Opera Mini for Blackberry is a MUST-HAVE!
I’ll rightfully admit that I spend a lot of time on the internet. The vast majority of my time surfing is pretty traditional via a computer and browser, but more and more I’ve found myself using non-standard devices like the iPod touch, as well as my Blackberry Curve. Surfing on the iPod is by far a superior experience, especially compared to the built in browser on the Blackberry. That was, up until I found out about Opera Mini for the Blackberry. After a quick install, my trusty Blackberry bounced light years ahead in terms of browsing capabilities.
Opera Mini has a number of features that really help the overall mobile browsing experience.
- Easily switch between landscape and portrait mode
- Preview and scale full pages with the option to switch between mobile and traditional rendering engines
- Aggressive page compression to help reduce bandwidth usage and increase performance
- Blackberry native menus and the option to control a mouse with the scroll wheel
- Vastly improved page and font rendering in order to make pages much more readable
The install is quick and easy. Just head over to operamini.com/download/. If you hit the page on your Blackberry it’ll automatically detect the right version to download, otherwise you can browse to the site on a normal computer in order to check out all the combinations of supported devices. Opera Mini not only works well on a Blackberry, but it appears to be supported on a huge array of mobile devices.
As of now, Opera Mini is my new default web browser on my Blackberry.
Sorry, looks like garbage on a Blackberry 8800, and they still don’t permit in-form edits of text. Still bounces you out to a separate window. They still have some work to do on it.
Compared to the stock BB browser I still say it’s an improvement. It’s definitely not up to par with Mobile Safari, but it’s going in the right direction.
It’s really great to hear that Opera Mini is treating you well.
Turtle, Opera Mini is a ‘mini’ browser that works with a server on the back-end. All webpages go through the Opera Mini server and are pre-processed and compressed before sending it to the phone. As a result, in-form edits need to be opened in a new page (since they must first be processed by the back-end server).
Daniel
Opera Software
Thanks Daniel… I figured there was a reason for the new pages on form entry. I’ve been using Opera Mini for a couple of days now and am starting to get used to the overall user experience… hopefully it keeps on evolving.
andreg, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email with any questions.
I went to my work website on Opera Mini installed on my Blackberry. it require the company assigned user id and their password. I can’t get past this point to sign onto to website. I input the correct password and I just go back to same screen saying to input user id and password.
can you help,
sharon reedy
I agree, Opera mini is a must! It allows real web browsing from your handset! Great Article!