Opera Mini 5 coming to iPhone and soon
Posted on March 13, 2010 by AMN
Our favorite hardworking Norwegians have been spotted glad handing iPhones running their signature mobile browser at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW). Moreover, the lads seem quite optimistic their browser will be approved and available on the App Store soon, very soon.
WebMonkey reports from the SXSW Festival that Opera Software is demonstrating a beta of Opera Mini on the iPhone.
Opera Mini 5 has the same features as all other implementations of Opera Mini for other mobiles. It syncs history and preferences data (like Speed Dial), it has a customizable search field, and it can discover and subscribe to RSS feeds. It also has an elegant tab switcher that lets you browse your open tabs like you’re shuffling a stack of cards.
Opera Mini 5 can deliver faster load times because it employs proxies that squish data sizes by up to 90 percent. The tradeoff is that Opera’s mobile browser doesn’t offer multitouch, which may turn out to be a significant handicap.
Nevertheless, choice is a good thing and we’re about to get one more — Opera Mini is expected on the App Store in “the next few weeks.”
That said, check out iCab Mobile 2.2, a WebKit-based alternative to Mobile Safari that offers the ability to download files, sync them with a Mac, private browsing (a.k.a. porn mode) and a lot more.
