Opera Mini
Encyclopedia
Opera Mini is a web browser
designed primarily for mobile phone
s, smartphone
s and personal digital assistant
s. Until version 4 it used the Java ME platform, requiring the mobile device to run Java ME applications. From version 5 it is also available as a native application for Android, iOS, Symbian
OS, and Windows Mobile
. Opera Mini is offered free of charge, supported through a partnership between its developer, the Opera Software
company, and Google
.
Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser
for personal computer
s, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini began as a pilot project in 2005. After limited releases in Europe
, it was officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006.
Opera Mini requests web page
s through Opera Software
's servers, which process and compress them before sending them to the mobile phone, speeding up transfer by two to three times and dramatically reducing the amount of data transferred, chargeable on many mobile phone
data plans. The pre-processing increases compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.
On March 2011, Opera Mini has surpassed 100 million users and 2 billion daily page views as the world's most used mobile browser. The significant increase on months due to 50 million users is achieved at February 2010 and 1 billion daily page views at July 2010. In September 2011, Opera Mini browser has more than 131.3 million users.
web browser for personal computer
s, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini was originally designed for mobile phones that would ordinarily be incapable of running a web browser. It was first introduced on August 10, 2005 as a pilot project in cooperation with the Norwegian television station TV 2
. At that time, Opera Mini was only available to TV 2 customers.
A beta version was made available in Sweden
, Denmark
, Norway
, and Finland
on October 20, 2005. After the final version was launched in Germany
on November 10, 2005, and quietly released to all countries through the Opera Mini website in December, the browser was officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006.
On May 3, 2006, Opera Mini 2.0 was released. It included new features such as the ability to download files, new custom skins
, more search engine options on the built-in search bar, a speed dial option, new search engines, and improved navigation.
On November 1, 2006, Opera Mini 3 beta introduced secure browsing, RSS
feeds, photo uploading and content folding into its list of features and capabilities. Content folding works by folding long lists such as navigation bars into a single line that can be expanded as needed. A second beta was released on November 22, and on November 28, the final version of Opera Mini 3 was released.
November 7, 2007 saw the release of Opera Mini 4. According to Johan Schön, technical lead of Opera Mini development, "the entire code" was rewritten. Opera Mini 4 includes the ability to view web pages similar to a desktop based browser by introducing Overview and Zoom functions, as well as a landscape view setting. In Overview mode, the user can scroll a zoomed out version of certain web pages. Using a built-in mouse cursor, the user can zoom into a portion of the page to provide a clearer view; this is similar to the functionality of Opera's Nintendo-based web browsers. This version also includes the ability to sync with the personal computer edition of Opera
.
Prior to Opera Mini 4, the browser was offered in two editions: Opera Mini Advanced for high-memory MIDP 2 phones, and Opera Mini Basic for low-memory MIDP 1 phones. Opera Mini 4 has now taken the place of Opera Mini Advanced. The older Opera Mini 3 Basic is still available for low-memory phones.
Originally, Google
was the default search engine
on Opera Mini. However, on January 8, 2007, Opera Software
and Yahoo!
announced that a partnership to make Yahoo! search the default instead. But on February 27, 2008, Opera Software
officially announced that Opera Mini's and Opera Mobile
's default search engine would return to Google from Yahoo!.
It was published in the New York Times on October 27, 2008 that an iPhone
client had been developed. Opera submitted the App to the App Store on March 23, 2010, and was approved on April 13, 2010.
On April 10, 2008, it was announced that a version had been produced for the Android operating system. Rather than develop a new version for Android, this was done by creating a wrapper to translate Java ME API calls to Android API calls.
On August 16, 2009, Opera Software presented the next generation of the product: Opera Mini 5.0 beta. The new version included tabbed browsing, a password manager, improved touch screen support, and a brand new interface, including a visual Speed Dial similar to the one introduced by Opera Software in their desktop browser.
Since November 20, 2009, there have been reports from Chinese users that when they use Opera Mini, they are redirected to an error page leading them to download Opera Mini China Version. This is almost certainly due to the fact that the Chinese government are afraid that citizens are using Opera Mini to bypass the Great Firewall in China, so to appease the Government, Opera agreed to route all of their traffic through Government servers.
2009–2010: As the world's most popular mobile browser, Opera Mini has already made a significant impact in the Indonesian mobile market. Indonesia steadily ranks second in overall Opera Mini usage by country surpassed only by Russia. Indonesians are using Opera Mini predominantly to access social-networking sites such as Facebook and Friendster from their mobile phones.
s, Opera Mini fetches all content through a proxy server
that reformats web pages into a format more suitable for small screens. A page is compressed, then delivered to the phone in a markup language
called OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language). This compression process makes transfer time about two to three times faster and the pre-processing also increases compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.
By default Opera Mini opens one connection to the proxy servers, which it keeps open and re-uses as required. This improves transfer speed and also enables the servers to quickly synchronize changes to bookmarks stored in Opera Link.
The Opera Software
company maintains over 100 proxy servers to handle Opera Mini traffic. They run Linux
and "are massively parallel and massively redundant
."
s wide or smaller, the default rendering mode is Small-Screen Rendering (SSR). In this mode, the page is reformatted into a single vertical column so that it need only be scrolled up and down. Long lists and navigation bars are automatically collapsed (hiding most of the list or bar) by a feature known as "content folding". A plus (+) sign is displayed next to the collapsed content. When clicked, it toggles content folding on that list or bar.
Web developers can turn on Small-Screen Rendering on the desktop edition of Opera to see how their websites will be displayed on mobile editions of Opera.
In Small-Screen Rendering mode, images are scaled down to no more than 70% of the screen size in either direction.
scripts. Hindi
and a few other non-Latin character sets are supported.
. Before the page is sent to the mobile device, its
After the scripts have finished or the timeout is reached, all scripts are stopped and the page is compressed and sent to the mobile device. Once on the device, only a handful of events are allowed to trigger scripts:
When one of these events is triggered, Opera Mini sends a request to the proxy server to process the event. The proxy server then executes the JavaScript and returns the revised page to the mobile device.
Pop-ups
, if not blocked by the JavaScript restrictions, replace the web page being viewed.
Opera has published Opera Mini: web content authoring guidelines to assist authors.
.
Opera Mini may also be set to landscape mode, where it will rotate the page 90 degrees. This is useful for screens that are significantly taller than they are wide. However, this feature is not yet available on BlackBerry
s and some other devices.
The image quality may be set to "Low", "Medium", or "High". The higher the image quality, the more data is transferred and the longer it will take to load pages.
Opera Mini supports only one font, which can be set to "Small", "Medium", "Large", or "Extra large" size. If a web page uses Courier
or a generic monospaced font, the one font is still used, but the characters are spaced out so that each character takes up the same amount of space.
and Wikipedia
.
Also, Opera Mini features shortcut keys, skins
, and a web feed
aggregator. It can save bookmarks, download files, and it remembers the user's browsing history.
for privacy and security. The encryption key is obtained on the first start by requesting that the user press random keys a certain number of times. When using Opera Mini 3.0 Basic, the connection is not encrypted. Opera Mini has received some criticism because it does not offer true, end-to-end
security when visiting encrypted sites such as paypal.com. When visiting an encrypted web page, the Opera Software company's servers decrypt the page, then re-encrypt it themselves, breaking end-to-end security.
Due to this, Opera Mini should not be used for critical applications such as Internet banking.
that is included in Opera 9.5. This means that Opera Mini supports almost all of the web standards supported in Opera 9.5. However, unlike the desktop edition of Opera, Opera Mini includes no support for Web Forms 2.0. Also, frames are flattened because of client limitations, and dotted and dashes borders are displayed as solid borders due to bandwidth and memory issues. And because Opera Mini reformats web pages, it does not pass the Acid2
standards compliance test.
Opera Mini supports bi-directional text
, meaning that it can correctly display right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew and languages written left-to-right like English, French, and Spanish. However, it will not display left-to-right text if the font size is set to small or very small. Indic and Chinese scripts are not supported. It cannot show italic
text or other formatting besides boldface.
s, does not scroll as smoothly, does not feature a built-in clock, and does not support encryption. When browsing an encrypted web page with Opera Mini 3 Basic, the page is actually decrypted before being sent to the mobile phone.
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Opera Mini relies on data centers processing the Web page before sending it back to the phone in a compressed binary form.
, Vodafone
, T-Mobile
, KDDI
, Omnitel
, Pannon GSM
, Telefónica Móviles de España
, TMN
, Tata Teleservices, and more.
s, web portal
s, and other companies distribute Opera Mini to their customers:
, for the 2007 Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine award for the "best mobile browser for both Windows-based Pocket PC and Smartphones" award. Opera Mobile is a more powerful web browser that runs on smartphone
s and personal digital assistant
s. Opera Mini lost the award to Opera Mobile because at the time Opera Mobile supported Flash
and tabbed browsing while Opera Mini did not.
Modifications
Russian-speaking users have the ability to use informal modes of Russian programmer stpannik, extend the functionality of the official version of Opera Mini .
Extended functionality modification led to an increase in run time and slight in comparison with the original version, slowing down his work, which is much in not very powerful mobile phones.
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
designed primarily for mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s, smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
s and personal digital assistant
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
s. Until version 4 it used the Java ME platform, requiring the mobile device to run Java ME applications. From version 5 it is also available as a native application for Android, iOS, Symbian
Symbian
Symbian is a mobile operating system and computing platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Accenture. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS, which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user...
OS, and Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...
. Opera Mini is offered free of charge, supported through a partnership between its developer, the Opera Software
Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is...
company, and Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
.
Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
for personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini began as a pilot project in 2005. After limited releases in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, it was officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006.
Opera Mini requests web page
Web page
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
s through Opera Software
Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is...
's servers, which process and compress them before sending them to the mobile phone, speeding up transfer by two to three times and dramatically reducing the amount of data transferred, chargeable on many mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
data plans. The pre-processing increases compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.
On March 2011, Opera Mini has surpassed 100 million users and 2 billion daily page views as the world's most used mobile browser. The significant increase on months due to 50 million users is achieved at February 2010 and 1 billion daily page views at July 2010. In September 2011, Opera Mini browser has more than 131.3 million users.
History
Opera Mini was derived from the OperaOpera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
web browser for personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini was originally designed for mobile phones that would ordinarily be incapable of running a web browser. It was first introduced on August 10, 2005 as a pilot project in cooperation with the Norwegian television station TV 2
TV 2 (Norway)
TV 2 is the largest commercial television station in Norway. Over 30% of the time Norwegians spend watching TV is spent watching TV 2. The station has 65% of the market for TV commercials in Norway....
. At that time, Opera Mini was only available to TV 2 customers.
A beta version was made available in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
on October 20, 2005. After the final version was launched in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on November 10, 2005, and quietly released to all countries through the Opera Mini website in December, the browser was officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006.
On May 3, 2006, Opera Mini 2.0 was released. It included new features such as the ability to download files, new custom skins
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
, more search engine options on the built-in search bar, a speed dial option, new search engines, and improved navigation.
On November 1, 2006, Opera Mini 3 beta introduced secure browsing, RSS
RSS
-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
feeds, photo uploading and content folding into its list of features and capabilities. Content folding works by folding long lists such as navigation bars into a single line that can be expanded as needed. A second beta was released on November 22, and on November 28, the final version of Opera Mini 3 was released.
November 7, 2007 saw the release of Opera Mini 4. According to Johan Schön, technical lead of Opera Mini development, "the entire code" was rewritten. Opera Mini 4 includes the ability to view web pages similar to a desktop based browser by introducing Overview and Zoom functions, as well as a landscape view setting. In Overview mode, the user can scroll a zoomed out version of certain web pages. Using a built-in mouse cursor, the user can zoom into a portion of the page to provide a clearer view; this is similar to the functionality of Opera's Nintendo-based web browsers. This version also includes the ability to sync with the personal computer edition of Opera
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
.
Prior to Opera Mini 4, the browser was offered in two editions: Opera Mini Advanced for high-memory MIDP 2 phones, and Opera Mini Basic for low-memory MIDP 1 phones. Opera Mini 4 has now taken the place of Opera Mini Advanced. The older Opera Mini 3 Basic is still available for low-memory phones.
Originally, Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
was the default search engine
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
on Opera Mini. However, on January 8, 2007, Opera Software
Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is...
and Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
announced that a partnership to make Yahoo! search the default instead. But on February 27, 2008, Opera Software
Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is...
officially announced that Opera Mini's and Opera Mobile
Opera Mobile
Opera Mobile is a web browser for smartphones and PDA's developed by the Opera Software company. The first version was released in 2000 for the Psion Series 7 and netBook. Today, it is available for a variety of devices that run on Android, S60, Windows Mobile, Maemo , and MeeGo...
's default search engine would return to Google from Yahoo!.
It was published in the New York Times on October 27, 2008 that an iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
client had been developed. Opera submitted the App to the App Store on March 23, 2010, and was approved on April 13, 2010.
On April 10, 2008, it was announced that a version had been produced for the Android operating system. Rather than develop a new version for Android, this was done by creating a wrapper to translate Java ME API calls to Android API calls.
On August 16, 2009, Opera Software presented the next generation of the product: Opera Mini 5.0 beta. The new version included tabbed browsing, a password manager, improved touch screen support, and a brand new interface, including a visual Speed Dial similar to the one introduced by Opera Software in their desktop browser.
Since November 20, 2009, there have been reports from Chinese users that when they use Opera Mini, they are redirected to an error page leading them to download Opera Mini China Version. This is almost certainly due to the fact that the Chinese government are afraid that citizens are using Opera Mini to bypass the Great Firewall in China, so to appease the Government, Opera agreed to route all of their traffic through Government servers.
2009–2010: As the world's most popular mobile browser, Opera Mini has already made a significant impact in the Indonesian mobile market. Indonesia steadily ranks second in overall Opera Mini usage by country surpassed only by Russia. Indonesians are using Opera Mini predominantly to access social-networking sites such as Facebook and Friendster from their mobile phones.
Functionality
Unlike ordinary web browserWeb browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
s, Opera Mini fetches all content through a proxy server
Proxy server
In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource available from a different server...
that reformats web pages into a format more suitable for small screens. A page is compressed, then delivered to the phone in a markup language
Markup language
A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...
called OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language). This compression process makes transfer time about two to three times faster and the pre-processing also increases compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.
The Opera Software
Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is...
company maintains over 100 proxy servers to handle Opera Mini traffic. They run Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and "are massively parallel and massively redundant
Redundancy (engineering)
In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe....
."
Small-Screen Rendering
For devices with screens 128 pixelPixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s wide or smaller, the default rendering mode is Small-Screen Rendering (SSR). In this mode, the page is reformatted into a single vertical column so that it need only be scrolled up and down. Long lists and navigation bars are automatically collapsed (hiding most of the list or bar) by a feature known as "content folding". A plus (+) sign is displayed next to the collapsed content. When clicked, it toggles content folding on that list or bar.
Web developers can turn on Small-Screen Rendering on the desktop edition of Opera to see how their websites will be displayed on mobile editions of Opera.
In Small-Screen Rendering mode, images are scaled down to no more than 70% of the screen size in either direction.
Complex scripts rendering
Opera Mini can send content in bitmap image form if a font required is not available on the device, which is useful for indicIndic Computing
Indic Computing means "computing in Indic" i.e. Indian Scripts and Languages. It involves developing software in Indic Scripts/languages, Input methods, Localization of computer applications, web development, Database Management, OCR, Spell-checkers, Speech to Text and Text to Speech applications etc...
scripts. Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
and a few other non-Latin character sets are supported.
JavaScript support
Opera Mini has limited support for JavaScriptJavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
. Before the page is sent to the mobile device, its
onLoad events are fired and all scripts are allowed a maximum of two seconds to execute. The setInterval and setTimeout functions are disabled, so scripts designed to wait a certain amount of time before executing will not execute at all.After the scripts have finished or the timeout is reached, all scripts are stopped and the page is compressed and sent to the mobile device. Once on the device, only a handful of events are allowed to trigger scripts:
-
onUnload: Fires when the user navigates away from a page -
onSubmit: Fires when a form is submitted -
onChange: Fires when the value of an input control is changed -
onClick: Fires when an element is clicked
When one of these events is triggered, Opera Mini sends a request to the proxy server to process the event. The proxy server then executes the JavaScript and returns the revised page to the mobile device.
Pop-ups
Pop-up ad
Pop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. Pop-ups are generally new web browser windows to display advertisements...
, if not blocked by the JavaScript restrictions, replace the web page being viewed.
Opera has published Opera Mini: web content authoring guidelines to assist authors.
Features
Scrolling is achieved with the device's arrow keys, its number keys, or a stylusStylus (computing)
In computing, a stylus is a small pen-shaped instrument that is used to input commands to a computer screen, mobile device or graphics tablet...
.
Opera Mini may also be set to landscape mode, where it will rotate the page 90 degrees. This is useful for screens that are significantly taller than they are wide. However, this feature is not yet available on BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
s and some other devices.
The image quality may be set to "Low", "Medium", or "High". The higher the image quality, the more data is transferred and the longer it will take to load pages.
Opera Mini supports only one font, which can be set to "Small", "Medium", "Large", or "Extra large" size. If a web page uses Courier
Courier (typeface)
Courier is a monospaced slab serif typeface designed to resemble the output from a strike-on typewriter. The typeface was designed by Howard "Bud" Kettler in 1955...
or a generic monospaced font, the one font is still used, but the characters are spaced out so that each character takes up the same amount of space.
Browsing tools
Opera Mini features a search bar capable of using several pre-configured search engines, with the user being able to add more search engines. The default search engine is GoogleGoogle search
Google or Google Web Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services....
and Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
.
Also, Opera Mini features shortcut keys, skins
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
, and a web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an aggregator...
aggregator. It can save bookmarks, download files, and it remembers the user's browsing history.
Privacy and security
When using Opera Mini 4.0 or 3.0 Advanced, the connection between the mobile device and the proxy server is always encryptedEncryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
for privacy and security. The encryption key is obtained on the first start by requesting that the user press random keys a certain number of times. When using Opera Mini 3.0 Basic, the connection is not encrypted. Opera Mini has received some criticism because it does not offer true, end-to-end
End-to-end principle
The end-to-end principle is a classic design principle of computer networking which states that application specific functions ought to reside in the end hosts of a network rather than in intermediary nodes, provided they can be implemented "completely and correctly" in the end hosts...
security when visiting encrypted sites such as paypal.com. When visiting an encrypted web page, the Opera Software company's servers decrypt the page, then re-encrypt it themselves, breaking end-to-end security.
Due to this, Opera Mini should not be used for critical applications such as Internet banking.
Standards support
As of version 4, Opera Mini uses the same layout engineLayout engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...
that is included in Opera 9.5. This means that Opera Mini supports almost all of the web standards supported in Opera 9.5. However, unlike the desktop edition of Opera, Opera Mini includes no support for Web Forms 2.0. Also, frames are flattened because of client limitations, and dotted and dashes borders are displayed as solid borders due to bandwidth and memory issues. And because Opera Mini reformats web pages, it does not pass the Acid2
Acid2
Acid2 is a test page published and promoted by the Web Standards Project to expose web page rendering flaws in web browsers and other applications that render HTML. Named after the acid test for gold, it was developed in the spirit of Acid1, a relatively narrow test of compliance with the Cascading...
standards compliance test.
Opera Mini supports bi-directional text
Bi-directional text
Bi-directional text is text containing text in both text directionalities, both right-to-left and left-to-right . It generally involves text containing different types of alphabets, but may also refer to boustrophedon, which is changing text directionality in each row.Some writing systems of the...
, meaning that it can correctly display right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew and languages written left-to-right like English, French, and Spanish. However, it will not display left-to-right text if the font size is set to small or very small. Indic and Chinese scripts are not supported. It cannot show italic
Italic type
In typography, italic type is a cursive typeface based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, such typefaces often slant slightly to the right. Different glyph shapes from roman type are also usually used—another influence from calligraphy...
text or other formatting besides boldface.
Low-memory device support
For MIDP 1, low-memory devices, the older Opera Mini 3 Basic is still available. Its features include an option to increase the text size, as the default text size is too small for some web sites. Opera Mini 3 Basic uses less advanced compression, does not support full page view, does not include support for faviconFavicon
A favicon , also known as a shortcut icon, Web site icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one small icons, most commonly 16×16 pixels, associated with a particular Web site or Web page...
s, does not scroll as smoothly, does not feature a built-in clock, and does not support encryption. When browsing an encrypted web page with Opera Mini 3 Basic, the page is actually decrypted before being sent to the mobile phone.
Data centers
- Data center in Japan
- Data center in USA
- June 30, 2009 - TeliaSonera International CarrierTeliaSonera International CarrierTeliaSonera International Carrier is a global provider of cross-border and domestic communication services. It is wholly owned by the TeliaSonera Group, the largest telecommunications group in the Nordic and Baltic regions...
will provide Opera with co-location for establishing a new data center in Poland - Data center in Iceland
Market adoption
Opera overall market share compared with other mobile web browsers is about 26.92% as of October 2009. It is unclear how much of this share belongs to the Opera Mini variant.Network operators
Several mobile network companies preinstall Opera Mini on their mobile phones, including AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
, T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
, KDDI
KDDI
is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed in October 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp., KDD Corp., and IDO Corp. It has its headquarters in the Garden Air Tower in Iidabashi, Chiyoda, Tokyo....
, Omnitel
Omnitel
Omnitel is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the Baltics, member of TeliaSonera group. It provides services of carrying and packaging of voice, images, data, information, transactions and entertainment....
, Pannon GSM
Pannon GSM
Telenor Hungary is the second largest mobile phone operator in Hungary.Telenor Hungary Ltd. was founded as Pannon GSM Telecommunications Ltd. in 1994...
, Telefónica Móviles de España
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...
, TMN
Telecomunicações Móveis Nacionais
TMN – Telecomunicações Móveis Nacionais, S.A., headquartered in Lisbon, is Portugal's first mobile communications company, both chronologically and in market share.-Chronology:1991...
, Tata Teleservices, and more.
Devices
The following devices came pre-installed with Opera Mini ; devices pre-installed with Opera mini after August, 2007 are not included. Some listed devices only include Opera Mini when bought from certain network operators.- MotorolaMotorolaMotorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
V980, E2, L7, i1Motorola i1The Motorola i1 is an Internet-enabled smartphone by Motorola, running the Android operating system designed by Google. The Motorola i1 is the first Android smartphone for iDEN-based networks, which use older 2G technology rather than modern CDMA and GSM networks, and only support data rates up to... - NokiaNokiaNokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
2610,3120c, 2700 Classic, 2730 Classic, 3500c, 3600, 3600 slideNokia 3600 slideThe Nokia 3600 slide is a mobile phone by Nokia that was released in August 2008. The phone runs the Series 40 3rd Edition platform. This is classed as the 'low end version' of the Nokia 6600 slide, its major difference being the lack of 3G support.-Features:...
, 3710 fold, 3720, 6085, 5130, 5230, 5500, 5310Nokia 5310The Nokia 5310 is an XpressMusic mobile phone, released in the fourth quarter of 2007. It is less than a centimeter thick and is available with blue, red, purple, pink, orange, silver or black trim, the main body also being available in grey, black or white. It is currently available in the U.S...
, 5610, 3110, 7373, 6131, 6233, 6600 slide, 5070, E65, N95, N71Nokia N71The Nokia N71 is a multimedia 3G clamshell smartphone by Nokia with a 2 megapixel camera, a built-in flash, a front camera to allow real-time video calling, FM radio, Bluetooth, digital music player functionality, comes standard with a full , and has support for 3D Java games.Other features...
, N73Nokia N73The Nokia N73 is a smartphone by Nokia officially described as a "multimedia computer". In common with other Nokia 'Nseries' and 'Eseries' phones of its time , the N73 comes loaded with many software applications, including contacts, messaging, picture and video galleries, a music player, a Visual...
, 5000, 3110c, 6288, 6103, 6080, 6303, 6300Nokia 6300The Nokia 6300 is a mobile telephone handset produced by Nokia.The Nokia 6300 was assembled in several factories, but is currently assembled in Cluj Plant, Romania, and has been on sale since January 2007....
and 8800 Arte - Sony EricssonSony EricssonSony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
K310i, K530i, K550, W200i, W760i, Z530i, Z550i, Z780i, W910i - SamsungSamsungThe Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
X160, E570, E420, F480, X510, X650, E900, E250, U700, ZV60, D900i - LGLGLG may refer to:*LG Corp., a South Korean electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate*LG Electronics, an affiliate of the South Korean LG Group which produces electronic products* Lawrence Graham, a London headquartered firm of business lawyers...
K880, KU250, KE970, and KU311 - SAGEMSAGEMSAGEM was a major French company involved in defence electronics, consumer electronics and communication systems.In 2005, Sagem merged with SNECMA to form SAFRAN...
My411x and P9521 - BenQ-SiemensBenQ-SiemensBenQ-Siemens was the mobile communications subsidiary of Taiwanese BenQ Corp. The division was formed out of BenQ's acquisition of the then struggling Siemens mobile group in 2005. The stated goal of the company was to pull together BenQ's lifestyle experience, their design team and Siemens'...
EL71BenQ-Siemens EL71The BenQ-Siemens EL71 is a slider-type GSM triband mobile phone. Its name came about because of BenQ's acquisition of Siemens' mobile communication division at the end of 2005; the Benq-Siemens brand is meant to be transitory, before all phones are produced under the BenQ brand.The phone supports...
and EF81 - BenQBenQBenQ Corporation is a Taiwanese multi-national company that sells and markets consumer electronics, computing and communications devices under the "BenQ" brand name, which stands for the company slogan Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life .- Company :BenQ sells and markets technology products,...
E71 fight - Orange Rio (ZTEZTEZTE Corporation formerly Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment Corporation is a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems company headquartered in Shenzhen, China...
-G X991)
Distribution partners
The following Internet service providerInternet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s, web portal
Web portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
s, and other companies distribute Opera Mini to their customers:
- Pannon (HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
) - debitelDebiteldebitel AG is one of the largest mobile telephone services providers in Europe, offering a wide range of telecommunication products – mobile and land-line telephony as well internet services. At its peak, the business commanded a 47% market share of the mobile service provider market in Germany ...
(GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) - GrameenphoneGrameenphoneGrameenphone , widely known as GP, is the leading telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. With more than 32 million subscribers , Grameenphone is the largest cellular operator in the country...
(BangladeshBangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
) - PriceRunnerPriceRunnerThe website PriceRunner is a price comparison service launched in Sweden in 1999, and since bought by ValueClick. It allows users to compare prices on a range of products...
- HT Telecom (EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
) - Small Planet
- Mobile Weaver (Unwirepark)
- BuzznetBuzznetBuzzNet is a photo, journal, and video-sharing social media network, owned by Buzz Media. Like other social networking sites, Buzznet is a platform for members to share content based on their personal interests...
- tribe.netTribe.nettribe.net is a website that hosts an online community of friends, similar to other social networking sites. The site name is always spelled in all lower case.-History:...
- JajahJajahJajah is a VoIP provider, founded by Austrians Roman Scharf and Daniel Mattes in 2005. The Jajah headquarters are located in Mountain View, CA, USA, and Luxembourg. Jajah maintains a development centre in Israel...
- eBayEBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
Germany - Mobileplay
- TDC A/STDC A/STDC A/S is the former telecom monopoly in Denmark. It is now privatized. Thus, it is the biggest company in all aspects of telecommunications in Denmark with landline, mobile, Internet, VHF maritime borderline-radio etc.By the end of 2004, the TDC Group had more than 13.4 mil. customers in Europe:...
(DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
) - mobilkom AustriaMobilkom AustriaMobilkom Austria is a major Austrian mobile network operator. It has been operating commercially since 1994 and in testing since 1992.One of the most well-known commercial brand is A1 in Austria.The Mobilkom Austria group also owns:...
- Onet.plOnet.plOnet.pl is the largest Polish web portal. It is owned by the Kraków-based Grupa Onet.pl S.A. It was founded in 1996 by Optimus company. According to Alexa rankings, as of December 2007, it is the 45th most popular website worldwide and the 3rd most popular site in Poland.Onet is currently owned by...
(PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) - Optimus (PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
) - TIMTelecom Italia MobileTIM is Telecom Italia's mobile phone brand, and runs a GSM, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA network in Italy and Brazil.In Europe, TIM is part of the FreeMove alliance.TIM Peru was sold to América Móvil and rebranded Claro...
(BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
) - Smart Telecom (IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
) - Talkline (GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) - MegaFon (RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
) - Meteor Communications Ltd. (IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
) - Ten (FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) - Helio (USA)
- Wind Hellas (GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
) - Virgin MobileVirgin MobileVirgin Mobile is a brand used by many mobile phone service providers across the globe; its headquarters are based in the United Kingdom. Virgin Mobile has local operations in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, Greece, United Kingdom and the United States. It briefly also had operations...
(USA and UK, following their acquisition of Helio) - Smart CommunicationsSmart CommunicationsSmart Communications is a wholly owned mobile phone and Internet service subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company .On June 30, 2010 the company reported that it had over 45 million cellular subscribers.-Brands:...
(PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
)
Critical reception
Opera Mini has been greeted with largely positive reactions. Opera Mini competed against its sister product, Opera MobileOpera Mobile
Opera Mobile is a web browser for smartphones and PDA's developed by the Opera Software company. The first version was released in 2000 for the Psion Series 7 and netBook. Today, it is available for a variety of devices that run on Android, S60, Windows Mobile, Maemo , and MeeGo...
, for the 2007 Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine award for the "best mobile browser for both Windows-based Pocket PC and Smartphones" award. Opera Mobile is a more powerful web browser that runs on smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
s and personal digital assistant
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
s. Opera Mini lost the award to Opera Mobile because at the time Opera Mobile supported Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
and tabbed browsing while Opera Mini did not.
Awards
- Laptop Magazine Editors' Choice Award
- Sony EricssonSony EricssonSony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
Content Award for "Productive Mobility" 2007 - GetjarGetJarGetJar is an independent mobile phone application store founded in Lithuania in 2004, with offices in Vilnius, Lithuania and San Mateo, California....
"Mobile Application of the Year Award" 2007 - Mobile Gala "Best program for mobile phones" 2005 and 2006
- CHIPCHIP (magazine)CHIP is a computer and communications magazine published by the CHIP Holding in 15 countries of Europe and Asia...
.de Digital Lifestyle Award 2006
See also
- Opera MobileOpera MobileOpera Mobile is a web browser for smartphones and PDA's developed by the Opera Software company. The first version was released in 2000 for the Psion Series 7 and netBook. Today, it is available for a variety of devices that run on Android, S60, Windows Mobile, Maemo , and MeeGo...
- Opera (web browser)Opera (web browser)Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
- Firefox for mobile
- Amazon SilkAmazon SilkAmazon Silk is a web browser developed by Amazon for Kindle Fire. It uses a split architecture whereby some of the processing is performed on Amazon's servers to improve webpage loading performance. The frontend is based on the WebKit browser engine....
Modifications
Russian-speaking users have the ability to use informal modes of Russian programmer stpannik, extend the functionality of the official version of Opera Mini .
Extended functionality modification led to an increase in run time and slight in comparison with the original version, slowing down his work, which is much in not very powerful mobile phones.