Opera Mini 6 (universal) was released earlier today for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, bringing this version of the alternative browser to iOS devices for the first time. We have had a chance to put the slimmed-down browser through its paces and think it offers several features that users will like. With the right tweaks, it may even become the favorite over Apple's Safari--if people are willing to give it a try.

The clean, elegant interface hides multiple useful features, with only five buttons to choose from, along with the address bar and search box. The main Opera menu in the upper left reveals most of Opera Mini's features, giving you access to Bookmarks, your browsing history, the Start Page (or Speed Dial), previously saved sites, browser settings, word search, sharing options, and a useful help section. While Opera Mini doesn't have browser tabs in the traditional sense, touching the tabs indicator (next to the address bar) brings up your open pages, visually making it easy to switch between Web sites.

Opera seems to have put plenty of effort into making Opera Mini 6 run smoothly on iOS devices. Pinch to zoom and panning is smooth for an overall great iPad experience. The one-touch zoom feature is a little confusing, however. In our testing, touching a link would frustratingly sometimes zoom in and other times load the link. Hopefully this is something Opera will revisit for later releases.

The search field defaults to Google search, but you can touch the Google logo on the left side of the box to search sites like Amazon, eBay, and Wikipedia exclusively. A button at the bottom of the resulting drop-down lets you manage and edit your search engines, but it doesn't let you add more. So, if you wanted to add a site like Ask.com, you would need to edit and remove a current entry (like Wikipedia) to have Ask.com available at all times. This seems a little restrictive and more work than it needs to be, but the fact is that most people use Google for general searches anyway.

For navigation, you also can take advantage of Opera's Speed Dial for quick access to your favorite sites. Simply touch the Opera menu button in the upper left, then touch Start Page to get Speed Dial's 3x3 layout of sites.

Opera preloads common sites by default, but you can touch and hold (or long-click) any of the pages to change them to your favorite sites. We really like this feature, especially on a mobile device like the iPhone or iPad because you generally won't spend as much time browsing the Web as you would on a desktop computer. In other words, nine quick-browsing options are usually enough for a standard Web surfing session on a mobile device. If you need more, you can easily use Opera Mini's Bookmark features.

Opera Mini also offers a couple of ways to view previous browsing sessions. The browser history works as you would expect with a list of sites previously visited. But you also have the option to save pages to get right to a story you want to read later. When you want to look at a particular story later, hit the Saved Pages button under the Opera menu, then hit the plus sign to add it to your list. Now you can go directly there without wasting time searching or browsing to it.

Opera Mini 6 has some sharing options for sending sites and stories to other users. Just touch the Share button under the Opera Menu to post a link to Twitter, Facebook, or the My Opera community.

Opera Mini is an excellent browsing experience, but a couple of useful features didn't make it in to this early version for iOS. You won't be able to sync your bookmarks, Speed Dial, or custom searches via Opera Link, but we think (judging by previous Opera Mini launches) these features will probably become available in a later update. Also, it's important to note that even with its proxy browsing technology, you still won't be able to look at Flash content on your iOS device.

Overall, with speedy load times, quick access to favorite sites via Speed Dial, and elegant long-click menus for extra options, Opera Mini 6 is off to a great start on iOS devices. With a few more additions and feature refinements, it might even become the first choice for iOS Web surfers--even over Apple's Safari.

Buyer's remorse isn't limited to big-ticket items like cars and HDTVs. It can also strike after you shell out for a new app--even one that costs just a few bucks. If it wasn't what you thought it was, or just wasn't very good, you'll probably end up feeling the buyer's blues.

In the desktop world, many programs let you try before you buy, usually with a 14- or 30-day evaluation period. But when it comes to smartphone apps, there's no such thing.

Or is there? As CNET's Lance Whitney reported back in March, Amazon's Appstore for Android offers a "test drive" option for thousands of apps, meaning you can fiddle around with an app, right on your computer, before plunking down your hard-earned cash.

It's a pretty nifty solution, though obviously it requires you to be sitting at your PC, which is not always convenient. What's more, it's limited to folks who live in the U.S.

As it happens, however, Google's own Android Market offers a way to combat buyer's remorse: a 15-minute refund window.

Basically, if you decide within the first few minutes of downloading a new app that you don't like it, you can return to the Android Market app, hit the My Apps page, and then tap "Refund." Google will cancel the order without ever charging you for it. Here's the full scoop, straight from Google.

It's not try-before-you-buy in the traditional sense, but the net effect is the same. Keep in mind that you can get a refund only once for a selected app; if you buy it a second time, you're stuck with it. Also, not all apps are eligible.

I'll admit I didn't know this option existed, but my colleague Antuan Goodwin pointed out that Google originally offered a 24-hour window for app refunds. The recent cut to 15 minutes seems pretty severe, but I guess that's still enough time to decide if you like an app or not.

What's more, it's a courtesy Apple doesn't offer to its App Store customers. Ahem.

(Via Digital Inspiration)

Originally posted at Android Atlas

This morning, Opera announced the release of Opera Mini 6 for Apple's iOS devices, including iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad 2. Known for being an alternative Web browser with innovative features, Opera Mini 6 boasts faster page load times than other browsers even when on slower or crowded networks, thanks to compression and its proxy browser technology.

Available for the first time on iOS devices, Opera Mini 6 features an updated design optimized for iOS; smooth pinch-to-zoom and two-finger panning; support for the iPhone 4 Retina Display, iPad, and iPad 2 devices; sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and Opera's MyOpera service; and visual tabs for easy navigation.

For more on Opera 6 Mini for iOS, check back later today for our hands-on review.

Windows Phone 7 is getting a fair amount of work done. In addition to a more integrated outlook on apps, the Windows Phone update coming this fall (code-named Mango), will feature improvements in communications and better Web browsing, with search.

Communications
On the communications front, the Mango update will see a multi-network chat feature that gets conversations going among Facebook Chat, Windows Live Messenger, and text messages within the same thread. Windows Phone 7 will also natively support Twitter, which will appear within a contact record. In addition, there will be a new group messaging feature for text and e-mail. Microsoft will also adopt the unified e-mail inbox, for viewing all accounts in a central location.

Search
CNET got to take an early look at Bing Vision, a new search feature in the Bing mobile browser, but that isn't the only change planned for the Mango update.

The new Bing search app will bring new visual, audio, and voice search functionality. There's Local Scout, which searches by locations and happenings in your current whereabouts, and support for voice-to-text and text-to-voice dictation options for hands-free texting and chatting.

Internet Explorer 9 is also onboard as the next-generation browser. Although it includes support for HTML5 and the phone's hardware acceleration, it apparently doesn't play nice with Silverlight or Flash.

Stay tuned for much more from our live coverage of Microsoft's Mango launch event.

(Via All Things D, Engadget, Microsoft)

Article updated at 7:40 am PT with more details.

Originally posted at Dialed In

With the next update to Windows Phone 7 coming this fall, Microsoft is getting serious about apps. It's not just about how many programs Redmond can cram into its app store (more on this later), but what the Windows Phone platform can do to deliver the right app when you need it.

CNET sat down with Greg Sullivan last week, senior marketing manager of Windows Phone, to preview the most significant new app features hitting the operating system a few months from now in the update code-named Mango.

App Connect brings hubs in on app action
Microsoft is raring to free apps from the confines of the app store and start screens, and bring them into hubs and the browser where users can access them more easily.

Search Bing for a movie listing, for instance, and in addition to receiving the usual set of search links, you'll also be able to swipe to see a list of compatible apps you've installed, like Netflix and IMDB, perhaps. You can click into the app to view the movie preview and other pertinent content. In addition, Windows Phone will use an algorithm to surface relevant suggested apps that you don't yet have installed.

Movies aren't the only category to receive this type of attention in Bing search results, and Bing is only one place that this app integration will turn up. Microsoft will also support lifestyle categories like restaurants, books, landmarks, people, and theaters in Bing, and you'll be able to swipe to see relevant apps as a separate screen in the Picture, and Music + Video hubs as well.

Microsoft calls this app integration App Connect, and to make it happen, Redmond will give developers the keys to a certain application programming interface. Once they update their apps to enable App Connect, those apps can appear in the hubs and in Bing search results. (Microsoft will not monetize app suggestions at launch, we're told.)

Bringing app access to Bing and the hubs is a great idea that worked well in our demo, though we'll have to judge the actual implementation when we receive the update in-house.

Bing Vision
Another new Bing feature dovetails nicely with App Connect. Bing Vision is an on-screen browser control that's shaped like a human eye; tap it to view and scan an item with the phone's camera. During our demo, Bing Vision took a couple of seconds to focus on a book cover, then returned search results. In the Mango release, you'll be able to swipe over to the apps list and pull up the book's title on an Amazon Kindle app, for example.

App switching
The Windows Phone Mango update will also surface a logical and easy way to switch among recently used apps. Just press and hold the back button to surface a screen of recent app tiles that can be swiped. Although apps aren't technically running in the background (this saves battery,) Windows Phone will basically resume the app once you re-enter. App-switching and other multitasking tools have long been around on rival mobile platforms, but it's useful and welcome nonetheless.

Related links
• Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7 delayed
• Windows Phone update to bring more than 500 new features
• Windows Phone Mango update to bring new business features
• Microsoft gives details on next Windows Phone OS

Xbox Live
The Xbox Live section of the Games hub will also get native support for your 3D Xbox Live avatar. Before, you had to download a separate free app to get your "mini me" bouncing around on the screen within that hub. After Mango, you'll not only get that by default, you'll also be able to edit your profile, check live gaming requests, and review your achievements for all Xbox-related gameplay on the phone, console, and PC.

Microsoft's app strategy
Windows Phone Marketplace has taken a beating for the size of its app store, a relatively anemic 17,000 titles compared to BlackBerry's 25,000-plus apps, Android's more than 200,000 titles, and iPhone's over 350,000 apps. Much of that has to do with the Windows Phone 7 overhaul six months ago, which made existing apps on the Windows Mobile platform incompatible with the new OS and which forced Microsoft to start wooing developers all over again. Microsoft's Sullivan did note during our demo that the Marketplace is quickly growing.

Microsoft can't yet compete in sheer app numbers--one of three criteria that the company says phone owners tend to consider when buying a smartphone (Internet experience and sharing/community are two others)--hence its focus on providing greater value with multitasking and with bringing apps into the hubs.

Although we still expect the app store's total haul to lure prospective Windows Phone owners, everything Microsoft can do to make its OS smarter will help its chances for survival in today's cut-throat, Android- and iPhone-dominated world. Keep checking in to get all the news from today's Mango preview event in New York, and all other Windows Phone news.

Originally posted at Dialed In