Opera tries to out-do the iPhone
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All it takes is a decent browser Opera has launched a beta of its mobile browser, Opera Mini: version 4 supports smooth zooming around web pages and server-based page optimisation, giving Opera claim to deliver the whole internet ahead of Apple's much-anticipated iPhone.â¦
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Apple's plan to release a software kit that lets people create legitimate add-ons for the iPhone could make the device appeal to an even wider audience.
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Opera Software has released a beta of version 4 of its popular Opera Mini browser for mobile phones, which integrates features the company designed for its Nintendo Wii browser. Now, users can see an entire Web page in "overview mode" and zoom in to specific parts.
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(InfoWorld) - No one ever said Apple marketers weren't clever. So if they wanted to start a firestorm of ISVs developing applications for the iPhone, how better to do that than to make development as simple as possible with the least barriers? Nevertheless, until we hear more details from Apple about the way in which applications are handled on the iPhone, we won't know how clever Apple really is. At WWDC07, Jobs promised that there will be a "new way to create applications for the iPhone" due mainly to the fact that it uses the full Safari browser engine. But a lot of developers are disappointed with what Apple is offering. "Web-based apps are cool for a lot of things. But what people were looking forward to was to to let them develop native applications," said Anthony MeadowÂ , president of Bear River AssociatesÂ , an ISV for mobile applications Without native access to facilities, you don't have storage or sharing of information between applications, or reading and writing from address book and iCal. "There is not any easy way to do that with a Web-based application," said Meadow. Overall, Meadow was not impressed. Although he admitted it is really not very clear what Apple intends. But, he added, "If they don't intend to have access, they should just tell us." Ken Dulaney, the senior mobile analyst with Gartner says Apple's Web 2.0 solution is likely to be similar to what RIM does now. "It avoids having to put code down on the device," Says Dulaney, which in turn protects it from crashing due to outside influences. On RIM devices, the application is rendered on the server side, and the cache in the browser reformats it and pushes it down to the device. "The code is only resident briefly on the device," Dulaney said. Similar technology is also used by device manufacturers using mobile Linux from MontaVista. Now resident on tens of millions of cell phones, the MontaVista design uses a "computing peer" design, Linux on the server and on the phone, giving developers the flexibility of partitioning an application on the client side and server side. An ISV can put a heavy load on the phone or a light one, says Jim Ready, CTO and founder of MontaVista. "Linux on the phone is every bit as capable as Linux on the server," said Ready. Certainly this supports similar statements from Jobs about Safari on the desktop and Safari on the iPhone. However, like Meadow at Bear River, Ready has some reservations about the future capabilities or the richness of applications running on the iPhone. When applications are developed solely using an "abstracted" development environment that doesn't talk to the lower layers of the device, such as the hardware and middleware, there is a dividing line in terms of the capabilities of the application. "Take video frame rates. The reason you back out of an abstracted environment is because you pay for the abstraction in performance. It is a tradeoff," said Ready. And not only for performance -- developers also need to write native applications that get down closer to access the hardware and the middleware for size and control reasons, as well, although Meadow doesn't see access to hardware as a major problem. "There is a handful of people that care about writing to the chips. It is possibly useful for really high performance graphic drivers and low level networking code," he says. So where does that leave gamers and business users whose need for rich network applications might be problematic on the iPhone? Unfortunately, until the full story is known, it is hard to tell what the software limitations of the iPhone will be. Certainly, if Apple wants the device to be a great mobile gaming system for use by millions of road warriors during those long waits at the airport, it will have to address the issue of how to get developers to write applications native to both the hardware and middleware. In business as well, cell phones are currently being used with customized software, such as bar code and RFID readers. "You can't do that with a browser interface," says Jerry Panagrossi, vice present of U.S. Operations for Symbian. "You need something more in-depth that can talk to IBM or Oracle middleware using native APIs for a richer experience." Jim Ready at MontaVista sums it up when he says keeping the development environment as simple as possible will facilitate the largest amount of applications. As far as the capabilities of those applications Ready says, "There are limits, but sometimes it's okay that there are limits."
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(InfoWorld) - Third-party software developers can create Web 2.0 applications to run on Apple's forthcoming iPhone, company CEO Steve Jobs said Monday. [ For the latest from the show, readÂ Tom Yager's Enterprise Mac blog. ] Jobs told an enthusiastic audience at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2007 in San Francisco that developers could write applications that work and look like iPhone applications from Apple, including those for making calls, sending e-mail, and other functions. The iPhone, a combination cell phone, Web browser, and video and music player, goes on sale June 29. Developers will be able to create applications for the iPhone by using Web 2.0 programming toolsÂ such asÂ AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and taking advantage of the full version of Apple's Safari Web browser incorporated into the devices. A separate, special software developer kit is not needed, Jobs said. The software development announcement was the last item in a 90-minute keynote address devoted mostly to the new OS X version 10.5 operating system, code-named Leopard and scheduled for release in October. Jobs highlighted 10 of what he said were 300 new features for Leopard, an upgrade from the present Tiger OS. Leopard will sell for $129. Also, Apple's updated Web browser, Safari 3.0, will be available to run on Windows Vista and Windows XP, Jobs said. Apple is releasing a public beta of Safari 3 for Mac OS X and Windows Monday, said Jobs. Jobs said the company took a cue from its experience enabling the iTunes Web music and video store to run on Windows. Safari has only 5 percent of the market for Web browsers, compared to 78 percent for Windows and 15 percent for the Firefox browser. Jobs said running on Windows could increase Safari's market share. Some in the audience of an estimated 5,000 literally oohed and ahhed as Jobs demonstrated new features of Leopard, including a feature called Stacks. In order to reduce clutter on computer desktops, Stacks can hide application icons behind the main icons on the application dock at the bottom of the screen. Click one of those icons, and others behind it shoot up toward the top of the screen in a stack. Leopard will also run 32- and 64-bit applications side by side, Jobs said. He also demonstrated a new Leopard feature called Core Flow in which images of files flip quickly across the screen from side to side, allowing users to find the image they want, click it, and see that file open up full screen. "This is an amazing way to find things, and it's incredibly useful," Jobs said. Apple said in April that it would delay Leopard's launch until October because it was devoting time and energy to bringing the iPhone to market. Apple is gaining attention because of TV commercials featuring a character called "Mac" and another called "PC." In a video prior to Jobs' keynote, John Hodgman, the comedian who plays the dim-witted Windows PC user in the commercials, appeared onscreen wearing Jobs' trademark black turtleneck and blue jeans, trying to pass himself off as Jobs. "I'm quitting," he declared, saying that he was closing down Apple because the Windows Vista OS was just too popular. "They have sold tens of ... dozens of copies," Hodgman said.
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According to David Needle , customers of NetSuiteâs âon-demand, integrated business management applicationsâ are already using iPhone to take advantage of its web-based services. It was âApple putting Safari on the iPhone [that] made it a simple processâ for the company to extend service to iPhone customers, says Sean Rollings, NetSuiteâs senior director of product marketing. Using the built-in Safari browser, says Rollings, â âsalespeople will be able to get a lot of their work done on an iPhone. You have the ability to check inventory for the availability of a product and get an answer in real time.ââ
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(InfoWorld) - With the release of Apple's iPhone on June 29, IT managers are hustling to find ways to support the devices, anticipating the moment when the CEO walks in with one and demands, "Give me my corporate e-mail on this gizmo." Analysts and IT managers said Thursday the iPhone will be popular among their workers who buy them for consumer uses, but the devices will certainly challenge businesses because of the needed support for e-mail, iTunes songs, and other applications. For example, at communications conglomerate ABC in New York, the official policy, for now, is not to support the iPhone at all, but there will be some exceptions for top executives. "At this point, with a few exceptions, the iPhone is not a supported device, but for one or two ABC presidents, we'll make the walls move to allow it because we're in the communications business" and they will want to see iPhone's capabilities, said Jeff Plotkin, an engineer for broadcast operations and a technology liaison at ABC. "We'll figure out how to allow them access to e-mail." Plotkin and other IT managers said there will be plenty of iPhone allure for their workers even though the multifunction device doesn't support Lotus Notes or Windows Outlook e-mail, which are popular in corporate settings. Instead, iPhone will provide a Web access client for e-mail access, analysts noted. "After it is out and the price point comes down, more people here might set up a business case for it, saying it could do this or that," Plotkin added. "I can see our policy changing eventually." Also, the iPhone will pose a nightmare for IT because it requires an iTunes music directory account for each user, IT managers said, putting IT in the position potentially of providing song storage capacity and justifying that the copyrights for the songs were not violated or that the songs were properly paid for. "How many enterprises want iTunes software running around in the enterprise?" asked Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. Meanwhile, corporate policy at Marriott already prohibits iTunes registration on Marriott's systems by its workers, said Arnaldo Impelizieri, director of hotel technology for the Grande Lakes Orlando resort, which is run by Marriott. "We're worried about the size of iTunes files and also who is buying songs or not, and the huge concern about potential copyright infringements," he said. However, Impelizieri said the hotel chain faces a dilemma because it will want to support the iPhone, and iTunes, for its hotel guests. "If a customer has one, we'll do our best to support it, but that will require some sorting out. We have to get our hands on the iPhone and see if it's all that it's beefed up to be. When BlackBerry first came out, there was a wave of uncertainty at first." For months, industry analysts have warned about e-mail access, security, and whether the voice quality of the iPhone will be up to corporate standards. Dulaney is finalizing a report describing iPhone concerns but would not discuss it until its release next week. "Lots of Gartner clients are asking" about iPhone for business uses, Dulaney said. "They are scared of this device." Tim Ma, a biomedical engineer at the American Red Cross in Washington who also handles some IT planning, said he expects "pressure from users" to support the iPhone. "It's too early in the game to say if we'd support it. We'd need a proven track record before moving forward." He said he is personally curious about iPhone's features and potential benefits for a large organization and will eventually test it out thoroughly. For one thing, the iPhone will have a full-screen Web browser, an apparent advantage over what Reseach in Motion's BlackBerry offers the Red Cross. Meanwhile, he added, "We have a contract with BlackBerry for a long time." Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, said he doesn't consider the iPhone as currently envisioned suitable for business users unless they limit their use to functions like the phone. "IPhone doesn't have push e-mail," he noted. Early reviews from February that the iPhone's voice quality was not good have raised questions as well, he said. "Everybody assumes that because Apple makes it, the iPhone will be great, but it's hard to make a good phone, let alone pass data," Gold said. "Still, executives are going to come back from the store and tell IT to make it work."
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Opera Software on Tuesday released the final version 3.0 of its Opera Mini Web browser, which is designed for mobile phones. The upgrade introduces a number of new social networking features, such as photo sharing and a built-in RSS reader.
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InfoWorld - Opera Software&#39;s plans to beef up its browser so that Adobe Flash Player-like functionality will be intrinsic to the program are a move in the right direction.
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Opera Software says the latest version of its browser has so many new bells and whistles that developers decided to skip the traditional version release and opt for a full-scale launch.
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Browser maker lances file download bug Opera has fixed a flawed involving how its browser handles Torrent files that allowed hackers to attack vulnerable systems.â¦
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Blog: Group claims it can unbind the iPhone from a specific carrier to "expand the functionality" of the device.
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(InfoWorld) - Opera Software plans to release the third version of the Opera Mini mobile phone browser on Tuesday, adding features that aim to boost its social networking capabilities and improve functionality overall. Opera Mini 3.0 integrates with the camera included in many phones so that users can easily upload photos to social networking sites. The feature works with many services including Flickr and MySpace and takes advantage of the sites' existing methods for uploading photos. Typically, such Web sites include a box where users click to browse through their files for the photo they want to upload. When Opera Mini 3.0 users click on the box, the phone automatically activates the camera. The browser then asks the users if they want to take and upload a photo and confirms the upload after the users take the photo. A couple of other offerings are already available to phone users for uploading photos to sites like Flickr, but they typically involve a separate piece of software that users must download to their phones. For example, Shozu phone software can automatically upload cameraphone photos to Flickr. Also, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications earlier this year said it would start loading software on to three of its phones toÂ enable easy photo uploading to Google's Blogger. Flickr also has its own mobile offering that lets phone users e-mail photos to their Flickr page. Opera Mini 3.0 also includes a couple of other new features. The browser will automatically collapse potentially long lists of menu items on Web sites so that users don't have to scroll through them. Users can click on a plus sign at the top of the page to expand the menu. The new browser also allows users to subscribe to and receive RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, and it now supports encryption, so that phone users can securely access banking information or shop online. The Opera Mini phone software works together with servers, hosted by Opera or a third party like a mobile operator, to improve the mobile browsing experience. When users visit Web sites, the remote servers strip down the size of the sites, making them load quicker and look better on the small screens of mobile phones. Opera Mini is available for free from Opera but some operators are starting to load the software onto phones before they sell them. T-Mobile International includes a self-branded version of Opera Mini on a few phones and Spain's Telefonica recently began working with Opera and handset makers to load a Telefonica-branded version of the browser for phones that are part of its Nevega mobile Web service. Around 8 million unique users have downloaded the Opera Mini client from Opera and Opera's servers are on track to serve out a billion Web pages this year, said Christen Krogh, vice president for engineering at Opera. Opera Mini was designed to work on any Java-enabled phone and Opera has tested and verified 500 compatible handsets, he said.
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Just when Microsoft thought it had the EU out of its hair, Opera may have brought it back to the bargaining table.
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For the Smurf on the go With the iPhone not even fully digested by the gadget market's unquenchable pie-hole, many are already eagerly eying what Apple will serve up for its next course.â¦
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Visit iPhone.com and you'll see ads for various cell phones that play music &#151; but Apple Inc.'s much-hyped iPhone isn't one of them.
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On Tuesday, Opera Software unleashed the latest commercial version of its mobile Web browser. Opera Mobile 9.5 was developed for sophisticated mobile devices and offers users a desktop-like browsing experience, complete with zooming and panning. The Norwegian company said the browser loads pages quicker for a more PC-like experience.