Opera Mini

Opera Mini is a browser for smartphones and mobile phones of Opera Software.

History

2020: Address line spoofing vulnerability detection

Rapid7 experts, together with Pakistani security researcher Rafay Baloch, discovered ten vulnerabilities in seven mobile browsers that allow you to fake URLs in the address bar. This became known on October 21, 2020. The list of vulnerable browsers also includes Opera Mini. More details here.

2018: Cryptocurrency Mining Protection

On January 22, 2018, a mining protection feature appeared in Opera browsers for mobile devices. cryptocurrencies The innovation turned out to be useful, given the desire of site owners to make money on the growing cryptocurrency rate.

The new option is built into the ad blocker used in the browsers Opera Mini (iOS and Android) and Opera for Android. After activation in the settings, the function will automatically detect and disable mining scripts embedded in the web pages codes.

Comparison of processor loading in the absence of cryptocurrency mining protection in Chrome and the active such function in Opera

The Opera developers website says that hidden cryptocurrency mining is connected to about 3 million sites. Such scripts significantly reduce battery power and reduce processor performance (sometimes CPU usage reaches 100%) in smartphones.

It is estimated that the performance of more than 1 billion devices has been reduced due to cryptocurrency miners embedded in web page codes, and the device owners themselves most often do not realize this.  At the end of 2017, a mining trojan was discovered, which caused the batteries to inflate, which required their subsequent replacement. Malicious software turned out to be so effective that it took only 48 hours to damage devices.

When you view sites on the Internet, there are no visual hints that your device is used for mining, "says Jan Standal, vice president of marketing for Opera products. - A single web page you visit can reduce battery life by 4.5 hours if the tab is open. Often the charge remains only to use the application to search for a passing car or open a map for the road home.

In order for users to determine whether their browser is protected from unauthorized cryptomaining, the developers of Opera browsers have created a special www.cryptojackingtest.com site where you can check whether there is a mining threat to a smartphone or computer.^[1]

2009

In March, there was a boom in mobile Internet in Latin America. Chile became the leader in this region - the number of Opera Mini users in this country increased by 3200% per year, and the number of pages viewed - by 26,000%. Also in the four leading countries are Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela.

The report for March 2009 also contains data on the nature of mobile Internet use in the Top 10 countries during the average day (investigated data for Tuesday, March 17). In all but two regions, the most active browser Opera Mini was used at the end of the day - from 20:00 to midnight. The exception was Indonesia and China, where the peak downloads of web pages occurred from 12:00 to 16:00 and from 8:00 to 12:00, respectively.

"In the future, mobile phones will become the main devices for working on the Internet," said Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive officer of Opera Software. "With Opera Mini, millions of people enter the worldwide network every month, so content providers have a great opportunity to gain competitive advantages in the environment of mobile users. To do this, you just need to guarantee the correct display of your web resources on any hardware platform, open them to next-generation web users. "

• In March 2009, the number of users of the Opera Mini browser exceeded 23 million people - this is 12.1% more than in February 2009 and 157% more than in the same period last year. In March 2009, more than 8.6 billion pages were viewed by users. This is 17.4% more than in February, and the result of a year ago was exceeded by 255%.

• In March 2009, with the help of Opera Mini, 148 million MB of data was downloaded to user devices, which is 19.3% more than in the previous month and 319% more than a year earlier. Opera Mini compresses traffic by an average of 90%. Otherwise, Opera Mini users would have to download about 1.4 petabytes of data to their mobile devices.

• Russia continues to lead in the number of users of Opera Mini. Over the past year, this indicator increased by 102%, and the number of downloaded web pages increased by 216%. On average, Russian users viewed 428 web pages per month.

• For the first time in terms of the number of visits, the site odnoklassniki.ru overtook mail.ru. The social network vkontakte.ru remains the most popular among users of Opera Mini in Runet.

The top 10 sites of Runet by the number of unique users of Opera Mini:

1. vkontakte.ru

2. odnoklassniki.ru (formerly 4)

3. yandex.ru

4. mail.ru (formerly 2)

5. rambler.ru

6. google.com

7. wikipedia.org (formerly 9)

8. wapos.ru

9. my.opera.com (formerly 7)

10. seclub.org

Top 10 mobile phones for Opera Mini in Russia

1. Nokia Corporation 6300

2. Nokia N73

3. Sony Ericsson K790i

4. Sony Ericsson K750i

5. Nokia 6233

6. Sony Ericsson K550i

7. Nokia N70

8. Sony Ericsson W760i

9. Nokia 5310

10. Nokia 6120c

Versions

Opera Mini 5

The test version of Opera Mini 5 was released in September 2009 ://^[2]. Written in Java. In the fifth version of the application, compared to the fourth, many new functions appeared, the interface changed dramatically, although the same engine remained at the base.

In Opera Mini 5, it became possible to open several pages (tabs) at the same time and switch between them. Each new blank tab now displays nine screenshots of web pages to quickly launch each of them - Speed Dial, which migrated from a desktop browser. In addition, Opera Mini 5 learned how to remember logins and passwords to quickly fill out authorization forms on web pages. When you enter your login and password for the first time, the application asks if you want to remember them.

The address string was transferred to the active screen, that is, it is displayed simultaneously with the open web page (previously, in order to enter a new address, you had to return to the beginning, or open an empty page). Next to the field for entering an address, there is a separate field for searching the Internet with the ability to choose the desired search server.

The navigation bar and main menu now appear not in the lower left corner, but at the top of the screen, under the address bar. A new feature is also available here - searching the page, which was previously only in Opera Mobile.

Opera Mini 5 is the first version of the Java browser to support touch screens. It is designed both for phones that do not have a touch screen, and for touchphones. The program interface includes buttons of larger size so that it is convenient to hit them with a finger.

A web browser allows you to play videos on sites such as, for example, a mobile version of YouTube, but on a regular version of the site, the video does not work. At the moment, developers do not plan to add such functionality to the browser, choosing the speed of opening web pages and compression technology as priorities - as you know, Opera Mini opens pages not directly, but through its own server, which compresses traffic and significantly reduces waiting time (by the way, this technology is also in Opera 10 - browsers for desktops and laptops).

Opera Mini 7

Opera Software released in March 2012 a new version of the Opera Mini 7 browser running on the Android platform. The browser supports HTML5 and 3D graphics through WebGL, and you can add an unlimited number of bookmarks to the Quick View. The new browser has the function of directly accessing the camera application. According to the developers, a data compression algorithm was added to Opera Mini 7, so some Internet pages can shrink by 90%, which significantly saves the user traffic costs. A new version of the browser is available for download on the Google Play online store.

Opera Mini 7.1

Opera Software announced in November 2012 the release of the Opera Mini 7.1 mobile web browser for phones supporting J2ME and the BlackBerry platform. The browser Opera Mini 7.1 (download link) has a new, redesigned download manager, which opens up new options for working with downloadable files on the phone, be it documents, music, video and any other data.

"It's no secret that mobile phones don't always have a stable network connection. Many people are familiar with the feeling when a 10MB file download stops at 9.99MB when your subway car enters the tunnel and the network is lost until the next stop. In Opera Mini 7.1 under such circumstances, the download will be suspended and automatically resumed as soon as you are in the network service area, "the company's press service said

Also, processing downloaded files has become more convenient than before. On the BlackBerry platform, file access is provided directly from the browser, and owners of devices based on J2ME will be able to choose whether to open the file in the media player installed on the phone or save it in the phone's memory.

The Opera Mini browser runs on more than 3,000 models of mobile phones in a variety of price categories. With up to 90% data compression technology, it saves time and money.

Notes