Opera For iPhone To Test Apple's Resolve 292
Barence writes "Opera is launching a version of its Mini browser for the iPhone in what could prove a landmark decision for Apple's app gatekeepers. Apple has been traditionally hostile to rival browsers, with Mozilla claiming that Apple made it 'too hard' for its rivals to develop a browser for the iPhone. However, Opera remains bullishly confident that its app will be approved. 'We have not submitted Opera Mini to the Apple App store,' an Opera spokesperson told PC Pro. 'However, we hope that Apple will not deny their users a choice in web browsing experience.'" I can't imagine what would motivate them to do that.
EU/FCC wont do a thing (Score:5, Informative)
The EU ruled against Microsoft not because it was a monopoly (that is not illegal in the EU) but because it used its monopoly position against other companies, in other words the EU ruled against Microsoft because Microsoft was an abusive monopoly.
Apple is twice as abusive as Microsoft ever was but they are far from being a monopoly. Apple are permitted to lock down their platform as there are many other platforms to chose from, Apple is not in a position to control the market so the EU wont do a thing (unless Apple have broken another EU law, but if they did the EU would have already made a statement to that effect).
Re:Forced to include in EU? (Score:4, Informative)
Difference is, apple does not have the same market-share on smartphone OSes as microsoft has on desktop OSes.
Re:Well, Opera Mini isn't strictly a browser... (Score:5, Informative)
It doesn't terminate in the sense that you suggest - connection between Opera servers and mobile phone is always encrypted, on every webpage.
Yes, when accessing encrypted websites, the pages and data are in an unencrypted form on Opera servers (only there!)...which isn't that big of a problem. You need to only ask yourself whether you trust Opera Software ASA.
If not...you can still use the advantages of Opera Mini on most of webpages; unless you really limit yourself to visiting your bank website on a mobile device, for some reason.
Re:It does not violate SDK terms (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, you can turn off image loading in the settings. As well as selecting quality level.
Re:It does not violate SDK terms (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What about opera mobile? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Confused? I certainly am... (Score:4, Informative)
from a different source I read earlier (norwegian, interviewing a norwegian person from opera), it's not submitted yet, because it's still in beta.
Re:It does not violate SDK terms (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Forced to include in EU? (Score:5, Informative)
It's not the same thing in practice, though. The actions of a corporation with a near monopoly on the market have different repurcussions than the same actions performed by a minority player. I mean, if Apple's locked down the iPhone browser, they've removed browser developers' ability to compete, and customers' browser choice, but only on the iPhone. They're a minority player in a competitive market, so the remaining 85% of smartphone owners are unaffected, and the 15% with iPhones can switch easily. If Microsoft locks down the Windows browser, they've removed browser developers' ability to reach the overwhelming majority of computer users, and thanks to Windows' near-monopoly, there's precious little to switch to.
Re:Well, Opera Mini isn't strictly a browser... (Score:5, Informative)
It's not like it's some big secret. From Opera Mini FAQ (http://www.opera.com/mini/help/faq/#security):
Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?
No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full Web browser such as Opera Mobile.
Opera Mini uses a transcoder server to translate HTML/CSS/JavaScript into a more compact format. It will also shrink any images to fit the screen of your handset. This translation step makes Opera Mini fast, small, and also very cheap to use. To be able to do this translation, the Opera Mini server needs to have access to the unencrypted version of the Web page. Therefore no end-to-end encryption between the client and the remote Web server is possible.
And
Can Opera Software see my passwords and credit card numbers in clear text? What is the encryption good for then?
The encryption is introduced to protect the communication from any third party between the client (the browser on your handset) and the Opera Mini transcoder server. If you do not trust Opera Software, make sure you do not use our application to enter any kind of sensitive information.
Re:Opera's Motivation (Score:3, Informative)
No real profit in browsers, wha?
For someone like Google, maybe. Opera is making a piddling amount of profit even in comparison to someone like Red Hat.
So how is Opera operating as a company and how did the Mozilla Foundation raise $78 million in revenue in 2008?
By getting paid by Google to make them the default search engine in the browsers. That's how they make the majority of their money.
Re:Forced to include in EU? (Score:4, Informative)
"Apple, not having sufficient influence on any related market" I believe they're the top pick in the smartphone market right now.
Yeah, Apple has 25% or so market share. Regulators usually start investigating at about 70%.
Locking out a browser would probably be the same thing as Microsoft not allowing browsers on their machines, or saying that IE was "integrated" into Windows.
If Apple had 70% or more of the relevant market, and that market was already established in previous court cases, then it might be the same. There's a long way before we're there though.
Re:Forced to include in EU? (Score:5, Informative)
* One thing we have got to change in our strategy - allowing Office documents to be rendered very well by other peoples browsers is one of the most destructive things we could do to the company. We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office documents very well depends on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities. o 1998 a memo to the Office product group[2]
Re:Forced to include in EU? (Score:3, Informative)
A little more egregious than that. They intentionally deviated from HTML standards to cause incompatibilities with other browsers, and they used "security" updates to reset IE as the default browser.
Well also they put various hooks into the OS so that, regardless of what you set as your default browser, when you clicked on a link within the OS, IE might come up. There were even allegations that they designed some Windows updates specifically to break competing browsers and cause them to crash.
Anyway, it's not *exactly* the same thing, but it's still pretty crummy that Apple won't allow alternative browsers and mail clients. There was a rumor at one point that AT&T was requiring Apple to control application distribution to prevent things like VoIP and tethering, but there's really no excuse for preventing alternate browsers.
I'm a bit of an Apple fan, but they really need to just open up the iPhone and iPad and allow people to download whatever applications you want. For as much as Apple is benefiting right now from open source projects, they should understand the importance of openness.
Re:Forced to include in EU? (Score:5, Informative)
On the main computer platform, all browsers are available and easy as pie to install -- with the exception of Internet Explorer, which Microsoft stopped developing for the Mac years ago.
On the phone, Apple's Webkit runs on the iPhone, Android, and some other platforms. It's open source, after all. There are already other browsers on the iPhone. Check out the app store. What Opera had done was a weird construction based on Java that they didn't submit to the app store, because it demanded Java, which they know damn well the iPhone doesn't support. Gruber has the story here.
http://daringfireball.net/2008/11/opera_app_store [daringfireball.net]
On the other hand, this PR genius seems to be starting off on the wrong foot. He's basically blackmailing Jobs to prove he's not a bully. That doesn't seem like a negotiation, but like blackmail. But it certainly helps them on Slashdot/Apple, where any wild surmise about the dictatorial Apple is taken as gospel.
Re:Forced to include in EU? (Score:1, Informative)