iPhone News Updated

I doubt we will ever see Opera Mini approved for the iPhone

I enjoy using the Opera Mobile browser on my mobile devices because it gives me a consistent user experience, I can keep all my bookmarks in sync across platforms, and it is light and fast.

However, does Opera truly believe Apple will ever approve an alternative web browser for the iPhone? There have been browser enhancements before on the iPhone, but they just offered different ways to use the default Safari web browser and given Apple’s practice of locking things down to provide consumes with the experience Apple wants them to have means to me there is very little chance we will ever see Opera Mini on the iPhone.

I am sure it will run just fine on jailbroken iPhones, but just do not see it happening officially.

Opera has a video (embedded below) showing how Opera Mini runs on the iPhone so they obviously have it up and running on development jailbroken devices. Opera Mini does compress data by up to 90 percent before sending it to the phone so AT&T should embrace this option as a way to help lighten the load on their network. With networks now talking about tiered pricing and setting limits on data that they are finding they cannot handle, having a browser option like Opera Mini does make sense.
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Apple selling iPhone 3GS without contract, still locked to AT&T

You can now pick an iPhone 3G or 3GS from any Apple Store without the need for a two-year contract from AT&T, according to 9to5Mac. AT&T previously offered no-contract iPhone 3Gs (before the release of the 3GS) last year.

The contract-free phones include the 8GB iPhone 3G for $499, the 16GB 3GS for $599, and the 32GB 3GS for $699. Apple is also limiting customers to only one contract-free phone per day. Despite the hefty price, the phones are still locked to AT&T’s network. Intrepid buyers will still need to jailbreak their phones to bring them to other cellular carriers. In the US, a jailbroken iPhone can run on T-Mobile’s network — although without 3G connectivity.

While many are considering this contract-free offering a response to Google’s Nexus One phone — which is available without contract for T-Mobile and AT&T, and soon Verizon and Sprint — the fact that Apple and AT&T made a similar offering this time last year is telling.

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