The Fat Lady Rings: Opera for Cell Phones

By Geoff Duncan August 10, 2005

Opera Software has announced Opera Mini, a lightweight Java program which, combined with a server-based pre-processing service, the company claims can bring Web browsing to more than 700 million low- and medium-cost cell phones which have comparatively little memory or processing power.

Opera is currently conducting a pilot project with Norway’s TV-2 television network, which has included Opera Mini in its mobile phone services. The company says wider distribution is planned.

Opera Mini works using a small Java program which can run on a variety of phones with comparatively little memory or processing power: all that’s required is the capability to run Java programs and support GPRS Internet access. According to Opera Software, Opera Mini supports the majority of WAP-enabled cell phones on the market. The Opera Mini Java program n the cell phone connects to a remote server, which pre-processes requested Web pages using Opera’s Small Screen Rendering technology developed for Opera’s more phone-intensive browser, Opera Mobile. The pages are then transferred to the phone using Opera’s OBML markup language, consuming about one-fifth the bandwidth of the unprocessed page.

Opera Mini includes many standard Web browser features such as bookmarks and history, plus the ability to break up large Web pages into sections for faster, clearer browsing. However, it does not support Java or browser plug-ins, and while Opera Mini can handle some scripted functionality (such as form validation) some client scripting may not function. Security is a potential concern for some users; while the server software enabling Opera Mini makes secure connections to remote Web sites, the connection from the server to cell phone is not currently secure.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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