Opera brings full web to phones

Opera releases beta of its latest Mini browser for mobile phones

Opera Software has released a beta of its latest Opera Mini browser for mobile phones, adding the ability to show the entire web page in miniature and let users zoom in to view the part they are interested in. The technology allows phone users to get a full web experience on any Java-based handset, the firm said.

Opera Mini 4, free to download immediately, builds on the capabilities of existing releases. However, where earlier versions used Small Screen Rendering to re-format web pages for the phone's limited screen size, Opera Mini 4 displays the full page in miniature and lets users zoom in to make the text readable. The technology appeared in the browser Opera developed for Nintendo's Wii games console.

"With Opera Mini 4, a full page is sent to the phone, you can see it as it appears and zoom in and out to read it," said Opera vice president of Engineering Christen Krogh.

As with existing Opera Mini versions, web requests are handled by a proxy server, which renders each page and compresses it before sending the results to the phone. This cuts the amount of data sent down to between 5 and 20 percent of the original page size, boosting performance when browsing and potentially saving on users' mobile data bills.

"If you pay per megabyte on your phone, this can make a big difference," said Krogh.

Microsoft unveiled a preview of similar technology for Windows Mobile devices earlier this year. Its Deepfish browser also uses a proxy server to render the page and let users select an area to zoom in on.

However, Krogh said that while Deepfish sends a thumbnail of the page requested, Opera Mini displays the page itself. "You can still click on everything, even in the miniature view," he said.

Rendering by proxy avoids the problems users face when viewing web pages not designed for mobile access, according to the firm. Opera Mini 4 runs on most fea ture phones and smartphone that support Java midlets.