Opera Releases Opera Mini Browser

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, January 24, 2006 10:39:21 AM

Opera Software today announced the worldwide release of Opera Mini, the full Web browser that runs on almost every mobile phone, including Palm OS handhelds and Treo smartphones. Opera Mini is available free of charge via a over the air WAP download, or for a small fee via SMS.

Opera Mini for the Palm OSInstalling Opera Mini is as simple as downloading a ringtone or a game. You simply send an SMS or direct your phone's WAP browser to http://mini.opera.com. Opera Mini for Palm OS requires you have the Palm Java Micro Environment installed. More details on the Palm OS version are available here.

Opera Mini compresses Web pages by up to 80% and reformats them using Small-Screen Rendering for easy and fast browsing on small, mobile screens. For the end-user, this means faster browsing and dramatically reduced phone bills for those who pay per KB in data traffic.

Opera Mini's start page features a Google search box for quick access to Web search. And the customizable bookmark list makes it easy to save and surf your favorite sites.

The first trial of Opera Mini was launched in Norway in August 2005, and Michael Gartenberg, VP & Research Director of Jupiter Research, called the little, but powerful, browser "a really big breakthrough for the mobile space."

Opera Mini is available in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish. More languages will be available shortly.

Thanks to PalmAddicts for the tip.

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T3 issues

rasty @ 1/24/2006 2:25:17 PM # Q
Won't run properly on my T3, will crash anytime I try to input data.. just FYI

RE: T3 issues
bluefish @ 1/24/2006 3:14:58 PM # Q
I assume that it will run on a T5, the wording is ambiguous.
I did just try it anyway, and all I get is amessage telling me to install Java which is actually already installed.

Andy

RE: T3 issues
Admin @ 1/24/2006 8:56:33 PM # Q
there is a tutorial here on getting opera mini to work on a T3

http://tinyurl.com/dhhln

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Ran fine on my T3

Stranger @ 1/24/2006 3:23:30 PM # Q
Did you update to the latest IBM Java VM? I still prefer the Palm WebPro over opera actually.
RE: Ran fine on my T3
bluefish @ 1/24/2006 3:26:36 PM # Q
Thanks Stranger, I followed the link from the Opera page, so I think thay is most recent!
Andy
RE: Ran fine on my T3
bluefish @ 1/24/2006 3:28:19 PM # Q
And maybe I won't triple post!!!
RE: Ran fine on my T3
Kesh @ 1/24/2006 6:42:25 PM # Q
Worked beautifully on my Lifedrive. The interface is a bit odd, since it's Java instead of a native PalmOS app, but it runs fairly well.

Reply to this comment

Java sucks

just_little_me @ 1/24/2006 6:09:43 PM # Q
I remember why I hate Java on Palm OS so much - it doesn't frickin work.

Installed all the bits from the Palm JVM site: http://www.palm.com/us/support/jvm/download.html

Those bits being J9JavaVMMidp20.prc and JavaVMCheck_enUS.prc per the instructions.

Installed the Opera browser from their site.

Try to run Opera and get:

This Java program cannot be run. Please ensure that the required class library Palm Midp20_22 is installed

Oh, and where would that little bucket of bits be?

Same message when tapping the IBM Java icon, and same when trying to select IBM Java VM in Prefs app...

Sheesh.


JLM.

RE: Java sucks
Admin @ 1/24/2006 7:44:21 PM # Q
what device are you using?
RE: Java sucks
just_little_me @ 1/26/2006 5:22:45 PM # Q
Treo 650


JLM.

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Great, but having problems.....

zadillo @ 1/24/2006 10:16:21 PM # Q
Just installed this, and have to say that I am really impressed so far. I have a Treo 650 with Cingular. This seems to be much faster than Blazer, and it seems to strike a nice balance between displaying the page in its original form while formatting it so that it's still easy to read.

However, I am having some serious stability problems with it. I have been going through and adding bookmarks, etc. and now have a couple of dozen bookmarks. I don't know if it's related or not, but it seems to have become more unstable the more I've done this. It seems like I can only load up a page or two before it completely crashes and resets my Palm. Also strange, after the reset, I have to recalibrate my screen.

I've tried playing around with the IBM JVM settings (increasing the maximum memory and java threads, but it doesn't seem to make a difference).

Anyone have any ideas? Generally speaking I really love the Opera browser, and I'd love to find a way to get around these stability issues so that I can use it stabily. I'm going to try reinstalling it and not using so many bookmarks, but I'm not sure if that's the sole problem or not.

RE: Great, but having problems.....
zadillo @ 1/24/2006 10:30:19 PM # Q
Actually, I just noticed that they listed "occasionally rebooting" of the phone as a "known issue". I hope they can get that worked out. Outside of that problem, I really do like this as a browser. I've come to really only use Blazer just for stuff that is essentially WAP-formatted, etc.... everything else just takes too long and is a pain to browse through. If they can get the stability issues worked out, I would really love to switch to Opera full time.

RE: Great, but having problems.....
joad @ 1/25/2006 1:25:32 AM # Q
I love the speed and display, but 2 issues really bother me:

1) Navigating on some sites result in the browser getting confused about where it is - serves up the wrong page (a previous one from cache)! Only way out seems to be exit the program and go back in.

2) Stylus intensive. Using the 5-way navigator results in it skipping over 1 or 2 hyperlinks very randomly.

Opera is a good backup browser to have, especially with all the "out of memory" problems of Blazer (4MB+ free and it doesn't have enough memory to bring down a 128KB page?!?). But I agree with the previous poster that there are serious issues with Java on the Palm/Treo, not the least is the massive (mandatory) footprint of RAM in a device with nearly none to begin with. No matter what Palm tells you, running Java and many other applications off the SD card isn't viable.

RE: Great, but having problems.....
K. Cannon @ 1/25/2006 10:50:36 AM # Q
Is there a .prc file? I am stuck at work with no wireless for my TX. Thanks.
KC

Never mind
K. Cannon @ 1/25/2006 11:23:00 AM # Q
I found it. See http://www.permuted.org.uk for more info. Basically, the Treo 650 phone uses a prc on the Opera site.

RE: Great, but having problems.....
grahamnind @ 1/25/2006 2:18:50 PM # Q
Stick with it. I love this browser. Been using it on a T3 for a few months now. Sure it crashes from time to time (I estimate about every 20 pages on my system), but it doesn't take long to restart the Palm. In spite of the crashes I reckon it has saved me hours, because I no longer have to wait for WebPro to format pages.

RE: Great, but having problems.....
zadillo @ 1/26/2006 3:16:03 PM # Q
I am thinking that the frequency of the crashes I get now must have to do with all of the bookmarks I added. Does anyone know how to completely uninstall and reinstall Opera Mini? I had deleted the Opera icon and related files, but it doesn't seem like it really deleted it (the icon is gone, but it still seems to be present...... I had assigned one of the Button Favorites to Opera and it is still there, and still runs).

I would definitely use it, and I think I could tolerate a crash every 20 pages or so, but right now with it crashing ever 1-2 pages, it's just too much (especially since I have to recalibrate the touchscreen after every reboot for some reason).

Would changing the JVM settings make a difference? I see that you can change the memory quite a bit, as well as the java thread size.

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where's the REAL Opera Browser?

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 1/25/2006 2:58:07 AM # Q
NetFront is currently the only decent PalmOS browser and it's (officially... heh heh heh) only available for CLIEs.


Why can't Opera release a REAL browser for PalmOS?


------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------

The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

RE: where's the REAL Opera Browser?
hkklife @ 1/25/2006 12:28:53 PM # Q
Greed, laziness, and arrogance....basically the same factors that have led/are leading Palm to the ultimate demise of the OS we know & love.



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

Reply to this comment

Works well on other devices too...

Altema @ 1/25/2006 11:52:10 AM # Q
Did not try it on my T3, as I like Web Pro, however it was a snap to install and use on my Siemens phone. I think it took longer to scroll through the EULA than it did to intall... :(

Reply to this comment

Opera Mini- The Register's take...

Surur @ 1/25/2006 6:26:32 PM # Q
Opera on Palm OS? Sort of...
With a little Java
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Published Tuesday 24th January 2006 22:06 GMT

Spare a thought for poor old Palm. Nokia has succeeded in convincing analysts, and portions of the press, that its $399 Linux Wi-Fi tablet, the Nokia 770, is "an entirely new device category". Even the Wall Street Journal said so.

But for a hundred dollars less, Palm will also sell you a Wi-Fi tablet, only one with a vast range of third-party applications, a built-in personal organizer and an MP3 player. The Palm OS has been powering Wi-Fi tablets for three years, of course, only the world calls them PDAs.

But the limitations of browsing on a Palm device have been all too obvious. The built-in Blazer browser is good for about two task switches before crashing the device - and that's if you can get it to start at all without hanging the PDA. The browser appears to be only vaguely aware of what to do with a local cache, and it only allows one page to be viewed at a time.

So Palm fans have long petitioned the champ of mobile browsers, Opera, to bring its sophisticated, multi-window browser to the Palm OS.

Now, in a very roundabout way, those wishes have been fulfilled.

Opera today opened its Java-based Mini browser to world+dog, and there's a version available for Palm OS. While Opera first released this last summer, it only did so on limited availability - you had to be in the right place (preferably Norway) with the right carrier. Now anyone can try it.

So what's it like?

To begin with you need IBM's WebSphere JavaVM, a free 1.7MB download. Then it's off to the races. Opera Mini dynamically resizes according to your screen size - a promising start. On loading a page, a large thick red bar at the bottom of the screen flashes annoyingly until the page is loaded. Fortunately that isn't too long, for Opera's proxy servers break up the pages into chunks - the New York Times' front page is split into four, for example.

The browser doesn't automatically restart a connection that Palm OS has suspended to save power, and gives up in some situations. And the lean and mean Mini aspect is negated somewhat by having to load the JVM into RAM. But for Palm diehards, it's another welcome option.

The Palm OS is now in the hands of Japanese browser company browser Access, so there's a possibility mobile browsing on Palm will improve. Then again, Access is on a fixed licence fee retainer for the next three years, whether its licensees use the Palm OS or not, which doesn't exactly give it an incentive.

What Palm fans really want to see is some indication that Palm OS 6 Cobalt - now being built on Linux underpinnings - will see the light of day. But that's anyone's guess. ®



They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

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