“In our own research, we have learned that the number-one reason people use Opera Mini is because it is easy — easy to use the Web you know. The idea of navigating the vastness of the Web from such a small screen can be a daunting leap, which is why we have long committed to make the browsing experience you are familiar with from your PC, easy to do on your mobile phone,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “With new, sleek navigation buttons, tabbed browsing and Speed Dial bookmarks, you are never more than a click away from where you want to go on the Web.”

List of new features:

• Tabbed browsing - Allow users to browser several sites simultaneously.
• Touchscreen or keypad browsing
• Password manager
• Speed Dial

Check out the demonstration video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The mobile Web is booming in Latin America. From March 2008 to March 2009, overall page views in the top 10 countries listed increased 673%. From March 2008 to March 2009, overall unique users in the top 10 countries listed increased 164%. From March 2008 to March 2009, overall data transferred in the top 10 countries listed increased 510%.

“This partnership is a great way for Opera to reach Virgin Mobile USA’s large customer base in the United States,” said Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner. “It demonstrates that Virgin Mobile USA recognizes Opera as a valuable service for its customers, who will now be able to enjoy Opera Mini’s speed and amazing feature set while browsing on the go.”

The Opera Mini build for Virgin Mobile USA will support both English and Spanish language support, the first such offering from a U.S. carrier and Opera. The Opera Mini application will be available to Virgin Mobile USA prepaid customers at standard data prices.

“As the most popular mobile browser on the planet, Opera Mini will also be available to users of Yahoo! Mobile. Yahoo! Mobile with Opera Mini is easily accessible to end-users, operators and manufacturers and provides a cost-effective means of getting the Internet on your phone,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “Together, Yahoo! and Opera will bring the full Web experience to your phone, similar to how you know it from your desktop computer.”

Earlier this week, Vodafone has also announced to use a custimized Opera Mini for its java enabled mobile phone

Vodafone customers will benefit from the ability to enjoy the full web-browsing functionality on Java mobile phones as well as an icon-based display that is easy to personalise. In addition, customers will be able to take advantage of an easy zoom in and out feature which automatically fits the mobile screen and on selected handsets the ability to view video content from popular sites such as YouTube.

As part of the global framework agreement with Opera Software, selected Vodafone operating companies will be able to pre-embed the Vodafone version of the Opera Mini browser on Java-based portfolio handsets or encourage customers to download it themselves.

The updated version now allow Android users to upload / download files with Opera Mini, you can also save the webpages to your Android phone storage for offline reading. When you click on a video link in the webpage, system’s video player will be automatically launched to play the video.

Other new features include:

• Double tap now works for zooming in and out
• Inline URL entry instead of using native input
• Fixed password text entry to hide characters
• Fixed problems with exiting application when back button was pressed
• Improved trackball speed
• All internal pages, like the start page, now have font size extra large for easier navigation

You can download the Opera Mini here

“With Opera Mini 4.2, we are showing the world that Opera never gets complacent. We will always be improving our product, adding speed, new functionality and features, and ensuring that it is accessible by all,” says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “Our support of the Android platform helps fulfill our mission to be available on more platforms, for more devices and reach more users, anywhere in the world.”

Upon downloading Opera Mini 4.2, mobile phone users will experience:

• More than 90 language versions, including the recently added Amharic, Armenian, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kirghiz, Lingala, Marathi, Malayalam, Mongolian, Oriya, Punjabi, Pashto, Sinhala, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Uzbek, Khmer, Kashmiri, Lao and Turkmen
• Funky new skins for personalizing the look of Opera Mini
• Opera Link support for notes, allowing users to sync their notes between the PC and Opera Mini
  Improved real time streaming protocol (RTSP) handoff. This increases the number of phones with support for mobile video.

Opera Mini 4.2 is ready and waiting for download at http://www.opera.com/mini/. Sprint Instinct users will have to upgrade their firmware here to use the new Opera Mini 4.2

Other new features since Opera Mini 4.1 includes:

• Synchronize, edit and delete notes via Opera Link
• 24 new languages
• Better handling of RTSP, enabling more users to watch video. If your phone supports RTSP via Opera Mini, you should be able to play e.g. YouTube videos on your phone. These will not be played in Opera Mini, but by the media software in the device.
• Skins are back (along with new skins)
• “Accept” link at the end of the EULA (for BlackBerry users)

With this beta release, Opera celebrates Opera Mini being the browser of choice for more than 20 million unique monthly users worldwide. As part of the celebration, Opera Mini users in the United States and Asia-Pacific region can now experience faster browsing speeds, due to the addition of an Opera Mini server park in the United States.

Opera Mini 4.2 beta is a free download from www.operamini.com/beta/. Note that the beta installation will not remove your existing Opera Mini stable version.

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Africa’s mobile industry is expanding at nearly double the global rate. Personal computer penetration remains low across the continent, which results in an increasing number of Africans turning to their mobile phones to get online.

As of September 2008, Egypt has preempted Germany as the world’s tenth largest user of the Opera Mini browser for mobile phones. South Africa remains firmly among the top 10 international users, currently ranked sixth. Overall, Africa experienced a usage surge of 180 percent over the past nine months.

“Month after month we have witnessed our usage numbers in Africa skyrocket,” says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “This tells us that change is underway, and more people now have the ability to access the Internet from locations that were previously unthinkable. Opera Mini has a global entourage of 19 million strong. These people accessed 4.5 billion Web pages in September alone. It’s exciting to see a rise in Opera Mini use in countries like Egypt, where accessing sites such as Facebook and Google from their mobile phone can now be a part of Egyptians’ daily lives.”