Opera maintains its powerful arsenal of features in this beta, including Speed Dial, tabbed browsing, a password manager and its super, server-side compressor, Opera Turbo.

“We are unifying our products, so that users get the same experience, no matter the device or which particular Opera browser they are using,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “With Opera Mobile 10, we are raising the expectations of how a a mobile browser should perform. Today, users require a browser as powerful as the Web, one that can handle their daily tasks as well as their computers. That’s Opera.”

Check the change log below of the version 1.1.0.13041 for Symbian and version 1.1.0.13052 for Windows Mobile

• Improved page load times.
• Improved scrolling and zooming on Symbian.
• Improved reconnect. Skyfire will show clearly when you can start interacting with the web page in case it previously timed out and disconnected (to save battery life).
• WML support. If you are browsing to mobile sites that use the old mobile WML markup, you can now view the content.
• Improved mobile website support.
• Page up/down navigation via short-key: You can use now ‘2’ and ‘8’ to easily navigate one page up or down. Great for reading articles. Now the short-key for invoking the Superbar is *.
• Updated Plug-ins: For Flash, Silverlight and QuickTime we have the newest versions to give you more compatibility with more sites.
• Skyfire quits on startup on Windows Mobile 6.5 devices: It affected a limited number of 6.0 and 6.1 devices as well. (Fixed Issue 7369)
• Multi-line text entry behavior on Symbian: This was an issue when you exited text entry mode with predictive text on, or used the navigation keys. (Fixed Issues 7149 & 7112)
• Superbar state on Symbian: Cancel button did not always exit from Superbar. (Fixed Issue 7156)
• Samsung Propel and Jack (AT&T): Could not uninstall Skyfire if the SIM card was missing. Fixed.
• Short-keys inconsistent on non-standard keyboard. On some keyboard layouts (half-qwerty, dual keyboards), the short-keys do not work as expected. (Issue 7498, 7408, 7581)

It features optimal user interface to make it easier for users to press keys and handwrite with their finger with no need for stylus. This software allows users to input text with ease even on the move, and is even more conveniently utilized when applied to devices with capacitive touch screen. It also enables accurate handwriting entry by using a finger on a tight screen.

SmartFinger is available at DIOTEK’s global app store (www.diotek.com) and you can download its trial version with unlimited use for 15 days.

Other than the layering feature, map search results can now be also displayed on the map as little red dots so that you could find the nearest location from the result map. To download the new version, you can visit this page,  m.google.com/maps, from your mobile directly and follow the instruction.

full release note below

New features

• ayers: Layers (’2′ shortcut key) allow you to view locations and additional info overlaid on the map. You can add multiple layers or remove only certain layers so you control exactly what information you want visible on the map at the same time. Familiar info now available as layers include search results, Traffic (with new traffic incident icons and info), Directions, and Google Latitude. New available layers include My Maps (view-only), Transit lines (w/upcoming station departure info where available), and Wikipedia.
• Browse categories: Browse popular categories from the Search menu to search the map for businesses or points of interest by type. Category searches are currently available only for results in the US and China.
• Additional search results: When you search the map, Maps for mobile will now show you additional search results beyond the top ten results. The additional results will appear as “dots” on the map that you can select to see more info. As you pan the map, more search results will appear. Just zoom in to select a specific dot if there are lots of results for your search.
• My Maps: Add the My Maps layer from the Layers menu and sign in to your Google Account to access your custom My Maps created and edited from your computer. My Maps are currently view-only from Google Maps for mobile. You cannot create or edit your My Maps.

Signing in to your Google Account

You may sign in to to your Google Account from Google Maps for mobile in order to access certain features such as My Maps. By signing in, you will be able to use features like Google Latitude or to access info linked to your Google Account from other places outside of Maps for mobile such as My Maps.

Signing out: Sign out of your Google Account in Maps for mobile at any time by selecting the option from the main menu. Once you sign out of your Google Account, you will no longer be able to access any features that require a Google Account such as My Maps or Google Latitude.

Google Latitude: Google Latitude is an opt-in feature that requires you to both explicitly join and to be signed in to your Google Account. You may sign in to your Google Account to use features like My Maps, but Latitude will not be enabled until you explicitly choose to join it from the main menu. Similarly, you may turn only Latitude off from its privacy menu and still remain signed in to your Google Account to use other Maps features that require your account. If you sign out of your Google Account entirely from the Maps main menu, all features that require your account will no longer be available, including Latitude.

Fixed issues

• Symbian S60: E61, E61i, and E62 devices: Shortcut keys work properly using the standard numeric shortcuts. Previously, shortcut keys were not working as intended on these devices.
• Windows Mobile: Copy and paste has been re-enabled for most text entry fields (Search, directions, and user name)

Troubleshooting

• Symbian S60
  • N82 and N95 devices: we strongly encourage that you back up your device and consider upgrading to the latest device firmware version (see http://nokia.com/softwareupdate). A very small number of users report experiencing a device hang during installation, and we haven’t yet been able to reproduce this in the lab or determine the exact cause.
  • For some S60 3rd ed. FP2 phones (Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, 6210 Navigator, 6220 Classic, 6650, N78, N79, N85, N96, N96-3), you may need to set a default destination using the following steps: Go to Settings > Connection > Destinations > Options > Default connection. Select “Internet” (if you have it) or whichever APN group you want it to use.
• Windows Mobile
  • If you install Maps for mobile to your memory card instead of your device memory, you may experience issues due to a corrupt memory card or files. Please try a clean install using these instructions if you experience errors during installation:
    1. Uninstall Maps for mobile by going to Settings > Systems > Remove Programs > Google Maps.
    2. Do a soft reset / power off.
    3. Delete any remaining files under “\Program Files\GoogleMaps” (if installed in the internal memory) or “\Storage Card\Program Files\GoogleMaps” (if installed in an external memory card).
    4. Delete any remaining files under “\Application Data\GoogleMaps” (if installed in the internal memory) or “\Storage Card\Application Data\GoogleMaps” (if installed in an external memory card).
    5. After that, re-install the latest version from m.google.com/maps
  • Some users may see scrambled text upon loading Maps for mobile the first time after installation. Please try rebooting your phone first and seeing if this issue persists.

Previous versions of Spb Mobile Shell were shipped by a number of innovative phone makers, such as Acer, O2, Pharos, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba, have won numerous awards, and have been the choice of millions of customers. “It was challenging to design 3.0, as customer expectations are quite high,” – comments Yaroslav Goncharov the Spb Mobile Shell Product Manager and CTO at Spb Software – “On the other hand, this level of success gave us confidence in our basic ideas and design philosophy, and we certainly feel that Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 has all it takes to be the strong foundation for a host of new and immensely popular Windows phones.”

Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 Main Features

• Professional and Lifestyle home screens (for work and for play)
• Widget-based photo contacts with Facebook integration
• Widgets
• 3D carousel and hardware accelerator support
• Ringtones, Contacts, Profiles, and Wireless management
• Many integrated tools such as Weather, World Time, etc.
• Highly customizable for the needs of phone makers and mobile operators

Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is available in 24 languages, is compatible with Windows phones running Windows Mobile 5 and later Professional platforms, qVGA, VGA, Square QVGA, and WVGA screen resolutions are supported. A free, 15-day trial can be downloaded, or Spb Mobile Shell can be purchased for 29.95 USD from www.SpbSoftwareHouse.com. Users of any 2.x versions of Spb Mobile Shell are welcome to upgrade to Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 for 14.95 USD. Spb Mobile Shell users who have purchased the product within the last 90 days can also download the new version for free

Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is scheduled to release to manufacturers in late February of 2009, with release to the consumer market expected to follow in late March. According to Spb Software upgrades policy all end-users, who purchase software within 90 days of a new version’s release, are eligible for free upgrades.

Although this solution is intended for the enterprise sector, this beta software will also be available via www.vyke.com to download before the end of November.

Weather also integrates into Winterface – next generation mobile shell. When users add the Weather icon in Winterface it can display either temperature or weather status icon. Check the Weather application detail here

Balmer said:

Now, we built the Zune hardware with the Zune software – and what you’ll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc.

Zune is a brand of digital media players and services that includes portable media players, client software, and the Zune Marketplace online music and video store.

Since no time-frame was given, let’s wait until Windows Mobile 7 releases and see what happen.

[via WMPowerUser]