Opera Mobile 9.5 now offers Opera Widgets to the mobile Internet experience, enabling one-click web content access. This release marks the second Opera Mobile 9.5 beta for Windows Mobile and the first-ever beta for UIQ-based phones. A developer version of S60 Widget manager is also available within the Opera Widgets SDK.
T-Mobile has already embraced Opera Mobile with Widgets for their web’n’walk initiative, as previously announced on September 18, 2008. Like T-Mobile, other operators can now incorporate Opera Widgets into their offerings. Customer-selected web content can be accessed from a list of icons on the home-screen. Widgets can also serve as a means of customer communication, as automatic notifications are now easier to instantly deliver to subscribers.
Opera is launching the updated SDK with a developer competition called
the “X Widget Challenge”. Opera is offering $10,000 in cash prizes for
the best cross-device widget submissions. Read more about the
competition from my.opera.com/widgets.
“Opera has built its second Opera Mobile 9.5 beta based on
user-generated feedback following its first public release earlier this
year,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “In addition to
Opera Widgets, this new test version promises to be a smoother ride
than the previous version, as we have improved page loading times and
increased our focus on end-user productivity.”
Several Opera Widgets are now pre-installed in the Opera Mobile 9.5
beta builds. Additionally, Opera offers downloadable widgets at
widgets.opera.com.
Opera always encourages more user-generated widgets and therefore
recently updated its Opera Widget Software Development Kit (SDK). This
SDK will enable developers to quickly and easily create widgets using
standards-based Web technology. The Opera Widgets SDK now includes two
new features:
-Opera Dragonfly debugging tool - Develop faster with this tool for
debugging JavaScript, inspecting Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the
Document Object Model (DOM). Find your errors and get your widget
right. -Widget manager for on-device testing - Widget managers for S60,
UIQ and Windows Mobile are included with in the SDK for testing widgets
directly on the mobile phone.
“Opera has kept developer needs at the heart of this beta release,”
said Håkon Wium Lie, Chief Technology Officer, Opera Software
.
“All great developers need great tools to work with. Opera is an
industry leader in making the Web a developer-friendly place by
constantly innovating within the confines of Web standards. We will
continue to create with developers in mind, as we intend to continue to
grow our developer toolkit with each consecutive release.”
Availability
Opera Mobile 9.5 beta with Opera Widgets is ready and waiting for download from www.opera.com/products/mobile/
The Opera Widgets SDK can be downloaded from www.opera.com/b2b/solutions/widgets/