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Ars Technica just wrote an interesting article about their experience using Mozilla’s mobile browser which its codename is Fennec. It’s still on their early stage of development so we can’t give it a try. Thanks to Ars Technica for following screen capture of Fennec Mobile Browser:

They reported that Fennec suit on Nokia N810 for the showcase. There’s no further information on which platform they will play. Will it be Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS or even Java based?

Mozilla said that they want to ”transfer” the feel of browsing using Mozilla Firefox into this handheld browser and featuring synchronization between Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Fennec.

Based on Wikipedia, Fennec is a small fox found in the Sahara Desert of North Africa (excluding the coast) and in some parts of Arabia.

From Opera Mini’s official blog saying that new beta for Opera Mini is coming soon. They’re not giving us list of new improvements but they gave a clue that the new improvements are wanted by most users.

There’s no statement about the release date. All we can do is just waiting for the next information, for both Opera Mini and Opera Dragonfly, hopefully.

You might questioning what happen with Opera Mobile version 9 and why Opera Mobile jumps its version from 8.65 to 9.5.

Opera Mobile is intended to be a replacement for Opera Desktop in a mobile device. To achieve the same browsing experience between desktop and mobile, both browsers must have the same method to display the website. Since the latest version of Opera Desktop is 9.5 so Opera Mobile should have the same version and same rendering engine. Opera Mobile 9.5 using the same rendering engine as Opera Desktop 9.5 called Presto.

By this way, Opera hopes that there’s no difference between browsing using PC or mobile gadgets. Opera also said that this version is a lot faster than previous and the GUI was completely rebuild to increase user experience. And hey, it runs widgets just like Opera for desktop!

Now I’m waiting for Opera Mobile 9.5 to be available for Symbian UIQ 3.

I’ve made a simple pool for my blog readers. I ask them why don’t they use Opera as their main browser, and here came across some answers:

• At first time they used Opera, they found that Opera’s cache is too strong. And it’s a problem for a web developer because they can’t see the change right away. Well, if they know about Shift+F5, it’s not a problem at all.
   
• They wonder if they can found something like Firefox’s plugins. They don’t want to switch to Opera because they afraid of loosing the plugin’s benefit.
   
• Some people using glubble to protect their kids from unwanted page, and Opera doesn’t have this such thing.
   
• Because Opera is not open source. Well, they don’t really need the source code but they afraid if someday Opera company will be closed. Thus, Opera users will be dumped away. But if Opera were open source, there will be another group who would give Opera a re-birth.
   
• A friend was afraid of intergalactic law violation when using a little trick to open Google Docs

Last but not least, a little sweet girl was saying that this question is the same as “Why Mac users aren’t as many as Windows users”.

From this pool, now I have idea why don’t they use Opera: because they don’t know much about Opera. Then it’s a task for Opera company to spread more information about Opera and its benefits.

I also wrote this at My Opera blog and forward to Daniel Goldman.

Latest news from Opera, they had launched Opera Mini 4 beta 2 with many bug fixes and some new features. This version will not overide your previous Opera Mini installation, so you can still use them both for comparison.

Here’s an overview of some of the notable changes/additions with Opera Mini 4 beta 2 (since beta 1), yeah I copy and paste this from Opera page:

• Now you can add the search engine of your choice to the start page, just like in the Opera desktop browser. Hey, now you could put Google Search on the start page.
• Shortcut keys
• Browse in landscape mode — view the Web on a wider screen (Shortcut key: ‘*’ and ‘#’)
• Native menu for BlackBerry phones
• Lots of optimizations for BlackBerry phones
• Content folding – Collapses long menu lists (like those found on sidebars of webpages), so you don’t need to scroll through them to get to the page content. Note: This only works in “Fit to width” mode, not desktop.
• Supports secure connections for banks, eBay, etc.
• Small fonts have been enabled
• Simplified setup process
• Improved image quality
• Improved cookie support
• Ability to edit the current URL
• Added ‘Full screen’ mode
• Dialogs now use web 2.0-ish look and feel
• Added support for more phones
• Fixed a ton of bugs

Too bad I can’t try this Opera Mini since my mobile phone is old enough.. *sigh!*

Dear readers, due to heavy earthquake in Taiwan and cut off 6 main fiber optics beneath the ocean, many Asian countries got their internet connection disturbed.

It happen since the countries are using Taiwan’s link as the backbone, and when the link is cut off.. Kaboom!! You’re out off the cyberworld.

Hope everything gonna be alrite. Hope there aren’t so many victims in Taiwan.. Let’s cross the finger upon your heart ^_*

Happy Holidays everybody!!
I’m not celebrating the Holidays but wishing you a Happy Holidays ^_*
 
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