Webware

It's been a few days since Opera unwrapped its latest beta browser for mobile phones, and we've had some more time to get acquainted. Opera Mobile 10 beta (download), which runs on certain Symbian Series 60 smartphones, adds some improvements to its password manager and has made a few tweaks under the hood. However, its most significant alterations are in its visual design. Bottom line: We like it, and we like how similar it is to Opera Mini 5 beta, a recent overhaul of the free Opera browser for Java phones.

There are some downsides with the version 10 beta browser that have cropped up--these go beyond the known issues and bugs. Opera's smartphone browser continues to struggle with accurately rendering complex pages. When zooming in on CNET Download.com on the Nokia N97, we saw text and graphics overlap. While Web sites often redirect to a URL optimized for mobile phones, we'd still like to see graphically rich pages rendered more faithfully in Opera Mobile on those that don't have specialized versions.

Its responsiveness was also an issue on the Nokia N97 test phone, but we suspect this has more to do with the device than with Opera. CNET reviewers dinged the Nokia N97 for its choice of an inconsistently responsive resistive touch screen instead of the capacitive touch screen that's found on the iPhone.

Even if you don't have a compatible Nokia, Samsung, or Sony Ericsson phone to test Opera Mobile 10 beta with yourself, you can watch our First Look video to see the new browser beta's features--its new tabs interface shines.

Securely see stored passwords on your iPhone.

(Credit: Siber Systems)

We have long regarded the RoboForm browser toolbar for Windows as an uberconvenient freemium tool for storing and securing scores of passwords. In contrast, the new iPhone app, RoboForm for iPhone, is decidedly less acommodating.

The problem isn't so much that you have to have a free online account to use RoboForm for iPhone, or even that to have the online account you must first fill up the desktop version--either the free or premium software--with credentials. Part of the trouble is more that restrictions in Apple's SDK inhibit RoboForm's usefulness. Other flaws stem from the application itself.

It's helpful to understand how RoboForm works on your PC. RoboForm installs as a system tray icon and as a browser toolbar. It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. When you enter your log-in credentials, RoboForm offers to save them, storing a file protected by 256 AES encryption on your computer. Selecting that credential later on from RoboForm's list fills in the log-in. In addition, you can keep credit card information and other sensitive data secured away in RoboForm, filling in online forms with a click when you go to buy an item online, for example. RoboForm secures passwords, includes a password generator, and uses one master password to manage the rest of your passwords.

The iPhone version of RoboForm is a cross between a data store and a unidirectional syncing app. It can give you access to the passwords you store via RoboForm for the desktop, which makes the iPhone version inconvenient for new users. First-timers would have to first set up an account, install RoboForm, input their passwords, automatically install the company's GoodSync syncing plug-in, and sync the secret data to an online account for which they would also have to register. In contrast, existing users only have to sign up for an online account, if they don't have one already, and sync data.

Once on RoboForm for iPhone, you sync to the online RoboForm account to transfer over your passwords and other credentials. Sounds reasonable so far, but here's the catch. Since Apple doesn't allow multiple third-party applications to run simultaneously, you can only fill in passwords from within RoboForm for iPhone--by clicking the Login button--and only then once you've entered your master password.

RoboForm on the desktop automatically installs a syncing plug-in.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

A rival app, 1Password for iPhone, encountered similar hurdles when it debuted in July 2008 (review). Both 1Password and RoboForm for iPhone solve the tangle to some extent by including an in-app browser. The key to successfully using either app is to retrain yourself to open the password app to browse, instead of the Safari browser.

Assuming you believe that the benefits of RoboForm for iPhone outweigh the drawbacks of surfing the Web through a password app, there are two other solutions that might make RoboForm on iPhone less handy in some users' eyes. The iPhone's Safari browser features autofill in the iPhone 3.0 operating system update. If you opt out of that, you can take advantage of certain Web sites, like Google's Web apps, that offer to remember log-in credentials for you. RoboForm VP of Marketing, Bill Carey, counters that the software, in production for a decade, is more accurate in determining when to fill in credentials, and in some cases is more secure than browsers' password managers.

In addition to the awkward workaround for using RoboForm's smarts are other downsides. First, there are the known limitations. You cannot currently update or edit log-in information from within RoboForm on iPhone, making data currently one-directional--it flows into the iPhone, not out of it. RoboForm for iPhone won't work if your master password is four characters long. Your free account at RoboForm.com can't contain special characters, like the + or - symbol. RoboForm's publisher says that the company is working on fixes.

RoboForm downloads passwords to the iPhone from your online account.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

We also encountered weak spots in testing RoboForm for iPhone. RoboForm for iPhone's practice of placing the Login button on the same screen as the exposed password pricks our nerves. Sure, you've already logged in with a Master password at this point, so theft is not an issue, but potentially flashing that information in public is. In addition, we received a "page invalid" error message when attempting to log in to Gmail. The same action worked flawlessly on RoboForm for Windows.

RoboForm's Carey informed us this is a known issue in which long URLs like Gmail and Wachovia Bank break on mobile phone browsers. The fix is fast, but since you can't edit on the iPhone yet, you'll need to be in front of a computer. In RoboForm on the PC, click Tools, then Edit Passcards. Change Gmail's log-in URL to http://www.gmail.com, then sync online and sync the iPhone app.

Kludgey workarounds like this make the app workable while development continues, but the weak spots are many, and the alternative options to using RoboForm on the iPhone are at this stage more robust. Existing users will get the most from RoboForm for iPhone. New users may want to weigh other options for the time being.

Last week, we shared three of our wackiest mistranscribed voice messages from Google Voice and asked you to pass along the funniest flubs from your own in-box. Your hilarious samples poured in through comments and e-mails. We've rounded up some fine specimens of voice mail meanings that were definitely lost in translation in our gallery.

Best 'worst' Google Voice transcription errors--screenshots

In defense of Google Voice, computer-aided transcription technology is still maturing. While Google Voice's engine doesn't get it right all the time--or even most of the time in our case--it's better than nothing. At the very least, it produces amusing gems like the ones in our collection.

Scroll through the comments for more choice voice-to-text slip-ups and read about a fee-based alternative visual voice mail transcription to Google Voice, BT's Ribbit, that promises to get transcriptions right and doesn't require an invitation to join.

Right now I'm Web surfing with a browser that's sleek and fast. It has Speed Dial thumbnails to quickly load a favorite Web page and preview thumbnails to help rotate through open Web pages by sight. The app I'm wielding sounds a lot like Opera 10, Opera's desktop browser (Mac | Windows), or even the recently released Opera Mini 5 beta for Java phones. But it's not.

I'm navigating the Internet from a 4.6x2.2-inch screen belonging to a Nokia N97 smartphone using a prerelease version of Opera Mobile 10 beta for Symbian Series 60 phones. Opera Mobile 10 beta is available as of Tuesday morning, Central European Time.

Opera Mobile 10 beta previews tabs in a flashy new design.

(Credit: Opera Software)

What's new? The tabbed browsing treatment and speed-dial thumbnails you see when you load the browser anew or launch a new page are the spotlight-grabbing features. The entire interface, in fact, gets a fresh coat of paint using the same brush that drew in Opera Mini 5 beta. The visual encore works. In looks alone, the inviting Opera Mobile 10 beta bowls over Opera Mobile 9.7 beta's design.

While the speed-dial thumbnails and multiple browser tabs were far more impressive in the comparatively resource-light Opera Mini 5 beta, a proxy browser, the design continuity we see in Opera Mobile 10 beta, a standalone Web browser, is a welcome refresh that also joins the two cell phone apps in a unified design philosophy.

Opera's 4MB version 10 beta browser retains many of the features from prior releases, like the password manager, and the abilities to zoom in and out, copy text, save images, download files, and open links in a new tab. Opera says it has improved the password manager in this 10 beta release, including better handling for multiple URLS for a single site, and easier management for deleting passwords.

From Opera Mobile 9.7 beta, the version 10 beta has carried over Opera Turbo, Opera's compression engine that uses Opera's servers to punch up performance (and deliver less detailed images) when the Internet connection is slow.

In addition, Opera claims that Opera Mobile 10 beta is twice as fast as its Symbian predecessor when it comes to downloads and zooming and panning.

Opera's Speed Dial and expandable search box make the jump to Opera Mobile 10 beta.

(Credit: Opera Software)

As a beta build, Opera Mobile 10 beta does have several bugs to work out. First, Opera Link, the bookmarks-syncing service available in Opera 10 desktop browser and in the stable builds of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, is absent from this build (it's also missing from Opera Mini 5 beta.) Opera Link will return by the time Opera Mobile 10 leaves beta.

Other known issues include the virtual keyboard popping up even when you're using the physical keyboard, as it did in our tests on the Nokia N97. The beta browser is also known to freeze at times, and has only partial support for the IMEs (Input Method Editors) that make typing Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean work. As a result, this beta build won't function on handsets with Asian language packs and won't render Asian fonts in this version, says Opera, but the input incompatibility should be fixed in the next release.

Opera Mobile 10 beta is available now for Symbian users on Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson smartphones running Symbian Series 60, 3rd and 5th editions. Try it by pointing the mobile browser to http://m.opera.com/mobile.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Just days after Microsoft cranked out a touch-optimized Bing search page for touch screen phones comes another announcement for mobile searchers. Microsoft on Monday reported that Verizon will roll out the first Bing mobile app to BlackBerry Storm 1 users. The Bing mobile app already comes preloaded on the BlackBerry Storm 2.

After Verizon pushes Bing for mobile, Storm owners should be able to click the icon in the program list to get started.

In addition to search are features carried over from a former incarnation of Microsoft's search app, Windows Live for mobile, such as voice search, and a map that includes driving directions, traffic details, and a location feature to search your whereabouts. There's also a way to save favorite searches, and to quickly get at local searches.

We first encountered a variation of the Bing app on Windows Mobile 6.5 phones. While many features are nearly identical to the Windows Live mobile app, the refreshed search engine should produce more accurate results.

(Credit: Google)

Google released a new version of the free Google Mobile App for Symbian Series 60 (S60) phones on Monday. The update gives phone owners the ability to press the Talk button and speak search terms into the phone. While a new feature to the S60 operating system, users on other platforms, like BlackBerry and iPhone, have been able to turn speech into search results for some time.

The new Google Mobile App shows up as a shortcut widget on the Nokia home screen, which makes sounding out searches on those Nokia N and E series handsets faster than on other mobile platforms, where you must open the Google Mobile App to begin a search.

Whether you talk or type, Google Mobile App uses GPS or cell tower triangulation to fill in your location and find the closest whatever-it-is nearby. This is consistent with Google Mobile App for other platforms, though Windows Mobile is the only other one that also uses the home screen plug-in.

In addition to adding digital ears to search, Google has made them more global. Mandarin Chinese has joined Google's speech recognition database, so Nokia seekers can speak queries in English or in Mandarin. Google warns that the Mobile App is better at distinguishing certain accents better than others; a Beijing lilt may search more successfully than southern-flavored speech, for instance.

Mandarin recognition is currently only available for Nokia phones, but Google says in an official blog post that they're working to expand the capability to other mobile platforms, like Google Android and iPhone. Also, not every S60 owner can take advantage of the new Google Mobile App, only those running version 3. The app is not yet supported on touch screen phones, which run version 5 of the system software.

You can download Google Mobile App for Nokia S60 by pointing the mobile browser to http://m.google.com.

If you're a fan of comic books, you should also be a fan of the iPhone. Apple's smartphone is home to several neat comic-book apps designed specifically for those who want to enjoy harrowing stories of their favorite heroes in the Digital Age.

I've sifted through the many apps related to comic books and found a handful that you'll want to try out. Whether you're a DC Comics fan or you're partial to Marvel, I think you'll like what you find in these apps.

Get your comic on

Clickwheel Comic Reader if you plan to read comic books on your iPhone, the Clickwheel Comic Reader will be able to satisfy that desire.

When you start using Clickwheel Comic Reader, you'll be able to sift through comic books and find one you want to read. The app doesn't have many of the classics like those you would find from an app like Comics or iVerse Comics (see below), but it does have some comic books you might care about. Either way, the app displays all your favorite content in full color on your iPhone. And since it's free, it's probably worth trying out if you don't mind reading a relatively small collection of books.

If you want to read some comic books, Clickwheel might be your choice.

(Credit: Clickwheel)

Comic Envi If you're more into comic strips than comic books, we have you covered too.

With the help of Comic Envi, you can check out some of your favorite comic strips. You can check out old, well-known comic strips, Web-only offerings, and more. You have the option of viewing them in a slideshow or by moving them with your fingers. You can also check out the daily updated strips or some of the titles in the archive. It's a neat utility, but beware that you will need to pay 99 cents to get it.

Check out Comic Strips with the help of Comic Envi.

(Credit: Comic Envi)

Bing's touch-friendly mobile interface lets you browse movies with your finger.

(Credit: CNET)

Microsoft on Friday released a refreshed version of its mobile search site (m.bing.com) that's optimized for touch-screen devices. The new page includes finger-friendly buttons that are easier to both identify and to press, as well as a movie finder that lets users browse by what's near them by time and theater.

So far, the only devices that work with it are the iPhone/iPod Touch, T-Mobile G1, Samsung Omnia, Verizon Imagio, and the Zune HD. Microsoft says support for other phones and portables is coming. In the meantime, phones that can't access the touch-friendly interface get defaulted to a simpler version.

Also worth noting is that the touch interface is only available to users in the U.S. for the time being.

Along with touch, Microsoft also added two new search query types that pull from near real-time data sources. This includes a way for users to check on NFL football scores and flight status. Users looking to get an updated score or player stats just need type in the team or player name. As for flights, you'll need the airline and flight number and it will cull the most recent information about arrivals, departures, or delays.

Now how about fitting some of that neato visual search action on the mobile site too?

iPhones may be all the rage in tech-crazy Silicon Valley, but if a new political app is any indication, RIM's BlackBerry is at the heart of government.

This time the RIM love comes not from President Obama, who made headlines for trying to hold onto his BlackBerry after being sworn into office, but from across the aisle.

From the office of Republican Whip Eric Cantor comes WhipCast for BlackBerry, a free GOP-focused aggregator for text, pictures, and videos from the House floor. WhipCast monitors such activities as discussions, polling information, and floor schedule updates (which you can also follow on Twitter). Installing WhipCast on a memory card gives users offline access to stories that show up in the feed.

It's not immediately clear who developed WhipCast for Cantor's office, but the app is certainly one indication that the Republican Party is doing its part to embrace social media.

When WhipCast comes out for Android, and begins integrating Facebook and Twitter feeds, we'll know they succeeded.

(Via Talking Points Memo (TPM))