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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."

13 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. More info.... by GnomeKing · · Score: 5, Informative

    without the full press release is available at the register here

  2. Opera lags the state of the art, as usual by Sneakums · · Score: 5, Funny
    From the Opera Small-Screen Rendering page:
    Instead of presenting table content in columns and rows, tables are reformatted into a one-dimensional structure that better fits smaller screens.
    Come on, lynx has been doing this for years!
  3. 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!
  4. 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

    1. Re:Good work now ...... by RailGunner · · Score: 5, Informative
      Opera already can zoom in and out of pages, it also automatically scales both text and images for you.
      It's a drop down box on the right side of the address bar. Download Opera at Opera.com and check it out!

      It's a neat feature.. useful when pages use an 8 point font and the text is hard to read or when you follow the "Awful Link of the Day" over at somethingawful and have to scale down the 48 point yellow font on an orange background..

  5. Re:Tired... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    Soooo...your equipment is too small then?

  6. Also note.. by Fweeky · · Score: 5, Interesting

    .. Opera's nice new redesigned website, using XHTML and CSS. No more tables.

    Now, let's see Mozilla.org do the same please :)

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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!
  10. How do Opera do it? by henben · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Opera seem to be a generation ahead of IE now.

    In Opera 6, you can zoom pages from 20 to 1000%, switch to a custom stylesheet with one click, use mouse gestures, browse in tabs (long before Mozilla did it), highlight a piece of text and do a dozen different kinds of search on it with a single right-click...

    What did IE 6 add? Cookie management. And, uh ...

    Opera runs on a dozen OSs, IE has to target Windows environments only.

    Are Microsoft complacent, or is IE 7 going to incorporate some of these useful new features and maybe even innovate a little?

  11. 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.

  12. 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 ...