Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Opera Software ASA

Opera Mini Hit 76.3 Million Users In October

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:13:26 +0000

Opera’s browser for mobile devices, Opera Mini, hit 76.3 million users last month. After their iPhone application was approved, they saw about one million downloads on the first day. About 41.6 billion pages were loaded in Opera Mini last month, generating in 616 million MB being consumed. Opera revealed these numbers in a report that monitored usage. [TechCrunch]

Opera Buys FastMail.FM

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 03 May 2010 06:56:17 +0000

Opera has acquired webmail service company FastMail.FM. FastMail.FM started about 10 years ago and will continue to run and grow their email service. “Joining together Opera’s expertise in web browsers and especially the mobile market, and FastMail.FM’s expertise in email, will allow us to grow and take on the next big challenges in running and building an email service,” said the FastMail.FM in a statement. The terms of the deal were undisclosed. Opera has about 55 million users of their desktop browser and about 55 million users of the Opera Mini browser.

Opera Mini Browser Apple App Hits 1M Downloads In One Day

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:00:05 +0000

Opera Mini was at the top of the Apple App Store and featured across 22 countries when it launched. As a result the Opera Mini browser application was downloaded one million times on the first day. Below is the full press release.

One million downloads

Opera Mini for iPhone #1 download in iTunes App Stores everywhere

Oslo, Norway – April 15, 2010

Apple said “Yes”, and iPhone users around the world said, “Yes, please”. Opera Mini was downloaded more than one million times in its first day of availability in each market. Opera Mini is currently the number one iPhone app in the 22 featured Apple App Stores on their site, as of 8 a.m. CET today.

iTunes Store Top 10 Apps (image)

According to Apple’s download count, Opera Mini has been added to 1,023,380 Apple devices. Opera Mini is the world’s most popular browser that brings the Web to nearly any mobile phone. Initial previews of the browser garnered rave reviews, indicating that Opera Mini delivers up to six times the speed, especially on congested networks, and significant Web-page compression to keep roaming and pay-per-MB costs at a minimum.

“Today iPhone users have a choice, and, as the numbers show, they are eager to explore new and faster ways to surf the Web on the iPhone – especially during heavy Web traffic,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “With any widely available and frequently downloaded Opera product, we are appreciative of all the feedback we are getting, as it helps us to continually improve our product and better meet the needs of our users.”

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/.

Opera Mini Browser Gets Approved For Apple App Store

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:06:22 +0000

Opera has finally received the green light for a new iPhone web browser. The mobile browser, Opera Mini will work for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Opera Mini compresses data by 90%. “We are delighted to offer iPhone and iPod touch users a great browsing experience with the Opera Mini App,” stated Opera Software CEO in a press release. “This app is another step toward Opera’s goal of bringing the Web to more people in more places.” Opera Mini will be available as a free download. [Opera PR]

List Of April Fools Pranks 2009 On The Web, Reddit Tops All Of Them

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:41:57 +0000

1. Google gave us CADIE, upside down YouTube videos, and GMail autopilot.
2. TorrentFreak told us that Warner Brothers plans to acquire The Pirate Bay.
3. Arrington announced that he is looking for a date from readers and that General Mills has acquired CrunchGear.
4. CenterNetworks announced the CN51 Startup Conference.
5. SocialBlade claims they cracked the Digg algorithm.
6. The Guardian claims they are killing print version of their site and is going Twitter only.
7. Woot.com is selling a bag of crap for $3.00 and $1 million shipping.
8. Opera announced face-gestured web browsing.
9. Car and Driver is reporting that President Obama wants “a complete withdrawal from America’s premier racing series is expected to save more than $250 million between GM and Chrysler, a substantial amount considering the drastic measures being implemented elsewhere.”
10. Qualcomm stated that their convergence program has implemented tiny base stations into thousands of pigeons. They also stated that these are no ordinary pigeons but a hybrid wolfpigeon.
11. SlideShare told their users that they are Rockstars.
12. Funny or Die wrote that they have been acquired by Reba McEntire and is now called RebaOrDie.com.
13. AOL Radio was considering playing Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up all over AOLRadio.com.
14. Amazon.com launches brand new cloud computing service called Floating Amazon Cloud Environment (FACE).

More to be added as they are discovered…

These were all good, but I think out of all them, Reddit had the best April Fools prank. They replaced their entire user interface to look just like Digg as you will notice in the above screen shot.

Mozilla Supporting EFF To Advocate iPhone Jailbreak Support

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:14:25 +0000

Mozilla will be supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation to push for the legalization of iPhone jailbreaking with the U.S. Copyright Office. Mozilla CEO John Lilly stated that “choice is good for users, and choice shouldn’t be criminalized.” Jailbreaking an iPhone means that the device can accept software that is external from what is offered on iTunes. Apple believes that accepting any external software is a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

“This is not us criticizing Apple,” stated Mozilla CEO John Lilly. “But it’s the principle of the thing. Choice is good for users, and choice shouldn’t be criminalized. The Internet is too important for all of us for that.”

Some of the popular applications available on jailbroken iPhone applications include tethering applications.

Mozilla may have a bias against Apple because developing a browser for the iPhone would require them to use the Webkit rendering engine used for Safari. “Given the choice, would we work on a platform where the sole company controlling it makes us unwelcome, or would we work on a platform, like Linux, where we are welcome? The answer is going to be easy for us,” Lilly stated in an interview with Computerworld.

Even if the U.S. copyright office grants jailbroken iPhones from being legal, Mozilla is still unlikely going to develop a browser for the iPhone. This is the same case with Opera Software ASA. It was reported earlier that Apple blocked Opera’s web browsing application from being added to the iTunes App Store. Other companies supporting the EFF include Skype and Cydia.

Digg Launches iPhone-Compatible Site; IE Still Neglected

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 16:25:06 +0000

In a Digg blog post^[1], I read that Kevin Rose, Joe Stump, and Daniel Burka all sat down and thought of a way to design a Digg iPhone application. Joe Stump was able to code the application within 48 hours, so Kevin Rose had to buy him an iPhone. The Digg iPhone application is available at www.digg.com/iphone^[2] and features story scrolling, a list of the top 5 comments, login and digg it abilities, jump to any topic, and pagination (consecutive numbering of pages).

Below is a picture of what the new Digg application looks like on an iPhone:

[image credit: Digg the Blog]

I also tried the Digg iPhone application on the Apple Safari web browser and Mozilla Firefox and it was fully functional on those platforms. However, the Digg iPhone application unsurprisingly did not work functionally on Internet Explorer 7.0 or on Internet Explorer for Windows Mobile 5.0 (standard browser on the Motorola Q mobile phone).

However, I did install Opera Mobile 8.65 Beta for the Motorola Q as Marshall Kirkpatrick suggested^[3] the last time I complained about Digg not working on the Motorola Q and it seems to be somewhat functional (meaning that the links work, but I don’t think the Digg It feature works). Kirkpatrick is currently the Director of Content at SplashCast Media^[4] and a former editor of TechCrunch.

Below is a screen shot of what the digg.com/iphone site looks like using Opera on the Motorola Q:

It doesn’t look as sleek as it does on the iPhone, but at least its somewhat functional.Â And for that I give Digg a little bit of credit.Â Ideally, Digg should work on every browser or have the ability to determine what browser a user is surfing with and accommodate to that.

[1] Digg the Blog: Digg iPhone Beta Live!
[2] digg.com/iphone
[3] Pulse 2.0: Mobility is What Digg Needs
[4] web.SplashCast.net