Shock! Awe! Surprise! That’s right, Apple has actually approved the Opera Mini web browser to co-exist alongside its coveted Safari mobile browser on iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads. After playing around with Opera Mini, I think it’s safe to say it is definitely a worthy contender to Safari and a welcome addition to the App Store. It loads pages super fast “by compressing data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the device”; it features a unique tabbed browsing experience; booksmarks can be added and managed within the app; it has the “find in page” feature that allows you to search for specific keywords within web pages (very handy!); and it supports a tab & hold gesture to select, copy, and paste text and save images. The default Opera Screen provides a great place to start; you can customize it with your most frequently vistited sites. It comes preloaded with Facebook, Twitter, New York Times, and more. The only downside is that it does not support pinch-to-zoom. To zoom into text you double tap the screen, and you tap again to zoom back out. But you know what, the blazing speed at which it can load web pages sorta knocks that disadvantage down a notch. You can download Opera Mini today, it’s free! Full PR and a demo video are waiting after the break.
[Via Engadget]