Opera Mini 7 Better Support to Hardware Acceleration Better Tab Management

Android is known for the sheer variety of excellent third-party apps available in Google Play that are good alternatives to stock, pre-included apps. Mobile browsers, particularly, are available in the dozens with strong ones like Boat Browser, Dolphin and, of course, Opera Mobile/Mini.

Opera Mini was once the world’s most popular mobile browser, but since the rise of Android and iOS, it has lost a great chunk of its share. Still, it offers many features that you simply won’t get in stock browsers on the aforementioned mobile platforms. We’ll get to them in a moment.

Now, Opera has released a new version of its Opera Mini browser for Android with a handful of new features and improvements. Check it out past the jump!

Major new features in the latest version of Opera Mini [Google Play] – version 7 – are actually of the under-the-hood kind with things like support for OpenGLES-based hardware acceleration (which is geek-talk for “smoother scrolling and better performance”), support for Arabic and Hebrew, support for NFC-based Android Beam feature that comes on Android 4.0 and an Exit button. Improved features include being able to set as many websites on Speed Dial as you like, better tab management and a more refined user-interface for the find-in-page feature.

Other than that, Opera Mini maintains its usual set of unique features that make it an absolute must-download for folks on slow mobile internet connections. Opera Turbo compresses web pages on its own servers before sending them to you for quicker access, a tabbed UI, Opera Link to sync bookmarks and settings with desktop Opera and a whole lot more!

We highly recommend you install Opera Mini on your Android device. Even if you have access to high speed internet all the time, it’s best to keep Mini installed just in case.

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Google Create New Maps For Android Users Google Maps 6.5 Better Navigation and suppor HD Graphics

Google Maps is – unsurprisingly – a stock feature of the Big G’s mobile operating system, and has today been served a pretty significant update.

If you’re running one of the premier devices on the market (Galaxy Nexus etc.), then there’s High Definition support which is not only easier to read, but nicer to look at in general. We live in an age where our digital devices are all marketed as facilitating groundbreaking/wonderful/beautifully crisp/(insert adjective) high definition, so you could say the Maps update is not before time.

As well as the HD visuals, the interface has been tweaked for those running Ice Cream Sandwich, and the app now includes preferred public transit mode as well as route options.

Although Ice Cream Sandwich has struggled to reach the masses, but has been widely praised for its new look. The new Google Maps certainly fits in nicely with ICS from an aesthetic point of view, and we’re pretty sure you’ll be as pleased with the updates as we are.

With the voice dictation shown in the video, the ad could easily be mistaken for one of the many Siri videos we’ve been bombarded with since October – but for the tasteful guitar sounds in the background!

The feature allowing users to select and prioritize transit mode has been in the pipeline for a while, and includes a handy ‘Recommended Route’.

Google has been bullishly dominant on the maps front over the past few years, and as well as being on every Android device, Google Maps is also pre-loaded on each and every iOS device. If Apple has its way, that won’t be the case for much longer, since the Cupertino company has reportedly been preparing an alternative of its own.
To conclude, you may also want to hit up the YouTube page of Google Maps, where you’ll find a dozen videos outlining the awesomeness of the updated app, explaining users the benefits of Maps on their Android devices.

Should you prefer to simply cut to the chase and crack on with the app, however, check out the download link below.
Be sure to check out our Android Apps gallery to explore more apps for your Android device.

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Apple Release Next Year 5" inch Retina Display Touching Device

From day-to-day, we see and hear many rumors and supposed ‘inside information’ regarding unconfirmed, unannounced, and unspecified products. Some are plausible, and make sense, if only vaguely, whilst others seem somewhat far-fetched.

The latest in the constant barrage of Apple related gossip reckons the fruit company to be working on a brand new mobile device, complete with a five-inch Retina display. Larger iPod touch? Smaller iPad? Surely not, you might dismiss.

But when one considers the source – Macotakara – the story does gain a little credibility, since the Japanese Apple blog has come through with some useful nuggets of info in the past. Apparently, the device will boast either a 1,600 x 960 pixel or 1,280-by-960 pixel display, and release sometime next year.

Macotakara does concede the source of its info is simply Chinese Whispers, but it’s certainly enough to get us thinking – particularly with the rumors (albeit somewhat unbelievable) that Apple is plotting a smaller iPad having done the rounds earlier this month.

The iPod touch route seems an unlikely one for Apple to take. Although my colleague Oliver Haslam has stressed the device’s importance in terms of Apple maintaining its domineering position in the market, bumping up its size would not seem like a logical move. Apple keeps the touch cheap, so although many perceive it as "an iPhone without the phone bit", it scrimps on almost every feature, right down to the inferior Retina display compared with its cellular cousin.

So that, by rule of elimination, leaves the only feasible possibility to be a mini-me version of the iPad, or a five-inch iPhone. Each seem equally unlikely given that the iPhone and iPad measure in at 3.5 inches and 9.7 inches respectively, so both would take a disproportionate leap in either direction. Then again, as we know, the Samsung Galaxy Note has been selling rather well, seemingly finding a happy median between phone and tablet. Could Apple possibly follow Samsung’s lead?

Let’s face it, although the Samsung Galaxy Note isn’t for everyone, it has certainly caught the attention of the tech world – something scarcely instigated in this market by a company other than Apple. Those that have bought it seem to love it, and those that haven’t have at least considered making the purchase.

What are your thoughts? I’m inclined to think this is make-believe, since I personally don’t subscribe to the notion that Apple will bring out a smaller tablet, and I am even less inclined to think Apple would go large on its iPod touch.

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