The well known Java-based web browser that is compatible with almost any phone on the planet just got an update, and the world of proxy-based web browsing from your phone just got even more interesting.
Opera Software were the first to release a Java-based web browser for mobile phones that worked through a proxy server. Essentially what that means is that before the site you want to view hits your phone, it first goes through an Opera server, where it is converted so that it will use less of your bandwidth. A lot less, in most cases. This goes up (or down, one might say) to 10% of the original site's size. Which makes such solutions ideal for people on very tight bandwidth limits.
Improvements brought by Opera Mini 4.1 Beta:
- speed - it is now up to 50% faster than 4.0
- autocomplete URLs (now where have I heard that before?)
- immediately find content in page
- save pages
- download and upload is now possible from within Opera Mini (before it would bring up your phone's default browser for such tasks)
Here is the video tour of Opera Mini 4.1 Beta:
DOWNLOAD OPERA MINI 4.1 BETA
Opera Mini 4.1 beta will install next to any existing version of Opera Mini on your device and will not overwrite any of your data.
TeaShark, a similar proxy-based Java browser that runs on top of the Webkit core (Opera's solutions use their own, in-house developed core) has also been recently announced. I was planning to do a review of TeaShark Beta, and now it seems that it will turn into a comparison post on the two.
Security concerns
The following is taken from the Opera Mini FAQ page, and it also applies to TeaShark (since the idea of proxy-based browsing is the same):
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.
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.
[UPDATE for S60v3 users]
To turn off the annoying Allow application to connect? prompts, go to App. Manager->Opera Mini 4.1, click on it, then click on Open (or Suite settings, the option depends on your firmware version), then click on Network access and select Always allowed. Press OK (left soft key), then Back (right soft key).
At this time, this seems to be the only Java app for which such a setting is possible. In N95-1 firmware v.20, at least.
[Update source: Daily Mobile]
