The cult favorite Opera Browser has added support for Google Gears to its desktop and mobile browsers.
Google Gears is the product that allows you to seamlessly (hopefully) integrate your web experience and your desktop experience by storing information on your computer so that you don't have to wait for your slow funky dial up to grind its own gears. Basically, it's bringing the web data to you.
Now they're going mobile with it.
Opera Mini, the mobile browser, has gained way more traction than their desktop version. Global reach and being on as many devices as possible has always been a goal of theirs. Although they don't have a huge market share with Desktop users, the people who use it are loyal beyond belief.
The loyalty comes from the fact that Opera is extremely focused on web standards, something that Microsoft has not cared about until recently with Internet Explorer. In fact, Opera sued them over it.
You'll be able to give Google Gears for mobile a shot when Opera Mini 9.5 comes out later this year.
Life's getting mobile, and it seems that's the way it's always going to be. Humans don't come off as the traveling type, yet we do. From horse carriages to cell phones, we're always looking for ways to do more on the move, so what's missing from your mobile life in 2008 and how can you fix it? The following list may help.
1. Full access to YouTube in Windows Mobile: Everyone's got a solution for playing YouTube Mobile videos on a Windows Mobile phone, but it seems no one's giving Windows Mobile users a way to access YouTube.com's full, flash video library. Oh wait, there is a solution. It only requires users to install a specific version of TCPMP and the Flash Video Bundle, an add-on to TCPMP to give it the ability to play flash video. Use Pocket IE to navigate to YouTube (a few other flash video sites are also supported). Clicking on a video will open TCPMP to play it. Easy, right?
You could also install Orb on your PC and use the Orb mobile client to find YouTube videos on the go, but that solution requires you to leave your home PC on all the time.
With over 1 billion page views from phones using the Opera Mini Web browser, could the Norwegian browser developer be targeting the iPhone next?
Opera was originally built in 1994 to battle against the heavy hitter that Netscape was. Then everything changed as the mobile landscape grew and Opera began focusing on viewing proper HTML documents on handheld devices. Opera Mini basically connects to an Opera server via a cell connection compresses and reformats content distributing it back to the Mini client displaying content that is closer to what can be seen on desktop computers.
With the release of the iPhone and the Safari browser pulling in the "real" web, many mobile web users are starting to demand this type of content on all devices. This gives Opera Mini a great advantage in the lower end cell phone market. Because lower end devices do not have a browser that displays the web like Opera already installed, they are less likely to use the mobile web. Forget spending $300 for a mobile device, if providers jump on Opera Mini there could be an even stronger demand for Opera Mini web browsing solutions on all lower priced phones.
Add the search engine of your choice to the start page
Native menu for BlackBerry phones and other BlackBerry optimizations
Collapses long menu lists to save screen space
Support for secure connections
Enables small fonts
Improved image quality
Improved cookie support
Support for more phones
Opera Mini 4 beta 2 installs next to beta 1 without erasing any of your settings. The Opera Mini team plans to release one more beta of Opera Mini 4 before launching the final version. [via Opera Watch]
Congratulations. You've spent the weekend managing not to buy an iPhone, which is more than we can say for at least two Download Squad writers.
Sure, the new phone is the coolest thing since sliced bread was replaced by low-carb bagels. But aside from an innovative new interface and one of the best web browsers ever to grace a mobile device, does it really do anything new?
Today we'll take a look at some of the features that make the iPhone special -- and show you how your 2 year old Windows Mobile phone or PDA can accomplish most of the same tasks.
Opera Mini has a reputation as one of the fastest web browsers for java-enabled cell phones. Opera Mini does a great job of rendering web pages in no time flat. Opera Mini 3 adds a few new features to speed up your mobile web browsing even further.
Probably the biggest new feature in Opera Mini 3 is RSS support. You can subscribe through the browser and get updates every time you connect. You can sort articles by source or date.
Other new features:
Support for photo sharing. You can snap a picture on your camera phone from within the browser, and then upload your photo to a blog or forum. This feature does not work with all camera phones.
Support for secure connections such as banks or online stores.
There's a new "content folding" feature which automatically shrinks long menus. That means they take less time to load, and take up less room on your small screen. You can expand a menu by hitting the "+" button next to it.
Opera Mini does have some limitations, since it's a Java based web browser. You can't set it as your default browser, and you can't copy and paste from within the browser to other applications. But you can't argue with the price: free.
The cult favorite Opera Browser has added support for Google Gears to its desktop and mobile browsers.
Congratulations. You've spent the weekend managing not to buy an iPhone, which is more than we can say for at least two Download Squad writers. 
