Opera introduced a web browser last year that does away with menu bars and instead relies on gesture-based navigation. The result is Opera Coast: a web browser that puts content front and center and hides everything else until you need it.
When Opera Coast launched in 2013 it as an iPad exclusive. Now the Opera team is bringing the browser to iPhone and iPod touch as well.
Rather than just shrinking the iPad browser, the developers rethought the user interface for smaller screens. It’s designed to be used with your thumbs, includes icons for frequently visited sites on the home screen, and a new search tool.
When you search, Opera Coast will automatically provide related search words and websites as you type. It will also auto-suggest websites as you enter a URL, letting you get where you’re going with fewer taps on the keyboard.
Opera has also included a “Stuff we like” section to provide quick access to popular content.
If you use Opera Coast on both an iPad and iPhone, your data will be synchronized between devices via iCloud.
Like Opera, but don’t feel comfortable browsing without a menu bar? You can still download Opera Mini for iPhone… but that app hasn’t been updated since 2012.
