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Opera Unite was going to change the Web, according to the hype from the Norwegian browser maker. Despite only being available for a number of months in a beta separate from the main Opera build–and the Internet looking more or less like the same place in the aftermath–the release of Opera 10.10 beta indicates that Unite is about to become a standard Opera feature.

File sharing from the first Opera Unite beta in June 2009.

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Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

Unite is basically a peer-to-peer system designed through the browser, but its API allows users to create feature-rich apps using only HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. By default, Unite comes with six apps: photo sharing, an instant messenger based around My Opera, file sharing, a Web server, a media player, and “the fridge,” a communal place to share short notes with friends. When Unite was released during the pre-Opera 10 beta testing period over the past summer, it was generally stable and didn’t significantly impact Opera’s performance. A free My Opera account is required to use the Unite features.

Users interested in creating Opera Unite apps can check out Opera’s tutorials. If you’ve used Unite, or built an app for it, tell us about it in the comments below.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

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Opera prepares Unite for release

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BlackBerry

Thanks to Dictionary.com, I won a contest this weekend. The challenge: who could find synonyms for a word fastest (it was “fancy,” as in “stop being so fancy about everything.”) I had Dictionary.com loaded on an iPhone; my colleague, the BlackBerry Storm browser. Had he had the free Dictionary.com for BlackBerry, my challenger might have beaten me to the word bank.

At 250KB, Dictionary.com 1.0 is almost identical to the iPhone version. It, too, packs in a dictionary, a thesaurus, a list of recent search terms, and the opportunity to sign up for the Word A Day service in English and Spanish.

However, this build isn’t without its few BlackBerry-only touches. The best one is a context menu option that launches a search for the definition or synonym of a word that you’ve highlighted in your e-mail–that’s an incoming message or an e-mail you’re in the process of composing. You can similarly e-mail or text a definition from the app.

Dictionary.com is available now for free in BlackBerry App World. Version 1.0 weighs in at 250KB and is compatible with the BlackBerry Bold, Tour, Curve, and 8800 series, and the Pearl.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

Originally posted here:
Dictionary.com now available on BlackBerry

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Snac

Not everyone has a smartphone, and strange as it may sound for those who can’t live without their mini call-placing computers, avoiding an $80 to $100 monthly data plan is often driving that conscious choice. But it is possible to get a data add-on to a cell phone plan for as little as $10 a month. For that set of in-betweeners, a program like Snac could bridge the gap between a modest data plan and accessing Web content like social network feeds and news stories.

Snac, in open beta, provides a dashboard of thumbnail-size widgets that periodically grab content from Facebook, Twitter, Gmail (POP3), the weather, Google Calendar, news sources, and so on. Snac precaches a few layers of content, so that when you click a widget, you’ll be able to immediately see headlines, status updates, and so on, on a small pop-up window.

Snac isn’t just read-only either. For instance, you’re able to update your social networking status and add comments in Facebook. Ditto with Twitter, but Snac isn’t equipped for direct replies. Opening a news story pushes you to your phone’s default browser, but Snac CEO Mark Caron tells us they’ll soon add an in-app browser for reading purposes. At this point, you’re unable to configure how often Snac pulls in fresh content, but Caron says they’re looking into that, too.

Caron demoed Snac beta on a Sony Ericsson TM 506 phone, and a private beta version for BlackBerry. It works on almost 300 Java feature phones, but also on Symbian and Windows phones. There’s no limit to how many widgets you can install from the Snac gallery, and managing the dashboard is straightforward from the phone settings and from the Web.

The free, ad-supported app isn’t much of a looker, with a boring background, blocky typeface, and sketchbook widget design. But it worked quickly and well in our demo. We’ll be keeping an eye out for future developments.

Originally posted at CTIA Fall show

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Snac: Bite-size widgets for Java phones

Split screen is Bolt's take on zooming.

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Bitstream

We were impressed with the Opera Mini 5 beta browser, which came out in mid-September. At CTIA Wireless 2009, a smaller player, Bolt Browser, leaves its beta behind to chase after Opera’s dominance as an alternative browser for Java phones.

We liked what we saw the first time we tested out Bolt as a beta (video review) on a Samsung Propel. Bolt’s rendering felt truer than Opera Mini 4.2 on many sites, but it didn’t seem faster. Now that Bolt has shucked off its beta, we find performance essentially unchanged.

True, Bolt has undergone some cosmetic alterations, such as a Google search box that’s separate from the URL bar, and a welcome download manager that lets you download files as well as upload. It also caches pages now, so you can jump back to the previous page without reloading it. Bolt 1.5’s new video manager selects the best of three delivery mechanisms for streaming video on your device, including triggering your media player if the phone isn’t well equipped for playback.

But what of those speed claims? Bolt, a proxy browser built on Webkit, now claims that it’s about 15 percent faster than before and compresses data at a 23:1 ratio. In other words, 2.3MB from the Web shrinks down to 100KB. That may be, but we pulled up our online stopwatch to run our own surf tests.

Without ever budging from our roost, we tested navigation three times on each of three sites, keeping the routine the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2. We would have thrown Opera Mini 5 beta into the mix, but it didn’t seem compatible yet with our testing phone, a Samsung Propel on AT&T’s 3G network. We’re telling you this because we know what a difference carrier, data strength, and handset type makes in each user’s result. Were you to run the same test, you might get slightly different numbers.

Bolt took 12-14 seconds to load and navigate on Nordstrom.com versus Opera Mini’s 9-13 seconds. It took 26 seconds to load The New York Times site and two other stories on Bolt. On Opera, the same stories loaded in 19, 11, and 10 seconds. Yelp was about the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2, about 14 seconds, but one Bolt page ran 2 seconds slower. Our tests clearly favor Opera Mini for speed, but there are one or two other caveats and clarifications to consider before declaring an all-around winner.

First, Bolt renders pages more faithfully than Opera Mini, with sharper text and photos, and with all the photos intact. Opera Mini 4.2 tended to overly compress some, but it bought it speed. On some sites, Opera Mini stripped an image or two out, or the photo footprints drastically condensed. Bolt also has an interesting feature that Opera doesn’t–the capability to split the screen. This is essentially Bolt’s zoom feature. As you pass the cursor over the zoomed-out section up top, the same area is zoomed in below. The 5 key toggles split-screen view on and off.

So which Java browser prevails overall? It’s a tough call: Bolt renders graphics more clearly, but Opera was speedier. We’ll see if these numbers continue to stand up when Opera Mini 5 comes out of beta. In the meantime, try them both out and chime in with your own views. You may find that a few seconds are worth it to you to use Bolt’s interface. Maybe speed is all that matters and you’ll stick with Opera Mini for now. You tell us.

Bolt browser 1.5 is free to download. BlackBerry owners should download the optimized version for BlackBerry phones, which integrates RIM’s typical operating system shortcuts.

Originally posted at CTIA Fall show

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Speed test: Bolt Mobile browser vs. Opera Mini

BlackBerry Messenger 5.0, now with mug shots.

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BlackBerry (RIM)

The mobile carriers have in-network calling, and BlackBerry users have BlackBerry Messenger, a BlackBerry-to-BlackBerry instant messenger that works more like e-mail than SMS to send real-time messages through RIM’s servers. On Wednesday, RIM released BlackBerry Messenger 5.0, a version that pads the messenger with “avatars” (but they’re more like your standard social networking mug shots), group chat, and photo sharing.

In addition to sending photos to contacts, BlackBerry Messenger 5.0 now opens the gates for transferring large files–up to 6MB in size. That’s the equivalent of several photos, or one or two songs–maybe a very short video.

RIM also adds a new way to find friends. Users have been able to connect with a PIN, e-mail address, or name. Now they can lock onto each other with bar codes and cameras. One BlackBerry produces a bar code and the other snaps a photo that Messenger 5.0 can read and translate. It may not be as flashy as the Bump app for iPhone, but we’ll take it.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

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BlackBerry Messenger 5.0: Get friends with bar codes