Opera Mini 4.2 shakes off its Android beta

Opera Mini 4.2 enables standard features absent in the beta.

(Credit: Opera Software)

The final release of Opera Mini 4.2 for Google Android adds regular features of the Java browser that were disabled in its November beta version. Think more of a mechanic tightening up loose nuts and bolts, rather than operating on engine guts, and you've got the premise.

Available starting Wednesday in the Android Market, Opera Mini 4.2 for Google Android now lets you upload and download files, save pages, and zoom in and out in response to a double tap.

You'll also be able to enter URLs directly into the address bar--instead of having to go through the phone's native input system--and, as with Opera Mini on other mobile platforms, launching a video from a Web page links up to your media player. Video playback had not been supported in Opera Mini 4.2 beta.

Opera has also dispatched some bugs in this final version, including one that displayed the characters of your password when you typed it in, and another that caused upheaval when you closed the app via the Back button. Opera Mini 4.2 also boasts a speedier response to the trackball and a slightly larger font size on most pages to improve readability.

Bringing the Mini browser up to snuff does improve the surfing experience for owners and future owners of Android phones. But for Opera, getting its browser first to Google's mobile platform, and maintaining a dominant presence on all the mobile platforms, is the company's big win.

[seven7dust]

why do people care about opera for android so much
Android's browser is the best mobile browser
on the market period
I would love to have it on my Ipod touch !