Opera has released a beta version of its Mini 5 Web browser for Android-based smartphones, the company said on Thursday.

Just like the versions of the beta for other phones, Opera Mini 5 for Android beta compresses data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the phone to speed up browsing over low-bandwidth data connections, according to the Norwegian browser company.

Other features of the beta version include tabbed browsing and speed dial, a feature that provides direct access to favorites via thumbnail images on the start page. There is also a password manager that can be used to store passwords for e-mail, social networking sites and online banking, Opera said.

The beta can be downloaded from Android Market or by going to m.opera.com/next with an Android-based smartphone.

The Opera Mini user interface has been designed for mobile phones with traditional keypads and smartphones with touchscreens. However, it lacks support for multitouch, the company said via e-mail.

The company isn’t ready to confirm a launch date for the final version of Opera Mobile 5, according to Katrin Jaakson, communications manager at Opera.

The beta version of Opera Mini 5 was originally launched in September last year, and is already available on BlackBerry phones, phones running Windows Mobile 5 or 6, and phones that can run Java apps. Opera also demonstrated a version of the browser for the iPhone at Mobile World Congress in February. Contacted by Macworld.com on Thursday, an Opera spokesperson said that the company has not yet submitted Opera Mini to Apple for App Store approval, “but it will happen in the near future.”

Macworld.com staff contributed to this report.

Sure, the App Store has plenty of ways to help survivalists fend off a zombie apocalypse, or figure out what plants are safe to eat—but without electricity, those useful guides quickly become very useless data on a dead paperweight. Thankfully, Novothink may have a solar-powered solution.

On Thursday, the company released its new hybrid solar charging Surge cases for the iPhone and iPod Touch, proudly pointing out that while there have been other solar-powered chargers made for the iPhone in the past, the Surge is the first one to be Apple-certified.

The case features a solar panel on its back, connected to a 1500mAH lithium-ion battery. Indicator lights let you know the status of the charge and the current strength of your light source, while an additional speaker is built into the bottom to compensate for the iPhone's own speaker being covered. The case also provides a cutout for attaching wrist straps, carabiners, or other clips to charge the device while hiking, biking, running from zombie hordes, etc.

Novothink estimates you can get an extra 30 to 60 minutes of battery life (depending on whether you’re on a 3G or 2G network) from just two hours of direct sunlight, and it even provides a free app called Solar Planner for estimating more precise usage times. Similar to other built-in battery cases like Mophie’s Juice Pack Air, the Surge uses automatic “smart charging” technology to regulate its battery and power reserves.

The case is available from Novothink through Solar Arcadia in black and white, with metallic green, blue, silver, and bronze listed as “coming soon”. The iPhone case is designed for the 3G/3GS only (sorry, original iPhone users) and retails for $80, while the iPod Touch (2G) is priced at $70 (although Solar Arcadia is currently offering it for $53).

[Updated at 1:00PM pacific to change charging time from 30 minutes to two hours due to a mistake in the company's press release.]

Motorola will start loading Microsoft’s search and map services onto its Android smartphones in China, bringing more non-Google services to the phones amid a row between Google and China.

It is the second time since Google said it would stop censoring its search results in China that Motorola has turned to a Google search rival for its Android phones there. Motorola revealed a search deal with Baidu.com, Google’s main rival in China, soon after Google announced its China plans in January.

Motorola will start pre-loading Microsoft’s Bing search and map services on its Android smartphones in China this quarter, or use updates to add them to phones already on the market, it said Wednesday. Motorola said the deal is a global one, though it gave no details on plans to offer Bing in other countries.

The phones will have a Bing bookmark pre-loaded in the Web browser and what Motorola called a “search widget” that uses Bing. Motorola said the deal would give users more choice but did not say how it related to the Baidu deal, or whether services from other providers would also be pre-loaded on phones.

Google’s plans for its Chinese search engine defy government regulations, which require self-censorship by Internet companies, including search providers. One Android phone from Motorola and another from Samsung had their China launches delayed after Google’s announcement, and Google postponed availability of Google apps on Android phones from Chinese mobile carriers. A Chinese mobile carrier last week started pre-selling the delayed Motorola phone.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at a conference in Abu Dhabi Wednesday that his company is in “active negotiations” with the Chinese government and that he expects “something will happen soon,” according to published reports. Google.cn, the company’s China search engine, currently is still censoring results.

Market research firm ComScore is back with the latest numbers on the battle for consumers’ hearts and minds in the U.S. smartphone arena. On the positive side, Apple's share continued to grow, holding steady in second place after BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM).

However, Apple’s rate of growth appears to have slowed. From October 2009 to January 2010, the iPhone’s share only increased by 0.3 percentage points; from September 2009 to December 2009, comparatively, it had increased by 1.2 points. Don’t let the slowing in growth fool you, though: Apple still holds a very healthy 25.1 percent market share behind RIM’s pack-leading 41.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Google’s Android platform is the big mover and shaker, having jumped from a 2.8 percent share in October 2009 to a 7.1 percent share in January 2010—an increase of 4.3 points. Of course, Google has introduced a number of new Android models in the last several months while the iPhone product line has remained unchanged since the introduction of the 3GS in summer 2009.

The rising smartphone tide has not, however, lifted all ships. Microsoft continues to hold third place in the market, but the company dropped 4 points since October 9, its share dwindling to 15.7 percent. And Palm has lost traction as well, dropping 2.1 percentage points to a 5.7 percent share. However, the January 2010 numbers do predate both Palm’s plan for a renewed marketing push and Microsoft’s introduction of the new Windows Phone 7 Series, so this probably isn’t the final word for either company.

Birdfeed, the “very nice” iPhone Twitter client developed by Buzz Andersen, has been acquired by Thing Labs and rebranded as Brizzly for iPhone, in order to tie in with the company's Brizzly Web interface for Twitter and Facebook.

Brizzly for iPhone utilizes Birdfeed's foundation, including features like the helpful countdown widget (pictured) and simplistic UI, while also introducing lists, a pull-down refresh feature, and topics with editable explanations (dubbed the Brizzly Guide).

The Brizzly team at Thing Labs opted not to replace Birdfeed via an update, instead offering the new version as a completely separate app and pulling Birdfeed from the App Store.

In the announcement on Birdfeed’s site, the Brizzly team wrote, “Since it is a new product rather than an upgrade, you won’t be prompted to upgrade… You can keep the old Birdfeed if you’d like, of course, but we won’t be supporting it, and will be iterating on Brizzly from here out.”

On the Web, Brizzly is a simplistic Twitter and Facebook reader. As an app, it sticks to its Birdfeed roots, in which a simple and clean UI is the name of the game. Users will need to sign up for Brizzly on the Web before they can post from their iPhone.

Brizzly for iPhone is available from the App Store for free and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.