Opera Mini for iPhone submitted to Apple for approval (video) | Hacker News Reader

Opera Mini for iPhone submitted to Apple for approval (video)

engadget.com

25 pointsglymor27 comments

I'm hoping Apple will deny it simply because I'm excited to see the huge quantity of whine that it will result in -flooding the tubes for weeks with it's open letters, Op Ed pieces and my favourite of all, the endless indignant blog posts. Way better than a soap.

It doesn't really matter what Apple does at this point, there will be whining either way.

Either they reject it and people whine that they want Opera or they accept it and people whine that Apple is giving Opera preferential treatment.

If I were Apple, I'd hold up Opera's approval for a few weeks while implementing the thing in-house. A couple of months after Opera Mini's on the iPhone, Safari would have the same capability.

They have a count-up timer of how long it's taking to be approved: http://my.opera.com/community/countup/

It's not clear what statement they're trying to make with this but it's not pretty.

Yes I agree; the counter is a bit of an idiotic move... it's like sticking a finger up at Apple and saying "deny us if you dare"

Which is fine; but I think they lose some of the validity to be disgruntled if declined.

Yes, because you should always show all due deference to the owner of your plantation, sorry platform. No backtalk or you'll lose your disgruntlement privileges.

Well for a start it hands Apple an excuse to not approve them (i.e. by saying Opera was rude and uncooperative in it's submission or something).

Also if your later disgruntlement is going to be based around the fact Apple are being nasty (a fair complaint if they are refused for a random reason) then being a bit narky yourself doesn't help.

But most of all it makes this whole application process look a lot like them trying to force a confrontation...

If Apple is banning apps because the developers are rude to them then that right there is a problem worth highlighting.

I would suggest it is already a confrontation, the fact that almost all other developers have cowed before Apple (because they have no leverage and will therefore lose, possibly for utterly random reasons) and Opera has chosen not to, doesn't change the fundamental nature of things.

> If Apple is banning apps because the developers are rude to them then that right there is a problem worth highlighting.

All else equal if someone submitted a program to a platform I ran then created a "how long since we submitted the app...." counter I would probably click the "go away, jerk" button, to be perfectly honest ;)

There's no need to fawn, certainly. But being grown up is advisable IMO.

> I would suggest it is already a confrontation, the fact that almost all other developers have cowed before Apple (because they have no leverage and will therefore lose, possibly for utterly random reasons) and Opera has chosen not to, doesn't change the fundamental nature of things.

Entirely irrelevant. Opera are just blowing smoke in a sense; Apple are approving apps much faster now, Apple are approving browser apps. There is no prior art that would suggest they are likely to not approve Opera mini.

I dont see how a counter is leverage in this - if Apple want to drop them then they'll drop them. As already pointed out whatever they do there will be whinging - so it doesn't matter too much to them either way. I dont think the outcome of this will fundamentally alter anything about the app store or Apple's process.

And I expect Opera mini will be approved......

This is a PR stunt to Opera. Nothing more.

My guess is that it won't be approved. AFAIK, the only browsers approved so far are ones that wrap the built in WebKit engine. Although Opera Mini probably isn't violating the no interpreter rule, I doubt Apple will want to have an alternative rendering technology on the iPhone.

Let's see...

I have no sympathy for this argument when you can simply pack up and go elsewhere. It's a cheap PR stunt. They know the terms of the App Store. Why not focus efforts on Android or other platforms? No good PR value there I guess.

You can't possibly be even half-serious with that analogy, can you?

My knowledge of History is spotty, but I don't recall slaves and indentured servants being able to pick what plantation they serve, or having the option to pack up shop and move on to greener pastures when they felt like it.

I was actually echoing Tim Bray's use of the term "sharecropper" (http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePla...), and the historical sharecroppers could choose their location and move onto other areas and indeed were often forced out when better use for the land was found.

I accept the use of plantation is confusing, given its association with slavery, though I believe tenant plantation was an actual historical term. I mostly used it because of plantation/platform similarity of sound.

Maybe they can post a timer showing how long it took them to release it - since in the time that they started talking about Opera for iPhone, there have been numerous other releases from less hype-heavy developers. (e.g. iCab)

I for one am looking forward to the ballot screen on iPhone!

Doing all the rendering on the server side is certainly an interesting approach - however, I wonder if the speed comparison will be as favourable once that server is doing the rendering for millions of users!

Yes, but that's Opera's problem. I wonder though, if they fall back on using WebKit/other local HTML rendering engine if their servers go down.

From 2008:

Opera Mini has become the world's most popular mobile browser. Since its worldwide launch in 2006, more than 44 million people have downloaded and used Opera Mini. More than 11.9 million people used Opera Mini in March 2008.

I think they can handle the load.

The privacy issue is probably bigger. I don't really want every page I browse to be going through their proxies.

Your pages are already going through an ISP proxy. And that ISP is also retaining your web activity for at least government use.

Adding another proxy is adding another "line of attack" though.

Also where are the Opera servers located (and Opera as an entity etc.)? could be that it provides another country the opportunity to subpoena your records from them etc.

Interestingly you aren't adding another line as communication with the Opera proxy servers is encrypted.

Opera is Norwegian. They say they don't store per user data. http://www.opera.com/mobile/help/faq/#privacy

Yes just reading that; seems pretty sound/safe then.

Interesting privacy concerns as well perhaps; I can imagine a few people would prefer not to use it because of that.

My privacy has never really worried me yet but this makes me stop and think for a second (ultimately I think I'll be fine with it, but it needs considering)

Are any of the existing webkit browsers any good? The built in one is great but I think I could get benefit from a more geek-focused one.

iCabMobile is pretty geeky

I hope that this gets approved. I don't care much about their extra features, but on the 3G model Safari is dog slow.

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