Opera launches News and Search app for Android
Opera Software launched a new application for Android devices called Opera browser - news & search that moves away from the classic web browser concept.
The company has experimented with news feeds and personalized news in Opera browsers both on the desktop and mobile devices for some time, and it seems that the new app marks the next step in the company's journey.
Opera browser - news & search is not a classic web browser anymore even though it comes with functionality to load web pages.
Think of the new app as a special version of the Opera browser that focuses on delivering news and providing search capabilities.
Opera browser - news & search
This becomes apparent right on first start. The browser interface is divided into a search form at the top, and news below it.
You can use the search form to run searches or type web addresses directly. Basic controls to go back, open the home page or switch tabs are provided at the bottom of the interface.
The news part displays an assortment of news articles on the frontpage. You can customize what is displayed there by swiping to the right to display the available channels.
These include sports, politics, entertainment and other topics that look like an extended version of what recent versions of the Opera browser for the desktop offer.
You can preview any channel with a tap on it, and hit the subscribe button to add its feed to the frontpage queue.
When you load an article from the news section for the first time you are notified about another feature that Opera baked in: reading mode.
You may load articles in reading mode, a special version of the web page the article was published on, that focuses on improving readability by changing fonts and removing elements on the web page such as menus that are not required for the article.
You may use reading mode on an article by article basis, or enable it as the default viewing mode for news articles in the application.
Reading Mode is not available for all web pages or articles that you open in the app however.
The app ships with a reading list feature that you can add any article to. You may access the list of saved articles at any time by tapping on the sign-in icon in the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Please note that you don't need to sign in to use the feature.
Reading mode offers sharing options to spread the word on social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook.
Opera browser - news & search supports Opera's data saving technology to reduce data transfers when using the application, and options to download photos, files and articles to the device for offline access.
The settings list pretty much the same preferences that the mobile versions of Opera browser do.
Closing Words
If you use the Internet mostly for news and search, then you may find Opera's new application useful. It is not available in all regions right now though, and that is probably one reason why news are focused on the US currently.
It seems likely that this is going to change with future releases though, and if you don't mind that, you find the download on sites such as APK Mirror.
The name of the app is somewhat confusing as it is easy enough to confuse it with the regular Opera mobile browser called Opera browser - fast & safe. Additionally, it shows up as Opera with the default icon on the Android device after installation.
Now You: What's your take on the application?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?