Friday, May 16, 2008

Opera Mini 4.1 released

The latest release of the Opera browser for mobile devices, Opera Mini 4.1, was officially upgraded from its beta status yesterday and is now available for download.

The latest version of the free handheld browser includes several features borrowed from its desktop-based companion, Opera 9.5. These include a Find feature that highlights entered terms on a page (a feature sadly lacking from most browsers aimed at the mobile market) and the ability to guess what URL you were hoping to visit after the entry of a few characters in the address bar.

If you're installing Opera Mini on a phone that supports the JSR-75 extensions to Java, then you'll enjoy the ability to save pages into the memory of your phone as well as the option to upload and download files of any format. Whether you can actually use the files you download will, of course, depend on what other software you've got installed.

Possibly the best new feature for 4.1 is an improvement to the compression algorithms used to minimise data transfer costs and give you a speedy-feeling web on your mobile – Opera claims that the new version cuts page load times in half compared to previous releases of Opera Mini.

If you've got a Windows Mobile or Symbian based handset, then I've got some bad news for you – you'll have to plump for the paid-for commercial version of Opera Mini, Opera Mobile. Users of Java-based phones and PalmOS units with a Java environment installed, however, will be able to enjoy the freebie.

What browser do you use on your mobile devices, or do you firmly believe that a phone is for voice calls and nothing more? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

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