This isn’t exactly news to everyone – those of you with cell phones that have large-enough LCD screens probably already know that you have a web browser (of sorts) built into your phone. If you have subscribed to the appropriate data services (provided by your cell phone carrier) then you can view web sites on your phone. The biggest (“biggest” get it?) limitations are 1) the size of your LCD screen; and/or 2) the limitation that most (and I mean ALMOST ALL) web sites just do not cater to smaller screens and do not provide information in small enough chunks.
[[ Why would you want to do this? Well first, it gives you access to Google or Yahoo or A9 or other services right on your phone. Yes, yes, you can send an SMS to GOOGL [46645] and get back search information in SMS form, but web is faster and more fun and besides you can get pictures too! I was actually at the opera last night and while my wife was reading the program I used Opera Mini to go the San Francisco Opera’s web site and pick up a plot synopsis plus photos. And then, of course, I turned the phone off just before the musicians in the pit began playing… ]]
The folks at Opera Software would like to be big winners in the cellphone browser arena. I say “browser arena” rather than “browser wars” because there just doesn’t seem to be any “war” going on. This is not a field where there are lots of hot contenders.
To be a winner, what they uniquely provide is a downloadable browser that drops into your phone and is capable of browsing literally any site on the web. And with much greater ease than the native phone web browsers. Opera Mini provides pagination; it reduces graphics to a viewable but screen-sized format; it makes navigation easy; and it just plain makes it possible to navigate the web (whereas the built-in browser, at least on my phone, makes it a real pain in the neck).
You can point your cellphone at http://mini.opera.com/ or you can take your regular browser there to pick up more information. This is well worth the (free) price of the browser. It’s a great mini browser. I say “pick it up now!”
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