• Full-screen browsing (see settings)
• Dial-pad start page for quickly opening sites
• Find-in-page searching
• Site compression (a band-aid solution for AT&T’s crap 3G network)

I’ve run across many first-time users complaining about the default Opera interface and all of its flourishes, but I’m guessing they didn’t bother to poke around to discover the unique features the app offers.  A simple tweak in the browser’s settings (the crescent wrench button) allows toggling full-screen browsing!  For that alone, I’ll discard Safari, but there’s more…

Browsed pages are compressed by Opera servers before being sent to your phone for decompressed display, thus achieving faster browsing — it appears notably faster than using Safari over 3G and Opera reports an average compression of 63.6% (peaking at 90%).

Opera’s server-side compression system is mentioned as a feature of both WinMo Mobile and Mini, but implemented differently — Mini uses compression automatically and Mobile requires the Opera Turbo Add-on:

Using Opera to browse the Web with your mobile phone can save you money on your phone bills, by reducing your data usage substantially. Opera Mini uses only a tenth of the bandwidth of other browsers, compressing Web pages by up to 90%. On Opera Mobile, turning on Opera Turbo compresses data up to 80% or leave Opera Turbo off to get full Web site data, as you would on a PC.

Opera Turbo Add-on:
http://www.opera.com/business/solutions/turbo/

Opera Flash Add-on: psych!

See ya in Trash Bin Hell Safari.

Opera, the formerly innovative, long since fledgling Norwegian browser minter, has a new big idea… so big they claim to have “reinvented the web.“  ~  [ chuckle ]

Opera Unite bundles the company’s browser with a server – allowing any computer to serve content without need for third-party servers. Marketing terms this “cutting out the middleman.”  You know, because supposedly he’s doing such a ghastly inefficient job of it.  Let’s not get bogged down in technical details: Opera is a seriously lame browser that next-to-no-one cares about, which accounts for its struggle to retain a 0.7% market share.  This isn’t an innovation in client/server technology or personal publishing. Server application bundles and collaboration tools have been freely available for over a decade.  And let’s face it – anyone likely to try Unite has been using something else rather successfully.

Still, Opera clearly has great aspirations for Unite’s “revolutionary potential.”  I’m curious how far they thought this out whilst busily reinventing an unremarkable web server, and how Unite fits into the company’s Environmental Policy:

Opera Software ASA understands the importance of supporting the environment. For this reason, Opera has adopted an environmental policy to indite the Company’s mission in preventing any environmental impact of its activities. Opera shall:

1. Act according to environmental laws to limit the environmental burden on earth, air, water and ecosystem.
2. Commit to using environmentally safe products in the workplace.
3. Educate staff about company environmental regulations.
4. Evaluate the consumption of energy and other resources to determine means of control.
5. Ensure the development of environmental protective procedures.

Consider what happens if they gain the traction they’re after; Millions of home computers always on – each consuming 120 watts/hr – endlessly waiting to serve content to few who are interested. And in most cases, serving through an upload connection incapable of supporting more than a smattering of visitors. Sounds too clever by half, if not two steps backward to an era of irresponsible power waste. Haven’t we already turned that corner?

Shamembarassing.