Well, it looks like hell might have frozen over, because Opera Mini for iPhone was approved by Apple and is on the App Store right now [iTunes Link]. And it only took 20 days or so to do it. So how is it?
Well first, let me say that this app is optimized to work on Edge, and not so much on Wi-Fi or 3G. Why? Hell if I know, but the app takes the address you type in on the phone, sends it through their own servers, recodes the page for the App, then sends them back to you. At least that’s what I got from the explanation at CounterNotions, via Daring Fireball.
Anyways, I decided to download it and give it a chance. The result? It sucked. In fact, it sucked so hard that I took it off my phone within just a few minutes of downloading it. Not only was the program phenomenally slow – I was on Wi-Fi inside my house – that it was unusable for me.
But more importantly, I thought about using this app in day-to-day life. If it’s not secure – and because it goes through Opera’s personal servers, it’s not – how can I rely on it to go to secured sites? What if I accidentally use Opera to login to my bank’s account or place an order on NewEgg? Either way, my information will live on someone else’s hard drive, and I don’t want that if I can avoid it.
For me, it’s not the answer. It’s close though, and if Opera can get Opera Mobile to work fully through the App Store, then I’ll consider it.
I stand by my previous statement, by the way.
