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After a brief delay on the availability date, Opera has released the beta version of Opera Mobile 9.5. While the new version is currently still listed as beta, the additional features should make it a worthwhile download.

Opera Mobile 9.5 is available as a free download for Windows Mobile based smartphones and offers a “true web experience.“ Features include pan and zoom, the ability to save web pages or images for offline viewing and an improved user interface. Version 9.5 also has improved standards support as well as just having been made faster overall as compared to the previous version 8.65.

Read [Opera]

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Sections: Communications, Accessories, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Web Browsers

While the news of a delay is usually a bad thing, it will be nice to hear that this delay is just two days. That’s right, instead of being released on today July 15 as expected it has been pushed back to July 17.

“As you can imagine, we encountered a few bugs last week that we needed to fix before we launch. Our engineering team worked through the weekend to fix the bugs. Even though our release is a beta, we’d rather spend the extra time to fix them, thus giving you a better experience. The fixes are almost complete now, but we need two more days to run the build through our quality assurance testing. The new launch date is now set for the 17th.“

Of course, even when released on July 17, this is still just a beta release and not a final version. While a delay is not always the best news, on the flip side its nice to see a company making sure its going to work as expected, instead of just dumping something out for the sake of making the deadline.

So here’s to waiting two additional delays before we are able to play around with Opera Mobile 9.5. Hopefully we will not see any further delays.

Via [Opera Mobile Blog]

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Mozilla is growing, and it seems that in addition to the recent world record, which was set for the software downloads in a 24 hour time period, they have also risen to 19.03% of the market share. Mozilla saw an increase from 18.41% up to 19.03% from the end of May to the end of June.

Of course, Firefox may be seeing an increase, which is at least partially due to the recent release of Firefox 3, but Internet Explorer still remains on top with a whopping 73.01%.

On the other hand, some are saying that because of the auto-update features within Firefox, that those users are amongst the most users with up to date versions of their browser installed. Firefox was noted as having 83% of their users with an up to date software version, as compared to just 63.3% of Safari users, 56.1% of Opera users and IE having just 47.6% of users with the latest and most stable version.

Read [Yahoo! News]

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Sections: Web, Downloads, Web Browsers

Perhaps in a catch-up game with the recent launch of the ultra popular Mozilla Firefox 3 and upcoming Opera 9.5, Microsoft has been beefing up its own Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) with plethora of new security features

Currently in public beta phase, this once dominant Web browser hopes to win back the hearts of its disheartened users with its new anti-malware protection and Cross Site Scripting (XSS) filter to fight against the so-called reflection attacks.

On top of these new developments, Microsoft recently announced other security features in IE8 such as the upgraded version of its phishing filter called SmartScreen Filter, improvement on ActiveX controls as well as anti-social engineering features.

However, most of these features are already available in other Web browsers so it won’t do much to help IE8 differentiate itself from competition. To make matters worse, your computer must be running Windows Vista SP1 or Windows XP SP3 for you to enjoy this added protection.

In short, we suggest sticking with Firefox!

Read [InformationWeek]

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The team behind Opera Mobile has announced that they will have Opera Mobile 9.5 available as a “first beta” on July 15. The beta edition will be available for public download and will be based on the same engine as the desktop version of 9.5. The new version of the browser will offer support for Opera widgets, Javascript, AJAX and Flash (Lite 3.0).

Although Opera Mobile is available for both Windows Mobile and Symbian-based phones, this release announcement only mentions a Windows Mobile release. You can also already find a version of Opera Mobile 9.5 on currently shipping phones such as the HTC Touch Diamond.

Read [Opera Mobile Blog] Via [MobileCrunch]

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We saw the official release of Opera 9.5 earlier in the week, and now Opera fans can rejoice as it has also been ported over to run on your USB drive. Dubbed Opera 9.5 USB it offers all the wonderful features that you will find on the regular desktop version, and only takes up 15MB of space on your flash drive. The USB version will also not leave any data on the computer you choose to use it with, meaning no history will be left behind showing off the odd things you may have searched for.

The only drawback that I can see, is that this USB version will run on Windows only, otherwise it should be nice to take a good browser and not get stuck using IE or without your favorite bookmarks when away from your main computer.

Download [Opera 9.5 USB] Via [Lifehacker]

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Sections: Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Downloads, Web Apps

Opera has announced version 4.1 of the Opera Mini mobile web browser. Yes folks, Opera Mini is still alive and I assume more mobile phone users will be using it as its a simple, hassle-free, no-strings-attached mobile web browser that works with a wide variety of phones. I’m still using Opera Mini with my trusty old Sony Ericsson P990i, so I’m definitely excited about the update to version 4.1.

So, what’s in store for all of us with this latest version, Opera says - faster features. Opera Mini 4.1 receives request for web pages 50% faster than the old version, faster searching within a web page, faster web site upload and faster file uploading and downloading. In addition, when typing web addresses, Opera Mini 4.1 now suggests completions based on bookmarked sites and browsing history.

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Sections: Communications, Cellphones, Mobile, Web, Web Browsers

Comfortable headsets are great when you can find them. If they are cordless it’s even better. Now add the ability to listen to your iPod wirelessly for up to 10 hours straight. If that is not enough – what if you and three other people could share the wireless connection? Have I peaked your interest yet?

Kleer (good name when talking about headsets) and DigiFi have joined their resources to give us a cordless headset with CD quality sound known as Opera. A bit rich at $98 but an interesting concept I must say.

Opera is not your ordinary headset. It wraps from behind your head and up over your ears. Earbuds make this headset unobtrusive and as far as looks are concerned – streamlined comes to mind.

Read [Kleer] Via [Gear Live]

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Opera Mini 4.1 has just been released. The new mobile browser version includes various features that make the Opera Mini 4.1 even more useful for mobile browsing purpose. Some of the key features introduced in this newest iteration of the Opera mini browser include; automatic completion of web addresses, tools for attaching files to web-based email, uploading photos to blog or other site, downloading attachments from email for storage to phone and saving and viewing features.

Opera Mini 4.1 beta offers an enhanced mobile web browsing experience with 50% faster speeds. Heavy sites that used to take an eternity to upload, such as Facebook and the BBC, are now faster to load, almost at par with desktop speed. The scrolling function of the Opera Mini 4.1 in mobile phones was also improved with text searching within a visited web page.

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Sections: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Web Browsers

In what seems like a strange story, Opera has announced they are now including a direct link to the AccuWeather mobile website from the Opera Mini start page. While Opera Mini seems to be the favorite mobile browser right now, and I do appreciate their effort to make my weather checking ability quicker and easier, couldn’t I just bookmark the weather site of my choice?

Nonetheless both Opera and AccuWeather seem pretty pleased with the announcement.

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Sections: Communications, Accessories, Cellphones, Mobile, Web, Websites