Opera Software has unveiled version 9.7 of its Opera Mobile browser, which makes use of Opera's proprietary Opera Turbo, a server-based compression technology to deliver improved download rate and overall performance, reports Information Week. Notable improvements to this latest version of Opera Mobile include its ability for hardware acceleration, as well as compatibility with Google Gears. Google Gears typically comes as a browser plug-in to allow users to access information offline on supported sites.

Of course, with the advent of ever more powerful and battery efficient processors and HSPA+ technologies, smartphones are becoming more like mini-computers than the bare-bones platforms that they once were. It would be interesting to see how much longer the market for Opera's server-based compression technology will exist.

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- check out this article from InformationWeek

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