Opera Software released a new beta version of its web browser for Windows Mobile devices. The free Opera Mobile 10 Beta 2 includes increased finger-friendliness on touch devices, a download manager, plus better memory management and "lots of minor bug fixes," according to the company.

Opera's new Mobile 10 Beta 2 is an update to an initial beta released last month. According to an entry on the company's blog, Beta 2 provides a variety of performance and bug fixes, including the following:

• A download manager
• UI is more finger-friendly on touch devices
• Possible to manage search engines
• Remembers page position and zoom state when moving in history
• Column snapping
• Better memory management
• Fixes for mobile view crash and crash on startup
• Start page available from touch menu
• Asks whether to set Opera as default browser on install

Opera warns that some issues remain with the Beta 2 for Windows Mobile, however. For example, only touchscreen devices are presently supported, though the ultimate intent is to support non-touch devices as well. Also, there is not yet any support for Adobe Flash or other plug-ins, and switching between portrait and landscape modes is problematical on some devices, the company says.

Background

Perhaps best-known for its inclusion with HTC's Windows Mobile phones, Opera Mobile was previously seen in version 9.7, beta 1, released in June. That version was the first to include a compression technology known as Opera Turbo (see later in this story for details), which has been carried over to the newly announced Opera Mobile 10 beta.

The key feature of Opera Mobile 10, touted as "elevating mobile browsing to a desktop-like experience," is its user interface, which has been redesigned with features inherited from Opera's browser for desktop computers. The interface includes Speed Dial (below left), designed to store thumbnails of frequently launched websites on a page that appears whenever the browser is launched.

Opera Mobile 10 features a Speed Dial feature (left) and visual thumbnails of open tabs (right)
(Click either to enlarge)

According to Opera, its browser also features tabbed browsing (above right), complete with visual thumbnails that make it easy to switch from page to page. Meanwhile, navigation buttons have been simplified, and a pop-up settings menu (left) lets users choose whether or not to use compression and to load mobile versions of web pages, the company adds.

Opera Mobile 10's interface is said to have been designed with both touchscreen and keypad-style phones in mind. Touchscreen phones get "even easier navigation with our new adaptive zoom feature, kinetic scrolling, and visual tab thumbnails," according to the company. On keypad phones, it's said, navigation has been optimized with a virtual mouse cursor, a box that highlights a zoomed-in area, and a variety of shortcut keys.

Opera Turbo architecture
(Click to enlarge)
For carriers, the main point of interest may be Opera Mobile 10's compatibility with Opera Turbo technology, first announced in February. The Opera Turbo architecture, depicted above, requires carriers to add a compression server into their infrastructure, but in return, reduces network congestion and provides faster web browsing by compressing data by "an average of 80 percent," Opera claims.


Opera Turbo data compression
(Click to enlarge)
Source: Opera Software
Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera Software, stated, "We are unifying our products, so that users get the same experience, no matter the device or which particular Opera browser they are using. With Opera Mobile 10, we are raising the expectations of how a a mobile browser should perform."


A demonstration of Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile
Source: Opera Software (click to play)
Opera Software announced its previous Opera Mobile 9.7 in March, showed it off to carriers during April's CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, and released a beta version in June. A key, consumer-friendly feature of the new release was said to be improved support for Adobe Flash, letting users perform actions such as streaming YouTube videos (however, neither Opera Mobile 9.7 nor Opera Mobile 10 appears to include a Flash plug-in).

Opera Mobile 9.7 was said to add improved support for AJAX and other web standards, passing the ACID3 test with a 100 percent score, the company says. The browser also supports the Open GL ES standard for graphics acceleration, and operates with the Google Gears API (application programming interface), according to the company.

The previously available Opera Mobile 9.5 first shipped in February 2008 with HTC's Touch Diamond phone, and was updated to Opera Mobile 9.51 beta 2 last October. The latter version was the first to add compatibility with Opera's "widgets" architecture for creating small, portable software applications. Similar to, though apparently not completely compatible with, widget implementations being promoted by Access, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, the technology is touted as an easy way for carriers to add branded software to devices quickly.

Last year, Opera Software and Nvidia announced plans to collaborate on a version of Opera Mobile the companies claim will deliver higher performance and lower battery consumption on devices using the chipmaker's ARM11-based SoCs. Devices using the Tegra processors and an "optimized" Opera Mobile were expected to ship sometime this year.

Further information

The Opera Mobile 10 Beta 2 for Windows Mobile is downloadable now from the company's website, here.

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