For years the fact Apple wouldn't approve third party browsers on their mobile devices drove developers and users nuts. Recently though, they've opened the gates and now browsers are allowed into the app store.
Free iPhone browser by Opera
Opera's Mini Browser is one of the first third party web browsers approved by Apple-- and it's claiming to bring lightening speed to your device's page loads.
Since the launch of Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch, users had been relegated to using Apple's Safari mobile browser to surf the Web. And although browsing the Web is one of the iPhone's major keys to success, Safari hasn't evolved much at all.
Opera Mini, the tiny compressed mobile version of the Opera browser -- used by some 50 million people worldwide -- is now available on numerous mobile platforms.
Opera Mini Web Browser provides a fast mobile experience by compressing data by up to 90% before sending it to your device. Quicker performance can also be had by tweaking the settings; turning off images, setting image quality to low or by viewing websites through mobile view.
Opera Mini offers more than just a speedier browser. The sleek UI brings visuals to bookmarks with its speed dialling feature, displaying up to 9 bookmarks on the start page. Browsing multiple pages is a breeze with the use of tabs. Up to eight tabs can run simultaneously, and once again they've included visuals by implementing snapshots of the tabs.
The app enables users to add bookmarks or save pages of the sites that require only temporary reference. And with the use of Opera's link service all the data can be synchronized with your desktop.
A truly outstanding feature called 'find in page' enables users to perform custom searches within a site. While on a page, the custom search will scour the page for the searched word and as a result the app will highlight and transport you to the relevant data.
Unfortunately Opera Mini lacks the option to e-mail a link so the inefficient copy and paste method is the only way to share links. Though browsing with the Mini is a smooth ride, it doesn't support the pinch to zoom function iPhone users are familiar with. Zooming in can be achieved by double tapping on the desired area. Pages aren't always rendered properly due to the quick loading -- a bit of compromise for the speed.
Overall Opera Mini Web Browser is a fast and refreshing experience.
Now that Apple has officially given the green light to third party web browsers, end users can now reap the benefits of a long awaited competitive market in the mini browser realm.
Head to Head: Counting those calories
With spring around the corner, many of us have fitness and diets on our minds. These two new apps will help get you started.
Diet and exercise app by 4Technologies Corporation for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Blackberry
Calorie Counter Pro and Diet Log has a full suite of features to track weight-loss progress, nutritional intake and exercise. It follows your eating and exercising activity throughout the day and calculates how many calories you've consumed and how many you need to burn. Recording the nutritional value of meals takes only seconds using the search-as-you-type database, which contains more than 100,000 foods and beverages. Unlike so many mobile apps, this included more than 50 Canadian brands and restaurants. Exercises is added by searching activities such as walking the dog, shopping or an hour-long spin class. Users can also select how many minutes the activity was performed. The app then keeps a running total of the calories consumed and deducts any calories burned and shows you the results in real time.
Calorie Counter Pro has an in-depth option to plan targets depending whether the goal is to lose or gain weight. Visualization of all your hard work is provided in summary charts, graphs or by snapping before and after pictures from the device.
If you sign up for a free membership at the apps site, you will be able to backup all the information for safe keeping.
Since we commonly eat the same foods on a weekly basis the ability to create custom food favourites or recipes of frequently combined foods eliminates the redundancy of having to input your typical morning breakfast
Although the databases are impressive it would make the app complete if they had added the option to scan the barcodes of food products.
Calorie Counter Pro is available for the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Blackberry.
Editor's note: Just before posting this review we discovered Calorie Tracker Pro had been removed from the Canadian app store. We contacted the app developers and were told they'd pulled the app to fix a bug and it is now awaiting Apple's approval before going back up. The developers, Healthy U Technologies, also mentions there are several new features in Calorie Tracker Pro that will be delivered in the new version. If the link is not working, it should be soon. Thanks
Diet and exercise app by Healthy U Technologies for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch
Calorie Tracker Pro keeps you informed of nutritional and water consumption along with documenting your progress and goals. Foods or beverages can be added from the hefty database containing 120,000 items, which you can access offline. When you make a food selection, the app counts protein and fibre and carbs, fat and sugar. Calorie Tracker Pro calculates it all and adds each meal to the daily total. Food choices in the database are categorized by type; groceries, restaurants , favourites and recent foods. Food items can be created from scratch and like its' competitor, multiple items like "Coffee and Bagel" can be combined into one meal for ease of use. One of the best features is the notification badge, which displays how many calories you've consumed right on the icon, viewable from the home screen. If you wish to keep your calorie consumption private, there is an option to password protect the application. All of the data can be exported via email while still permitting users to retrieve any previous date within the app.
Calorie Tracking Pro does a great job of documenting what you've eaten, unfortunately without an option to add exercise users aren't aware if they're meeting their targets with much precision.
My pick of the two is Calorie Counter Pro and Diet Log for it's commendable addition of Canadian restaurants and brands. Furthermore the ability to calculate activity and not just daily intake seems like a crucial point in assessing progress.