Opera Mini 4.1: FULL multiplatform tutorial & review

[Menneisyys]

Opera Mini 4.1: FULL multiplatform tutorial & review

I don’t need to introduce Opera Mini for any serious mobile device user – it’s been one of the best browsers ever since the release of version 4.0 with all its goodies like favorite synchronization and full layout mode, the latter being excellent on (W)VGA Pocket PC’s and high-resolution Symbian devices like the Nokia E90. Note that I’ve written a review & full comparison to other browsers HERE (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2302&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) – please DO read it if you don’t know what Opera Mini is or how it compares to other browsers, in which cases you might want to prefer it to native, fully-fledged browsers like Opera Mobile. Also, make sure you read my two Web Browsing Bibles, linked from the OM4 article, for additional info & comparisons. Finally, note that the linked article only discusses version 4.0; 4.1 is even better and more featureful.

The just-released 4.1 beta takes things even further and implements a lot of long asked-for functionalities. It’s REALLY worth upgrading; note that it can coexist with older versions (including 4.0) on the same handset. That is, if you, for some reason, find it useless, you can easily switch back to the older version without having to reinstall / reconfigure anything.

1.1 Availability; which version to go for?

Navigate to http://mini.opera.com/beta either with your phone’s WAP browser or, if you have Opera on your desktop, with it:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41DownloadPage.png
(mobile browser)
http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41DesktopOperaDL.png
(Opera on the desktop)

and select any of the upper three links. On the next screen,

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy1.png

just press the left softkey (Continue); then, unless you want to put it in a self-created category, just click OK while it’s on root:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy2.png

On the following dialog,

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy3.png

just press OK; do the same on the one that follows:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy4.png

The file will be compiled (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy5.png) and you can start it right away by answering Yes on the final screen:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy6.png

After this, everything is done in the already-known way: accepting the license (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy7.png), pressing buttons for generating a pseudo-random sentence (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy8.png) etc.

Note that the 4.1 beta page linked from operamini.com, http://www.operamini.com/beta/, doesn’t contain the signed versions, only the unsigned ones. Therefore, if you only have Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer on your desktop, make sure you download the file from inside your Web browser on your handheld. The only exception is BlackBerry, where there isn’t a separate version on the only-handheld or desktop Opera page; then, you can safely download the ZIP file from http://www.operamini.com/beta/ with any desktop browser and use the BB Desktop Manager to quickly install it on your BlackBerry.

If you have a Windows Mobile device with Jbed 3.1, any of the signed versions will do. Note that some people state you need to go for the all-certificate version; that’s not true with Jbed 3.1. Make sure you DO download a signed version and not the unsigned one so that you can easily (without any hacking) can get rid of the security prompts.

Note that, should you still not have Jbed 3.1, read the second section of THIS (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2538&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) for more info & the download links.

1.2 What’s new?

1.2.1 Custom text input field

With the new URL input field, address autocompletion works just great:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41AddressAutocomplete.png

Note that

1, unlike with Opera Mobile 9.5 (and just like any other browser, including pre-9.5 versions of Opera Mobile), the titles of these pages aren’t displayed, only the URL’s

2, copy / paste doesn’t work. If you do need it (and you do have a compatible JVM – it’s only the non-recommended TAO that isn’t), you’ll need to switch to the regular, native JVM URL editor by pressing Delete (right softkey, shouldn’t you have a device with a built-in hardware back key like MS Smartphones) once and, then, go down to highlight "Insert Symbol":

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/om4insertsymblhighlight.png

Then, just press Action on it to get into the traditional URL input field, with the traditional menus.

3, textual input may be problematic on keyboards with combined numeric and alphabetical keys; for example, on the HTC Vox. In there, the numeric keys will always be considered as keypad numeric buttons; that is, they’ll input a for 1, d for button 2 etc. However, as they’re treated EXACTLY the same way as keypad buttons, you can still input any character or (with long-pressing) number with them. You’ll need to know the latter for numeric input with devices that have a separate numeric row (like the HTC Universal).

4, the Input Address field being new also results in the old system-level browser invocation script (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2334&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) not working any more. To fix this,


either switch off the new direct input by just unticking the, by default, enabled "Direct address input" checkbox in Tools / Settings:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41disabledirinut.png


or, alternatively, go for a modification of the current script version available HERE (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2082313&postcount=83). (Incidentally, note that, now, there’s a full C++ implementation of the invocation script HERE (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2048809&postcount=79). It’s still not compatible with 4.1 unless you untick "Direct address input" as explained above.)

1.2.2 Signing

First in Opera Mini’s lifetime, it comes signed. What does this mean? When deployed under a capable, compatible JVM (for example, Jbed 3.1), it’ll, upon trying to access the Net / the local file system for saving pages / downloading / uploading files, it’ll prompt you for permission:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PermissPrompt1.png
(reading the file system)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PermissPrompt1W.png
(writing the file system)

In there, you’ll notice a (compared to the unsigned case) new "always, don’t ask again" menu item (I’ve highlighted it in the following screenshot):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PermissPrompt2.png

Make sure you do select this before pressing OK. This will make sure you won’t ever need to answer this question any more.

Upon trying to saving pages, it even prompts you to switch to the signed version, should you still have a non-signed one:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PromptForSignedVersion.png

The link indeed takes you to a tutorial:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PromptForSignedVersion2.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PromptForSignedVersion3.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PromptForSignedVersion4.png

(as can clearly be seen, there is not a single word on Windows Mobile. Note that the tutorial is also directly available HERE (http://www.operamini.com/help/faq/#signed))

1.2.3 Page Saving

The new page saving feature allows for saving the current page, along with all its resources (images), to a file. The file is in the native (condensed HTML in textual mode + JPEG images) format of Opera Mini currently not readable by other applications. Should you still need some of the contents for copy/paste operations, you can still directly copy from the file with a text viewer. This also means this also allows for some kind of rudimentary copy/paste functionality if you use an external file viewer like that of Resco File Explorer. Then, based on the (latest) timestamp of the saved page (the saved pages have cryptic filenames; however, you can easily recognize them based both of their timestamp in the file system and their header, which contains the title of the page), you view it and look for the info you wanted to copy to clipboard (and, from there, to, say, Notes or Word Mobile). As you can see, it’s in no way so easy than, say, copying and straightforward than copying the full / the visible textual contents of the page into a text input field, where a user could already highlight anything and copy to the clipboard (unless she uses TAO Intent), though. Hope the Opera coders also implement this, otherwise, very simple-to-code feature.

Note that the page saving target dialog is only displayed once (upon the first page saving attempt) and is pretty much far away from being pretty and/or intuitional (and, of course, it has missing functionality present in, say, the standard OS file save dialog like creating subdirectories) but it still does the job. Just select the directory you’d like to save your pages to. Again, remember this can’t be changed later so select a directory with sufficiently large free storage.

First, you’ll need to select the storage type you’d like to save your pages to. In the following screenshot, I’ve selected Storage Card:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41SaveTarget1.png

After pressing Action, you’ll be shown the directories in there. You can select any of them (and, then, iteratively, any of its subdirectories etc.). Just press Select (left softkey) on the directory you’d like to save your stuff in. For example, in the following screenshot, I’ve stayed on Storage Card when pressing the key; this means it’ll store the pages in the root of the card:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41SaveTarget2.png

(note that, as the storage card roots can only have up to 128 files, this isn’t the best thing to do unless you’re absolutely sure you only want to save some pages.)

Finally, you’ll be prompted a "Page saved." message:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41SaveTarget3.png

Get rid of it with the Action button.

After this, all the saved pages will be listed in Tools / Saved Pages (and the latest three on the startpage):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41StartpageSavedPageList.png

A VGA screenshot with more than one saved page:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41ListOfSavedPages.png
http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41ListOfSavedPagesVGA.png

1.2.4 Finding text in pages

Tools / Find in page implements something I’ve been asking for years: in-page text search. It not only iterates over all the occurrences of the searched-for word (see the "Next" left softkey), but also conveniently highlights all the occurrences. In the following screenshot, you can see the results of searching for the word "Opera" in the Opera Mini forums:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/41FindInPagesOpera.png

1.2.5 In-app file up/download

A lot of users have been asking the Opera folks for allowing for in-browser download and, even more importantly, upload.

1.2.5.1 Download

In-browser downloading, for Windows Mobile users, isn’t that important. It’s probably mostly MS Smartphone users that will find this useful because, as has also been explained in my MS Smartphone Web Browsing Bible (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2084&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) (see section 1.1.1 Fixing the binary file download problem), the built-in Internet Explorer Mobile only downloads certain types of files. For Symbian users with, say, a Nokia N95 with a pre-20 firmware version, it’s more so because Symbian often killed Opera Mini when loading up Nokia Web for handling the download. This isn’t an issue with the new firmware version any more, of course – neither is with N95 8GB, N95-3, N82 or the soon-to-come, new, DVB-H enabled N-series models.)

Note that, while file system access is supported in the latest and most recommended Jbed 3.1, this isn’t necessarily the case with other MIDlet Managers. Therefore, you’re strongly recommended to upgrade to Jbed 3.1.

The new in-Opera download looks like this:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/MP3Download1.png

If you select Save As, you’ll be presented the usual file selector; here, I instruct it to save the contents on the storage card:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/MP3Download2.png

Then, the download will start:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/MP3Download3.png

If, instead of Save As, you select Open:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/MP3Download4.png

you’ll be taken to IE:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/MP3Download5.png

which downloads the file:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/MP3Download6.png

Unfortunately, if you go for in-process download, you can’t do anything else during downloading – as is the case with regular page loading. That is, you end up staring at the download screen. If you absolutely hate this and/or the download takes too much time (for example, during fetching a looooooong MP3), go for downloading within Internet Explorer Mobile and switching back to Opera Mini for browsing. You can safely do this: IEM will just download the file in the background without problems. (Unless, of course, you haven’t registered the file type with the system. Then, you’ll need to stick strictly with the built-in downloader of OM4.1.)

1.2.5.2 Upload

With Jukka "Yucca" Korpela’s excellent article & tester suite File input (or "upload") in HTML forms (http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/file.html):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/FileUpload2.png

Then, the usual Opera file handler will be shown (not that of the OS). Let’s upload some text file:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/FileUpload3.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/FileUpload4.png

and the results are as expected:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/FileUpload5.png

(note that it the (later?) 4.0 series it is rendered as can be seen in HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/FileUpload1.png) but, of course, the "Choose" file chooser couldn’t be activated)

In this regard, Opera Mini (along with the commercial (!) Opera Mobile and [the, currently, severely crippled Technical Preview] NetFront) is the only browser to support file upload on the MS Smartphone platform. Let me point out that the built-in Internet Explorer Mobile (still) doesn’t support upload.

2. What’s still missing / problematic?

Now, in addition to direct copy/paste of textual contents, I only miss navigating (switching back) to any already-downloaded page while loading a new one. You can only navigate on the current page while fetching a new page but can’t use, say, #5 to quickly bring up the list of currently open pages and quickly switch to another page. There isn’t a "download page in background" feature either, which would be able for allowing this. This can be a nuisance, particularly on inherently sloooooooooow platforms like the current crop of BlackBerries.

Also, on Pocket PC devices with a built-in keyboard could benefit from some similar keyboard layout than on BlackBerries. On the latter, you can use the (wide and easy-to-reach) Space button to scroll a page down. I wish you could do the same on Windows Mobile devices. (In there, you still must use the "8" button, which is pretty much out of reach in two-hand, "bedtime" operation.)

The problem of "flashing", non-displayed pictures, particularly with pages heavily loaded with them, is still present.

Finally, the lack of italic support is (still) a big pain in the back. I don’t understand why the Opera folks don’t implement this (must be related to the additional storage the custom, smallest character set would require with added italic support, I don’t know – if that’s the problem, at least non-smallest characters should have this support) – after all, ALL major KVM’s do support rendering text in italics. (See my related tests in my MIDlet Bible (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2266&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1).)

3. BlackBerry

The BlackBerry version doesn’t support signed versions; that is, as has already been pointed out, you MUST go with the unsigned one. I haven’t encountered any problems with it; page saving / loading, the new address autocomplete etc. all worked just great. I haven’t encountered the common bug with all OM 4.0 versions: that is, the BlackBerry (at least my T-Mo branded 8800) completely locking up upon loading pages. However, this doesn’t mean these bugs have been fixed: I "only" played with the new version on my BB for two or three hours and the aforementioned bug only turns up, say, once a day or two days, assuming actively using OM for at least 2-3 hours a day.

4. Symbian

I’ve also (quickly) tested the new (unsigned) version on my Nokia N95 v20. I haven’t really run into problems so far; neither have my fellow N95 users in the Opera Mini forum. I’ll later report on whether Opera Mini 4.1 still exhibits the well-known, but, fortunately, pretty rare problem of completely locking up the handset, which, as with the BlackBerry, can only be fixed by removing and reinserting the battery.

[Menneisyys]

UPDATE (later the same day):
1. MoDaCo frontpage (http://www.modaco.com/content/forum/267137/View-Topic/)
2. note that the above-recommended Jbed 3.1 is NOT compatible with WM5 (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=228398&t=1207338601) (or with even older operating system versions), only WM6. If you're still on WM5, use the old, "Cloudyfa" 2.1 version instead; or look around at XDA-Devs, where, according to THIS (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/applications/227130-opera-mini-4-1-beta-released-tons-goodies-like-page-saving.html#post1059211236) post, the 20080222 version of 3.1 is WM5-compatible.

[Menneisyys]

UPDATE (04/05/2008):

1. I’ve tested the above (in the previous update) mentioned Jbed Java 3.1 20080222 (available HERE (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2053333&postcount=564); mirrored HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/Esmertec%20Jbed%2020080222%203.1.cab) for your convenience). It runs flawlessly under WM5 (not only WM6). It supports 3D (tested with Need for speed carbon and Night Fever; neither of them run under the non-3D-capable Cloudyfa 2.1), (as usual, excellent) sound. It can’t be directly installed onto a storage card, however. (As with some older versions, it’s possible it can be hacked there, though, with some manual file copying and registry / start menu link rewriting – I haven’t tested this.)

I’ve also thoroughly tested JBed_20071119.3.1_3dMod_HeapSizeFix_v2_wm6(lovetz1) linked from THIS (http://www.modaco.com/content/HTC-Juno-Phoebus-Juno-MoDaCo-com/265919/A-few-JVMs-for-you-to-play-with/) MoDaCo thread. As a plus, it can be directly installed on a storage card, as opposed to the version above. It, however, doesn’t support sound at all. Otherwise, it seems it’s pretty much the same as the version above – except for WM5-compliance: I haven’t tested the WM5-compliant subversion. I’d stick with the 20080222 (the first) version unless you really need every single byte in your built-in storage.

Note that neither version was able to run the s60v3 (Nokia) version of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, the latest-and-greatest real-time strategy from EA Mobile – upon loading the mission (and displaying the progress bar), it just locks up. (Needless to say, it’s working flawlessly on the Nokia N95 v20). It seems no Jbed version is compatible with this excellent game.

2. XDA-Devs user JZ SmartMort has released a very promising title making Opera Mini the system-level browser much simpler and offering a LOT of additional functionality. See his thread HERE (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=382043). Note that he also posted a somewhat shorter post HERE (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2087762&postcount=88) (in THIS (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2087807) thread, should you also want to read the possible, future discussion of his app).

[Menneisyys]

UPDATE (04/06/2008): I have some very good news for you all.

1. Several of my readers have asked (see for example THIS (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=228481)) whether it’s possible to change the page save directory in Opera Mini 4.1 after you’ve set it first. Contrary to the popular belief (you must reinstall it from scratch), it’s actually very easy to do this:

a. if you have originally selected a removable storage card as the target media, you only need to remove it before trying to save any page on it. Then, you’ll be prompted an error message and, on the next page saving attempt, you’ll be offered the chance of setting the new save directory. That is, if you’ve originally given Opera Mini a storage card, you can change the save path without any need for hexediting files.

b. if you have provided it with a movable / deletable directory in the built-in storage (or, for that matter, on the storage card), just move (cut / paste) the entire directory somewhere else on your device – or on your storage card. That is, if you’ve given \My Documents to it, just cut it with the built-in File Explorer and paste it to in any other subdirectory. (Of course, you’ll need to paste the directory back once you’re ready with the – failed – page saving attempt if it’s a directory used by other apps too – like \My Documents.)

3, if, for some reason, neither of the above-listed ways works, you’ll need to do some hexediting. To do this, search for the in the name of the directory in the \Windows\appdb\s?__d?.db files with, say, Total Commander (Alt-F7) on the desktop Windows and just change this occurrence to another directory with a hexeditor. An example showing changing \My Documents to \Storage Card with a hexeditor:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/ChangePagesavepath1.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/ChangePagesavepath2.png

Again, it’ll be FAR easier to temporarily remove / move the directory than hexediting – only do the latter if you simply can’t (temporarily) delete the directory because you’ve given it, say, \Windows or some other, undeletable directory.

2. the native C++ version of the invocation script has been updated to be compliant with 4.1 (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2088121&postcount=91). In addition, badbob001 has updated his MortScript to be compatible with 4.1 and he is also doing automatic (!!!) descriptor parsing & discovery to automatically find the current position of the OM deployment (just like the JZ SmartMort's brand new script I've reported on above), which, so far, needed to be done (once) by hand. See his updated script HERE (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2090371&postcount=95). Both advancements are discussed HERE (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=347689&page=10), starting with page 10 (post #91).

[Menneisyys]

UPDATE (04/12/2008):

1. I've continued using the current 4.1beta on my BlackBerry 8800. No lockups at all so far - as opposed to 4.0. Certainly VERY good news - the pretty frequent lockups with 4.0 were quite a pain in the back.

2. Several people have asked how the signed version of 4.1b should be used on Symbian S60 devices, particularly because previous posts (see for example THIS (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=228137&t=1208006654&page=3#comment2514882)) in the official Opera Mini forum referred to earlier S60 versions. It's pretty simple: After deploying, go to Applications / App. Manager, scroll down to Opera Mini 4.1, press the Action button, select Open and change all occurrences of "Ask every time" (file system read/write operations, that is, "Read user data" and "Edit user data", will belong to this category) to "Always allowed". Then, just exit by pressing the right softkey two times.

BTW, it's also here that you may want to change "Ask first time" to "Always allowed" of "Connectivity" and "Network access" so that, after loading, you aren't nagged for network access permission at all.

3. As far as Windows Mobile is concerned, there is another, new version of Jbed 3.1, this time allowing for being installed on a storage card without any hacking (and, of course, it keeps all the other goodies: sound emulation, M3G etc.). I've very thoroughly tested it on both MS Smartphones and Pocket PC's (WM5 and WM6 alike, including even the latest WM6.1); it worked just great. It's available HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/092007MidletBible/Jbed.zip) for direct download. After decompressing the ZIP file, transfer the CAB file to your (WM5+) handset and execute it there.

Note that it doesn't create a link in Start Menu (not even when installed to the built-in storage); therefore, you'll need to manually create it. It's pretty simple: either copy (after, if you install Jbed on a storage card, changing "\Windows\jbed.exe" to "\Storage Card\Esmertec Java\jbed.exe" in it; if you're afraid of manually editing the file, I've created it for you; just right-click THIS (http://www.winmobiletech.com/092007MidletBible/Jbed%203.1%20-%20Storage%20Card.lnk) and select Download / Save) to \Windows\Start Menu\Programs (on a touchscreen-enabled Pocket PC) or \Windows\Start Menu (on a touchscreen-less MS Smartphone). On Pocket PC's, you can also go the usual way: go to the home directory (for example, \Storage Card\Esmertec Java), highlight jbed.exe, select Copy; go to the target directory (\Windows\Start Menu\Programs or any subdirectory of it) and select Edit / Paste Shortcut. Then, you may still want to rename the just-created .lnk file so that you can remove the "Shortcut to" prefix.

[Menneisyys]

The final version of Opera Mini 4.1, one of the best Web browsers available, has just been released; see THIS (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=232316) for more info. I’ll post a detailed multiplatform review in some days, after having used it for some time on all my three mobile operating systems.