Here comes the operatic Android

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 10 April 2008 14:41

Business IT - Technology

The Opera Mini mobile browser has been ported to the Google-backed Android mobile handset platform.

At present it is only a technical preview release - available at http://labs.opera.com - for the Android development community to test  and provide feedback to Opera Software in preparation for the forthcoming beta. Opera Software says that Opera Mini would be available for "any range of handset built on Android" but has given no indication of a release date for either the beta or the full commercial product.

Opera claims more than 40 million users worldwide for Opera Mini . It speeds up web browsing by compressing data at a remote server before sending content to the phone applet for rendering. Claimed innovative features include 'desktop-like' Web browsing from a mobile phone, including small screen rendering, Zoom, synced bookmarks and integrated Google search. It is distributed by eight major handset manufacturers worldwide and by 15 major carriers.