Opera Mini 5 and Mobile 10 released

Opera has finally unleashed the release version of Opera Mobile 10 and Opera Mini 5 on Symbian, Windows Mobile and that not-really open source whatshisname. Opera Mini 5 is a Java application where websites will be 'cleaned up' and images compressed on the server side before being sent to the client (thus saving the user precious mobile bandwidth), where as the native Mobile 10 will crunch the data on the phone itself.

Speed is noticeably quicker on the new versions compared to the old Beta 2, in both rendering and UI navigation itself. The biggest issue I have is the lack of ability to delete Google as the default search engine. For all the wolf cries Opera has been making to the EC in forcing Microsoft to install a browser ballot on their desktop OS, I find that Opera are a bit hypocritical for not allowing me to easily switch the search engine.

Minor issue aside with the search engine, Opera Mini 5 and Mobile 10 are great alternative browsers for your smartphone. Go download now.

Opera Mobile 10 beta perfect score in Acid3

As mentioned earlier, Opera Mobile 10 beta for Symbian Series 60 platform renders web pages accurately. This is thanks to the Opera Presto engine, which powers the desktop version of Opera 10. I ran the Acid3 test and it gained a 100/100 score - a very impressive score for a mobile browser even if it didn't pass the pixel for pixel likeness (not surprising considering the limited resolution). In comparison, the latest Firefox 3.5.4 has a score of 93/100.

Just for kicks I also ran the browser through the Acid2 test. The result, whilst not perfect, was still impressive.

Opera Mobile 10 beta for Symbian Series 60

Opera recently unleashed the public beta of their newest Opera Mobile 10 for Symbian Series 60 platform. It features the same user interface as Opera Mini 5 beta including tabbed browsing and a speed dial similar to their desktop edition.

It is quite a bit faster than Opera Mini 5 and the built-in Webkit browser. Unfortunately it is a RAM hog (about 20MB used with a single tab open). With Opera Mini 5, I can run Gravity, the standard S60 browser and a couple of other applications in the background at the same time, even with the limited 45MB of available RAM on my Nokia E55. Not so with Mobile 10, as eventually after opening a couple of tabs I will encounter the low memory message. It also does not have support for flash, though I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

Overall, a good first impression. The rendering is quick and accurate offering a truly desktop like experience - not surprising as it uses the same Opera Presto web layout engine as their desktop browser. You can even tinker with the settings via about:config. For example if you have a device with more RAM, you can always increase the cache size for better performance. I like it, but personally I see no major benefits for users to completely switch over from Opera Mini 5/Series 60 web browser combo just yet, particularly if the lack of available RAM is an issue.













Opera Mobile 10 beta is compatible with any modern devices running on the Symbian Series 60 3rd/5th edition and Symbian^1 platform. These includes the Nokia N97, Samsung Omnia HD and Sony Ericsson Satio. Access the beta by directing your mobile's standard browser to http://m.opera.com/mobile or download here.

Update: Opera Mobile 10 beta is now also available for the Windows Mobile platform.

Opera Mini 5.0 Beta

Opera Mini 5.0 is simply the best Opera Mini yet. I've used it for half a day now and it has only crashed once so far - which is impressive considering this is merely a beta version.

The installer is quite a bit bigger than previous Opera versions (and it will download more during installation), but with data cost cheap these days - and the fact that most phones comes with WiFi - this isn't a huge issue as it was a couple of years ago. The increase in size (almost double) can be attributed to the new and slick UI.

Desktop Opera 10 users will immediately recognise the new Speed Dial. Instead of a list as in previous version of Opera Mini, you will be greeted with a thumbnail grid. Here you can assign your favourite websites as shortcuts. Like the desktop version, Opera Mini 5 will capture a snapshot of the site (well a part of it anyway).

On the top you will find the address bar and search bar. Underneath it is the navigational toolbar including access to the settings and Speed Dial. The top right plus icon is the 'new tab' button. Yes, Opera Mini 5 allows users to create tabs. Stability is fine even on my now aging Nokia E51. I tend to open more than five tabs at any one time with no sign of slowness or RAM leakage.

Press down on a link until a pop up appears. This gives you the option of opening the link on a new tab. Very useful. As you can see from the screenshot, copy and paste functionality also makes a debut. Selected text can be copied and then pasted onto the Opera's search field. You can also paste the copied text outside the browser, but doing so requires you to use a trick that forces the standard Series 60 text entry field to pop up (as documented here).

Plenty of settings are available for advance users, including the usual (image quality, font size, landscape mode) and nifty new additions such as the password manager. (Edit: turn off inline editing to gain access to your phone's standard text entry field - essential to get T9 working)

Rendering was never a problem with Opera Mini, so the results here are pretty standard to seasoned Opera Mini users. Still they are fast to load. I expect Opera to have beefed up their server too in anticipation to the beta release. Fonts are smoother due to the use of some form of Clear Type technology as well. Anyway you will have no problem browsing the web even with a small QVGA display. Here are a couple of examples on how websites such as this look like (high quality image, smallest font setting):



One downside I found is it has its own text entry system, overiding the standard Series 60 text entry field pop-up. For example with their system, I have to cycle through a bunch of symbols manually to get the appropriate symbol I want (@ for example), but with the old Opera Mini, I can press the * key and select the symbol I want quickly. Predictive text does not work here either, again due to the lack of access to the phone's standard text entry field. (Edit: Ok, turning off inline editing in the settings allows you to enter the S60 text entry field - phew!!!)

It's early days for the Opera Mini 5.0, but judging by the quality of the beta version here and the amount of new functionalities, Opera has yet another winner on their hands. Despite being only a beta software I am so impressed by the stability on my E51, so impressed in fact that I have already uninstalled Opera Mini 4!

Access the beta by steering your mobile phone's standard browser to http://m.opera.com/next

Opera moans about Internet Explorer icon now

I love Opera. In fact I use the browser occasionally whenever I need a quick web check (not browsing for more than a couple of minutes), as it is a hassle to boot up Firefox (seeing how RAM hungry it is).

But dear Opera (and the European Commission), please shut the hell up. First you complained that Microsoft is wrong to bundle a web browser with their own product, which even I do not understand. When Microsoft relented and announced that Windows 7 will be shipped Internet Explorer-less in Europe, you moaned about that too. And now Microsoft is doing exactly what you wanted them to do, allowing customers to pick the browser of their choice via a ballot screen in future releases of Windows. And still you take the time to bitch.

According to The Register, Opera Software's Hakon Wium Lie is reported to have questioned the use of the Internet Explorer icon on the ballot screen.

"The blue 'e' has become so associated with the Internet in general, due to the bundling with Windows. We think using the blue 'e' might not be such a good idea,"

Jesus. If you spend more time actually marketing your own browser like the peeps at Mozilla, maybe you will actually gain more marketshare. Firefox is a proof that you do not need regulations within the browser market to succeed. Sigg, if Microsoft drops the use of logo, I am sure the guys at Opera will moan about the 'Internet' in 'Internet Explorer' next... I love the browser, but the politics is just terrible.

FFS Opera. Instead of whining about everything, how about allocating some actual development time to make Opera Mini faster and Opera Mobile better?

Brilliant captcha

Captcha are those challenge-response security fields where it makes you enter a word/number (like the one you need to fill in every time you want to post a comment on this blog), in order to verify the poster isn't a bot. These are not completely spam proof, but ever since enabling it I've seen spam comments on my blog drop to an average of about once a week. Captchas are randomly generated, but every now and then I stumble upon a captcha that is truly idiotic, especially if they are based on dictionary words. Here's one I got today whilst wondering around Ticketmaster.

Opera 10

Download the alpha version here.

Julie Moult is an idiot

Julie Moult is an idiot. Julie Moult used to write for the Scum where she came up with such stories like the classic invading Nazi raccoons and an anti-Muslim diatribe that turned out to be totally false. Julie Moult currently writes for the Daily Hate.

More here (really I can't be arsed to even copy and paste the whole challenge here)...

Via The Register

Original image by Darhawk

Internet Explorer 8 beta impressions

The first public beta of Internet Explorer 8 was released a couple of days ago. I downloaded it (14.4MB), but only just remembered to install it today.

The copy was installed on my Windows XP SP2 ThinkPad. Installation went fine without a hitch, albeit a bit slow (10 minutes) and it does require a restart. This suggests that IE8 does tie itself deeply with the OS like past Internet Explorers. It was a one-off restart that was expected and since I had to restart my PC anyway for a completely different matter, it didn't bother me one bit. Though I am sure some of you may take issue with it, so feel free to bitch about it.


A quick test through Acid2 revealed that IE 8 beta completely passed the test, which rendered the page perfectly. However it did fail the Acid3 test, but don't fret Microsoft, even Firefox 2 failed - though it did achieve a higher score. Enough about theoretical tests though, the most important thing in choosing web browsers is the speed. Thankfully IE 8 beta seems to run a quick browser rendering engine. A couple of sites that works with IE 7 breaks (like Eurogamer) but this is still good news because IE 8 will now follow web standards by default, and hopefully this will force the web masters at Eurogamer to redesign their recently redesigned glitchy frontpage. On the other hand IE 8 beta also comes with a built-in IE 7 engine which you can use if you prefer Microsoft's interpretation of CSS.


A new feature that I do fancy is called Activities. When a user highlights a body of text within a web page, a pop up with a little green arrow will appear. By selecting it a menu will appear which gives the user the option to search the text highlighted through the search engine of their choice. More search engines can be added via the IE 8 website such as eBay and Live Search Maps. It isn't just search engine. Activities includes option to send the text through e-mail, or translate them via Windows Live. Right now the choices of Activities are a bit sparse, but I hope to see more include in the future like the option to blog through Blogger or to translate via Babelfish.

IE 8 seems to be a huge step for Microsoft as it will be a change of web browsing philosophy, with the company finally embracing web standards. Firefox still has the upper hand in terms of customisation, though the ever increasing bloatedness of the browser (even without add-ons) is something I hope try to sort. And Opera is still the most nimble browser ever created. Either way, with the release of IE 8 beta, an increase in developer competition should be expected. This will hopefully lead to a better web browsing experience for everyone.

Netscape Navigator RIP

The current Netscape isn't the same as the first Netscape Navigator 1.0 client I used back in early 1995 on a 486 IBM clone, whose brand is still in existence because AOL bought it. But even then I can't help put shed a virtual tear for the brand, whose official existence will come to an end today. It was the first web browser I ever used when we were finally connected to the internet, and back it was the only relevant choice and continued to for some years until Internet Explorer 4.0 came along and started gobbling up market share.


And I have not looked back since. Sadly I haven't used a Netscape browser in years, what with Opera & Firefox leading the field in my web browsing habits with the occasional use of IE (for certain sites) and Netfront (on my Win Mob phone and PSP). But Firefox, whom many admits as the real spiritual successor to Netscape is fast emulating Netscape. It is getting bloated (even without extensions), it crashes easily and it isn't as secure as they sometimes claims. I hope for our sake that they do not emulate the many bad decisions made by Netscape's owners.

Goodbye Netscape. Thanks for the memories, but to be honest I won't miss you one bit.

Facebook, overvalued, overrated

Unbelievable as it may sound, there are people out there who actually believe that the current social networking fad Facebook is worth up to US$10 billion. O_o With around 34 million active users that is roughly around £130 per user. O_O For a company that has very little cash flow and revenue.

Bad move Microsoft. Remember the Hotmail bubble? Even then you guys paid around US$50 per user. Now the rebranded Windows Live Hotmail is lagging behind competitors. What about Yahoo!'s acquisition of Geocities or Time Warner's AOL? None proved to be worth the price tag.

Anyway, like Myspace and Friendster, Facebook is yet another Web 2.0 fad. Wait a year or two, and I am sure another new social networking site will come to exist and will be the new mass-media darling. Just wait. The bubble has to burst eventually.

Software Review: Yahoo! Go 2.0 & Widsets

I recently downloaded Yahoo! Go 2.0 and Widsets. Both are widgets based J2ME applications. While Yahoo! Go 2.0 client is a collection of exclusive Yahoo! based web widget for mobile phones, Widsets allows you to add and even create your own widgets.

I am not normally a fan of Java applications, preferring instead my smartphones to run natively as J2ME is terribly slow. While it is true that both are very slow in starting up (it takes up to 5 seconds to load), once it is loaded it runs pretty quick (for Java!) and any slowness is down to the device you are using (first generation Nokia S60 v3 phones are very slow!) rather than the software itself, although when compared with native apps, mobile phone widgets are still painfully behind in terms of performance.

With the limited RAM that Nokia affords for some of their smartphones, you may have to deal with the occasional crash and restarts. Painful I know. Windows Mobile users (with the exception of 32MB Treo 700w) need not worry about resource though.

Yahoo! Go 2.0

Yahoo! News headline goes here. They seem to think Madeleine none news is still headline worthy... Oh well (shrugs). With the none scalable font size, there is wasted screen estate: only two headlines per screen? Jeez...



You can access your usual Yahoo! online PIM database and check the weather.



Here is possibly the coolest widget available for Yahoo! Go, Flickr. You can view recommended random photos or even upload and manage your photos. People with a good mobile phone camera (e.g. Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson K850i) and flat data plan will find this service useful for image blogging.



If you have an Yahoo! e-mail account you can access and compose e-mails here. Yahoo! Go can be left to run in the background so it can automatically check e-mails periodically. Personally I wouldn't do so due to the very the limited RAM on some S60 mobile phones. You may as well invest in a push e-mail device like a Blackberry or Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync capable phones like Treos or Nokia's own E-series.



Yahoo! Maps is available with GPS support. You can search for nearest POI and the usual mapping stuff. Not sure why all map products I've used (TomTom, Smart2Go etc.) seems to think McDonald is considered a restaurant. Who still eat there? Honestly!



With Nokia providing free map downloads for Series 60 v3 and Windows Mobile devices and unless you have access to a flat data plan, I can't see any usefulness in online maps like Yahoo! or Google maps. Personally I also rather use a native e-mail application for e-mail stuff and news can be obtained via a RSS reader. Flickr is the only redeeming feature here.

It isn't a total disaster, but the slowness and frequency of crash can be off-putting. But this may have more to do with my device limitation than the software. If Yahoo! could optimise the software for older resource limited phones then this software would be great for people who has no wish on struggling with news aggregation softwares or setting up POP3 e-mail accounts and gaining a nice UI. For 'power users', you will find other more dedicated paid software probably more suitable to your need.

Widsets

Widsets is an interesting widget application. It is far more powerful than Yahoo! Go 2.0, and yet the application is rather limited currently. When you first go online the application will automatically fetch majority of the content to be viewed offline apart from pictures and some excluded applications (like Dilbert comic a day strips or Ceefax).

While mainly populated by RSS feeds (such as news or e-mail feeds) you can write more specific widgets that mimics the functionality that of a PC widget...



... like this rather cool London Underground widget that allows you to check at a glance the current status of each Tube line such as any delays or disruptions. There is also a Gmail widget that can be used to fetch e-mails as well.



I love this Ceefax widget. Just use the keypad on your phone as you would normally do on your telly remote and you are set. Very retro.



Widsets is a little different from Yahoo! Go 2.0. While the client resides on your phone, the majority of the configurations and maintenance takes place on the Widsets website. You are required to create an account and pair them together. On the website you can choose pre-created widgets or create your own. You can then arrange them on the site on how your widgets look on the mobile client. Every time you connect to the internet via GPRS/3G or WiFi, the client will be updated with widgets that you have selected.

Like Yahoo! Go 2.0, Widsets is a J2ME program so it is kinda slow to start up. Once in though the application is fairly speedy (again, for Java), but nothing like what it would be if it was native. It is far less sluggish than Yahoo! Go 2.0 though, possibly due to the far simpler UI. Crashes are rare but WiFi can occasionally hang while looking up for access point. While the application still works, it does mean I have to reboot the phone to get WiFi working again. I suspect this is more to do with Series 60 than the application as the platform is still very 'dumb' in terms of WiFi connectivity.

Shunning social networking sites

Another reason why I stay clear from these so-called "social" networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. I do not understand why people need to barricade themselves within class factions. It is fairly obvious. I have friends who are pretty middle class and educational and consider themselves the Ipod generation - they all go to Facebook. My other mates who aren't from a middle class background, who are into music for what it is (not for the gadget) and has a pretty fun life would go to MySpace. Then there are the rest who goes somewhere else because they want to be unique (0r pretend to be), until it becomes the next big thing, then they migrate somewhere else complaining about the influx of MySpace/Facebook/whatever people.

I tended to be a massive anti-MySpace guy myself, but recently Facebook has recently joined the top list of an ever growing list of websites to avoid (mainly due to the many hate sites available there - guess being educational doesn't mean you are civilised), which includes such atrocities like Digg and other shenanigans (still including MySpace, don't worry - though I gather that many indie folks still hang there to talk about music than about themselves).

My advice? Send those invite e-mails straight into the thrash bin. You have no idea what kind of shit you will be letting yourself into by signing up with these Web 2.0 sites. Sigh, I wish for a simpler times when all I needed was IRC and people were friendly and G$$gle hasn't morphed into a 90s monopolistic Micro$oft.

Viewing American class divisions through MySpace and Facebook

Software Impressions: Safari 3 for Windows Beta

Readers of this blog will know how much I dislike Apple, but I was wiling to give it a go today when Steve Jobs announced the availability of the Safari browser for Windows XP and Vista platform. Personally I hate Safari 1.x on its native Mac OS platform. I know of no-one, not even die hard MacBots, who like Safari. It is the worst mainstream browser in existence.

But Steve Jobs reality distortion field does work wonder. A lofty claim of '2x' faster than other browsers would surely catch your eyes. So I did a sinful thing and visited Apple's website to download Safari. The default download actually contained a QuickTime installer, but fortunately I caught that and switched to a QuickTime-less download. Seriously why people bother with QuickTime, the worst media player ever created next to RealPlayer is beyond me (go download VideoLan Macboys). Five minutes later I was surfing. And I hated the experience.

The good stuff first. Safari's renderer works well on most websites I visited including YouTube. That's it. It apparently passed the Acidtest so rendering should not be a problem. Now the bad stuff. The font-smoothing engine passed over from OS X lacked clarity. The cleartype technology displayed is the worst I have seen and it makes pages unreadable. I got a migraine just for looking at the ugly anti-aliased fonts as displayed through Safari. You can change the font smoothing to 'light' under 'preferences', but it is still ugly as hell. It would be great if I could turn it off and use the native cleartype technology, but I guess this is a covert operation from Apple to make PC users hate Windows.

Then there is the GUI which is based on Apple's own Mac OS X, which is an eyesore. It may work well on a Mac OS X machine, but it looks oddly out of place on a Windows environment, especially with that god ugly Aqua theme. It would ignore any skinning request from my Styler program or WindowBlinds (for times when I need reminiscing of BeOS). And it would also ignore my Windows preference of not doing window animations visual effects! Plus it wouldn't scroll when I tried my mouse scroll button.

As far as speed goes it is sometimes slow and sometimes fast, so nothing too special there. But Firefox 2 seems to be much faster. Maybe that is because I optimised it through about:config to speed up the renderer and other stuff, or maybe Steve Jobs is lying. Who knows? It wouldn't be the first time. But right now Safari is sitting as a niche product on my PC as a 'backup' browser in case Firefox, then Opera and finally IE7 fails to render a page properly (eBay UK is a known offender). It is probably useful in the future if I decide to change the layout of this blog to see if Mac OS X/Safari users can enjoy more Apple related rants.

Here is a quick comparison of the memory footprint of each program when opening a single tab loaded with BBC News frontpage:

Safari 3.0 (522.11.3) - 57MB
Opera 9.20 - 17MB
Firefox 2.0.0.4 with tons of extensions- 70MB
Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.11 - 41MB

Here are a couple of comparison screenshots between the various browsers rendering BBC News and this website:

Firefox 2





Internet Explorer 7





Opera 9





Safari 3 Beta