Beta version of Opera 8.65 for Windows Mobile released; includes Flash support
Published April 2nd, 2007 4:22 PM EDT By Daniel Goldman
Opera today released a beta version of Opera 8.65 for Windows Mobile (WM) Smartphones and Pocket PCs (PPC). The browser runs on WM 2003, WM 5 and WM 6. (Download here)
This new version contains many new features and includes lots of improvements since the last version of the browser was released. Some of the notable new features and improvements include Flash support, Windows Media Player support, web search directly from the address bar (e.g. “g opera mini”), new skin and toolbar layout, grab and scroll, import IE bookmarks, and the ability to save images and copy text. (Read the complete changelog)
This is the first Smartphone version of Opera Mobile for WM5, such as the Motorola Q, T-Mobile Dash, and Samsung Blackjack. The new Opera Mobile also works on the newly released WM6.
Christian, who provided me with some of the screenshots below, blogged about his first thoughts on the new browser.
Opera 8.65 beta is available as a free trial version until June 1st, 2007.
Related: Last week I blogged about how downloads for the Opera Mobile WM browser increased by 50%.
Flash (YouTube) video on Opera Mobile
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Mobile Web is about speed and real estate… Having 30% of screen showing non web content, is a waste of real estate…
Best UI would let user switch individual bars etc. on/off by *clicking* on toggle points on vertical scroll bar… (or have back and forward buttons and scroll bar shown in full screen mode).
Btw. what happened to forward button on your last screenshot… ???
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How about feed-reader? Opera Mini has a great feed reader, when will the Windows Mobile version get something similar?
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Wow! The divorse from Google is so complete!
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Opera Mobile for the T-Mobile Dash! Hooray!
Odd that I can import my IE bookmarks (of which I have none), but not my Opera Mini bookmarks… heh.
It should be noted that the Flash player only works on PocketPCs - not Windows Smartphones.
So far so good for me. It’s nice to be able to use the left soft key!
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I take it that by “Flash support” you’re refering to Flash 7?
Anyway, I want a Windows Mobile powered PDA now… ASUS has some rather nice ones…
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The website says:
Note. If you already have a pre-registered version of Opera for Windows Mobile on your device, you can try out this Beta and test it without any problems. If you do not want to keep the Beta, download the previous version; your registration is kept.
This seems to suggest (well it doesn’t exclude the possibility) that that my current registration won’t be valid when the final comes out. That would not be cool.
Please Daniel, go and tell somebody that wouldn’t be cool!
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I see mobile Opera skin much better now too…
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Installed yesterday. Definitely the best mobile browser right now.
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Not that I use it, but no 9 for mobile? Did the rendering engine change that much?
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Robin: Opera 9 for Mobile is officially in the works, with a ton of new features, offering users even more choices on how they want to view webpages on small screens: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2007/02/12/
For now, I am really enjoying Opera Mobile 8.65 beta on my Sprint PPC-6700.
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It didn’t change enough to increase the version number. Also, they are currently working on making the Opera 9 core completely cross-platform so that it works on mobile as well as desktop.
Currently, all of the mobile browsers are based on the Opera 8 rendering engine.
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Also… why does it seem like all my comments are held up for screening? I should be exempt.
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BAMAToNE, it’s holding all of my comments in this article for moderation as well. If I remember right, anything that contains certain words (and/or HTML code) is held for moderation, and everything else is allowed through.
It’s better than when Daniel was using Akismet, and most of us couldn’t comment at all…
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Sorry guys about some of the comments being held for moderation, I was on vacation the past couple days. The method of moderation I currently use (by holding comments with certain keywords), I can’t distinguish comments by trusted users unfortunately.
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Opera 9 for mobile is currently being worked on, however at this point it’s only being delivered to handset manufacturers, etc., not to end users. Opera 9 for users will be available at a later time.
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I always find those non-committal answers quite humorous.
I understand the importance of not telling users an actual date, but I’ve come to find the way release dates are not stated to be rather funny…
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The beta /still/ has the screen garbling problem for WM2003 running on a Dell Axim x50v. I really wish they would spend the time and effort to figure out what the problem is, and fix it for the platform. The problem has been around for several versions with no plans for remediation, afaik.
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Isn’t that the case already since Wii uses Opera 9?
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The screen shot above shows a YouTube video running in the browser window. But when I got to YouTube it say that I don’t have Flash installed.
What gives?
I am running the new 8.65 beta.
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RF9, I believe you must download the Flash plugin manually.
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who can tall me where is save image
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Hi-Opera 8.65 is very good but why does the ’save image’button do nothing?
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Hi I have Tmobile and signed up for Tzones, but tzones didnt work on IE and smartphones. Will it work now that opera 8.65 can be installed can someone check and see if they can enter the TZONES menu with the news and sports etc….not just web pages im talking the actual TZONES menu.