Opera Mini 5.1 for Android now official

Not too terribly long ago, Opera was all over the tech world news. Since then, however, it seems to have slipped back under the radar… until now. Opera Mini 5.1 has officially hit the Android market and is available for download.

Opera Mini boasts great speeds and rendering, and has been popular on many other mobile platforms throughout the years. Supposedly, this new Android version is even faster, and offers more accurate page rendering, both of which are achieved through Opera Mini’s page compression, which can speed things up by up to 90%.

Android Live wallpaper

A developer named Jfreu sent us a live wallpaper that really trips you out. Basically it it’s a live wallpaper that is “based on a stereographic projection which can be done on any equirectangular image.” What you do is install the APK and select the special photos. When you run your finger over the screen the wallpaper will move with it in any direction. Depending on the wallpaper it can get quite psychedelic. It was quite interesting watching the wallpaper move as I was trying it out.

The application can be downloaded from Here

He also has a wealth of additional equirectangular images HERE.

HTC Desire for Telus, available by end of summer

Telus, one of the leading carriers in the frozen tundra also known as Canada, announced today that they’ll be getting the HTC Desire and that it’ll be part of their back-to-school group of phones. In case you don’t know, the Desire is essentially a Nexus One with physical buttons, an optical trackpad instead of a trackball, and SenseUI. Other than that, the specs are identical:

• Android 2.1 ( clair) with HTC Sense
• Access to over 50,000 applications from Android Market
• Seven homescreen panels to customize with tons of prealoaded live widgets, apps and live wallpapers
• HTC Friend Stream app and widget to get consolidated updates from Facebook, Twitter and Flickr
• 3.7” , WVGA 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen
• 5 megapixel camera with flash and video capture
• Expandable memory up to 32 GB (8 GB microSD card included)
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n

This is also good news for USA-residing people who have been drooling over the HTC Desire, but didn’t want to switch to US Cellular or deal with 2G only from a imported Euro version. This phone will match up nicely with your AT&T sim. Of course I’m not sure if the physical buttons and no Froyo would sway me from just purchasing a Nexus One, I’ll leave that choice up to you.

[via telus]

Obviously this isn’t a firm release date, but look for one right around the end of summer.

Samsung Wants to Help You Text While Driving – Safely

Samsung is releasing an app for their Galaxy S that uses the camera to display whatever is in front your phone as the backdrop for as text messaging app. Clearly, they want to enable you to text without walking into trees or smashing into the car that just slammed on its brakes in front of you. (I mean, texting while driving is bad, don’t do it.)

This app will be available on Galaxy S phones from a Samsung app store. I have no idea yet whether or not they will charge for this, but I would hope not. It’s a cool idea, and I hope it finds its way to other Android devices.

First Post.

HI everybody.