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App Review: Opera Mini 4
When I decided to take the plunge and install my first application (”app”) on my 8130, I googled to find out what other BlackBerry owners considered was a “must have” app. Opera Mini™ 4 turned out to be perhaps the most highly recommended. Having developed web pages for years, I know that no single browser is perfect. When a web page doesn’t seem to be rendering or functioning correctly, it’s always good to try that same page under a different browser. Often, the page works/renders correctly, or at least better, under another browser.
However, when I visited the Opera Mini web site, and scanned the list of “supported” phones, it was implied that only the Pearl 8100, not the 8130, was supported, and Verizon not at all. I later discovered that “not supported” means “not yet fully tested by Opera Software ASA and verified to fully work correctly.” So, I decided to do as much of that testing as possible on my own. Here’s what I found…
First the download and installation went flawlessly–always a good sign! I used my phone’s BlackBerry Browser to go to http://mini.opera.com/ and followed the directions.
The Start Page…
Here’s how Opera Mini opens up:
From the Start Page, you can:
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Enter a URL
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Select a Search engine
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Go to Bookmarks
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Go to RSS Feeds
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Select a “Speed Dial” link (more on this later)
Go to a web address…
To enter a URL, Opera Mini takes you to what looks like a full-screen editor where you can use either SureType® or MultiTap as your typing method. After entering the address, you use the Menu (BlackBerry) key to select OK.
Bookmarks…
Let’s back up and see what else you can do from the Start Page. For frequently visited pages, you can jump to a Bookmark. Here’s what the Bookmark page looks like:
Speed Dial…
From the Bookmarks page, you can jump to a page of “Speed Dial” links or you can choose from your list of Bookmarks. Speed Dial is a feature that allows you to program a URL to a numeric key for quick “dialing” to that page. For example, to select your first Speed Dial page, press the keys * and 1. From the Bookmarks page, the only reason you would enter this Speed Dial page is to Edit or Clear your Speed Dial choices (using the Menu key).
To set a Speed Dial to a page, while on that page, use the Menu key to do Add Bookmark. Scroll down to the Speed Dial box and use that to choose a Speed Dial number to program for that page. But first you probably want to do Fetch title and icon to have a nicer-looking link on a the page of links. [NOTE: On some pages it seems I could not fetch the icon. This may be a bug--not sure.] After all that, use the Menu key to Save.
Shortcuts…
I just discovered that, if while I’m on any page, I press * and pause, I get an overlaid menu of all my Speed Dial settings. Next, I can press the digit for the Speed Dial page I want. Nice for those of us with poor memories. Also, if I press # and pause, I get an overlay of a similar menu. Together these are known as Shortcuts:
RSS Feeds…
Again, let’s back up to the Start Page, and look at Feeds. As seen below, there are two “views:” by feed and by time. View by feed provides links to a list of articles for each feed. View by time gives a long list of articles in order from newest to oldest regardless of the feed.
Manage feeds lets you edit (pencil icon) or delete feeds (trash can icon). Editing a feed allows you to change a feed’s title.
On Any Web Page…
Let’s move away from the Start Page to any arbitrary web page and see what we find. When you first leave the Start Page (which isn’t really a web page) to access the web for the first time (since opening the browser), you get a warning that may puzzle you. You can answer Yes and not worry about it (and skip to the next paragraph). If you care to know what the warning is about, it’s because Opera normally fetches all your web page requests through an Opera-managed proxy server. The role of this proxy server is to transform the normal web page into a special code that Opera Mini can understand, and to reformat the page to fit on a small screen. You really don’t need to understand all that, but I suppose the Opera folks just wanted to be open about the fact that data you’re sending and receiving with your browser is taking an indirect route–not the one you specifically requested. There has been some controversy about what happens to supposedly-encrypted private data when it passes through this intermediate server. You can read more about all this on a Wikipedia page about Opera Mini.
Here’s what the home page of MySpace looks like under Opera Mini. Notice the small menu at the bottom of the screen. That menu holds there (with a flickering border) while the page is rendering giving you a way to Stop the page load or even Exit the browser if you don’t want to wait for the page to finish loading. After the page is loaded, you must press the Escape key to close the menu, or do Select if you want to activate the link where the cursor is resting (Select makes more sense in another view, described later). Also, while a page is loading, you can use the Escape and Menu keys to turn that same menu off or on, respectively.
Some things you can do on a page:
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Press * * to toggle on/off the title bar at the top of the screen. Personally, I’d rather sacrifice a tiny bit of screen space to have the page title there to remind me where I am.
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Scroll up(2)/down(8)/left(4)/right(6) using the keypad (see keypad diagram above).
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Of course, you can scroll using the trackball.
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IMPORTANT: I discovered that if you hold down a scroll key long enough, it will scroll slowly for a moment, then faster, then jump all the way to the end of that direction. For really long pages, this is the only reasonable way of navigating to the top or bottom of a page. You don’t want to use the trackball for that.
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Pressing * # is supposed to toggle the view between portrait and landscape (widescreen) views. This doesn’t seem to work for me–might be a bug.
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The Escape key serves as the browser Back button (unless a menu is open, then it closes the menu). I haven’t found a single keystroke that serves as a browser Forward button.
Mobile View and Desktop View…
Below are four more page examples. So far, examples have been in what is called the “Mobile View” (or small screen rendering mode). Let’s move on to the “Desktop View” (or desktop rendering mode)…
There are a couple of ways you can switch between Mobile View and Desktop View. The easiest is to press the 1 key. There, you can check/uncheck the Mobile View setting:
In Desktop View, now a couple of things described earlier make more sense. Using the 4 and 6 keys to scroll left and right are effective in this view. Now, when the small menu with Select / Stop / Exit comes up, Select allows you to zoom in on the portion of the page selected by the little square window that moves with your trackball or scroll keys. If that menu is closed, then clicking the trackball activates the zoom.
Below we see a Desktop View on the left. When clicked the browser zooms into Mobile View of the area selected.
Also available on the menu invoked by pressing the 1 key is an option to display page information, and a method of opening a page with or without images.
Browser History…
On any page, pressing the Menu key gives you a menu with numerous options, most of which are self-explanatory. Below on the right are the History links.
Browser Settings…
The aforementioned menu also allows you to change some browser Settings. Below are two screenshots showing all the Settings that are available. Of particular interest is the Network Protocol setting whose options are “HTTP” and “Socket.” Setting the protocol to Socket is supposed to provide faster page loads (keeps socket open between clicks), but the HTTP option is recommended if you encounter problems. I’ve tried both (mostly Socket) and I’m not sure I could tell that much difference.
Custom Search…
Now, say you do a lot of searches on a site such as Wikipedia. How would you like to add that to your list of Search Engines? Well, you can! To create a custom search for any web page that has a search field, go to that page and select the search field. As with any input, you are taken into a text editor. Press the Menu key and select Create Search… .
Select Fetch title and icon… (nothing much seems to happen), then press the Menu key, and select Save. Voilà, you have a new custom search in your Start Page’s list of search engines.
Conclusion…
Well, I know there are some features that I skipped, and undoubtedly some I haven’t yet discovered. But I hope that gives you a pretty good idea of what Opera Mini offers on your 8130. My conclusions:
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Opera Mini is an excellent browser overall
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Opera Mini is rich with features, all of which seem to work on the 8130 (with the possible exception of a minor bug or two)
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I highly recommend it
Do I prefer it to the BlackBerry Browser? No, I can’t really say that. As long as I have enough memory for all the applications I want, I want to keep both. Very recently I discovered that the BlackBerry Browser can play YouTube Mobile 3GP videos, but Opera Mini cannot. I will probably find some things that Opera Mini can do that the BlackBerry Browser cannot. Like I said at the beginning, my past experience says you need more than one browser to be safe.
Thanks to Opera Software ASA for supporting mobile devices with such excellent browsers! And especially for supporting (officially or not) the 8130.
31 comments on this post
The landscape view only works a select few models, unfortunately. Blackberry is mentioned specifically as not supporting the landscape view. I would love to see it on my phone as well.
I’m thinking of buying a TELUS CDMA BB Pearl 8130 but I was wondering:
With the tests you did can you confirm that I will be able to acces my Hotmail Calendar with mostly all the functions I would on regular web surfing on my PC ??
(ex: view past & futur events, add futur events, etc)
Thank’s for your knowledge!
@Peter,
I don’t use Hotmail or its calendar, but you can test it yourself using this simulator: http://www.operamini.com/demo/?url=http%3A//www.hotmail.com
You might need to fumble around with the simulated handset until you figure out how Opera Mini works, but if you stick with it, you should be able to tell if it works with Hotmail to your satisfaction. It can help future readers if you return and post your findings here. Thanks in advance!
Kelly
Hello again and thank’s for the info!
Actually, I had found and tried that simulator before and it does seem to acces the hotmail calendar perfectly…
But my concerns were that most blogs state that Opera Mini 4 does not work on the 8130 TELUS CDMA models because of DNS ans IP issues.
That said, you’ve seem to have got it working on a CDMA 8130 and so I wanted to find out for sure (no simulator) if
#1 I could get it to work on mine and how? than…
#2 once functional did it react exactly like the simulator… ?
Your feedback and quick responses are Greatly appreciated!
Peter
Peter,
I’m very late replying to your questions–somehow I overlooked your 2nd comment. I don’t have an answer, however, about TELUS. I just emailed one of my TELUS users to ask what he knows.
Kelly
Hi Kelly, I downloaded mini opera for my Blackberry 8130 and it was running fine, however now whever I try to log into any page it says “The application operette $2dhifi has attempted to open an iternal connection” I click ok then I get this error ” Failed to connect to the internet. Java.Lang.SecurityException:Permission denied”
Can you help me? I do not have any problems when browsing using the blackberry browser but I would like to use mini opera again.
Thanks alot!
Antonia,
Welcome back. I would try deleting entirely the Opera Mini app then do download/install again. Make sure when you do the download, if it asks about “setting permission,” check the box that allows Opera Mini to set the permissions it needs within your phone to access the Internet. I’ll bet that got messed up somehow, or worse. Reinstalling it should fix it. Let me know.
Kelly
P.S.–To delete, you can use your Desktop Manager’s Application Loader. Or you can use the phone itself to do Options > Advanced Options > Applications, then scroll to Opera Mini, and do Menu Key > Delete.
Great review. I’ve been playing around with it for a day or two but I prefer the BB browser since the shortcuts for “.” and “/” are so much easier. Makes my typing urls much faster! is there an opera shortcut for these that I’m missing?
Chris,
As cool as Opera is, I prefer the BlackBerry Browser, too. And you’re right, the shortcuts for “.” and “/” are so useful. I do NOT know of a way to do that in Opera Mini. It would be smart to add that feature to Opera in a future release.
Thanks for your comment.
Kelly
Kelly,
Great information on Opera Mini 4. I’ve been trying to install it on my daughter’s new Pearl from Verizon but it keeps saying it doesn’t have sufficient memory for the application. Can you help?
I’m also thinking of getting a 8830 (or hopefully BB Curve) from Verizon for myself. Should Opera Mini 4 work on those as well?
Thanks for your great blog. It should has alot of useful information.
Cary
Cary,
There are probably a number of things you can delete from your daughter’s Pearl to free up room for Opera. If you haven’t already, DEFINITELY delete the sample video. It’s several times larger than Opera. You can also remove support for foreign languages. You can do the above using the Desktop Manager’s Application Loader. If you’ve never used that, you might want to first read my post about problems I had with that. You may also want to read the post about memory problems. Let me know how it works out.
Kelly
Do you know if you can set Opera to be the default browser?
BTW: Found your blog when I bought my 8130 back in January. Thanks for all the info!
Rob,
I don’t know of a way to change the default browser, but I have looked.
If you’ve been a reader since WAY back in January, you’ve been around a long time in the life of this blog. It had a pretty big surge in popularity at the beginning of February and has been holding pretty steady for two months.
Keep coming back!
Kelly
Rob,
When Opera Mini attempts to install on my BlackBerry Pearl 8120, I get this:
“The application operette$2dhifi has attempted to open a connection to a location inside the firewall and outside the firewall which is not allowed by your IT policy”
I get several times this message and I click “OK” always. Eventually Opera Mini manages to install on my BlackBerry; however when attempting to connect to Internet, the browser shows this:
Failed to Connect to the Internet
Go to http://www.operamini.com/help?version=4.0 with your desktop browser or contact your service provider for internet settings.
Juan
Juan Lemus,
Is your BlackBerry under the control of a corporate IT administrator with the use of BlackBerry Enterprise Server? I assume so since there seems to be an IT policy in place on your BlackBerry. If so, you need to get help from your IT administrator. If not so, you need to find a way to remove the IT policy. I don’t know how to do that right now. Let me know what your situation is.
Kelly
Kelly,
I’m sorry on my previous post I wrote Rob!
Now I can connect to the Internet using Opera Mini. I just neeed my complete TCP settings (APN, username and password). Thanks for your reply.
Now I haver another question. Either BB 8120 or 8130 supports WIFI connection. However, when connecting on the Internet using Opera, am I navigating over WIFI or WAP?
Juan
Juan,
My 8130 doesn’t support WiFi. I’ve read that a WiFi-capable 8120 has been released. Are you sure you have one of those? Assuming you do, you could connect to the Internet via WiFi or cellular network. I’m not familiar with Pearl operation over WiFi. Sorry.
Kelly
Kelly,
I have a Pearl 8120 which indeed supports WiFi.
It seems Opera connects through over GPRS because 8130 Pearl users may connect to the Internet.
Anyway, thank for your guidance and replies.
Juan
Kelly,
I use the 8130 and I am having issues with opera mini 4.1
i installed it with your specifications (checked application permissions) now it loads and i get the homepage,
i can go to any of the default links, but navigating to any other page gets me the “failed to connect to the internet” error, at the bottom of the failed page, there is a “click here to start the connection test”, which comes up saying “you have a working network connection”
im at a lost, ive downloaded, installed, uninstalled every version and nothing has changed.
I have used mini 4 previously with out a problem. i installed 4.1 Beta next to it and since then neither work. i uninstalled both, reinstalled 4.1 Final and still the same.
thank for your time
Ben,
I haven’t yet played with 4.1. In fact, I’ve temporarily uninstalled Opera Mini altogether to make room for some other apps I wanted to play with.
Is your BlackBerry Browser working to show that you can at least connect to the Internet and open web pages?
Do you have any assurance that Opera Mini 4.1 works for ANYBODY on an 8130? I remember not too long ago 4.0 was stated as “not supported,” even though it mostly worked for me. The Opera people said “not supported” sometimes means “not yet tested.”
If I get time soon, I’ll try installing in my 8130 and let you know what happened. You might want to remind me in a week or so if you don’t hear from me: kellydcarterATyahoo.com.
Kelly
the Bberry broswer does work fine, althgouh you might be on to something regarding support.
the assumption is that since the 8130 is running the most recent software version it would, but i did have issues downloading it. the uploader says 4.0 cant be installed and i cant get 4.1 from the bberry browser.
i got the generic jad file installed.
i will drop them a line regarding support.
thanks for the speedy response.
Ben,
I just downloaded and installed Opera Mini 4.1–and it seems to work fine. Choices I made along the way were: set permissions; do NOT download to SD card; trust certificate. What has your luck been like?
Kelly
i retried it this morning with the US version rather than the international one and same thing.
mind you i am doing the PC version since i cannot get the link for the OTA. from the cell i go to download, phone, blackberry, 8100 and it tells me to go to the same page im already at mini.opera or miniopera or operamini.
ive tried converting the bberry internet browser to wap, same thing, ive cleared the cookies and cache.
i havent found a link to email opera, and so posted on their boards. 22 views no replys
can i ask you for your application settings?
thanks in advance
Ben,
I’m going to email you screenshots of numerous settings that might be relevant.
Kelly
there wasnt anything posted…?
Ben,
I started to post the screenshots in the comment box but it was too clumsy, so I decided to email them instead.
How I got to the OTA link for Opera Mini 4.1 was this: Using BlackBerry Browser, I did “Go to…” http://operamini.com. However it seemed to redirect to http://mini.opera.com. It took me directly to a page with a download link (with a message stating, “Your phone model could not be detected. Please try to install this version: Download Opera Mini! (US English, No signature)).
Kelly
found the issue.
I spoke with a technicial with my carrier, and it turns out there was something in the service book related to the WAP2 which was blocking it. RIM is aware and will be fixed when 4.5 becomes available for the 8130.
I deleted the serivce and im all good now. thank you very much for your help, without it, i would still be looking. after checking with you, i know it couldnt have been my error, and it lead me to check with my carrier.
many thanks!!
Ben,
Sometimes it takes a process of elimination to find a bug. I keep hearing 4.5 will be here any day (since April). Stay in touch.
Kelly
Great info, but for some reason everytime i try downloading the program it says download failed. Im new to blackberry, is there something that im missing?
myra,
I know there is a new version of Opera out but I don’t think that’s the problem. I’m wondering if you don’t have enough memory space to download the program. Would you do Options > Status, and read the number for File Free? If it’s not a really large number (in the millions), read this article and see if you can’t free up some memory: http://blackberry8130.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/text-messages-email-call-logs-disappearing-insufficient-application-space-keep-getting-a-tumbling-hourglass/.
Be aware that if you have downloaded a number of themes, they take up lots of memory. Delete any you don’t use.
Come back and let me know how it went.
Kelly
Kelly,
Thanks for the info and all your articles are very helpful. Being a new Blackberry customer I of course called VZW tech support asking why everything was starting to disappear. She simply told me to clear my event log. That also seems to help out the problem. I guess my next move is get more memory. I just wish they would tell you these things when you purchase the phone or just include the memory card along w/ the bundle. We’re going to need it anyways.
Thanks for the help. This page has official been saved to my fav’s list as back up