Opera’s new Android beta is out, and it includes some pretty big changes

I can't believe they moved the tab selector to the top. Who can easily reach the top of a screen with a finger in single-hand use? I cannot. Placing buttons up there makes using these apps incredibly annoying. Even worse would be on the top left, since that is the place farthest from my finger.

Apart from UI changes there does not seem much new. I am still hoping they will make site preferences easily accessible so one can protect his privacy and security easily even on mobile devices. And of course extensions (they had a beta once).

Re: Opera’s new Android beta is out, and it includes some pretty big changes

#5

Post by barredo » Tue, Mar 05, 2013, 1:05 PM UTC

aw3c2 wrote: post #4

I can't believe they moved the tab selector to the top. Who can easily reach the top of a screen with a finger in single-hand use? I cannot. Placing buttons up there makes using these apps incredibly annoying. Even worse would be on the top left, since that is the place farthest from my finger. Apart from UI changes there does not seem much new. I am still hoping they will make site preferences easily accessible so o…

> Who can easily reach the top of a screen with a finger in single-hand use

Every iPhone owner. Just joking. But this is an issue with big screens in smartphones that we as developers have to consider when making apps.

Re: Opera’s new Android beta is out, and it includes some pretty big changes

#6

Post by simfoo » Tue, Mar 05, 2013, 1:12 PM UTC

Have been using it for the past 10 minutes. It's considerably slower than the stock browser in 2.3.7.

Also, using 36MB is kind of unacceptable - I only have less than 100MB internal storage on my Galaxy Ace.

Re: Opera’s new Android beta is out, and it includes some pretty big changes

#7

Post by kmfrk » Tue, Mar 05, 2013, 1:16 PM UTC

chayesfss wrote: post #2

Is Opera popular in other countries?

Yes.

Re: Opera’s new Android beta is out, and it includes some pretty big changes

#8

Post by chayesfss » Tue, Mar 05, 2013, 1:24 PM UTC

aw3c2 wrote: post #3

chayesfss wrote: post #2

Is Opera popular in other countries?

Other than what?

The USA. Looking at stats I see in Jan of this year they've got 1.9% market share (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp). But I just saw that they're based in Norway so I'm sure it' popular there.

Re: Opera’s new Android beta is out, and it includes some pretty big changes

#9

Post by vladev » Tue, Mar 05, 2013, 1:25 PM UTC

For me, the killer feature of Opera has always been the ability to reflow text to fit any size and zoom. Can anyone confirm this is still in?

Re: Opera’s new Android beta is out, and it includes some pretty big changes

#10

Post by veeti » Tue, Mar 05, 2013, 1:25 PM UTC

aw3c2 wrote: post #4

I can't believe they moved the tab selector to the top. Who can easily reach the top of a screen with a finger in single-hand use? I cannot. Placing buttons up there makes using these apps incredibly annoying. Even worse would be on the top left, since that is the place farthest from my finger. Apart from UI changes there does not seem much new. I am still hoping they will make site preferences easily accessible so o…

Chrome for Android lets you move between tabs easily by swiping from the left and right corners of the screen (and swiping in general is used for tab navigation in Android). Maybe Opera could rip that off.