Nokia's Beta Labs introduced a Beta of the Ovi Browser Wednesday.  It's based on the Vision browser from Novarra, which Nokia acquired five months ago. The Ovi browser is a proxy based browser, similar to Opera Mini. It renders and transcodes web pages on a server before sending them to the phone client in a highly compressed format. Nokia claims that the compression reduces web traffic by up to 90%.

The Ovi browser supports the Nokia 2700 Classic, Nokia 2730 Classic, Nokia 3120 Classic, Nokia 3600 Slide, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 5220 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, Nokia 5330 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5610, Nokia 6300i, Nokia 6303, Nokia 6500 Slide, Nokia 6500 Classic, Nokia 6600 Slide, Nokia 6700 Classic, Nokia 7210 Supernova, Nokia 7900 Prism and  Nokia X3. If you have one of those devices you can download the browser from browser.ovi.com

I don't have a supported device but wanted to see what the Ovi browser was like.  Visiting browser.ovi.com with an N95, I got a "Sorry your device is not supported..." message. But by impersonating a Nokia 5130 with Firefox's User Agent Switcher Add On I was able to grab the jad and jar files and Bluetooth them to the N95.  The Ovi Browser installed and started up only to display, "Ovi Browser does not run on this device." I finally had success with MicroEmulator, a PC Java ME emulator.

If you want to try running the Ovi Browser on an unsupported device, here are links to copies of the jad and jar files.

JAR Signed JAD Unsigned JAD

Running on MicroEmulator, the Ovi Browser was actually quite impressive.  Like Opera Mini, the browser has two modes. With "Column View" off,  it's a  "keyhole browser", like Symbian Webkit, where page is displayed with original formatting intact but highly reduced in size (image above, right) and you can zoom in on a small area (image below, left). In the other mode with "Column View" On, the page is simplified and reformatted into a single column (image below, right). Both modes worked well on the sites I tried. Fonts were attractive and readable and there was no overlapping of text and images.

Fans of column view will be happy to know that it actually seems to works on all sites, unlike with Opera Mini where Mobile View is disabled and horizontal scrolling occurs on Blogger hosted blogs and many mobile sites.  On the other hand the Ovi browser forces some desktop sites into Column View and disables the option to turn it off!  This happens with  the full version of Google News and with those pesky Blogger blogs.

One of the selling points of  Novara's Vision browser was that it transcoded Flash videos on the server into a format that the client could play.  It doesn't look like that feature made it into the Ovi Browser Beta. When I tried to watch a Flash video on the YouTube desktop site I got the dreaded prompt to download the Flash plugin.

The Ovi Browser's user interface is intuitive but a bit cumbersome.  With Column View on the 2, 8, 4 and 6 keys scroll one screen up, down, left and right respectively. Those are the only keyboard shortcuts that I could find, all other actions are accomplished through a hierarchical menu. Consequently, it takes multiple key presses or taps to access common actions like bookmarking a site, opening a bookmark or toggling  column view on or off.  With column view on the 2, 8, 4, 6 shortcuts do not work making scrolling to the bottom of a long page a bit tedious. On the plus side the numeric access key shortcuts that are used by some mobile sites do work in column view.

For a first Beta, the Ovi browser is remarkably stable and usable. I'm hoping that Nokia will continue to develop this browser and bundle it with all their S40 phones. There is a real need for good proxy based browsers on low end phones and the in developing world where resource constraints, high data costs and the lack of 3G limit the browsing experience.  In my experience, the browsing with Opera Mini on a feature phone actually rivals that that of any smartphone.  The only thing holding back mass adoption of mobile browsing is the cost of data. Hopefully network operators will make lower cost data bundles available to users of basic phones with highly efficient browsers like this Opera Mini or the Ovi Browser.

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Mexico based América Móvil, the fourth largest mobile network in the world, doesn't have a network of it's own in the US but operates the country's largest MVNO under the TracFone banner with subsidiary brands Net10, Safelink and StraightTalk.  The latter has been offering unlimited talk, text in and data for $45/month since late last year.

Straight Talk phones are only available online and at Wal-Mart stores.  While Straight Talk is attractive to  heavy talkers and texters, the data part of the deal is less than inspiring due to the locked down nature of the service and handsets. You have to use one of Straight Talk's selection of feature phones which are BREW based and do not allow the installation of any apps, paid or free.  The only use for that unlimited data was browsing the mobile web with the rather feeble WAP browsers that are pre-installed on the phones.  Because the phones don't support Java ME there's   no way to use the Opera Mini or Bolt browsers or IM, Gmail or Google Maps apps.

All that changed early this month when  users on Howard Forums reported seeing a new line of Straight Talk GSM phones  in a few Walmart stores.  Monday, on their blog, Straight Talk confirmed the launch of the GSM service and the GSM phones are now available on Straight Talk's website.

The new phones are:

• The Samsung T401G (top), a rather plump $99.99 candybar with a three row QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the side.
• The LG 620G (above, right), a $69.99 12 key slider.

Both phones have an MP3 player, 1.3 MB video capable  camera, Bluetooth and a 176x220 px screen. The T401G's screen is 2.1 inches, the 620G's screen size is unspecified but looks to be about the same size. Neither supports 3G either, just GPRS and Edge. They are available at Walmart stores across the country and online at Straighttalk.com.  The onlines prices are $45 higher because they include the first month's service.

In addition to the unlimited plan, the GSM phones can also be used on Straight Talk's $30/month "All You need" plan which includes 1000 minutes, 1000 texts and 30MB of data.

Several Howard Forums users have bought these phones and reported that the phone's home network is AT&T with free roaming, probably on T-Mobile, in some areas.  This is a good deal as the Straight Talk CDMA phones do not roam off of Verizon.  TracFone and Net10 phones come with either a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM depending on the market. So far no one has reported finding a Straight Talk phone with a T-Mobile SIM.

The phones and SIMs are both locked. An AT&T SIM will not work in a Straight Talk phone. More significantly, a Straight Talk SIM will not work in an unlocked GSM phone,  so forget about using one in an iPhone or Nexus One.

Perhaps the nicest thing about Straight Talk GSM is that, unlike all of Straight Talk's previous offerings. the LG phone lets you install and run Java apps from third party sites. The Bolt browser, Opera Mini 3, 4.2 and 5.1, Google Maps and Gmail apps are all reported to work. Plus the phone can download and use free ringtones and video clips from 3rd party sites.

It looks like the Samsung may not share the LG's openness as there are no reports on the Howard Forums  thread of downloaded apps working with it. In fact two posts users have reported that neither Opera Mini or Bolt worked on the Samsung.

All in all I think Straight Talk's GSM offering is a good one, mainly because of the free off network roaming and degree of software freedom offered by the LG model. The lack of 3G or higher spec handsets is disappointing but it is unlimited prepaid  data with support for third party apps.  The only other unlimited everything prepaid offer is Sprint's Boost Mobile which costs $5 a month more and does not roam off of Sprint's native network which offers a much smaller coverage footprint than Straight Talk's AT&T plus roaming.

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Found on the Mobile Web is a weekly WAP Review feature listing newly added and updated sites on the YesWAP.com mobile portal and WapReview mobile site directory. With these latest additions the directory and portal now list 2296 mobile sites.

Local Search

Parking Assistant www.anagog.com/wa/ A Google maps mashup the uses the Geolocation JavaScript API to create a map showing nearby parking lots. Green and red icons indicate free and paid lots, respectively Although the developer calls it an "iPhone WebApp" webapp it also works well with the Android browser, Samsung's Dolfin and Opera Mobile 10.1! Source: PC World
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Entertainment

io9 m.io9.com Mobile edition of Gawker Media's science fiction blog covering science fiction movies, books, TV programs and comics. Source: Eugenia's Rants and Thoughts
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Air Travel

PriorityPass www.prioritypass.com/mobile/ Priority Pass is a service that for an annual fee lets members use over 600 business airport class lounges at  100 airports around the world. The Priority Pass mobile site lists participating lounges by airport and provides walking directions to each lounge.
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Tech/Tech News Sites and Blogs

Danielle Gatsos daniellegatsos.wordpress.c

om Marketing professional Danielle Gatsos' mobile friendly personal blog covers social media marketing, video, graphic design and mobile and digital technology.
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Home/Reference - Tools

FEMA m.fema.gov The US government's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s innovative mobile site now lets disaster victims to apply for FEMA assistance using their mobile phone.

FEMA's site also provides information on emergency services in regions affected by a disaster and has general information on what you should do in the event of a hurricane, flood, tornado, earthquake, terrorist attack, thunderstorm, tsunami, wildfire or severe winter storm. Source: Federal Eye
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Portals

Netvibes Touch iphone.netvibes.com Personal portal site Netvibes has launched optimized "Touch Web" versions of the site for the iPhone, iPad and Android. Instead of using  a single URL with browser detection and adaptation, Netvibes provides separate URL for each platform:
iphone.netvibes.com
ipad.netvibes.com
android.netvibes.com
The appearance, UI and content of all three variants appears to be identical although there are probably some behind the scenes device specific optimizations

The sites use HTML5 local storage and real time synchronization of read/unread items across platforms to deliver a seamless experience to desktop and mobile browsers.
Source: NetVibes Blog
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Gossip

Necole Bitchie m.necolebitchie.com Having a name resembling that of a celebrity seems to be the key to success for gossip bloggers. First there was Perez Hilton, then came Necole Bitchie, who focuses on the music industry with an emphasis on black artists.

Of course success requires much more than a memorable name and Ms. Bitchie clearly works hard at her trade, updating the site frequently throughout the day. And now thanks to a new mobile view created with Mobify you can  follow NecoleBitchie.com on your phone.
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Mobile - Operators

Pay as you go Wiki paygsimwithdata.wikia.com The "Pay as you go SIM with data Wiki" is a mobile friendly community site listing details of prepaid data offers for operators around the world. Currently it has information on relatively few countries and operators, but it's a Wiki which anyone can add to so it should grow as the community shares its local knowledge. Source: @skr
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Shopping - Deals

dealnews.com dealnews.com/iphone/ Popular deals site, Dealnews.com's "Touch Web" optimized site helps you find bargains on gadgets, computers, electronics and more. With a page size of only 24 KB the site would work on almost all phones except for the fact that the product links require JavaScript, which is not supported by many feature phones.
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Job Search

Jobmail (ZA) www.jobmail.co.za/mobile/ Search for jobs and browse through job listings in Africa, Europe and the Middle East with the mobile edition of South Africa's largest job search site. Source: mobiThinking
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Postpaid or paid monthly plans are the norm for most in the US and tend to offer the greatest value for heavy users. Unfortunately, they are almost impossible for non-US residents to get as  a US bank account, credit card and employment is generally required to pass the mandatory credit check.

That leaves prepaid which is slowly gaining traction in the US and in the process is becoming more competitive and affordable.

In order to use your phone in in the US with a local SIM it most be unlocked and support the US frequency bands which are different from those used in most of the world.

The two national US operators are T-Mobile and AT&T.

T-Mobile uses the 1900 mHz band for GPRS/Edge and the 1700 (downlink) and 2100 (uplink) bands for UTMS/HPSA/HPSA+. 2100hz is the standard 3g band in most of the world , however for a phone to work with T-Mobile 3G, both 1700 and 2100 are required. As far as I know, the only non-US market phone that supports 1700/2100 is the unreleased Nokia N8. So your non-US phone will only get Edge speeds with T-Mobile US. This is unfortunate as T-Mobile has better prices and better prepaid coverage than AT&T.

T-Mobile: Other than a small walled garden of free sites, T-Mobile has no data options at all for their traditional pay as you go plans.

To get real data you have to go with the Flex-Pay hybrid option that lets you use any of T-Mobile's "Even More Plus" post-paid plans on a month to month basis. The cheapest plan is $29.99 for 500 "anytime" voice minutes, unlimited calls to other T-Mobile phones and unlimited nights (9:00 PM to 6:59 AM) and weekends (Midnight Friday to Midnight Sunday). More voice minutes are available at a higher monthly price. (all plans) There is a $1.21/month  911 fee on FlexPay accounts in all states and you may have to pay state sales tax which varies between 0 and 10.75% depending on state (sales tax rates).

Unlimited data can be added to any Even More Plus plan for  $10/month for feature phones, $25/month for smartphones or $30/month for BlackBerry BIS.  T-Mobile does not cap their unlimited plans but will throttle service to Edge speeds in any month where you exceed 5GB.

Unlimited SMS/MMS is a $10/month add-on.  Without the add-on incoming and outgoing SMS or MMS cost 20 cents each.

The easiest way for travelers to get a Flex Pay SIM is at a T-Mobile company operated store. These are quite common in the T-Mobile service area (coverage map) (store locator). If you are staying in a city there will generally be a T-Mobile shop within a few blocks of your hotel.  Unlike in some countries SIMs are not generally available at airports or convenience stores. T-Mobile lists a $9.99 charge for a Flex-Pay SIM although I've heard that this is often waived.

T-Mobile's data settings:
APN - epc.tmobile.com  (no user id, passwpord or proxy needed.)

MMS settings:
APN - wap.voicestream.com
MMSC URL http://216.155.174.84/servlets/mms
MMSC proxy: 216.155.165.050
MMSC port: 8080

AT&T uses the 850 and 1900 mHZ bands for both GPRS/Edge and 3G.  Most areas have both 850 and 1900 coverage but quite a few are 1900 only (map). Unlike T-Mobile you will have service if your phone supports either band although a phone with both the 850 and 1900 bands will give you better coverage.

Except for a special iPad plan, AT&T's prepaid pricing is pretty bad, especially for data.  The operator recently discontinued their hybrid plans and now offers only pay as you go with a basic rate of 25 cents/minute for calls and 20 cents each for SMS/MMS.  The voice rate can be reduced 10 cents/minute and free to other AT&T phones with a $1/day fee (charged only on days when you make or answer a call).  Unlimited voice is available at  $3/day (only charged on days used) and there is a $60/month unlimited voice and data plan.  Details of all prepaid voice plans are here. SMS/MMS bundles are available at 200 texts for $4.99, 1000 for $9.99 and unlimited for $19.99.  AT&T charges a whopping $20 for  a SIM. There is a 0.20 to $1.50 monthly 911 fee charged in some states in addition to applicable state sales taxes.

Ad hoc data is automatically enabled on AT&T prepaid at $0.01/KB. The only data packages available on AT&T are 1 MB for $4.99 and 100 MB for $19.99.  Text and data bundles expire after 30 days but unused texts or data rolls over if another bundle is purchased before the expiration date.

AT&T offers iPad owners a free micro-SIM with data only pricing of 14.95/month for 250 MB or $25/month for 2 GB.  The SIM must be activated in an iPad.   There's reportedly a hack to activate the iPad SIM with a PC browser with a modified user agent to impersonate an iPad.  Once activated it's possible to use the micro-SIM with an adapter in other devices. The iPad SIMs are data only, there is no option to use voice or text.

As with T-Mobile the easiest way to get a SIM and pay for service is at an AT&T corporate store (store locator).  AT&T's prepaid coverage (map) is inferior to T-Mobile's but iPad band users get the the benefit's of the operator's much larger post-paid coverage area (map).

AT&T data settings:
APN - WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM (no user id, passwpord or proxy needed.)

MMS settings:
APN - wap.cingular
User name - WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password - CINGULAR1
MMSC URL - http://mmsc.cingular.com

Here's a table summarizing both operator's plans:

Related Posts:
The Best US Prepaid Data Deals
The Best U.S. Prepaid Voice and Text Deals

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Bookmarkets are snippets of JavaScript in a browser bookmark that automate sharing links on Twitter or Delicious, subscribing to feeds in Google Reader or Bloglines, translating web pages to another language, fixing illegible page colors and much more. I use them all the time and find they really enhance my productivity.

A couple of years ago I created o.yeswap.com, a special page of bookmarklets for Opera Mini users. Mini lacks drag and drop or any other way to directly save a link as a bookmark. You have to enter bookmarklets manually, which is difficult especially on feature phones that don't support copy and paste.

With my mobile bookmarklets page when you click one of bookmarklet links, the page reloads with the bookmarklet appended to the URL. Opera Mini users can  bookmark the page and then edit the bookmark address by removing the "http://o.yeswap.com/?" from the beginning.

That method works in other browsers too including Mobile Internet Explorer, the iPhone, Palm Blazer, Opera Mobile, Symbian 5th edition and desktop browsers but is unnecessarily tedious with browsers that support copy/paste or have the ability to save a link as a bookmark.

So I've modified the bookmarklets site to include a new dynamic landing page (image). It offers three different ways to save the bookmarket:

• The bookmarklet JavaScript is still appended to the URL so Opera Mini users can use it as before.
• For browsers that support copy and paste, the landing page has a textbox containing just the bookmarklet JavaScript,  ready to copy and paste into a new browser bookmark.
• For browsers that let you drag bookmarks to the toolbar or save a link as a bookmark there is now a link containingjust the bookmarklet's JavaScript.

I've also added some new bookmarks.  Most of these were contributed by readers.  The new bookmarklets are:

• View Word Doc - Rewrites links to Word Docs on the current page so that they open in the online Doc viewer at view.samurajdata.se. - Contributed by Thomas Ring Carlsen
• Night Mode - Change the page background to black and the text into gray. Contributed by Sami Serola
• Copy Page Text - Load all the text on the current page into a JavaScript alert where it can be edited and copied using the phone's native text editor. Contributed by Darmawan Sidiq
• Tweet It - Post a link to the current page to Twitter using the Twitter Mobile site.

Related: For more about mobile bookmarklets see the following pages:
Mobile Bookmarklet Page Update and Cleanup
Supercharge the N900 Browser With Bookmarklets
Updated Opera Mini Bookmarklets Page
Bookmarklets for Opera Mini

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Welcome to Found on the Mobile Web, a weekly WAP Review feature listing newly added and updated sites on the YesWAP.com mobile portal and WapReview mobile site directory. With these latest additions the directory and portal now list 2286 mobile sites.

Web Design & Development

Travis Berry m.travisberry.com Web designer/developer and video production specialist, Travis Berry's blog has loads of good articles on web development techniques and a portfolio of his designs and videos. Mobile view by Mobify.
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Symbian

Symbian Foundation Blog blog.symbian.org The official voice of The Symbian Foundation. Content includes news, product announcements and high-level technical discussions relating to the popular open source mobile operating system.
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City Guides

Londonist mobile.londonist.com An online magazine about London with news, event listings, reviews of art, theater, concerts, exhibits, galleries, pubs and restaurants. Source: Taptu Touch Web Report (PDF)
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Music-Nightlife

ClubListNow www.clublistnow.com/mobile2.php A nightclub portal that lists exclusive events in major US cities and lets you submit your name and your friend's names to the guest list and reserve VIP tables. The "Touch Web" site requires JavaScript. Source: Taptu Touch Web Report
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Weather

BeachWatch (UK) www.beachwatch.info Hourly wind speed and direction report, three day forecast and tide tables for UK windsurfers and beachgoers in an compact, attractive and easy to use format that should work on all phones. Source: Taptu Touch Web Report
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Mobile News and Reviews

Mobile Royale mobileroyale.co.cc/?mobile=1 Mobile Royale is a general mobile blog offering  news, software and device reviews for all mobile platforms.  The mobile edition was created using the  Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress
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Windows Phone

Microsoft.mobi microsoft.mobi Microsoft recently launched this consumer facing mobile portal which has links to all the MSN and Microsoft Live mobile properties (Messenger, Hotmail,  Spaces. etc) along with Windows Phone downloads, promotional pages for Office 2010, Zune HD and Xbox 360 and a Mobile Support answer bot. Source: Mobility.mobi Content:  Usability:

Tech

Smart Facts smartfacts.mobi IBM's new mobile site targeting corporate decision makers with a series of "Smart Facts" about successful businesses or business practices. The Facts pieces don't overtly promote IBM products and services but offer readers an emailed IBM White Paper on each Smart Facts topic. Source: Mobility.mobi
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Entertainment News

EW.com Mobile m.ew.com The online mobile edition of Time Warner's Entertainment Weekly magazine has entertainment news, critical reviews of movies, books, music and TV series and specials and recaps of the most recent episodes of popular series.
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US Local News by State/Iowa - Michigan

MLive Michigan mobile.mlive.com MLive.com provides 24/7 news, information, classified ads and job listings for Michiganders. It covers Ann Arbor, Bay City, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Saginaw and Statewide news. Source: operaminisites.mobi
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Hot on the heels of yesterday's Opera Mini 5.1 for Android release, Opera Software today put up Opera Mobile 10.1 for Symbian 3rd and 5th Edition and Maemo 4.1 and 5.0 (N800, N810 and N900).

This release adds long anticipated support for Geolocation to along with:

• Support for CSS3 border-radius, background attachment, box-shadow, border-image attributes and for the 2D Transforms module.
• The latest Carakan JavaScript engine (with JIT on Maemo)
• The Vega vector graphics library
• An update of the Opera Core and numerous bug fixes

There are also some known issues with this release most notably higher memory usage especially on JavaScript heavy sites. That will not be good news for users of the memory starved Symbian 5th Edition devices which struggle to run Opera Mobile 10.

I installed 10.1 on my Nokia N95-3  and gave it a quick run through. It seems generally as  fast and stable as 10.0 although I could not get Opera Link to work.  I've noticed intermittent issues with Opera Link in Opera Mobile before and it always eventually starts working. I hope this is the case with 10.1.

Geolocation definitely works in Opera Mobile 10.1.  Unfortunately not all sites recognize the browser as location aware. In particular Google.com and most other Google services do not. I was able to get Buzz and Google Maps to locate me by using the undocumented URLs;  m.google.com/app/buzz?force=1 and http://maps.google.com/maps/m, respectively. Other sites were Geolocation worked for me were:

Gowalla m.gowalla.com
NextBus nextbus.com/webkit
BigMap linkstore.ru/mbigmap
Geo SMS servletsuite.com/geosms/

I suspect that  the problem with Google is that they are using browser sniffing to detect browser that are known to support geolocation. They just need to add a test for Opera Mobile 10.1's  user agent which is (on Symbian):

Opera/9.80 (S60; SymbOS; Opera Mobi/751; U; en-US) Presto/2.5.28 Version/10.1

For more about Opera Mobile 10.1 including complete changelogs see:
Opera Mobile 10.1 for S60 and Maemo: Geolocation, Vega and Carakan (with JIT for Maemo) - Haavard's Blog
Testers wanted: Opera Mobile 10.1 beta for Symbian/S60 - Opera Mobile Blog
Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta is here! - Opera for Symbian OS Forum

Download Opera Mobile 10.1 for Symbian at opera.com/mobile/download/versions (PC) or  m.opera.com/next/ (mobile).

Maemo users can find the new release in the extras-testing repository for the N900 or in extras-devel for the N800 and N810.

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Opera Mini for Android dropped the Beta tag with the release of Opera Mini 5.1 today. The new version brings a number of bug fixes and enhancements to Opera Mini on Google's smartphone platform.

The most significant improvement is that when Opera Mini  gets closed in the background by the Android OS it now saves its complete state, including the contents of all open tabs and the browsing history.  Android is very aggressive about closing apps that are in the background, particularly on devices with limited RAM like the G1 and most HTC Magic models. This really hampers multi-tasking (in the human rather than the computer sense) on these phones.

When I switch away from the Android or Opera Mini browser on my Magic to read an email, reply to a text or take a phone call,  the browser usually gets closed. When I reopen the Android browser, it reloads only the tab that was in the foreground, the contents of any other tabs are not restored and don't even show up in history.  But when you restart  Opera Mini 5.1, everything is almost instantly reloaded from local storage.  This gives a huge boost to the multitasking (in the human rather than the computer sense) capabilities of low memory Android devices.

One thing to watch out for is that Opera Mini's saved state is purged an hour after the browser is closed. I guess this is to save resources of some sort although I prefer that it was saved indefinitely

Another very welcome change is that Opera Mini can now be set as the default browser in Android so that clicking links in Seesmic,  Gmail, Messaging and other apps open them in Opera Mini instead of the default browser.

The other changes in 5.1 are relatively minor but except for one, appreciated.  Kinetic scrolling, while still not as fluid as in the Android browser, is much improved over 5.0, text is now a little more legible when zoomed out on high resolution. As a concession to the critics who complain about the lack of pinch to zoom in Opera Mini you can jump between Opera's two zoom levels by pinching and spreading two fingers apart (un-pinching  - is that even a word?). Personally I think that's agimic and find it easier to zoom in and out by tapping and double tapping.  I also noticed that an annoying rendering bug that inserted an extra space after double-byte characters like curly quotes and em-dashes has been fixed in 5.1.

The one change I don't like is that in Opera Mini's full screen mode the Android notification bar is now hidden. I'd like to see that made optional.  The notification bar shows the time, indicators for voicemails, text messages, Tweets, emails, missed calls, signal and battery state. It takes up very little screen real estate and I find it incredibly useful. The images below show full screen mode in Opera Mini 5.0 and 5.1.  In the former notifications are not hidden, unlike in 5.1 where you have to turn off full screen mode (image top, left) in order to see the notification bar.

In spite of the notification bar issue, I'm really happy with 5.1 mostly because of saved state feature.  I can finally use my Android phone without worrying that replying to a text or taking a call will toss out all the pages I've opened in tabs for latter reading.

I believe that every Android user should have a copy of Opera mini installed on their phone.  I'm not saying that it can completely replace the Android browser. Opera Mini lacks the Android browser's support for cutting edge HTML5 features like location and online storage and it's client server architecture means that some JavaScript features like timers don't work.  But Opera Mini is a great time saver when your stuck on a slow connection and it has a lot of features the Android browser lacks like page saving and the ability to upload any type of file to sites like OFS.mobi. For more about the advantages and disadvantages of Opera Mini on the Android platform see my Opera Mini 5 Beta for Android Review.

Related: Opera Mini 5 Tips and Tricks

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Found on the Mobile Web is a weekly WAP Review feature listing newly added and updated sites on the YesWAP.com mobile portal and WapReview mobile site directory. With these latest additions the directory and portal now list 2277 mobile sites.

Shopping

NexTag m.nextag.com The mobile edition of the price comparison site NexTag helps find the best online prices for computers, gadgets, financial services, travel, automobiles, education and more. Search by keyword or SKU. Android and iOS devices get a special "Touch" version of NexTag that you can use on other devices by visiting advanced.m.nextag.com.
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Tech News Sites and Blogs

Scobleizer scobleizer.com Blogger and author (Naked Conversations) Robert Scoble, who claims to have interviewed more than 3200 geeks, is an alumni of Userland, Microsoft and Fast Company and is currently working on Rackspace's Building 43, a social and publishing community for tech visionaries. His personal blog, Scobilizer, is opinionated but always entertaining and is one of the most widely read and influential of personal tech blogs.
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Pat Phelan: Bits, bytes and telecoms patphelan.net Personal blog of Irish serial entrepreneur (MaxRoam, Twitterfone, Allfreecalls.net, Roam4free), Pat Phelan. Frequently updated and packed with industry news, gossip and Pat's take on the latest handsets, software and services,  it's a must read for everyone in mobile.
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Mobile News and Reviews

mobiThinking mobithinking.mobi From dotMobi's marketing department, mobiThinking features a showcase of mobile sites plus case studies, guides, interviews, mobile marketing news and a lively blog with in depth articles on all aspects of the mobile web industry.
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Mobility Site www.mobilitysite.com Microsoft MVP Chris Leckness launched "Aximsite" in 2003 covering Dell's Axim PocketPC PDAs. After a series of name changes and sub-site spinoffs (IpaqHQ, Tiltsite) it all came together as MobilitySite - which today carries  news, reviews and tips for users of "Everything with a battery".
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Windows Mobile

WMPoweruser wmpoweruser.mobify.me One of the leading Windows Mobile tech sites, WMPoweruser is updated daily with the latest news, tips, hardware, software and ROM reviews. Lately WMPoweruser been covering porting Android to WM hardware, probably not a good omen for Windows Mobile's future!  Mobile view by Mobify
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Chat

Bangladeshi wap chat wap.pbadda.com Chat, forum, mobile directory and mobile tip site. Targeted toward Bangladesh residents, but all are
welcome to chat and participate in the forums.
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Literature

Simon & Schuster simonandschuster.mobi The big publisher's mobile catalog is seachable and includes a synopsis, author bio and book information for each title plus links to buy books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or IndieBound.  For most books there are links to purchase as eBook editions from Amazon or B&N. The eBook links are currently broken, leading to the Kindle or B&N homepage rather than the eBook's purchase page. Source: Mobility.mobi
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Men's Interest

Love-Edu shresthmobi.com/love/ Relationship and love tips for men, a "Love Calculator" and links to romance related apps on GetJar.
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Weather

Weather Underground Touch i.wund.com The Weather Underground's new "iPhone" site offers a streamlined touch friendly interface that also works well with the Android, WebOS, Symbian 3rd and 5th edition and Opera Mini and Mobile browsers on devices with screens at least 320 px wide.. It's location aware on Android and the iPhone. Source: Taptu Blog
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Today,  Opera Software released a new 5.1 version of Opera Mini.  The main feature of  this release is that it's been optimized to work well on low end phones with screens less than 200 px wide or under 4 MB of Java Heap memory.

The optimization was accomplished mainly with a new lighter weight user interface that uses text rather than icons for the "Speed Dial" start page and dispenses with some of the icons in menus.  The light UI is used only on low resource handsets.

Users of Smartphones, BlackBerrys and high end feature phones will still see the same graphically rich  user interface in 5.1 as they did with Opera Mini 5.0.   The images above and below demonstrate the main UI differences on a 176 x 200 px screen.  The first image of each pair is Opera Mini 5.0, the second is Opera Mini 5.1

Opera says the update is not critical for users of phones that ran Opera Mini 5.0 well, however there are reports on the Opera Mini User Forum that 5.1 fixes some bugs with QWERY devices and improves scrolling speed and smoothness on Symbian 5th edition phones.

If you managed to download  Opera Mini 5.1 during the first hour after it was released last night you might have noticed a mysterious  "Clear Shared Locations" option in the Privacy Menu. After users started asking about it on the forums, an Opera employee posted "Clear shared locations should not have appeared there (it does nothing in this case), and has been removed in a subsequent silent update."  Which makes me suspect that Opera is working to add HTML5 Location Provider support to a future Opera Mini release!

Opera Mini is most popular in the developing world where bandwidth is slow and expensive and phones tend to be basic or older models.  Opera Mini 5.0 did not run well or at all on basic phones like most of the popular Nokia S40 models.  With 5.1, Opera is bringing 5.0's features including tabbed browsing, copy/paste and a password manager to a large group of it's loyalest  supporters.

Related: Opera Mini 5 Tips and Tricks

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