Apple Approves Opera Mini For iPhone 284
andylim writes "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 in less than 24 hours, market by market, as a free download. Here's the download URL for when it goes live."
wtf (Score:2, Insightful)
Negative reviews? (Score:4, Insightful)
Posting from it now.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Kudos to Opera (Score:2, Insightful)
Opera had already submitted its Opera Mini browser for iPhone and it was rejected. ...
Get your facts straight before you start kissing Steve Jobs
Re:Kudos to Opera (Score:5, Insightful)
it hass passed without any hassle and is now available for everyone, so there's really nothing going on at all.
Whilst the positive press around Opera's browser does certainly generate interest in it, it would be a mistake to conclude from this that Apple is a benevolent dictator which treats apps equally when they compete with its own. Did you consider that one of the reasons the Opera browser may have being accepted is because of the attention that Opera brought to the subject? It is certainly possible that Apple's decision to allow the app would have been affected by the fact that Opera is a European company involved in a high-profile ongoing EU antitrust case regarding web browsers. Rejecting the app would probably have triggered an antitrust complaint from Opera, and that is the kind of attention that Apple could do without.
As long as it doesn't provide for Flash... (Score:2, Insightful)
...it will probably be approved.
And to those not understanding the Flash issue, it really is about revenue. By allowing Flash, it removes authorization control from Apple. Like it or not, Apple maintains control, and will continue to maintain control. Anything that removes control will be rejected. Don't like it, move to another platform.
Re:Posting from it now.... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd trust Opera more than any of the other browser publishers. Opera is in the browser business and that's just about it. They can't afford to put out a shoddy product like any of the other contenders....and they never do.
Re:wtf (Score:3, Insightful)
How wouldn't they? There are already loads of browsers available from the App Store.
Really?
Do any if them do (Or make use of) ad blocking?
Opera and Safari are okay but give me ablockplus for faster, more pleasant browsing.
Not a Surprise (Score:4, Insightful)
If you understand how Opera Mini works and why Apple bans other browsers (hint: it is not because they retrieve and display web pages) you would not find this surprising at all.
Not all that surprising (Score:2, Insightful)
It's almost a freaking miracle... (Score:3, Insightful)
It would be a freaking miracle if Opera Mobile (the complete Opera browser, that exists for ALL smartphones but Apple's) would be accepted on the iPhone.
But indeed, Opera didn't even try to propose it. They dared propose a simple remote viewer, Opera Mini.
Contrary for instance to my Nokia N97mini which features the original Nokia browser and let me replace it with Opera Mobile, the iPhone is probably the only platform where no other browser will be allowed (nor even proposed).
So, yes, some call it freaking...
Re:Posting from it now.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I never trust companies to do the right thing, no matter how insane they'd have to be to do otherwise.
Re:Not all that surprising (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Kudos to Opera (Score:1, Insightful)
This isn't true, not at all. The concept of another web browser on the iPhone or iPad is prohibited due to how they use the API. It's the same reason Firefox for iPhone won't be approved. But Opera has gotten around this limitation by using their proxy servers to render the webpage on their servers and send it back to the iPhone.
Re:wtf (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks, that's a good point. My favourite mobile browser is Opera Mobile, which I love on my 5800; I guess the Apple phones will never have that.
Even for Opera Mini, it's interesting to note the idea of having to wait for approval, as well as not supporting open standards like Java (again, because of the locked down nature), so they had to presumably rewrite the application for Apple. I was using Opera Mini years ago on my Motorola V980, before the first Iphone was even released.
Re:Thank you... (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed - I just love that "Apple approves an application, when we thought they might not" is front page news. People are that thankful.
Soon you will know more (Score:2, Insightful)
2008:
http://www.unwiredview.com/2008/10/30/opera-mini-for-iphone-rejected-by-apple-from-app-store/
Now you know more.
Re:Victory for the Free Market (Score:4, Insightful)
OK, so instead of Opera being the first alternative browser on the platform, you choose to define "alternative browser" in such a way that the platform already has a plethora of "alternative browsers", turning freedom of choice into a game of semantics. What's your point, apart from clouding the issue?
Re:indeed (Score:3, Insightful)
>>>Opera Mini consistently smokes the built-in browser.
Because of that impressive demo (speed), I was considering getting Opera Mini for my cellphone. That is until I saw how much my provider charges for web browsing. $5 per 10 megabytes! I'd end-up with huge bills.
Disappointing.
Aside -
I'm listening to a mother on CSPAN radio complain because she "only has dialup" and her son is at a disadvantage because of it. Of course she's asking government to give her free Broadband. Jeez. I have dialup (when traveling), and I seem to make out okay. Plus there's always the option for satellite broadband at ~$25 a month.
Re:Kudos to Opera (Score:3, Insightful)
And why on Earth would anyone devote hundreds of hours of their time (and money) to developing a product that, according to the developer ToS, would never, ever be approved?
Re:Thank you... (Score:3, Insightful)
Indeed - I just love that "Apple approves an application, when we thought they might not" is front page news. People are that thankful.
Rather, it is like "Duh. Apple actually approved the application, we were so damn sure they would NOT that we had already flamed them earlier, so we better put out another front page story to salvage some credibility!"
Rendering Slashdot (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm
just
happy
to
have
a
browser
that
renders
Slashdot
comments
properly.