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The much awaited public beta version of Opera Mobile 9.5 has finally been released. If you do not own one of the newer devices that come bundled with it, you can try out this version. It's only available for Pocket PCs running on Windows Mobile 5.0 and above though.

I wonder if there's any difference between this and the one that came bundled with the Touch Diamond and Omnia.

Those are customised for the devices, e.g. work with the accelerometer, specially designed to work with the rounded D-pad, etc. Customised versions are almost always better than across-the-board ones.

the 9.51b (build 1718) loads faster and is more stable than the previous version (build 0781) I have.

Yeah I really like the zooming in and out with the rounded dpad. Ok guess I'll just stick what came with the Diamond then.

Played with it for a while, impressed with the ease of use but I think I will stick to my trustworthy version 8.65 for now as there are still so many bugs.

I've installed it to Storage Card and it has been pretty stable on my TyTN II so far. The only small issue I don't like about Opera Mobile is that it removes all background images and screws up formatting on some webpages when in Mobile View mode. But when not in Mobile View mode, mobile-friendly pages look so weird as they are zoomed out by default which is plain irritating.

Managed to find one VERY irritating "feature". Apparently, it disables all SMS notifications (sound, vibrate, popup message, etc) after installation and also everytime it is launched.

woops .. what a bummer!

sounds pretty serious, considering that the system notification state is messed up by a browser.

Check out the review by msmobiles on the cons of Opera 9.5...

*Web applications from Google not usable in Opera Mobile 9.5

*Some podcasts/files cannot be downloaded at all

*Opera Mobile 9.5 after installation sets itself as default browser forcibly

*Opera Mobile 9.5 disables text message notifications

So how to re-enable sms notification after opera screwed it up?

You have to manually configure in Sounds & Notifications everytime after launching this version of Opera.

Oh great...looks like it didn't just disable the SMS notifications. In fact, I think it disabled most notifications/reminders.

Does anyone have access to the gradual zoom or readjust to page options as discussed in 9.5 help?

All I have is the double tap zoom which over zooms many things

It works with the navigation wheel found in HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. Otherwise, I don't think this feature is supported on other devices.

If you are referring to zooming to any text size, then you can do this with the omnia's opera: slide your finger up or down on the rightmost side of the opera's display. slide up to zoom in, slide down to zoom out.