Back in September, Opera Software released its Coast WebKit-based browser for the iPad and now the company is debuting a new version of the browser designed for Apple's iPhones.
Like the iPad version of the app, Opera Coast for iPhone has been optimized for the touchscreen. Initiating a search is as simple as pulling down on the home screen, which brings up an input interface with an icon-based autofill that allows users to tap the site they want to visit.
Made for thumbs: The iPhone was made for having all screen real estate within a thumb's reach, and Opera Coast takes this idea one step further. Gestures take care of practically all of the navigation needs, with the rest handled by a bare minimum of conveniently placed buttons. Two, to be exact.
Websites are displayed full screen, and swipe gestures let users navigate between pages. There's a small toolbar on the bottom that brings up a visual grid of saved websites, which can be altered with a simple tap and drag gesture. Users can have multiple screens of saved websites, providing easy access to all favorite sites, and search is enhanced with related words and suggestions.
The app also recommends popular websites to visit in a "Stuff we like" section, and provides a sharing tool to send links via iMessage, email, or social networks like Facebook and Twitter. An info tool also provides safety information, letting a user know whether a website is secure. While there is a lot of competition in the browser space, with Safari and Google Chrome readily available, Opera Coast is well worth checking out for its unique touch-focused interface.
Opera Coast for the iPhone will be available today as a free download.
The iPad version of the app is also available as a free download. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
No company should ever 'stick to their roots'. It didn't work for blackberry, or Nokia, or Atari, or Kodak.
Apple ignored this advice and made the iPod. Clearly 'adapt or die', or 'innovate' would be much better corporate advice.
Approx 1.3% of traffic is from Opera browsers, when you think of the massive scale of all of the traffic globally - then even just 1% is a large portion. They generate revenue from the built-in search panel.
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The article should state that this is now a Universal app - there aren't separate versions for iPad and iPhone
Nope. Apple in the 90's just kinda blew. It wasn't because they were ahead of their time. The Macs back then weren't any better than PCs as far as build quality and components go. Nor were they afraid to go mainstream. Hell, they tried going as mainstream as Windows by licensing out their OS.
...but when you make most of your profit on hardware, you don't give away your trump card that draws people to the hardware in the first place. They learned their lesson on that the hard way.