Opera Mini for iPhone approved, will be available for free (update: hands-on)

Our man Thomas Ricker was just wondering how long it would take before Apple determined the fate of Opera Mini for iPhone, and we've got some good news -- it's been approved and will be available for free on the App Store within 24 hours! Can't say we were expecting that, since non-Safari-based browsers have typically been verboten from Apple's little kingdom, but we're certainly happy to be surprised. We'll do up a full hands-on when we see it in the store, but for now check the demo video after the break.

Update: We're getting reports that UK and Australian readers are already able to download and enjoy this surprising little addition to the app store -- be sure to give this iTunes link a shot and see if it works in your region, mmkay?

Update 2: We just got our hands on Opera Mini for the iPhone, and the first thing we noticed is, in fact, how fast it renders pages. When we open the app, we are quickly introduced to the default Opera Screen, with links to Facebook, Twitter and the like. Opening a new tab is a single touch and loading virtually any homepage is quick. While scrolling through the loaded page, some images don't fully render until you stop over them. Multitouch is enabled to some extent -- you can pinch to zoom, and double tapping only fully zooms in and out, with really no inbetween. Something else we noticed that we'd been looking for in OS 4, is the ability to Find in Page. It works really well, and the words being searched are highlighted for an easy find. This browser totally kicks safari out of the water, and we're definitely looking forward to updates for Opera Mini.

Update 3: It looks to be live in the US now! Hit up that iTunes link and go wild!

Opera Mini for iPhone submitted to Apple for approval (video)

Show full PR text

Opera Mini App approved for the App Store

Oslo, Norway - April 13, 2010 - Opera today announced its popular mobile browser, Opera Mini has been approved for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store. Opera Mini will be available as a free download within 24 hours, depending on market.

Opera Mini, with more than 50 million users worldwide, enables fast mobile Web browsing by compressing data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the device, resulting in significantly improved page loading. Users of the app will notice an uptake in speed, especially on slower networks such as the 2G Edge network. Surfing the Web with the Opera Mini App on iPhone and iPod touch will also help users save money because of its data compression capabilities. This will hold especially true while the user is incurring roaming charges.

"We are delighted to offer iPhone and iPod touch users a great browsing experience with the Opera Mini App," said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. "This app is another step toward Opera's goal of bringing the Web to more people in more places."

The Opera Mini App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

Resources
A demo video is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpTCS3g-cBY.
Screenshots are available at: www.opera.com/press/resources/.

About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.

[crunc Posted Apr 13th 2010 8:33AM]

Further, there's lots of little things that are really bugging me about this browser. For example one site I go to has an option to remember your password when you log in. Well the checkbox is there, but the label for saying check it to save your login info is missing, and I can't seem to check the checkbox no matter how much I try, zoomed in or not.

Are others actually use Opera mini, or are they just going on a theory? This thing is absolutely atrocious.

[NameIsDavid Posted Apr 13th 2010 8:47AM]

No developer could have doubted this would be approved. The customer doesn't know what rendering engine is being used in a browser app so any browser appears to them to be competing with Safari. Yet, not only has Apple previously approved such apps, they explicitly encouraged it. UIKit contains UIWebView, a view that renders any URL or local HTML using the Safari guts and which you literally drop into your app in seconds. A basic browser can thus be built in no time. Indeed, the view is in the SDK to be used, not avoided.

[roxics Posted Apr 13th 2010 9:23AM]

I like having an option, but honestly this browser is junk. It doesn't offer any features that are better than safari. The pinch to zoom is jumpy, it doesn't display readable text until you zoom in and overall it just renders pages all wonky.

[deepen03 Posted Apr 13th 2010 9:39AM]

wow... best browser EVER!! just downloaded it and it completely rips Safari a new one.. I have been using the Perfect Browser app for a while and I paid 2 bucks for it.. and this Opera Mini is free and better than that one.

[captain Posted Apr 13th 2010 9:40AM]

like abugida says the zooming is a bit hit and miss along with scrolling other than that feature rich sites load fast and i feels alot snappier

[koehler83 Posted Apr 13th 2010 9:43AM]

Anything but Safari

[Stuchbery Posted Apr 13th 2010 9:54AM]

The only thing I don't like about this, and I know a fair few of you will disagree with me here, is the way it renders text. I find that when viewing a whole web page, such as the home page of Engadget, are almost illegible.

[zelannii Posted Apr 13th 2010 10:02AM]

Gah! This interface is mostly useless. Can't do any kind of interactive content, including drop-down menus!

yea, it's fast, yea, it's an alternative. It;s not going to be my browser for surfing much at all....

[desinerd Posted Apr 13th 2010 10:24AM]

Somehow, I can't do custom zoom on this. It's either all zoomed out (displaying whole width of page) of zoomed 'x' times. I can't do zoom to 0.5x for example

[crunc Posted Apr 13th 2010 11:12AM]

@desinerd Yep. It's just an utterly crappy browser all around. I can't understand the love for it. Maybe it's because others are using crappy browsers on other platforms and don't have Safari to compare to? I don't know.

[RethEldirood Posted Apr 13th 2010 10:34AM]

Pages load pretty fast, cool interface, but it just doesn't display most pages as well as Safari. No pinch-to-zoom, either.

[YoEnri Posted Apr 13th 2010 10:35AM]

Not impress. Scrolling is slow. Rendering is not as good as Safari. Faster to load some pages but the whole experience for now is not as convenient. Like the full screen option. Room for improvement. Safari still better. Anyway with apps you don't use browser as often.

[hated Posted Apr 13th 2010 10:52AM]

@abugida I second pretty much everything you say. The biggest gripe for me is how smooth (or not so smooth) the scrolling is, and reading zoomed out text. Fix that and I'll switch.

[benoit Posted Apr 13th 2010 12:19PM]

hi am from mauritius islands already downloaded opera it rocks

[kenny goo Posted Apr 13th 2010 12:22PM]

That whole "you can only write apps in three very similar programming langauges, and not a bit of anything else" still sucks, but this is a welcome change. Props for that.

[dsignet Posted Apr 13th 2010 12:25PM]

Will this pass the 3.3.1 dev aggreement update?

[daguila29 Posted Apr 13th 2010 12:38PM]

US THE WM USERS HAD BEEN TELLING YOU THAT OPERA MINI COULD KICK SAFARIS ASS ANYDAY OF THE WEEK AND YOU GUYS NEVER BELIEVED US, NOW THAT ITS ON THE IPHONE EVEN NILAY AGRESS THAT THIS BABY CAN KICKS SAFARIS ASS

SO I PRODULY SAY "IVE BEEN USING OPERA MOBILE FOR MONTHS WITH WINDOWS MOBILE" WELCOME TO THE PARTY

[Vincent Posted Apr 13th 2010 1:49PM]

@daguila29 you don't have a clue how terrible Opera is:

My problems so far...

Opera Mini...
- doesn't render well
- not always as fast as advertised
- can't connect to network on our enterprise network (WPA-Enterprise)
- has to reload the page if you launch the app
- crashed today like 4 times in 10min
- (is inferior to Safari)

But i'd like the tabs functionality for Safari.

[Snowelevation Posted Apr 13th 2010 12:49PM]

Opera is faster
Opera is more efficient
Opera is cheap

but Opera isn't fun.

the UI sucks, even if the capabilities rule.

[rik66 Posted Apr 13th 2010 1:35PM]

Just wait for the bugfixes. I'm pretty sure they are aware of them- if not,register at their site and point them out,devs there are very responsive - and will fix them in a future release .

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/

Also a good place to check out the developers' blogs etc.
I have been using this browser on desktop since you still had a pro version which you had to pay for and it has never let me down .

[Vincent Posted Apr 13th 2010 1:44PM]

My problems so far...

Opera Mini...
- doesn't render well
- not always as fast as advertised
- can't connect to network on our enterprise network (WPA-Enterprise)
- has to reload the page if you launch the app
- crashed today like 4 times in 10min
- (is inferior to Safari)

But i'd like the tabs functionality for Safari.

[Vincent Posted Apr 13th 2010 1:52PM]

@Vincent I noticed that YouTube videos thumbnails won't be displayed too... what a bummer. BAD USER EXPERIENCE!

[rik66 Posted Apr 13th 2010 1:59PM]

@Vincent Then post this in the thread Opera specifically created for Iphone user feedback ( can be found here : http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=521381 ) which the developers not only read but post replies in.

[mth785 Posted Apr 13th 2010 2:22PM]

@Apple Google Microsoft Opera isn't that good on the iPhone but options are always good.

[bjpatty23 Posted Apr 13th 2010 2:41PM]

Opera sucks for iphone. The text is too small. Changing the setting of the font in settings DOES NOT CHANGE IT. Pinch to zoom is totally messed up. Its either all the way zoom or zoomed all the way out. You cant barely move the zoom level. It just flys all the way in or all the way out as if you just double tapped something. I CANT BELIEVE APPLE APPROVED THIS CRAP TO BE THE FIRST NON SAFARI BROWSER FOR IPHONE!!! Opera needs to go back to school and learn how to write an apple app before puts some crap out that not done and works properly. They have not done anything but make a fool of themselves.

[Apple Google Microsoft Posted Apr 13th 2010 3:16PM]

@Raytem

Who told you I use a PC? You're jumping to premature conclusions. You're being totally overprotective about something totally irrelevant. In fact you're exactly the type of person I despise when it comes to reading posts and comments. Open your eyes to technology other than that from one company, fine you don't like Microsoft...and what??? I couldn't give less of a damn. The reason I said about the fanboys was because when Opera came out on Android about a month ago, there they were, lurking about in the comments putting it down, but now it's on the Iphone they love it...well why hate it in the first place then? Do you understand what I mean? Stop being so uptight.

[azizrahmancom Posted Apr 13th 2010 3:41PM]

OMG!! Pigs can really fly!!

It would be amazing to see Apple approving Mozilla's Firefox Fenec!

Aziz Rahman
http://www.azizrahman.com

[idiotekniQues Posted Apr 13th 2010 4:24PM]

maybe it is better on Android?

i find it has flaws (this one is still in beta as well) but for a ton of my reading websites it is fantastic. i use it to read engadget, ars, gizmodo, various forums i browse, news sites, digg, yelp - to name the majority of my mobile browsing. i find it snaps the text to fit the screen perfectly (as the stock N1 browser does also) and in a good size. it also makes EDGE feel like 3G. i have not used this on interactive websites so can't comment on that. for youtube i use the android app anyways.

[gofightlose Posted Apr 13th 2010 5:06PM]

it is a lot faster, and the tabs are much better! but the zooming isn't multi-touch and now webpages don't recognize me as an iphone, they see me as a mobile device, so i get these watered-down ugly version of sites. :\

[carlover Posted Apr 13th 2010 6:46PM]

now I'm a happy unlocked edge owner yaeeeeeee

[HTCAndroidTre Posted Apr 13th 2010 7:20PM]

@TheLondonExchange
really ive just learned not to listen to a thing you say. its like you like being downranked...

[justjc Posted Apr 13th 2010 8:21PM]

Now we just need WebOS to find a safe home, so it can get Opera as well.

[Amarei Posted Apr 14th 2010 8:16PM]

Wow, this IS ridiculously blazingly fast.
Is it my imagination though, or is it slightly more twitchy on the whole screen orientation thing? So much for late night in-bed browsing (which is just about doable on Safari after it's rotated 270 degrees already)
Anyone else notice this ?
Great to see Apple opening up anyway.

[jjsavage Posted Apr 14th 2010 10:45PM]

Does anyone else wonder if a bandwidth-efficient browser coming out at the same time as the iPhone is about to be launched on Verizon is a coincidence...?

[Heliosphan Posted Apr 15th 2010 7:36AM]

Hmmm
I just tried it out, I dont like the fact that if you're not zoomed into a page, the text isn't even slightly readable. Even in Landscape mode, on mob safari, you could read a lot of pages zoomed out in Landscape mode.
I do however like the fact it defaults to the desktop version of most websites, BBC included.
Haven't tried it for much else, so far its no better or worse than mob safari except for the un-zoomed text thing. I haven't noticed any significant speed improvements and I'm not all that fussed about the tabbed browsing thing.

[mr patent Posted Apr 15th 2010 6:23PM]

All we now need is chrome browser for iPhone with built in flash.

now were talking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!