Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Opera Software Brings Its Browser to Mobile Phones

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the smart-idea dept.

13Echo writes "Now this is cool! Opera Software has presented a technology today that solves the problems of web pages on small screens. They have created a small-screen HTML rendering technique that slightly reformats web pages to fit within the bounds of small displays. Some screenshots can be found here along with extra details as to how they do it. A full press release can be found here. As a result, horizontal scrollbars are not needed, and it even features zooming abilities for magnifying web pages."

11 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Tired... by Coplan · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I'm tired of the "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none" hardware that's coming out these days. I personally find no need to have a web browser built into my phone (or for that matter, I have no use for a phone that CAN have a web browser built in).

    If you need to get on the 'net that badly, you need a life.

    IMHO, It's much more useful to use your mobile phone as an interface between your computer and the 'net. I do, and it works beautifully without any problems due to limited space. If it's a pain in the ass to set up your laptop to do this, then you really don't need to get on the 'net. Can't you wait the 15 minutes until you get home?

    Porn doesn't look good on a 1X2" screen.

    1. Re:Tired... by FortKnox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I personally find no need to have a web browser built into my phone (or for that matter, I have no use for a phone that CAN have a web browser built in).

      I have similar feelings and a simple solution for us both:

      Don't buy one!

      Just because you don't like the idea doesn't mean technology should stop right then and there. Sheesh.

      --
      Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    2. Re:Tired... by eggstasy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's called travelling. You make it sound like you've never been more than 15 minutes away from home.
      If you're out in the middle of nowhere on a road that's not even on the map what do you do?
      a)Wander around aimlessly in hopes of making it back to the main roads?
      b)Call someone who knows the area better than you do?
      c)Download a better map from the web?
      d)Profit!? :)

      I'd love to have a web enabled phone thingy. It's much less clunky than a laptop, and it will soon be affordable to everyone. Most people nowadays fail to realize the potential of the web, seeing it as some sort of frivolous entertainment thing that you could do well without. The web is an extension of your limited memory. With omnipresent web access and well developed google skills you effectively know *everything*, it's just not on your brain yet. Computers (and the web), as foretold by Vannevar Bush, are increasingly becoming an indispensable expansion of your brain. Learn how to live with it, and you'll have a great advantage over those who don't.

  2. ok, next... by vkt-tje · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ok, nice!
    The next thing we need is phones with slightly bigger screens.
    Small is beautiful, but I like it practical as well.
    Look at the first mobile phones (GSM style). They were thicker. That is not good. But they were broader than the current models without that ever being a problem.
    Why not go back to the slightly larger models and put a bigger screen in them?

    --

    120 chars is not enough!
  3. Good work now ...... by Mattygfunk1 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It would please me no end to see this implemented as an option in desktop browsers. I'm sick of web developers not only ignoring people with 800x600 screens but 1024x768 screens too!

    mmmmmm forced useability.

    -----
    thank god allmighty for tities and beer

  4. Re:Illegal? by koh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is illegal to crack a site and deface the copyrighted pages there, but you can reformat local content on your machine with no problem...

    If your reasoning was true, it would lead to not being able to write a little poem on the book you offer to your mother, for instance...

    --
    Karma cannot be described by words alone.
  5. Re:Illegal? by toriver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the authors of the copyrighted (note spelling) work didn't want the appearance "changed" from some initial appearance, they shouldn't have used HTML in the first place.

    HTML is just text and markup - there is no appearance until it's rendered in a user agent, and one of the basic rules of the web used to be that the rendering was 100% up to the user agent: ALT-attribute if you cannot render images and all that.

    To complain that some content is transformed before display on a device is like complaining that you lose the colors if you use a B&W photo copier with a colored book.

  6. Re:Illegal? by henben · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Isn't changing the appearance of a copywrited material illegal?

    By its nature, how HTML is rendered is up to the browser. An HTML document doesn't have a set "appearance". Or are you saying that opening a website in a text-only browser is some kind of copyright violation?

    I don't think ad-filtering proxies have ever been found to be illegal, anyway.

  7. Re:Uh, nothing new there. by Ilgaz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Couple of programming students from Bhosphorus University (http://www.boun.edu.tr),here in Istanbul implemented WAP rendered HTML pages for Turkcell, nr1 and a giant GSM company of Turkey and Turkish populated countries (http://www.turkcell.com.tr). The stuff is working on server side. Gets HTML pages for you and re-renders (codes?) for WAP (wml)

    I tried it on WAP. I know it was stupid :) but I wanted to see how idea works.

    The error on a highly non compliant site I just typed was "Sorry, site isn't W3C compliant".

    Webmasters ignoring W3C, that stuff is coming to you. Sooner or later. Code standards compliant pages and you will save from lot of headache later.

    Also WAP is going great way. All standards compliant. E.g. nothing refuses you because you are a Ericsson customer other than Nokia. Mobile stuff is free from non standards... Oh wait! Hotmail. :) Its the only non wap offering big mail provider. If you have MS POCKET PC IE, you can logon!

    BTW, commercial company (especially resellers) webmasters, you will block Opera from accessing to your site? I can understand all the dotcom troubles now, ignore a $2000 phone customer wanting to buy something from you... Yea,right.

  8. Not for me yet by Mattygfunk1 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Until 3G becomes a reality here (I'm in the great Southern land of Australia) I don't want to be downloading images on my mobile phone.

    High WAP charges, already slow download speeds (9.6k IIRC), and the Nokia featured in the story is by far the largest display on a mobile currently available here (most others are considerably smaller though PDAs will benefit), mean this wont be useful for me in the near future.

    ------
    that bong ba ba ba bong

  9. Hope it will force better web design by InodoroPereyra · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I am one of the many people sickened by the "optimized for 'whatever x watever' resolution" web pages. A good web page should scale gracefully at different resolutions, and for different displays including text browsers. And this is doable. Just avoid this moronic 800 pixels wide table framing your pages, and use a good desing, and follow the standards.

    If enough people start surfing the net from small devices, web logs will show that and the web designers will have to listen.

    Other than that, this is the way to go. We don't need yet one more document format for small devices. Better use HTML/XHTML and adapt the rendering to the device you are using ...