beta

Opera Mobile 10 (see our video hands-on and full review) has hit the beta 2 stage of its life. Here's what's improved, via the Opera Moble Blog:

• Opera Link.
• Download manager.
• Improved UI for finger touch.
• You can now manage search engines.
• Remembers page position and zoom state.
• Column snapping on touch.
• Better memory management.
• Fix for mobile view crash.
• Start page available from touch menu.
• Clear cache setting.
• Asks whether to set as default browser.
• Fix for startup crash (on some devices due to encoding in imported bookmarks).
• Shortcut support.
• Other minor bug fixes.

That enough for a beta 2 release? We're definitely happy to see better memory management -- that was our chief complaint of the early beta. And for what its worth, we're now getting 99 out of 100 on the Acid3 test, down a point from the first release. But as this is still a beta release, there are bugs. Peep a list of them after the break. Now, what about you guys? This latest release of Opera Mobile 10 working for you? Grab it here.

OK, folks, here it is: The Opera Mobile 10 beta. For a beta release, however, it's pretty darn complete and could well serve as your daily mobile browser. Not convinced? Peep the video after the break as we put it through its paces, and put it up against the iPhone 3G's Safari browser.

So over the last few days you may have heard about Opera releasing their latest beta of Opera Mini, version 5 — which of course is different from Opera Mobile.  The former relies on Java and renders on a server (like Skyfire), whereas the latter runs natively on Windows Mobile and runs direct to the web.

It's been 2 years since version 4 came out, so it makes sense for an overhaul. 

There seems to be a hardcore following of Opera Mini out there though, so we just took it for a spin.  Our thoughts?  Yeah, it's pretty darn good.  In fact, you can really feels how Opera is aiming to merge both Mini and Mobile into one — the graphics in Mini look more and more like Mobile and Mobile 9.7 beta is getting Mini's server-based rendering in the guise of "Turbo Mode".

If you already have Java installed, then just hop here to download the Opera Mini 5 update.  Have no idea about any of this stuff but just want to try it? Boxer112 cab'd it up for us, which you can download from your favorite file host  or grab it from ppcgeeks. Just run the .cab and bam, you'll have an Opera Mini 5, Start menu icon and Java installed.  Easy!

See the full press release here on Opera Mini 5

Don't tell AT&T or the upcoming Windows Marketplace, but Skype 3.0 is out of beta and ready for download. [via downloadsquad] Version 3.0 added the ability to sent texts and files, and that's still a go with this official release, along with all the VOIP goodness you're used to.

Get your download on here, or download the CAB file directly to your phone here.

Before you start snickering, there are, in fact, people who still use AOL as their main e-mail account. And who are we to judge?

Now AOL is offering a way to sync your calendar, contacts and tasks — but not e-mail (yet) — with your Windows Mobile device.

Powered by Funambol, AOL Sync works with Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices. There's no mention of 6.1. There's a comprehensive list of supported phones here, though some of the latest and greatest are missing.

So if you're big on AOL for your PIM information, give it a shot and let us know in the comments how it works.

Via CNET

Probably the top drawback of running the Opera Mobile 9.5 beta on an older device (Shhhhhh - don't let my trusty Treo 750 hear me say that) is that it's a pretty big resource hog.

As we've previously mentioned, you can store the browser's cache files on a storage card and save yourself megabytes of precious space.

Join us after the jump for a couple of ways to do this, as well as a quick video of the procedure.

And if you haven't yet, check out Dieter's hands-on video review of the best WinMo browser since the last version of Opera Mobile dropped.

Before reading any further

We've said it before, and we'll keep on saying it. Back up your device. While we're not diving into the registry here, you can't be too careful. (And you really should have done this before loading the 9.5 beta anyway.)

Check out our review of Spb Backup 2.0, if you haven't already.

The safe way to change your cache location

1. Connect your phone to your computer, and connect to ActiveSync.
2. Open the ActiveSync window, then click the Explore Device button.
3. Navigate to \Application Data\Opera 9.5.
4. Find the opera.ini file (If you don't have file extensions enabled, it should just show as "opera".)
5. Copy the file to your desktop.
6. Open the file in a text editor, such as Notepad. Immediately do a File>Save as and rename the file to something other than opera.ini. This is your backup, just in case.
7. Now open the original opera.ini file. Scroll down to the [User Prefs] section and insert the following line: Cache Directory4=\Storage Card\operacache\. (Note: "operacache" can be renamed to anything you want.) Save and close the file.
8. Copy the new file back to your device, into the same \Application Data\Opera 9.5.

The quick and dirty way

You can, if you want, do all this directly from your device. But we'll be doing so without making any backups, so be forewarned.

1. Using your favorite file explorer (Note: the stock Windows Mobile file explorer won't work here; I like Resco File Explorer), navigate to the \Application Data\Opera 9.5 folder. 
2. Click on the "opera" file. When it asks which program you want to open the file, choose "Notes."
3. Scroll down to the [User Prefs] section and insert the following line: Cache Directory4=\Storage Card\operacache\. (Again, "operacache" can be renamed to anything you want.)
4. Click "OK" and you're done.

Here's a quick video of this procedure.

That's it. All the files collected by the browser will now take up room on your storage card, and not directly on your device.