Opera today launches a free version of Opera Mini 6 for iOS. The major remake is the first to support the iPad and carries a new look to take advantage of the extra space. Apple’s tablet now gets pop-overs for menus and a large visual tab browser that helps pick out tabs by content.
UI design changes also carry over to iPhones and iPods, where devices with Retina Displays get more explicit support. Every platform gets better pinch-to-zoom and pan gesture behavior as well as a way to share sites diretly through either the self-contained My Opera or else Facebook and Twitter.
Minor tweaks include the option to open links in a background tab as well as better font handling for Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese and others that tend not to use the Roman alphabet.
Opera is one of the few major rival browsers on iOS and continues to specialize by using remote site compression to speed up loading websites. The app has regularly been offered as a way to save bandwidth on a slow or low-cap connection.
