Opera Mini 4.2 beta includes skins and video support

One of the first things I download onto my Windows Mobile, S60, and BlackBerry devices is Opera Mini so I was very pleased to receive the notice today that Opera Mini 4.2 beta is now available for download for all of these devices (it is a Java application). There are four new things that are highlighted in this latest updated version that should make Opera Mini 4.2 even more compelling. Point your phone’s browser to mini.opera.com/beta to download the beta version of Opera Mini 4.2.

The new features include the reintroduction of skins (found back in Opera Mini 3), increase in performance with a new server park in the US (Opera Mini is a proxy-based server), support for video on many devices (try m.youtube.com now on your SE or Nokia device), and the ability to sync notes through Opera Link. I love using the Opera Link feature to standardize my bookmarks across all mobile platforms and will give this new notes feature a try soon.

Opera also sent along in the press information that they are seeing more than 20 million unique users monthly using Opera Mini on their mobile devices. Even though the S60 browser is quite powerful and the BlackBerry OS 4.6 one is much better than before, I still keep using Opera Mini because of the performance, Opera Link support, and easy keypad/keyboard shortcuts.