Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

Opera Mini coming to the iPad

By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Gearing up for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, Norway’s Opera Software has revealed it plans to launch a version of its Opera Mini Web browser for the Apple iPad, marking the browser maker’s first explicit foray into the tablet computer market. Opera also announced that some 105 million people use an Opera-based browser every month, with about 90 million on Opera Mini and about 15 million on Opera Mobile.

“Experts all have some date when they claim the mobile Web will overtake the PC Web—we’re watching that transition now,” said Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner, in a statement. “But, rather than think of numbers, we think of people. 100 million is the beginning of a new era for the Web.”

Recommended Videos

Opera may still be struggling to gain a significant share of the desktop and notebook browser market, but the company has had strong success getting its browsers into feature phones, smartphones, and devices like the Nintendo Wii and DSi. At Mobile World Congress Opera plans to unveil new versions of Opera Mini for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry, as well, as Symbian and J2ME.

Related

Opera was the first alternative browser to become available for the Apple iPhone, and the app’s approval was a test of Apple’s notoriously fickle application approval process. Would Opera for iPhone be rejected because it duplicated functionality already in the iPhone—Apple’s own Safari browser—or would Apple approve it, enabling competition for mobile browsing on iOS? Apple did eventually approve Opera Mini, largely because of Opera’s architecture that mediates all page loads through a server that optimizes content for the Opera client. Opera Mini for iPad will undoubtedly follow a similar design.

“We want our browser to impact lives in a meaningful way,” said Opera CEO Lars Boilesen. “It’s one reason we use mostly renewable resources to power Opera Mini’s servers. It’s why we make it light, so you don’t have to recharge your battery every few hours. It’s why Opera Mini and Opera Mobile can help operators reduce the bandwidth that clogs their networks. A browser may never change the world, but we’ll never stop trying to.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
Apple just did something amazing to the iPad
The yellow iPad (2022) lying face-down on a green bush.

Apple's "Let Loose" event just wrapped up, and as expected, there was a lot of iPad news. Just like the rumors suggested, Apple gave us pretty significant overhauls for the new 2024 iPad Air and 2024 iPad Pro. But there was another iPad-related announcement that I didn't expect — and it's the one I'm most excited about.

At the end of its event, Apple announced that the 10th-generation iPad will now be available for just $349. For context, Apple originally launched the 10th-gen iPad in October 2022 for $449. A $100 price cut is nothing to sneeze at, and if you ask me, it completely changes the positioning of this particular iPad.

Read more
The new iPad Pro is here, and it looks absolutely ridiculous
Official photo of the 2024 iPad Pro.

Apple announced the new iPad Pro series, which seems like the biggest upgrade to an iPad in years, at its Let Loose event on May 7. It brings an all-new processor, design, and display. The new iPad Pros still come in two sizes — 13 inches and 11 inches — and they now carry the "thinnest Apple product ever made" badge. It's a big achievement, considering Apple is dubbing the tablets' M4 processor as a "PC chip." In short, it's a bit more impressive than today's iPad Air news.

The new iPad Pros feature an OLED display for per-pixel brightness precision and greater contrast. It also allows for better immersion in content consumption. The displays can reach 1,000 nits of sustained brightness and 1,600 nits of peak brightness for supported HDR content.

Read more
How to fix iMessage activation errors on your iPhone
Close-up photo of the Messages app on an iPhone.

If you have an iPhone, you probably use iMessage as your primary messaging app. This is especially true if you also have other Apple devices, like a Mac and an iPad. Typically, iMessage should work without much effort on your part.

But sometimes you may come across a problem with iMessage, whether it’s just Apple’s servers being down or even getting some activation errors. While you can’t control whether Apple’s servers are working or not, there's a fix if you happen to get some activation errors.

Read more