Opera Mini approved for App Store

And the peasants rejoice!!!

In a surprise move today, Apple has actually approved the fastest (arguably) mobile web browser – Opera Mini for the iPhone platform. It will be available in the App Store for free in under 24 hours from now. This is what the CEO of Opera said in an official press release today.

Image via TechCrunch

We are delighted to offer iPhone and iPod touch users a great browsing experience with the Opera Mini App," said Lars Boilesen, CEO, OperaSoftware. “This app is another step toward Opera’s goal of bringing the Web to more people in more places.

For those who don’t know what Opera Mini is, it’s a free browser by Opera itself for cell phones. Opera Mini has been the browser of choice by millions of users due to it’s highspeed browsing and it’s amazing page rendering techniques. Opera showed off the Opera Mini on iPhone at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona this year, and it was as appealing as Opera running on any other mobile platform like Android, simply superb!

via Redmond Pie

Opera Sues Microsoft For Antitrust

It seems that Microsoft gets sued all the time (mostly for good reasons), but Opera just filed in Microsoft’s least favorite place of all, EU. Opera claims that the corporate giant is killing competition by bundling IE with Microsoft’s OS. Opera would like the EU commission to force Microsoft to remove IE from their OS or include other browsers with it, namely Opera. Opera claims that web designers build sites with IE in mind due to the fact that it is the most widely used browser. As such, other browsers won’t render pages correctly, forcing users to use IE.

Now I find this kind of lawsuit kind of strange because if consumers truly want to use another browser, they can. I’m not sure if Opera is pissed that Microsoft is giving their browser away, and Opera would like the world to start paying for browsers. All Opera has to do is make a better browser than IE, and people will find you. Just like people have found FireFox, which is a superior browser than IE. I can’t see how forcing Microsoft to remove IE will make web designers create web pages for all browsers.

I use FireFox for 99% of all my browsing needs, and if a page won’t render correctly, I suck it up and stomach IE for the 1% of the time required. Opera should stop the madness and just make a browser that people want to use. Trust me, if we like it, we’ll use you.

[Engadget]

Firefox Reaches 400 Million Downloads

I want to say congratulations and thank you to the company who created my favorite web browser, Firefox. Mozilla has had their free web browser downloaded 400 million times since its launch on November 9th, 2004.

I've tried Internet Explorer, Opera, and even Safari, and none of them has measured up to the love that Firefox has given me. All the free plug in's, the memory tab recovery, the video capture features, yes Firefox, you've made my life easier.

I love you Firefox!!!

[spreadfirefox via Gizmodo]

Update [Malcolm]: Thought you'd get a kick out of my dog imitating the Firefox logo.