Here comes the Dragonfly!

Opera 9.5 is out and it comes with a set of developer tools called Dragonfly. So far, web developers have browser extensions like Firefox's Web Developer, Internet Explorer's Developer Toolbar or Safari's integrated web developer tools.

The ability of debugging Javascript is very important in web browsers in order to determine the different JS support, APIs on top of it or implementation deficiencies.

The developers of Opera are doing a great job and it is still one of the fastest desktop browsers and the least memory consumer.

But... some of the typical Web 2.0 sites show some problems. I think this is the last post I'll do on blogger using Opera 9.5, because CTRL+SHIFT+arrow keys save a draft of the current post instead of select text. Pretty uncomfortable as it changes the behaviour of post edition in Blogger

Opera Mini 4 is here

I was going to comment how good Opera Mini 4 is, but there is a very interesting article in Opera's developer site. Opera Mini is not only fast and offers a lot of interesting features to mobile web users, it also compresses information thanks to Opera's proxy so data traffic is much much lower than any other browser promising "desktop" web experience or adaptations to mobile of such experience (it is the only one I use when roaming).

One of the problems of "desktop" browser engines in a mobile is memory. My N80 has not enough memory for some rich desktop pages (while the same pages is perfectly viewed in a E61, as it has much more main memory installed). Opera Mini also fixes that and I find it hard to get a page that fills free memory in my device.

It is implemented in Java and it works even in many low-end Java mobile phones.

Still far from mobile web nirvana

I love Opera Mobile on my S60. Its content adaptation and page re-flowing at client side is very good where some other mobile browsers fail. It is even better than marvelous S60 Webkit browser, as it is a great memory consumer and crashes sometimes with certain pages containing lots of JavaScript.

About memory consume by Webkit browser, it is one of the main reasons for me to want Nokia N95 (160 MBs of internal memory vs N80's 40 MBs).

Well, the fact is that the trial period of Opera Mobile expired and I decided to buy it (I think it is worth 19 €). And I decided to do it from my N80. I went to http://www.opera.com/buy via S60 browser and problems started when I had to input data into a paginated form. No problem in 1st page, as I entered my personal details. But as I had to enter the EMEI of my phone (in the 2nd page of that form), I went into troubles. My phone tells me the EMEI, Opera Mobile tells me the EMEI but... no option to copy it. It is shown on the screen but I have to remember it or write it anywhere else.

Besides, S60 deletes partially filled inputs (at least in Opera Buy page) if I change the focus to another application (to see the damn number). And in one of my attempts, S60 Browser crashed. Luckily, Opera had already sent me an email confirming that they have all my personal info (as entered in the 1st page of the purchase form) and gave me an email and password.

Once again, email and password, when read through the mail client integrated in S60 3rd edition phones, cannot be copied and pasted (so we are again with the same problem).

At last, I will finish the purchase in a desktop browser. We are still far far away from mobile web nirvana.