Opera Mini v4 Released

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.betanews.com/article/Opera_Mini_4_Available_for_Phones/1194451621' target='_blank'>http://www.betanews.com/article/Ope...ones/1194451621</a><br /><br /></div><i>"After nearly 5 months of beta testing, Opera Software has released version 4 of its Opera Mini Web browser for mobile phones. The update includes iPhone-like capabilities that enable users to see a full overview of a page and zoom in to specific parts. When zooming, Opera Mini snaps to content so scrolling is smooth. A virtual mouse cursor aids users in moving down a page and selecting links, although the software resizes text and images to reduce the amount of scrolling required. These features were originally developed for Opera's browser on the Nintendo Wii."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20071114-OperaMini.jpg" /><br /><br />More information is available at <a href="http://www.operamini.com/">Opera's Mini page</a>. Note that this isn't the same thing as <a href="http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/">Opera for Windows Mobile</a>; rather, it's the J2ME client, but it will work on Pocket PCs. Some folks really like the Mini client; if you have a midlet manager on your Pocket PC, you can try it out as well.

[Menneisyys]

Guys and gals, Opera Mini ROCKS. Go give it a try.

I've written a VERY comprehensive tutorial on installing and using it; see http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57282

[fresh-popcorn]

Any good midlet managers available?
I dont think I have one for my Palm 750 (not that I am aware of).

[Menneisyys]

Any good midlet managers available?
I dont think I have one for my Palm 750 (not that I am aware of).

Jbed is by far the best. Check out my review &amp; tutorial; in there, I've explained how it should be installed and used.

[rzanology]

allow me to point out yet again....this thing runs circles around anything else out there. This is a must have on any platform and for all pocket pcs!

[Jason Lee]

Agreed.. Opera mini is an awesome browser! I have been using 4 since it was released a few weeks ago, used the beta versions before that and also used 3.2 (or what ever number it was) before that. It is not a total replacement for pocket ie where email links and downloads and such are involved but it makes a great web viewing tool.

Love it.

I hope some of these features and changes make their way to Opera Mobile. It is a kind of a shame that the java midlet version is way better than the full blown WM software version. hehe.

[bkerrins]

I wanted to load it, but got an error message that the HP HW6900 is not supported. Bummer, I thought I might finally get a good internet browser.

[fresh-popcorn]

Got it installed and working on my phone, Wow, much better than expected.

Two Thumbs up!

[cab124]

Is it possible to install this on a Dell Axim x50v running WM2003 SE??

What is midlet???

[rookcnu]

Should I go to Mini or stick with their Opera Mobile 8.65?

Which is better? Does it depend on the device? I use a Cingular 8125.

Thanks!

[Menneisyys]

Is it possible to install this on a Dell Axim x50v running WM2003 SE??

What is midlet???

1. it is. Read my tutorial; I've dedicated a separate section to WM2003(SE).

2. read my MIDlet Bible if you're REALLY interested in it. Note that it's pretty long and as yours is a no longer supported OS, you can't run the latest-and-greatest MIDlet Managers (incl. Jbed). You'll want to upgrade to WM5 (the A02 upgrade is pretty usable) to get the most out of MIDlets (and, of course, Opera Mini).

[Menneisyys]

Should I go to Mini or stick with their Opera Mobile 8.65?

Which is better? Does it depend on the device? I use a Cingular 8125.

Thanks!

They're entirely different products with different strengths. As for me, I use Opera Mini 95% of the time because of its pure speed.

Read my tutorial; in there, I've directly compared Opera Mini to "real" browsers like IEM and Opera Mobile.

[cab124]

You'll want to upgrade to WM5 (the A02 upgrade is pretty usable) to get the most out of MIDlets (and, of course, Opera Mini).

Thanks so much for the feedback, Menneisyys. Would you go so far as to recommend that I upgrade to WM5 on my Axim? I tried it once when the very first upgrade became available and I had nothing but problems so I downgraded and never looked back. Are there many people running WM5 on x50v units successfully today??

Thanks!

[Menneisyys]

You'll want to upgrade to WM5 (the A02 upgrade is pretty usable) to get the most out of MIDlets (and, of course, Opera Mini).

Thanks so much for the feedback, Menneisyys. Would you go so far as to recommend that I upgrade to WM5 on my Axim? I tried it once when the very first upgrade became available and I had nothing but problems so I downgraded and never looked back. Are there many people running WM5 on x50v units successfully today??

Thanks!

The A02 upgrade (released around last Christmas) is generally stated MUCH better than the initial (Oct. 2005) one. Of course, it's still plagued with the filesys.exe bug (to some degree). Howeber, I think it's still better to sometimes suffer from that bug than not being able to run the majority of today's (WM5+-only) apps.

There're several, related threads at http://www.aximsite.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=109 (sorry, I can't give you an exact URL right now as the forum seems to be down) - they're certainly worth checking out.

[Gerard]

If one is used to a WAP browser on a cellphone, for instance, it would seem that Opera Mini 4 is a radical leap forward in terms of enjoyment of the experience. If one is used to an enhanced Pocket IE, say, with MultiIE or SPB Pocket Plus building PIE into something much better... well, there's little to compare. PIE, or Netfront for that matter, offer multi-page browsing simultaneously instead of the paging back and forth with Opera. Both the others offer integration with the native Favorites folder, which in my case has grown to over 800 links, and there is just no way I want to manually enter even 10% of that in Opera, whether the full mobile browser or the mini Java based one.
But yeah, I have played with this release a bit, and find that it's sort of cute. Certainly very fast. If I were using an expensive data plan, I'd want to use it quite a lot. As it is, no way am I about to fork over huge sums to Rogers for data download (as per Jason's articles of late), so I restrict my browsing and downloading to Wi-Fi connections at home and away. When I have these rather more complete browsers right here, why use the tiny Java thing which is crippled in so many ways, simply because it's faster? I'll take full viewing and functionality, thanks. But hey, at least Opera launches Pocket IE when trying to download a file. That's better than an error message.

[Menneisyys]

PIE, or Netfront for that matter, offer multi-page browsing simultaneously instead of the paging back and forth with Opera.

It's pretty easy to simulate multi-tabs with Opera Mini, particularly if you have a phone with a keypad (or, if you "only" have a hardware dialpad-less Pocket PC, you assign a button for this task): you can qiockly (two button presses) bring up the list of the active tabs (there, in general, can be no less than 30 of them at the same time, depending on the size of the pages) and quickly select the one you want - both with keys and the stylus.

The only problem is that you need to stay in the current tab while downloading a new page - you can't switch to another one / download a page in the background. However, the pure speed of page downloading makes this bearable.


Both the others offer integration with the native Favorites folder, which in my case has grown to over 800 links, and there is just no way I want to manually enter even 10% of that in Opera, whether the full mobile browser or the mini Java based one.


Yes, but if you use Opera Link (and Opera on the desktop), you can do (almost - there's no folder synchronization, but they're still pretty well accessible) exactly the same with Opera Mini. Then, even importing your existing favorites is very easy.