Turn almost any phone into a Web Browser

You may already be familiar with the web browser Opera, an application known for its speed and accessibility. What you might not know is that there’s a newly launched version for mobile devices – Opera Mini – that works on almost any phone; best of all, it’s free. I sat down today to experiment with the software.

I have a Motorola Red RAZR (I already have an unlimited data plan), and I followed the directions on the Opera Mini site to download the software onto my phone. The browser installed itself in my “Applicationsâ€? folder, and, once I found it, it took one click to launch. Suddenly I was looking at a graphic version of BBC news instead of the text version I had been seeing when I used the built-in browser (which wasn’t often – I have the data plan for sending pictures and getting mobile content).

I was able to easily scroll around and zoom in on particular areas of the screen. It’s never going to turn a standard phone into a smartphone and replace all those features, but it’s enough to keep you going when you need to look something up or access your email.