Opera Mini 3.0 Now Available

E IS mC(Square) writes "Opera Mini 3.0 is out of beta. The feature list includes RSS integration, a user-interface geared towards mobile devices and small screen size, and it's fast for relatively slower mobile data connections (with picture upload/sharing if you are into it). Requirement for using it: You must have a phone capable of running Java mobile applications and are using an Internet connection (officially supported devices are listed)."

Comments

Opera 3 on a Treo 700p is HORRIBLE

[Zelet]

Do not attempt to use this version with the Treo 700p. The previous version of Opera Mini worked fine on my Treo but this version crashes the phone repeatedly when I try to use it.

Re:Opera 3 on a Treo 700p is HORRIBLE

[pruss]

Ditto on the Palm TX. It's looking like they couldn't have tested on any Palm devices (or maybe any NVFS-based ones), because I have yet to hear of it working with some Palm device.

Re:Opera 3 on a Treo 700p is HORRIBLE

[blackmonday]

Not a troll. My Verizon 650 crashes every time I start the program. It's on the supported list, oh well...It did manage to do an initial config, but now it just causes the phone to reboot.

Re:Possible for older low resource machines

[jb.hl.com]

You might as well just run Opera proper...or maybe an old version of it. Opera is pretty light as it is.

Poor stability

[diamondsw]

While I used Opera Mini 2.0 on my Treo and found it worked very well, the new version 3.0 crashes constantly (which, thanks to the lack of memory protection on the Palm, resets it). Reinstalled the JVM, Opera Mini, etc - no better. Downgraded to 2.0 and all was fine.

Might want to wait for some bug fixes (although Opera doesn't generally push .01 updates to its "Mini" product).

Same here on Treo 650

[vio]

Same problem here, big crashes on Treo650 :-(

Might be that my JVM is old (IBM JVM 2.2.012?) guess I'll see about updating it... older Opera Mini worked ok.

Re:Possible for older low resource machines

[El Cubano]

Opera is pretty light as it is.

Yes, but Opera proper is not optimized for small screens. I know that there is a bit of a difference between a handheld device and even a 13" CRT. However, most programs today look absolutely terrible on anything less than a 17" or 19" monitor. I know, because most of the computers at my church still have old 14" CRTs, and many programs are just barely functional at any resolution that is still readable on such a small screen.

Very impressive...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is an awesome little app. I was never able to load myphonefiles.com on any of the phones and this Opera applet displays it without a problem, even the most complicated pages with inner frames. Very impressive...

Re:OTA Install?

[mottie]

If you visit http://www.operamini.com/ on your blackberry it automatically detects your device type and gives you a download option. It recommended Opera Mini - International for me, but it was easy to switch that to Opera Mini - US.

Mini vs. Mobile vs. Desktop - For the Record

[Kelson]

Since invariably someone gets these mixed up, there are three main browser types that Opera produces:

Opera Desktop - this is the full-up web browser that you can use on Widows, Mac or Linux (plus a few other Unixes)

Opera Mobile - this uses the same rendering engine, but runs on smaller devices like PDAs and some phones. The DS and Wii browsers are probably based on this version.

Opera Mini - this is the Java-based app that runs on virtually any JVM-capable phone and does a lot of the processing on a proxy server.

Java

[fimbulvetr]

I love it that java guys say java is so fast, small and lean on mobile devices, yet Mysaifu requires 11mb to install on my 6700 and ibm j9 needs 50+mb. Small, my ass. Don't get me started on speed.

For those needing the jvm for this or similiar devices, get one here:

http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~dat/java/project/jvm/d ownload_en.html
or
search ibm.com for WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment (You need to register to download)

And Fit to width mode

[Kelson]

Opera 9 also introduced Fit to width mode: CTRL+F11. It's similar, but adjusts pages to your window size rather than to ~200px across and would be more suitable for 640x480 or 800x600 screens.

Couple it with Full Screen mode (F11), and you can even hide all the toolbars, menus, borders, etc.

I see the moderators are smoking crack again

[ncc74656]

In what bizarro world is the parent poster a troll? Once it did its setup thing on my Treo 650, it rebooted. More often than not, it reboots the phone as soon as you try to start it. If you do manage to get it running, it reboots as soon as it actually tries to display something from a website. Last time I checked, displaying stuff from websites was the primary function of a web browser.

After deleting the copy I had installed in the phone's memory, I tried running it from an SD card. It behaved the same way there. Grr.

I should've saved the previous version before installing this one, but I rarely used it. Blazer was more functional and easier to use for most things. For updating my On Tap in Vegas page when out and about, I found that Links running in an SSH session would work.

Re:Possible for older low resource machines

[IndigoParadox]

The problem is the lack of support for even the most basic of current web technologies, such as XHTML or CSS. Try visiting even Google using an old copy of IE4 and you'll get script errors. I Pentium 75 laptop with Windows 95 and it's difficult to find a browser that does support modern web pages for such a platform.

Opera Mini != spyware ?

[Nicolay77]

They have to use a proxy because they run the rendering engine in their servers in order to send a small and handheld friendly page to your device.

As most cell phone companies bill you by the kilobyte, this results in HUGE savings there. Do you see the point?

And no, Opera Mini is not spyware.