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More details emerge on Opera for Tablets, and... Opera Mobile 10.5?
The first official news of 2011 from Opera is Opera for Tablets. At present, not much is known about it, but Digi.no managed to dig up some details the rest of the press seems to have missed.
One of the first things you will notice is that Opera for Tablets is based on Opera Mobile 10.5. This is the first public mention of Opera Mobile 10.5 to my knowledge, and not much is revealed. I think it's safe to assume, though, that with a big leap in version numbers like that, there are going to be some substantial improvements.
Opera for Tablets will have a user interface optimized for tablets and netbooks. The interface adapts to the size of the screen, and will support all known form factors. However, it is not limited by that, and will also support larger screens than today's tablets, as well as smaller screen sizes all the way down to mobile phones.
Opera for Tablets on your Android phone?
With Opera for Tablets, the user interface will see some changes, and there will be improvements to the way you interact with pages through things like zooming and panning. Still, as you can see in the Opera for Tablets preview video, the interface can still be recognized as Opera.
Opera for Tablets will support Flash.
The new desktop extensions will not be supported by Opera for Tablets for now, but who knows what the future holds.
Platform support seems to be limited to Android for now, although Opera being the most portable browser on the planet would likely make it easy to port to something else. An iPad version is probably out of the question due to Apple's draconian App Store rules, but an iPad version of Opera Mini might be a good idea.
The bad news is that if you want to know more about Opera for Tablets, you will have to wait until CES 2011 starts. The good news is that you will just have to wait a few more days.
Readers' comments 13
Left under the original article, as archived.
About this article
| Published in | A Journal from Behind the Trenches |
|---|---|
| Date | January 4, 2011 |
| Author | Haavard |
| Tags | opera mobile, tablets, opera for tablets, opera, netbooks |
| Original | Internet Archive |
Charles SchlossTuesday, January 4, 2011 3:13:17 PM
I guess the next iPhone version of Opera Mini will be a universal app (one that works on both iPhone and iPad)
Mağruf ÇolakoğluTuesday, January 4, 2011 3:18:37 PM
ClashCityRockerTuesday, January 4, 2011 6:48:53 PM
I wish they combine mobile and mini into one product on Android. Most of the time I want to use Mobile, but sometimes Mini is a better bet. The equivellent of a Turbo button that the desktop version has.
PatataTuesday, January 4, 2011 7:04:15 PM
Opera should not forget that there is more than iOS and Android
Mad Scientist (عادل)Tuesday, January 4, 2011 7:07:07 PM
Cutting SpoonTuesday, January 4, 2011 7:16:54 PM
10.5 is:
New Presto with layout improvements
New Vega with render improvements
\Backend work to improve draw speed with appropriate hardware
Carakan has landed, but no official word on JIT...?
Improved, more natural zooming
Plugin support has landed?
\Or plugs into addl Android APIs?
\I'm not seeing use of the audio or video tags
The new engine is also compatible with e-ink displays, I hear. Some aggressive reductions in memory use here? And naturally page animations would be disabled for e-ink.
Does any of this tablet compatibility echo back to the desktop product's official capacity? I know Opera has worked with Asus on touch PCs running Windows. But what about convertible tablet PCs? Or licensing Opera as an instant-on browser for high-end netbooks and laptops?
KirillTuesday, January 4, 2011 8:22:52 PM
Daniel HendrycksTuesday, January 4, 2011 10:04:47 PM
Ruarí ØdegaardTuesday, January 4, 2011 10:42:50 PM
Originally posted by qlue:
The desktop linux version is the 'generic linux' version. Android is not generic linux. Also care to clarify what your size issues are?Cutting SpoonTuesday, January 4, 2011 11:25:24 PM
Kyle BakerWednesday, January 5, 2011 12:10:16 PM
Sn3ipenThursday, January 6, 2011 4:40:14 AM
techlawsamSunday, January 16, 2011 6:41:20 PM