5 things I would like to see in Opera Mini
By Stefan Constantinescu on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 12:14 PM PST In Applications, Java
About 2 weeks ago Daniel Goldman, a Technical Evangelist at Opera Software, sent me an email asking for input on Opera’s next version of their Opera Mini client. He must have liked my review since I came to the conclusion that there is no reason why anyone with a data plan on a phone with a high enough resolution screen should not be using this application.
Since he sent me that email a lot has happened. I moved to Finland. Nokia gave me a tour of their headquarters in Espoo and a N95 as a gift. I purchased a prepaid SIM card that (obviously) has no unlimited data. My Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 9300 that worked horribly in America due to lack of 850 MHz support works absolutely great here in Europe and I use that as my main device with my N95 in my other pocket being used for photo taking and GPS on those days when I get horribly lost.
In the 2 weeks since Daniel shot me that email I’ve fallen in love with Opera Mini more if that is even possible. When you’re paying .70 Euros per megabyte the ability to turn off images and have server side compression is absolutely great. I can switch to a non prepaid provider and I will, but only when my SIM card runs out of credit. With free incoming calls and SMS, something that is apparently common in Europe and Asia yet is unheard of in the USA, it will be another month at the rate I’m going.
Opera Mini being a Java application works on just about any mobile phone released in the past few years. It works wonderfully on my 640 pixel wise 9300, but I would like to see some things:
1. The smallest font isn’t small enough. This rant was inspired by the E90 carrying guy behind the Tao of Mac Blog. Now I’m young and my eyesight is fantastic, I even have these exercises where I put a finger several inches in front of my face and see how fast I can focus on my finger and then the wall; repeat this several times. It will make those long sessions in front of a computer go by much easier. I want the smallest font in Opera Mini to become even smaller.
2. If a URL is sent to me via SMS, please let me able to click on it and have Opera Mini open it up. I know this will probably never happen since this is dependent on what operating system the phone you’re using is running and how the associations are set inside. A man can dream can’t he?
3. Bookmarks that are 2 way. If I see a long article or blog post I want to read on my PC and know I have to commute I will often send myself an SMS using AIM with a link so I can check it out on my mobile device. Likewise, if I stumble across a really interesting article on my phone that I don’t want to read and prefer to check it out when I come home I would like to simply logon a website (Delicious since you guys are partnered with Yahoo) and see the link there.
4. Auto update. I don’t want to check for new versions, ever. I hate doing it, yet it is something I’ve grown to accept in the software industry.
5. Stop asking me if I want to connect and which access point to use! This is again an operating system dependent thing and I doubt it will be fixed, ever. Shame.
6. Let me save a website. I can’t count the number of times I went to Wikitravel’s Helsinki site for a point of reference on my new city, why can’t I just save it to my phone? Now I remember, you can’t access my file system. Rats.
That is my list. What is yours? People who I would like to hear discuss Opera Mini: Darla Mack, Steve Litchfield (and/or Rafe Blandford), Ricky Cadden and any other blogger out there who wants to contribute. Use this link as a trackback so the guys at Opera can listen to your ideas.
(yes I know I submitted 6 ideas and not 5, I can count)
Biggest thing I miss is copy/paste: I would buy the browser if it had that functionality because there are no browsers with that functionality for s60.
I wrote about something similar a few months ago. I use the S60 browser extensively, so my post was directed at improving its functionality, but I don’t see why it can’t be useful for Opera mini as well.
Link: http://technoblabber.abhishta.net/2007/02/17/improving-the-nokia-browser/
And add this post to the list of suggestions as well. Its about bookmarking in S60 browsers.
http://technoblabber.abhishta.net/2007/07/28/speed-dials-for-web-browsing-on-multimedia-computers/
As to #2: as far as I remember, URLs embedded in an SMS cannot be opened by another app than the default browser. This is wired into Messaging application that opens up for reading SMSs.
As to #5: afaik even Java (ME) makes it possible to pre-select an Access Point without forcing the user to do so. I agree that this behavior is very annoying, hope that guys at Opera can fix it.
As to #6: this an odd weakness of JME if it happens to be true that we can’t access the file system, even a sandboxed part of it. I’m pretty sure that persistence support, as such, does exist, however, it might not be the same as file system access. That is, although you can persist your data, not as efficiently as you could do it through direct file access.
Just a couple of random comments:
First, Opera Mini ROCKS!!! It’s my browser of choice on the N95…
Version 4 beta hasn’t made it into my every day life, but only because it’s still a bit unstable with regards to screen redraws… And, the font (I agree that it’s too large, larger than on V3).
Symbian will allow you to set a default access point for J2ME applications. You find the settings in the Application Manager. A caveat is that once you have set a default access point, and you aren’t in a place where that access point exists, Opera Mini will just give you a connection error… (Once again, the Symbian 9.1/S60v3 connection/internet stack shows how “dumb’ it is… The idea that you can’t have a hierarchy of connections, so that if 1 = no, move to connection 2, is just pathetic… It can’t be that hard to get something like that to work. *Rant Over)
But hey, at least it gets rid of one click, if you’re not in the habbit of using wifi+gprs.
Ok that’s it, sorry so long,
Phono
A default access point for J2Me would be great, but can’t see this option on my N95 8gb?