

Opera Mini approved for iPhone - apphacker
http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2010/04/13/

======
gizmo
First impressions:

1\. it's very responsive. Much snappier than Safari; the difference is very
noticeable.

2\. pages download much quicker

3\. zooming in and out is faster, but you only have two zoom levels. If you
"pinch to zoom" it immediately zooms in all the way.

4\. the home screen with 9 favorites works great

5\. it's a little buggy (clicks don't always register)

6\. killer feature #1: it automatically stores the entire app state, so you
can open a few tabs, switch apps, go back and have everything the way you left
it. This is a big deal, because Safari forgets your pages eventually, which is
so frustrating when you have your travel plans in a safari tab and 3G is not
exactly reliable.

7\. killer feature #2: you can save pages

8\. In full screen mode it makes for a pretty decent reader.

9\. It doesn't suffer from "too small font" syndrome.

10\. It has this "Snap to column" thing where your view automatically snaps to
the column edges. This makes reading more like reading on Instapaper and less
like safari.

11\. It loads instantly, even when I have 3 tabs open. It's really that fast.

The only real downsides I know of so far are that it has trouble rendering
more complex web pages, invades my privacy and doesn't do Javascript. Flash
content simply doesn't appear (so you don't even know it should be there) and
YouTube links don't link to the YouTube app. Still very impressive.

~~~
rscott
It doesn't scroll to the top of the page when you tap the status bar. Hate
when apps neglect to do that.

~~~
barlo
It looks like you can scroll to the top by tapping the red title bar.

~~~
zzzmarcus
The red bar is gone in full-screen mode so it's one or the other; full screen
or scroll to top.

------
ubernostrum
I look at this as kind of amusing; my previous phone could _only_ run Opera
Mini, and the prospect of having a real web browser was one of the things
which drove me to the iPhone. Mobile Safari's UI and its actual support for
decently rendering pages (coupled with the privacy concerns Opera Mini's proxy
system naturally raises) are so far ahead that I'm a bit surprised anyone
would actually _choose_ to use Opera Mini -- it's like I've stumbled into a
bizarre parallel world where people are clamoring for the right to install and
use IE6 as a replacement for Firefox or Chrome.

~~~
bukster
Well put. Well people started making a fuss about Opera Mini getting approved
I couldn't understand why. Safari on the iPhone is the best mobile browser out
there in terms of both specification conformance and performance.

~~~
antirez
Because there is a percentage of people heating long waits... Safari is very
nice but not responsive enough, and sometimes if you want just to read a news
site, the user experience is just the same. Also I think that EDGE users will
enjoy the fact that finally it's possible to have decent loading times of web
pages.

I live in a city covered by 3G but when I from in my home town it's almost
impossible to suft the web with Safari, while it was ok with Opera Mini on a
Nokia N70 phone.

Opera Mini is surely not a drop in replacement for Safari Mobile, but it
surely is a useful tool, much more useful than most of the other top-downloads
in the Appstore.

------
jstevens85
Does anyone know how Opera makes money from this version? Surely the bandwidth
and computational costs of processing, compressing and sending out webpages
would exceed revenue from Google search, right?

~~~
naner
Well they know every page everyone visits and everything they click on, etc.
What does the privacy policy say?

~~~
glymor
_Opera does not store any users’ private information. Opera generates
statistics of the usage of Opera Mini, but these are aggregated numbers and no
information can be linked to a single user._

<http://www.opera.com/mobile/help/faq/#privacy>

------
barredo
Link to the AppStore [http://itunes.apple.com/uk/app/opera-mini-web-
browser/id3637...](http://itunes.apple.com/uk/app/opera-mini-web-
browser/id363729560?mt=8) — It's not as fast as I expected, but still

For now: "un-zommed" content is unreadable, for instance, nytimes.com in Opera
<http://cl.ly/JIP> vs Safari Mobile: <http://cl.ly/J9i> (which is also
unreadable, but well, I can distinct letters)

~~~
danudey
Frustratingly, it's not available on the Canadian App Store. I wonder if
there's a reason for that, or if it just hasn't propagated yet.

~~~
some1else
A lot of the apps don't trickle down from the US store to local stores :-/

------
stanleydrew
Does the Opera browser app itself not interpret javascript? Is it offloaded to
the iPhone's WebKit/rendering engine? Otherwise this would seem to fly in the
face of the recent change to 3.3.1.

~~~
sirn
Think of Opera Mini as an interactive image viewer. They interpret all
JavaScript on the server side and sent result back to the client using
OBML[1]. Or at least that's how it works on other device.

    
    
      [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Mini#Functionality

~~~
stanleydrew
Interesting. The section on JavaScript support is not encouraging actually.
Can anyone report on attempting to use a js-heavy web-app through Opera Mini,
e.g. Gmail?

~~~
jackowayed
It's not great at AJAX. My brother has a Blackberry and mainly uses Opera, and
the fact that Sporcle(.com) worked on my iPhone shocked him. Apparently Opera
can't do onchange.

Gmail just gives the normal HTML mobile version, like it did in the bad old
days before iPhone.

~~~
kiiski
I just tested, and sporcle.com works well on Symbian. Does blackberry have
it's own version of opera too?

------
antirez
Just did a 20 minutes test: I'm loving it.

It's amazing how I'm happy to trade features for speed. Also the UI is so
much... like Fast Tracker :) That 2D interface that is clearly primitive but
reacts like a videogame, instantaneously.

Saving pages and fast access to favorites is also very cool, but speed is the
real killer feature here IMHO.

------
ttjervaag
I wrote up my initial impressions here:

[http://thedailyt.com/2010/04/opera-mini-for-the-iphone-
initi...](http://thedailyt.com/2010/04/opera-mini-for-the-iphone-initial-
impressions/)

I have to agree with most posters here. It's a nice start and I think it's a
very good thing there's now a competing browser engine in the App Store. It
has quite a few non-native feeling elements to it, so if they iron out the
kinks and give it a bit more of an iPhone feel it'll be a good contender.

The usual Opera instant back function (no reloading of pages on clicking the
back button) is killer!

------
thought_alarm
First impressions:

1\. It renders pages in exactly the same way it does on my Blackberry.

2\. The UI is just as awkward.

Amazing.

~~~
mikeyur
Friend of mine:

 _"Opera Mini's flagrant disregard for UI conventions would get any other app
rejected."_

Pretty much sums up my thoughts. It's bad on so many levels and somehow
received special treatment.

~~~
axod
Maybe it's fine to duplicate existing functionality on the iPhone if you do it
so badly that there's no danger of anyone actually using it.

~~~
whalesalad
That's the overruling statement right there for most of this App store
shenanigans.., if something sucks people won't use it, and it won't be a
threat.

------
vais
Downloaded it for the Find in Page feature and uninstalled pretty much
immediately - I thought it would be serious competition for my Find In Page
plugin for Safari and finally deliver this functionality in a native way.

Instead, over 60% of the screen is permanently covered by the toolbar at the
top and the keypad at the bottom. No way to scroll either while in the Find in
Page mode. No way to step backwards throught search results either - next
button only. What were you guys thinking?! Find in Page could have been a
killer feature for you over Safari, and it falls way short.

In addition, the app does not feel Cocoa Touch-like - UI elements look faked
and the feel is different. Sorry, I had much higher expectations for days
waiting for the release, and it just did not deliver iPhone-like experience.
Better luck in the next version, I guess. BTW, love Opera on the desktop!

PS: almost forgot - PDF is not supported at all and is delegated to Safari
instead!

------
niravs
I'm shocked.

The app is still somewhat crippled though, all links from other Apps can only
be opened in Safari. So, not the same as switching a browser on your desktop
or laptop. Nonetheless it seems like a step in the right direction.

~~~
yanw
I'm not sure it's surprising, I suspect Opera-mini's nature of preprocessing
and compression might have helped it get approved because of the bandwidth
saving promise for AT&T.

~~~
tcdent
Nothing to do with AT&T or bandwidth; the preprocessing and compression are
what make it abide by Apple's TOS.

------
alextgordon
The counter is still counting... <http://my.opera.com/community/countup/>

_edit: They've added a message, although the counter is still going_

~~~
apphacker
It's not available in the store yet.

~~~
romland
On the competition page it does say

 _When do you think Opera Mini will be approved by Apple?_

~~~
Frazzydee
And the last status update says "Opera Mini for iPhone was officially
submitted to the [app store]".

Although I find this hard to believe, signs point to Opera being late in
updating the page. The time in Norway is 2:15 AM, but still...

------
bruceboughton
Scrolling requires repeated swipes. Links and buttons require multiple taps to
activate, and some cannot be activate at all. (stay signed in checkbox on
myOpenID). Initial zoom levep is useless with unreadable text. Zoomed in level
feels too zoomed in without ability to adjust.

But worst of all, the text area editor is custom--no autocorrection. This
comment has takem far too long to edit.

In short, a really poorly executed app that should not have been approved,
save for the crapstorm banning it would have caused.

~~~
bruceboughton
Sorry for the typos--i was correcting as I went along if you can believe that.

------
justinchen
For those that want to test for Opera Mini without the iphone:
<http://www.opera.com/mobile/demo/>

Also, don't forget to add the user agents:
[http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/designing-with-opera-
mini...](http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/designing-with-opera-mini-in-
mind/)

------
mikebo
I wonder if Apple keeps ambiguous apps like this on hold for when they really
need a PR win. Maybe we'll see Google Voice next?

~~~
ramchip
20 days isn't that long though. Just think about the time it takes to get
anything approved by the government...

~~~
pxlpshr
The iPad + OS 4.0 backed up the approval process. We submitted before Opera,
took about 14 days. Previously it's been about 5-7 days for new apps as Apple
has been making a lot of improvements.

------
jackowayed
USA: it's in the app store: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-
browser/id3637...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-
browser/id363729560?mt=8)

------
mannkind
Opera: Irrelevant on yet another platform.

Opera mini is great on a normal phone, but silly and pointless on a platform
with with a real browser like the iPhone OS and Android.

~~~
Shorel
No, not really.

Not everybody has great broadband mobile connections.

Android has a very good browser with WiFi, but it is totally useless with my
Edge connection. Opera on the other hand is amazingly fast with any connection
I have tested.

YMMV

------
arpit
Big question then, can you embed Opera as the browser in your native app just
as you can Safari?

~~~
labria
I don't think so, unless Opera Software gives you the sources.

------
rimantas
I've just visited acid3.acidtests.org. That was funny on several levels :)

------
aresant
What are plans for iPad version? Would love tabs for the browser.

------
bdwalter
Now its time for Chrome!

~~~
some1else
Opera complements Safari in a sense. It's an app to browse with on the ancient
networks with bad reception. Chrome might conflict too much with
MobileSafari's core functionality, so it would really be a miracle if it was
approved.

\+ Does Google even want to compete there? Chrome on the desktop may have some
strategic value beyond spreading the Google brand, but is there anything
exceptional made 'the Google way' in the Android browser?

------
IgorPartola
Firefox mobile next?

~~~
danudey
Unlikely. Opera Mini works by doing all the rendering on the server-side, and
then sending the pre-rendered website to the client. It's not actually a
browser, so much as an app that gets screenshots from a server-side browser.

Firefox, on the other hand, would be a real browser, running Javascript
rendering and Gecko on the phone itself, which would not be allowed.

That said, I don't understand why anyone would want Firefox anyway. The
iPhone's limited memory and CPU would likely make Firefox nearly unusable,
while extensions would eat away at what little free space was left. Firefox
isn't optimized for the mobile space, and I can't think of any features it
would provide that would make it a better choice than Safari (or, on Android,
the built-in WebKit browser).

~~~
CoachRufus87
what about encrypted/secured pages?

~~~
Maktab
The connection is only encrypted between the web site and Opera's servers, and
Opera's servers and your phone. Opera's servers see all the data in its
unencrypted form. From their FAQ[1]:

 _Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example —
paypal.com or my bank?_

No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full Web browser
such as Opera Mobile.

Opera Mini uses a transcoder server to translate HTML/CSS/JavaScript into a
more compact format. It will also shrink any images to fit the screen of your
handset. This translation step makes Opera Mini fast, small, and also very
cheap to use. To be able to do this translation, the Opera Mini server needs
to have access to the unencrypted version of the Web page. Therefore no end-
to-end encryption between the client and the remote Web server is possible.

[1]<http://www.opera.com/mobile/help/faq/#security>

------
gbookman
They must've planned this as a way to placate pissed off app developers.

~~~
IgorPartola
They don't give a crap about the developers or what the developers think about
them.

~~~
gbookman
Then why would they invest millions, if not billions, in creating, enhancing,
and supporting developer tools?

Obviously they only do so to benefit themselves, but it's quite clear from
their actions that Apple does care about developers.

~~~
IgorPartola
Put it this way: they don't care about what the developers have to say about
their platform or their policies and they assume that whatever minority of
developers has left their platform will be replaced by an army of new ones. I
mean, how many people have actually dropped their development for the
iPhone/iPad? Have you noticed it?

~~~
ErrantX
out of my friends (who develop for the iPhone)? One or two.

Most are still staying onboard (maybe... 25 or so).

Don't forget this is the internet; like most things the disgruntled developers
will be the most vocal. That doesn't _necessarily_ make them a majority - or
even a large minority.

------
cmelbye
My original guess (on the first day) for when it would be approved was pretty
close; I was two days off.

~~~
giantfuzzypanda
congratufuckinglations

