Opera has told The Register it is still unhappy with Microsoft’s new browser ballot screen.

The problem according to Opera, is that the ballot screen is completely obstructed when a user opens Internet Explorer for the first time on a fresh installation of Windows.

Opera fears that users will just ignore the ballot screen, and continue to use Internet Explorer without realising they had a choice.

Microsoft has dismissed the claims. “This scenario is very easy to reproduce in a test lab, but would occur only in unusual cases in the real world. For it to occur with the Browser Choice screen, the user would need to have IE set as their default browser and have never configured it for use. Opera’s example, where a Windows XP user has rejected installation of IE 8 for the year it has been available but suddenly decides to install it is not realistic” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

Opera has alerted the European Union of the problem.

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.

Opera has bitten the bullet, and has submitted a version of Opera Mini suitable for the iPhone.

To celebrate the occasion, Opera has launched a timer to count how long it takes Apple to make a decision on the mobile browser.

It is still unknown however if Apple will accept the browser, despite Opera stating that the browser complies 100% with Apple’s App store policies. Apple has been known in the past to reject application that provide the same functionality as already found on the iPhone. Apple has however recently approved several web browser to the App store.

Opera announced the availability of Opera Mini for iPhone at the 2010 Mobile World Congress, which includes the use of  unlimited tabs, and the ability to search through web pages. The browser is missing pinch-to-zoom at this stage, but it is expected to be added in a future release if the browser is approved.

Time is now ticking Apple. Your move!

Not long after the release of Opera 10.50, Opera have released Opera 10.51 for Windows.

The release not only addresses several security and bug fixes, it is also up to 20% faster in JavaScript benchmarks than 10.50 was.

Opera 10.51 is now the fastest browser when it comes to running the Pacekeeper benchmarking tool.

A full list of changes for this release can be found in the changelog.

The update can be downloaded from the Opera website, while existing Opera 10.50 users will be automatically upgraded thanks to the browsers new auto-update technology.

Opera have announced that downloads of their browser are up a whopping 53% on average after the roll-out of the browser ballot screen for Windows users in the European Union.

The above numbers are a sample of the percentages of each country downloads of Opera 10.50 that originates from the Choice Screen, as part of the total Opera 10.50 numbers for desktop.

Full stats for European Union countries are available from the Choose Opera Blog.

A better idea of how the browser ballot screen in the European Union has affected worldwide market share will be known at the end of March.

Dear Mozilla and Opera,

Get with the <video> programme! Ogg Theora has lost the HTML5 video format war.

The evidence is all in front of us. The battle seems to have been won with the final move by Microsoft, who have announced that they will support the H.264 and MPEG-4 formats for Internet Explorer 9, completely ignoring the OGG video and audio formats.

In contrast, both Firefox and Opera only support the Ogg video, which is a free open source video format that is not covered by any known patents.

Read more

Opera have announced the availability of Opera Mini 5 and Opera Mobile 10 final.

Both mobile browser have been in development since at least October last year, and include many improvements over their predecessors.

The browser both include new tabbed browsing, a streamlined user interface, new faster JavaScript and HTML rendering engines.

Perhaps the best inclusion is Opera Turbo, which can compress data by as much as 90%, and save mobile browsers time and money.

A full list of features plus download links can be found on the Opera Mobile website.

Never fear Windows Mobile Opera Mini users, Opera has got your back, with the release of Opera Mini 5 Beta 1 for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones.

“By integrating Opera Mini with the Windows Mobile platform, Opera is able to deliver an optimized version of the popular Opera Mini browser that dramatically improves performance and the overall user experience. While Opera Mini traditionally requires Java, the new Windows Mobile version does not, which means that Opera Mini will work on any Windows Mobile phone” Opera said in a statement.

The benefits of using Opera Mini on the mobile phone appear quite clear, with Opera including Opera Turbo technology that compresses data traffic by up to 90%, improving page-loading time and reducing data usage, potentially saving users when on a pay-per-MB data plan.

Opera Mini 5 for Windows Mobile can be downloaded from the Opera Mini Next website.

Overnight, Opera have released a finished Opera 10.50 into the wild, claiming that it is now the fastest browser in the world.

With an incredibly quick development cycle, the browser includes many improvements over Opera 10.

Opera 10.50 includes a new JavaScript engine, along with a new rendering engine, giving it an up to 7x speed advantage over Opera 10.10 at times.

The new browser also incudes a new interface for Windows users, along with support for Jump Lists, Aero Peak and Aero Glass in Windows 7.

A full list of changes can be found in the changelogs, while the browser can be downloaded from the Opera website.

Opera have released Opera 10.50 Beta 2 for Windows.

The new browser contains many significant improvements over Beta 1 according to Opera.

Changes include:

• Skin work, and tweaked styling of internal pages (opera:* and error pages)
• Improved opera:config
• Improved overlay authentication dialogs to avoid spoofing
• Context menu fixes
• Basic Web Storage user interface
• Lots of crash fixes
• Widgets fixes

A full list of changes can be found in the changelog. A download link can be found on the Opera Desktop Team Blog.