Mobilization: Opera Mobile 12 and Opera Mini 7 Next / Opera's blog

As you may have noticed, since the beginning of 2012 there have been few news in our blog. But the reason is not at all that the whole company went on a New Year’s vacation - we just lurked for a while. And there was a good reason, which in a nutshell can be described as follows: they prepared surprises. And today it is time to present these surprises to the public. True, there were many surprises, so you have to divide them into two articles, different in content and described products, but related by one common theme: what Opera Software offers today for the global mobile market. And we will begin, of course, with browsers.

So, as it has become clear from the title, today we are introducing the next versions of mobile browsers, and if everything is clear with Opera Mobile 12, then Opera Mini 7 with the intriguing addition Next raises fair questions for a certain part of readers. But more about this later - first about the "big" version -

Opera Mobile 12

This version of the mobile browser has been released for smartphones on the Android and Symbian platforms, and a version for Android tablets has also been prepared. The new version of the mobile browser introduces changes, both general and specific for each platform. Of the general ones, one can distinguish:

- A new Express panel that allows you to add an infinite number of links;
- To add links to the Express panel, you can now use the asterisk in the address bar;
- Now you can close tabs with one touch (on touch screens);
- The prefix “www.”, Previously appearing by default when entering the address, is removed from the address bar;
- Added support for languages ​​with the opposite direction of writing (from right to left);

Now about the specific changes for each platform.

Android
- Supported version of the platform - Android 1.6+;
- Added support for getUserMedia API, Device Orientation Events and WebGL;
- Support for Flash Player (only for Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3);
- Ability to transfer URLs to other devices through NFC (only for Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3);

A complete list of tested devices can be found in the developers forum of this version .

Symbian
- Supported version of the platform - Symbian / S60;
- Added quick access to address and search fields with one click on the Symbian status bar (only for devices based on S60 5.0 and Symbian ^ 3 / Anna);
- Added Russian layout for the virtual keyboard (only on the Russian version);
- Added support for sensors (accelerometer, rotation and orientation to the north magnetic pole, only for devices based on S60 5.0 and above);

It should also be noted that this version of Opera Mobile is built on a new engine used in the desktop version of the browser, which favorably affected both speed and improved support for the latest web standards. Some features:

- New HTML5 parser (Ragnarök);
- WebGL support for both web pages and 3D (Android only);
- Support for HTML5 Camera (only for Android 2.1+);
- Support for HTML5 Device Orientation;

You can read more about new features and known issues on some devices on the developers blog .

You can download the Android version from the Android Market , the Symbian version from our website .

Let me remind you once again that the Internet today is simply full of all kinds of fraudulent sites and “services” offering to update or install a new version of the browser, so I highly recommend downloading new versions of Opera exclusively from the official website of Opera Software or directly from the Android Market (in the case of the Android version ) Trying to install any version of Opera from unofficial or little-known sources is almost guaranteed to lead to the loss of a certain amount from your mobile account.

dev.opera

To conclude the conversation about Opera Mobile, it should be added that at the same time as the stable version of Opera Mobile 12, our developers also prepared test builds of Opera Mobile 12 for tablets based on MIPS processors using the Android Ice Cream Sandwich platform , as well as Opera Mobile 12 for Android devices based on x86 processors . A detailed description of these versions and download links are provided in the articles at the links above. I can also inform you that soon the release of Opera Mobile 12 Emulator is expected, working in Windows, Linux and MacOS.

Opera Mini 7 Next

Finally, we got to the "younger" sister of the mobile version of Opera. First, I’ll explain what “Next” means in the version name. By analogy with the development of the desktop version of the browser, we decided to organize a test development branch of Opera Mini Next. Thus, everyone can install and test this version in order to identify as many errors and shortcomings as possible by the final release. Next version is installed separately from the stable version of Opera Mini and the application list is represented by a gray icon, which allows you to protect against accidental loss of personal data available in the stable version of Opera Mini installed on your device. And the losses can be quite, because, as a rule, Next versions are quite “raw” and contain many errors in the code that can lead to unpredictable consequences.

So what can we see in Opera Mini 7 Next? First of all - a modified Express panel. More precisely, in addition to the Express panel, another tab appeared, which opens when the browser starts by default, under the working name “Smart page” (in the unsuccessful translation of this tab is still listed as “Home”). What is it and why is it needed?

As conceived by the developers, this page should become a good helper for those who are used to actively use Internet access using a mobile browser, not limited to viewing two or three of their favorite pages. A smart page consists of several sections, including a list of the most frequently visited resources (a separate line provides access to popular Google services - Google+, GMail and Google News), an access block to social networks, a News block (direct links to new publications to frequently visited are displayed here) sites from the first block) and a block of recommended resources (also not a very good option in the Russian version - “Suggested links”), broken down by topic (News, Finance, Travel, etc.).

At the top of the page there is also an ad unit of two banners (currently these are links to MyOpera and Opera Mobile Store). Some blocks are updated automatically depending on the pages visited by the user, some contain predefined sets of links to popular resources of a certain subject (while these are English-language resources, it is planned to replace them with popular local sites of a similar subject).

By the way, in the screenshot you can see the red squares on the block title bar. They say that there are more messages in this block. To go to them, use the "scroll" right-left. And one more important note. It is clear that not everyone will like this page, therefore, the developers have provided the ability to disable it (Settings-Advanced-Homepage). I’ll warn you right away: it’s better to first open the Express panel (second tab), and then go to settings and turn off the Home page - otherwise you can get a white screen. The function is still very test.

Yes, Express panel. It has now also become “dimensionless” - you can add as many links as you like. And by the way, in this version of Opera Mini, the synchronization is finally repaired: now, when Opera Link is switched on to the “mobile” Express Panel, absolutely all links from the desktop version are added, in this very order in which they are placed on the desktop.

Other important innovations include the appearance of the Opera Mini auto-update system, as well as the fact that users of phones based on the Symbian / S60 platform have finally received a Russian layout on the virtual keyboard. You can read more about the features of the new version of Opera Mini 7 Next on the developers blog .

It remains only to remind (as in the case of Opera Mobile) that you need to download and install new versions of Opera Mini only from the official site ( m.opera.com for stable versions and m.opera.com/next for test versions) or official “appstores” for your devices, otherwise it’s very easy to lose quite tangible amounts from your mobile account. Below are the correct download links for Opera Mini 7 Next:

J2ME
Android
Symbian / S60
Blackberry

And as a bonus for Apple fans, Opera Mini 7 Final for iOS

Errors in Opera’s mobile versions are best reported to the official bug tracker:
Opera Mini
Opera Mobile

And goodbye - a short video demonstrating the new features of the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers.



ANNOUNCEMENT
Tomorrow, wait for the continuation of "Mobilization: OMAX, SmartPay and Opera Mobile Store."