User Agents

Opera Mini Simulator

If you do development for mobile sites or just want to know what Opera Mini looks and feels like before you install it on your mobile device you might to check out the Opera Mini Simulator.

The simulator is a live demo of Opera Mini that functions like it would when installed on a handset. You need to have a java plugin installed in your browser to run it. Once you do it does an amazing job to test mobile surfing behavior.

Rumors of Opera Turbo for end-users

Opera watch reports that ‘Opera Turbo’ is being considered for non-business users. Opera Turbo reduces bandwith usage and is only available for business user so far. The blog post also covers some interesting facts on the financial situation of Opera Software cited from Haavard’s “State of the Opera: Q4 2008”.

Safari 4 beta for Mac and Win

Yesterday Apple presented the world’s fastest web browser (quote apple.com). You can download a beta version for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. Apple claims Safari 4 brings 150 features. Most exciting might be a cover flow port for open tabs and the Acid 3 compliance.

Prototype implementation of Gazelle Web Browser

Researchers Helen J. Wang, Chris Grier, Alexander Moshchuk, Samuel T. King, Piali Choudhury and Herman Venter of Microsoft Research published a paper on The Multi-Principal OS Construction of the Gazelle Web Browser.

They see a need for a new kind of web browsers as the way people use the web and web browsers has changed over the past years.

Web browsers originated as applications that people used to view static web sites sequentially. As web sites evolved into dynamic web applications composing content from various web sites, browsers have become multi-principal operating environments with resources shared among mutually distrusting web site. Nevertheless, no existing browsers, including new architectures like IE 8, Google Chrome, and OP, have a multi-principal operating system construction that gives a browser-based OS the exclusive control to manage the protection of all system resources among web site principals.

Their solution is a web browser with its own kernel for a mini operating system named Gazelle.

… we introduce Gazelle, a secure web browser constructed as a multi-principal OS. Gazelle’s Browser Kernel is an operating system that exclusively manages resource protection and sharing across web site principals. This construction exposes intricate design issues that no previous work has identified, such as legacy protection of cross-origin script source, and cross-principal, cross-process display and events protection. We elaborate on these issues and provide comprehensive solutions.

Gazelle might not only what we might see as Internet Explorer 9 some time in the future but Gazelle might be a solution for existing browsers.

Our prototype implementation and evaluation experience indicates that it is realistic to turn an existing browser into a multi-principal OS that yields significantly stronger security and robustness with acceptable performance and backward compatibility.

You find a link to the research paper (PDF) at the bottom of the blog post The Multi-Principal OS Construction of the Gazelle Web Browser.

Opera 10 alpha Screenshots

Check out some of Opera 10 new / revised features: auto update feature, HTML mail, spellcheck on the screenshots. Click on a screenshot for a larger version.

How-To: Buttons in Opera for common search queries

If you are an Opera user you might be interested in How to convert the search field into a button in the Opera Search panel?.

You find a detailled answer to this question in the Opera Watch Blog.

Opera presents turbo-charged browsing for desktop browsers

To be available for business customers on Opera Desktop, Opera Mobile and Opera Devices SDK, Opera Turbo compresses bandwidth consumption. By processing data being sent to a mobile phone or a PC by up to 80 percent, operators will be able to reduce network traffic and save on data transmissions. This helps to extend the longevity of their mobile network investments. For device manufacturers, Opera Turbo provides a faster browsing application that can leverage device capabilities and utilize hardware resources more effectively. By leveraging Opera Turbo, operators and OEMs can provide a faster browsing experience to their end-users, independent of network constraints or hardware limitations.

Read Opera unveils turbo-charged browsing at Mobile World Congress 2009 for the full press release and see ‘Opera Turbo’ brings bandwidth compression technology to desktop browsing for an illustration of how it works.

Yahoo! will deliver Opera Mini

Opera Software and Yahoo!® announced a partnership to bring the Opera Mini mobile Web browser and the full Internet to more mobile phone users around the world. Yahoo! will begin distributing Opera Mini via Yahoo! Mobile and also as a standalone download from Yahoo!’s mobile Web sites in the near future. The Opera Mini client will be available free of charge.

As the most popular mobile browser on the planet, Opera Mini will also be available to users of Yahoo! Mobile. Yahoo! Mobile with Opera Mini is easily accessible to end-users, operators and manufacturers and provides a cost-effective means of getting the Internet on your phone. Together, Yahoo! and Opera will bring the full Web experience to your phone, similar to how you know it from your desktop computer.

CEO Jon von Tetzchner of Opera Software is quoted in the press release Yahoo! Mobile to take flight with Opera Mini mobile Web browser.

IE 6 Death – March 2009

German it news site Golem just put up an article with the title IE 6 shall die (roughly translated). Basically they name all the initiatives that want the IE 6 to be wiped out. Some of the highlights are:

This is all about the campaign to rid the WWW of Internet Explorer 6 that has devastated web developers and held back the evolution of everything that blocks the tubes for far too long. This can not go on any longer! Off with its head!

Source: IE6: Do NOT want!

It’s time to put a deadline on dropping IE6, and I say that time is now, and the deadline should be soon… say like, March 2009. That’s roughly a little more than 6 months.

Source: We *Like* Our Internet With a Side of Revolution

We totally agree with the call and support the extinction of the IE 6!

BOLT Browser – a new mobile browser

What is BOLT?

BOLT is a fast mobile browser that offers an uncompromised browsing experience on even entry-level mobile phones. It is compatible with virtually any handset with Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) 2.0 support. In non-geekspeak, this means “it works on lots of phones, even basic ones.”

Rather than offering a simplified, mini version of the Internet, BOLT provides users with an efficient, feature-rich way to enjoy full PC-style Web pages and rich media applications on all levels of mobile devices.

Source: Bolt FAQ

UNCOMPROMISED MOBILE BROWSING

• Full PC-style browsing on all types of mobile phones
• Web content is never reformatted, repurposed or removed

LIGHTNING FAST

• Loads pages faster than competing mobile browsers
• Patented navigation and display technologies get you where you’re going faster

SUPER EFFICIENT

• 23:1 over the air data reduction speeds delivery of pages to your phone
• Consumes 1/3 of the battery power of other mobile browsers

You can download the Bolt Browser for free over at BoltBrowser.com. You need an email to start the download.