20 October 2008

Opera Mobile 9.5 BETA 2 Released
And Finally Available for UIQ Devices

The long awaited Symbian version of Opera Mobile browsers v9.5 is finally available for symbian devices, actually for UIQ powered and touch equipped devices!

Opera today announced the launch of Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta 2 which introduces Opera Widgets to the public, enabling one-click Web content access and released the very first Beta for UIQ based phones which is available for free download from Opera site.

"Opera has built its second Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta based on user-generated feedback following its first public release earlier this year," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "In addition to Opera Widgets, this new test version promises to be a smoother ride than the previous version, as we have improved page loading times and increased our focus on end-user productivity."

Unfortunately it is still not available for the world largest Smartphone platform and millions of S60 devices but at least this is a pretty good sign that Opera didn’t abandoned Symbian platform and that they are actually working on the Symbian port of its latest mobile browser.

So what is the next step? Fifth edition version optimized for Nokia Tube and its great High-resolution screen or maybe the 3rd ed version optimized for non-touchscreen devices!? I’m closer to conclusion that they’ll try to adopt Opera Mobile for the 5th edition because it it si already touch optimized and it will be easier task!

From other hand now it is more than obviously that Opera Mobile v9.5 is the touch optimized browser and I am really curious when they are going to port it to older non touch phones equipped with lower resolution screens and how it looks like once when it will be ready!?

I know it is just another disappointing new for S60 users who have been waiting for such a long time but waiting a little bit longer won't make a big difference, just let’s hope they’ll release it soon or later.