One of the worlds most used mobile web browsers is headed to Android devices. Opera Mobile – the fully featured father of Opera Mini – will be free of charge.

Opera Mobile uses the presto layout engine, coupled with Opera’s Small Screen Rendering technology which dynamically reformats web pages for small screened devices.

There is no release date yet, but users can already download Opera Mini for Android today. Opera Mini is already installed on over 71 million hand held devices.

Below is a video demonstration of Opera Mobile which was shown over at TechCrunch.

Android users prayers have been answered, with the release of Opera Mini 5.1 final for Android devices.

“Since the beta, Opera Mini has improved rendering to make browsing look better on high-resolution devices. Text is legible even when zoomed out. In addition to your favorite features such as tabs, Speed Dial navigation and Opera Link, surfing with Opera Mini is smother with improved kinetic scrolling” wrote Opera’s Aleksander Aas.

The browser can also be set as the default for the device, and full screen will now utilise the whole display.

Opera Mini is available in 92 languages, and can be downloaded from the Android Marketplace or directly from m.opera.com.

Opera Mobile 10 has made it to the Maemo platform, with Opera releasing the first preview releases for the Nokia N900 and N800/N810 devices.

The release marks the return of the Opera browser to the Maemo platform, which hasn’t been supported since Nokia included it’s own internal browser with devices back in 2008.

“The preview build contains the same features available in Opera Mobile 10 for Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones. These include fast and economical browsing with Opera Turbo, bookmark and Speed Dial sync with other Opera products, and of course multiple tabs” wrote Opera’s Fredrik Öhrn.

A full list of features can be read in the Opera Mobile 10 features list, while a download can be found by browsing to this URL on your Maemo device.

More releases of the browser are expected during the coming months before we see a final release.

Opera Mini Project Manager Marianne Spilling has posted an article on why iPhone users should ditch the phones included Safari browser and switch to Opera Mini.

Along with the usual list of reasons including faster browsing speeds, Spilling goes on benchmark the browser against Safari on several popular sites with the phone in 2G (EDGE), 3G, and WiFi modes.

The difference was huge, with one example Facebook taking 8.8 seconds to load in Opera Mini in 2G mode, compared to 68.2 seconds in Safari. The difference was far less in 3G and WiFi modes, but Opera Mini still came out on top on all occasions.

The faster speed of Opera Mini on iPhone is attributed to Opera’s Turbo  technology, which pushes all data through Opera’s servers and compresses it before sending the webpage to a browsers iPhone.

Full benchmarks can be seen in Spillings article, while Opera Mini for iPhone can be downloaded for free from Apple’s App store.

Mozilla have released a pre-alpha build of it’s popular Firefox browser for Android devices. The browser, previously known under the Fennec codename, has been released to gather feedback from the Android community.

This news comes just a month after Mozilla announced it was putting Windows Mobile development on hold, and shows there is still life in the mobile version of Firefox outside of Windows Mobile and Nokia Maemo devices.

So far, the browser is only confirmed to be working on the Motorola Droid and Google Nexus One at this early stage of development.

Vladimir Vukićević has stated that this early build has poor memory management, and this build requires Android 2.0 or above, and likely an OpenGL ES 2.0 capable device. This is on top of a few other smaller issues.

Firefox for Android can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/fennec-android.

Opera has released an emulator of it’s Opera Mobile browser to developers.

The application emulates Opera Mobile 10, and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Opera Mobile emulator now gives developers a tool to test how their website will look in the mobile browser, which allows for quick and easier development of mobile web applications.

“Testing mobile browsers usually requires Web developers to buy one or more devices on which they then can investigate how their Web sites perform. The Opera Mobile emulator is designed to make the whole testing effort a bit easier: you install a small, native application on the platform of your choice, and load Web pages from the comfort of your desktop” wrote Opera’s Andreas Bovens.

The download is free, and available today from the Opera Developer Network.

In its first 24 hours since approved by Apple, Opera Mini for iPhone has been downloaded over one million times.

The number was so great that Opera Mini was the most downloaded application across all region app stores.

“Today iPhone users have a choice, and, as the numbers show, they are eager to explore new and faster ways to surf the Web on the iPhone – especially during heavy Web traffic,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.

Opera Mini can be downloaded for free for the iPhone and iPod Touch from Apple’s iTunes App Store.

Opera have announced that Opera Mini is heading to the iPhone and iPod Touch today, after Apple approved the app for the devices.

This comes 20 days after Opera submitted the browser to Apple for approval.

“Opera Mini […] enables fast mobile Web browsing by compressing data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the device, resulting in significantly improved page loading. Users of the app will notice an uptake in speed, especially on slower networks such as the 2G Edge network. Surfing the Web with the Opera Mini App on iPhone and iPod touch will also help users save money because of its data compression capabilities” said a press release from Opera.

“We are delighted to offer iPhone and iPod touch users a great browsing experience with the Opera Mini App,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “This app is another step toward Opera’s goal of bringing the Web to more people in more places.”

The browser can be downloaded for free now from the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch users.

Opera have released a press release stating that they now have over 100 million users.

This figure includes 50 million users on Windows, Mac and Linux, plus another 50 million users browsing the web with Opera Mini on their mobile devices.

100 million users comes after a staggering 30% jump in desktop users from the same time last year, mostly attributed to the release of Opera 10.x browsers.

“Our focus on speed, security, innovation and usability continues to yield results. We always listen to the needs and wants of our users, and they reward us by choosing Opera,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software.

Congratulations to Opera on the achievement, and new users can download Opera for their computer or mobile device from the Opera website.

IntoMobile have put Opera Mini for iPhone up for a speed test against the iPhones native Safari browser.

The results are not surprising, with Opera Mini for iPhone using Opera’s Turbo technology, which compresses data by as much as 90% before sending the data to the iPhone.

In the test, the power of Opera Turbo is revealed, with Opera Mini for iPhone killing the Safari browser. You can watch the results yourself in the video below.

No word yet on when or whether Apple will approve the Opera Mini browser for the iPhone.