Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11 debut

Opera has released new versions of both its mobile browsers, offering improved scrolling, panning, and zooming on each.

On Tuesday, the Norwegian browser maker unveiled Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11. Both offer "pinch-to-zoom" on all devices that support the interface gesture popularized by the iPhone, and both offer a new "share" button for readily posting links to online services such as Twitter, Facebook, and others.

Both browsers are also "optimized" for use on tablets.

Opera Mini taps into Opera proxy servers that intercept and compress web pages before sending them down to the client. This speeds download times, making the browser suitable for slower web connections and lower amounts of memory. Opera Mobile can make use of the same proxy servers, but it can also access web servers directly, providing unfettered access to the net via the same "Presto" rendering engine used by Opera's desktop browser.

Opera Mini 6 is available for J2ME, Android, BlackBerry, and Symbian/S60 phones. Opera Mobile 11 runs on Android and Symbian, and labs (test) releases are available for MeeGo, Maemo, and Windows 7, Microsoft's desktop OS.