Opera Mini 5 gets Apple iPhone approval

by Parm Mann on 13 April 2010, 11:07

Tags: iPhone, Mini, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Opera (OPERA.OL)

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Apple tends to enjoy keeping a tight hold on its iPhone ecosystem, so it comes as a surprise to hear that Opera's Mini 5 browser has been approved for use on the iPhone and iPod touch and is now freely available via the App Store.

The application, offered as an alternative to Apple's own Safari, is one of the first designed without the use of Apple's WebKit rendering engine.

Instead, Opera Mini utilises Opera's own Presto rendering engine and a unique method of serving compressed data. Using Opera's servers, the Mini browser is able to retrieve content that has been remotely compressed by as much as 90 per cent - the end result is quicker page loads and lower data usage.

Not one to be shy about its browser's capability, Opera reckons its Mini 5 browser for iPhone can completely load five pages in the time it takes Apple's Safari to load just one.

Opera Mini 5 is now available from the App Store, and if you're putting it through its paces, let us know how you're getting on in the HEXUS.community forums.

HEXUS Forums :: 3 Comments

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Posted by TheAnimus - Tue 13 Apr 2010 11:20
What I found funny was the praise from the engadget author who has seamingly been at the kool aid for too long.

Its faster? Wow, if only us Opera Mobile Turbo users for the last year had been saying this… Oh wait, we had.

The question is will this be a turning point in allowing more people to play on the iPhone outside of the jobsian totalitarianism, regrettably we all know the answer to that is no.
Posted by Unique - Tue 13 Apr 2010 18:10
it doesn't seem to size the pages as well as safari. there are options to avoid downloading images or reduce the quality, which should speed things up, so hopefully they can get a few updates etc and make it better. or maybe give safari a kick up the arse to improve things there
Posted by Trash Man - Tue 13 Apr 2010 21:40
uni
it doesn't seem to size the pages as well as safari. there are options to avoid downloading images or reduce the quality, which should speed things up, so hopefully they can get a few updates etc and make it better. or maybe give safari a kick up the arse to improve things there


The page sizing issue is the main reason I won't be using this browser for the time being. It makes Reading sites a pain compared to Safari, hopefully something that can be addressed in a future update. I love everything else about it, although I'm not finding any faster than Safari at the moment. The homepage with the tab icons is a nice touch.

I'll keep it installed for now and give it another go when it's had an update to see if the page sizing problem has been improved. Until then i'll stick with Safari.