Two big mobile web and data related announcements today. Opera has released Mini 3.0 and Verizon announced a deal that will put some YouTube videos on the carrier’s V-Cast media player for EVDO subscribers.

Opera Mini is at 8 million users and Release 3.0 represents a significant upgrade. I’ve covered the 3.0 betas in some detail, the released version doesn’t add any features beyond the photo sharing, RSS feed reader and secure connections which were in the beta. It looks like the RTSP support didn’t make the final cut. Opera has made the release is a lot easier to download than the beta though. A new page at www.operamini.com has demos, help and screenshots plus links to all the download options. There are three ways to get Opera Mini 3.0

• For direct download with your phone browser go opermini.com
• To download to your PC for sideloading, go to www.operamini.com/download and choose PC download. If your phone’s not listed, download the generic version. None of the Nextel iDen phones are listed but all the recent (Falcon) models will run the basic MIDP1 version just fine. Sadly the MIDP2 version still causes my i855 to crash and restart.
• Also on www.operamini.com/download there’s an option to push the download link to your phone via a text message.

For more about the new Mini check out.

• CoolSmartPhone for some great screenshots, including the one above, showing how the new features work.
• Operawatch has lots of goodies; a link to a gallery of photos uploaded using the new version, the Mini 3.0 Simulator and videos demonstrating the new features.

I’m less impressed with the Verizon / YouTube deal. Om Malik has a great piece on its lameness in Walled Garden, Not Going Away, in which he repeats this pithy quote from Fred Wilson,

“This deal violates the entire ethos of YouTube, not free, not open, exclusive, no community, limited, censorship, etc, etc.”

I guess the best that can be said about the Verzion-YouTube placement is that

1. It’s the only way Verizon users can get any YouTube content as the carrier blocks them from TinyTube (review), MyMobileClips (review) and all other off-portal video content.
2. It’s apparently not going to cost V-Cast users anything extra above the $15/month V-Cast fee. V-Cast is actually a good deal if only because it includes unlimited mobile web browsing (but not downloading).