tease Tablet Browser


You have to love this time of the year, CES is starting and companies are providing all sorts of sneak peaks into what they have been working on to keep our gadget appetites suitably moistened.

Opera haven’t disappointed with quick preview of a new version of their popular mobile browser designed specifically for tablets. Announced on the Opera blog, this new version appears to be tailored for the larger screens of tablets.

Opera used the Samsung Galaxy Tab to preview the browser meaning an Android version is certain although I also suspect an iOS version for the iPad will be announced, especially with the rumored iPad2 looming for sometime this year.

As you can see the browser uses Operas visual bookmarks layout called Speed Dial and appears to run smoothly on the Galaxy Tab although its hardly surprising given the hardware.

As far as I am aware this will be the first browser customised specifically for tablets so it should be interesting to see what other features Opera can pack into this new edition to differentiate it from the vanilla mobile version.

Via jkOnTheRun

AC100 gets Unboxing, Promise of 2.2 Upgrade, Email Notification Rave!


dynabookunboxing We’re twitching at every movement outside our door while waiting for our own Toshiba AC100 today (Note: Possible live video review session tonight stay tuned.) but at least we’ve got something to keep us occupied in this unboxing video from Netbooknews today. It’s known as the Dynabook AZ in Japan but it’s the same device as the AC100 were expecting.

Some important things to note from the unboxing and the article:

1 Opera Mobile (not Mini) is included. Opera Mobile is not generally available for Android but Toshiba appear to have had it built specially for the AC100. Opera Mobile sounds like it is providing a better internet experience than the stock browser. I’m certainly a fan of Opera Mobile and will be interested to test it out.

2 There are indicator lamps on the outside of the device. Useful for notifications when closed (and online) (via JKKMobile, see fun video below.)

3 Toshiba are working on Android version 2.2 ‘soon’ which is excellent news.

4 1080p H.264 worked

5 Browsing not as fast as on a netbook

Netbooknews AC100  Dynabook AZ unboxing (first impressions video there too but still being processed as I write this)

When you’ve watched the unboxing, check out the Toshiba AC100 marketing videos. They’re great! (and give us an indication of the effort that Toshiba is putting into this!)

We’ll be attempting to hold a live email notification rave in our live open review session. Stay tuned for details!

Opera Next. The next generation of mobile browsing?


Update 18.: It’s Opera Mobile 5 Beta. I’m testing on an Omnia Pro right now. Fast, good features. No complaints yet! Have you tested it?

It’s a question that Opera is going to answer very soon. The next generation in mobile browsing. There are few clues from Opera as to what it could be but Will Park of Into Mobile has had a preview and he says that the headline will soon make sense. The puzzle is gradually being completed (the image is being completed) as time goes on at the Opera teaser site. Right now you can see the right-edge of a device being held in two hands. The ‘alt’ text for the image is ‘Opera Next.’

operanextgen

Is it going to be a new Opera Mini or Mobile product and what features would take it to the next level? Opera has already pushed the boundaries with their proxy, widget and sync features so what could be next? Touch friendly UI? Flash 9.5?

Support for more operating systems (Android has been promised) would be good but that’s hardly groundbreaking. How about location-enabled browsing? will the next Opera Mobile or Opera Mini app include the Geo API? Will Park says that there are clues in the teaser page and references ‘source code.’

Personally I think we’re looking at Opera Unite for Mobile based on what I read at GigaOM last week.

If Opera reveal one piece of the puzzle per day, we’re looking at a completed picture on Monday 28th September.

Omnia Pro B7610 Smartphone is another MID contender.


The CommunicAsia expo is happening in Singapore right now and Samsung have taken the opportunity to show off a previously ‘leaked’ product, the Omnia Pro B7610.

Like the HTC Touch Pro 2, it’s got a slider keyboard, an 800×480 screen and Windows Mobile. it’s got a 5mp camera and an 800Mhz CPU. 800Mhz sounds quite hefty but the CPU architecture details aren’t known yet so don’t get too excited about this being the ultimate pocketable browsing device.

It’s said to ship with WM6.1 but Samsung have promised an upgrade to WM6.5 which should keep this device current for a good year or more. While some of you might not like Windows Mobile, I still find it a productive and relatively open environment with a great software ecosystem. It should also be capable of running Opera Mobile 9.7 too which is one of the most advanced mobile browsers out there.

omniapro

One more thing. The screen is a 3.5 inch AMOLED type which will provide great indoor color saturation but may not be the best choice for outdoor use. Expect a release in Q3 or even Q4 and keep your fingers crossed for 720p recording and the high-end processor that could make Opera Mobile a truly slick mobile browser experience.

Via Akihabara News

More thoughts on pocketable communications solutions from the smartphone bracket in this article.

Opera Mobile 9.7 with ‘Turbo’ option announced.


The Opera 9.6 SDK, released last year, included a little feature that a lot of people missed…

Also worth mentioning here is that Opera have announced the 9.6 SDK which supports some cool new stuff including the ability to use OpenGL accelerated zoom and pan and, here’s something unique, OBML support which allows the browser to display Opera compressed content just as is used on the Opera Mini browser. This is superb for travellers that want to cut their roaming data costs because it saves up to 90% of bandwidth and is fast in low-bandwidth scenarios. I’m looking forward to seeing this on a MID as it will be a great feature to have available. [Source]

operaturbo

Update:

Opera Turbo is NOT the same as OBML. Thanks to a few comments and few links and some research. It’s basically still HTML client-side rendering but using image compression, script delaying and flash blocking.
More info here: http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/opera-turbo-labs-release?startidx=150

In Feb, Opera branded the function as ‘Opera Turbo’ [article] and finally, today, Opera have announced that Opera Mobile, that’s the version built for smartphone platforms, has reached version 9.7 and will include this ‘turbo’ technology making it, as far as I know, the first browser to be able to handle both client-side and proxy-based rendering.

Of course, this is perfect for mobile users as their bandwidth costs and availability can change rapidly so instead of having to switch to a different browser, you can turn on the ‘Turbo’ feature and carry on.

The announcement also highlights the use of the Presto 2.2 rendering engine and support for Flash.

There’s a demo video available on the Opera website.

Quite how long this will take to reach a phone is unknown as even version 9.5 is only available, in tailored format, on a handful of smartphones. 9.5 as a user download is still in Beta and there’s not even a sniff of a 9.6. We can only assume that this is an announcement for carriers and OEMs for the 2010 time frame.

I wonder if they’ll make a desktop version with this ‘turbo’ feature?

Opera announces the new Opera Mobile 9.7 at CTIA Wireless 2009 a server-accelerated full Web experience for smartphones and mobile devices.

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta. good, but where’s the hardware? Review and Video.


ipaqom9.5

[This is the second in a series of 3 articles. See previous article here.]

After more than 6 hours of learning, playing and testing on various devices, I’ve come to a decision about Opera 9.5. Beta. It’s technically a great browser with a very good user interface. Unfortunately though, there’s a core problem out there that’s out of Opera’s hands. Hardware. Opera does a good job but limited processing power and small screen sizes and resolutions hold it back from presenting a full Internet experience.

In this review (video below) I’ll be looking at Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta on the iPaq 214 (see previous article for information on the iPaq 214) from a mobile computing perspective. I’ll be comparing the browser to what I’ve seen on MIDs and on Ultra Mobile PCs. In effect, I’m comparing it to the desktop. Not fair you say? I think it is. Mobile devices are now capable of running desktop software and full desktop browsers at impressive speeds. For many, the slower, although cheaper, mobile Internet experience offered by many consumer devices is probably good enough but if you rely on your browser for more than just browsing, you’ll want the fastest and most accurate mobile browsing platform you can find. In the near future, consumers are going to be more demanding of their mobile browsers too. Unfortunately, as I write this, there are very few Windows Mobile devices out there that have the screen-size and processing throughput, from network to rendering, that are able to offer users the chance to experience modern web pages, AJAX applications and to come anywhere near to a desktop-standard browsing speed. Opera 9.5 doesn’t appear to be any more efficient than it’s predecessor either. It has some other issues too issues which i’ll highlight here but please note that this is Beta software. While we are unlikely to see any more features (apart from the ones listed as disabled in the beta here), there could still be bug fixes and optimizations to sort out.

Read the full story

iPaq 214. A great PocketPC that makes a poor MID.


This weekend I’ve had the chance to step back from UMPCs and test a top-end device from a mobile device category that started way back in the late 90’s. The iPaq 214, a Windows Mobile PocketPC.

ipaq214-1

Also known as the iPaq 200,210, 211 and 212, it’s a recent update by HP and and attempt to squeeze what I suspect is the last from the PocketPC market, in the Enterprise segment. The reason I’ve got it is to evaluate Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta, to see how the Windows Mobile software and hardware has moved on since I had my first PocketPC when they were launched in March 2002. Most importantly though I want to take into consideration some of the advances we’re hearing about in hardware and software and to see whether a Windows Mobile-based device really could make a suitable consumer-focused mobile Internet and entertainment device. More after the break…

Thanks to PDAShop.nl / PDAShop.be for the loan of this device.
The UK and NL versions are currently available to order.

Read the full story

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta is live.


If you have a Windows Mobile device and have any interest in a better Internet browsing experience, you should check this out. If your device has flash lite support (v3 I think is needed here) then you shuld be able to watch in-line flash videos. If not, you wont get that support.

Phone Arena have a hands-on and video.

even with our old HTC Wizard with TI processor at 200 MHz and modified WM6.1 OS, browsing a page is a pleasure, compared to doing it with IE

I’m sure there’s be lots of hands-on reports over the next week. I’ll be doing mine as soon as the iPaq 214 turns up. Expected tomorrow. (Unless I can steal my wife’s WM device!)

Download via this link

Via GottabeMobile

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