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Opera Mini 4.1: FULL multiplatform tutorial & review

I don’t need to introduce Opera Mini for any serious mobile device user – it’s been one of the best browsers ever since the release of version 4.0 with all its goodies like favorite synchronization and full layout mode, the latter being excellent on (W)VGA Pocket PC’s and high-resolution Symbian devices like the Nokia E90. Note that I’ve written a review & full comparison to other browsers HERE – please DO read it if you don’t know what Opera Mini is or how it compares to other browsers, in which cases you might want to prefer it to native, fully-fledged browsers like Opera Mobile. Also, make sure you read my two Web Browsing Bibles, linked from the OM4 article, for additional info & comparisons. Finally, note that the linked article only discusses version 4.0; 4.1 is even better and more featureful.

The just-released 4.1 beta takes things even further and implements a lot of long asked-for functionalities. It’s REALLY worth upgrading; note that it can coexist with older versions (including 4.0) on the same handset. That is, if you, for some reason, find it useless, you can easily switch back to the older version without having to reinstall / reconfigure anything.

1.1 Availability; which version to go for?

Navigate to http://mini.opera.com/beta either with your phone’s WAP browser or, if you have Opera on your desktop, with it:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41DownloadPage.png

(mobile browser)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41DesktopOperaDL.png

(Opera on the desktop)

and select any of the upper three links. On the next screen,

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy1.png

just press the left softkey (Continue); then, unless you want to put it in a self-created category, just click OK while it’s on root:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy2.png

On the following dialog,

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy3.png

just press OK; do the same on the one that follows:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy4.png

The file will be compiled and you can start it right away by answering Yes on the final screen:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41Deploy6.png

After this, everything is done in the already-known way: accepting the license, pressing buttons for generating a pseudo-random sentence etc.

Note that the 4.1 beta page linked from operamini.com, http://www.operamini.com/beta/, doesn’t contain the signed versions, only the unsigned ones. Therefore, if you only have Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer on your desktop, make sure you download the file from inside your Web browser on your handheld. The only exception is BlackBerry, where there isn’t a separate version on the only-handheld or desktop Opera page; then, you can safely download the ZIP file from http://www.operamini.com/beta/ with any desktop browser and use the BB Desktop Manager to quickly install it on your BlackBerry.

If you have a Windows Mobile device with Jbed 3.1, any of the signed versions will do. Note that some people state you need to go for the all-certificate version; that’s not true with Jbed 3.1. Make sure you DO download a signed version and not the unsigned one so that you can easily (without any hacking) can get rid of the security prompts.

Note that, should you still not have Jbed 3.1, read the second section of THIS for more info & the download links.

1.2 What’s new?

1.2.1 Custom text input field

With the new URL input field, address autocompletion works just great:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41AddressAutocomplete.png

Note that

1, unlike with Opera Mobile 9.5 (and just like any other browser, including pre-9.5 versions of Opera Mobile), the titles of these pages aren’t displayed, only the URL’s

2, copy / paste doesn’t work. If you do need it (and you do have a compatible JVM – it’s only the non-recommended TAO that isn’t), you’ll need to switch to the regular, native JVM URL editor by pressing Delete (right softkey, shouldn’t you have a device with a built-in hardware back key like MS Smartphones) once and, then, go down to highlight "Insert Symbol":

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/om4insertsymblhighlight.png

Then, just press Action on it to get into the traditional URL input field, with the traditional menus.

3, textual input may be problematic on keyboards with combined numeric and alphabetical keys; for example, on the HTC Vox. In there, the numeric keys will always be considered as keypad numeric buttons; that is, they’ll input a for 1, d for button 2 etc. However, as they’re treated EXACTLY the same way as keypad buttons, you can still input any character or (with long-pressing) number with them. You’ll need to know the latter for numeric input with devices that have a separate numeric row (like the HTC Universal).

4, the Input Address field being new also results in the old system-level browser invocation script not working any more. To fix this,

either switch off the new direct input by just unticking the, by default, enabled "Direct address input" checkbox in Tools / Settings:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41disabledirinut.png

or, alternatively, go for a modification of the current script version available HERE. (Incidentally, note that, now, there’s a full C++ implementation of the invocation script HERE. It’s still not compatible with 4.1 unless you untick "Direct address input" as explained above.)

1.2.2 Signing

First in Opera Mini’s lifetime, it comes signed. What does this mean? When deployed under a capable, compatible JVM (for example, Jbed 3.1), it’ll, upon trying to access the Net / the local file system for saving pages / downloading / uploading files, it’ll prompt you for permission:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PermissPrompt1.png

(reading the file system)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PermissPrompt1W.png

(writing the file system)

In there, you’ll notice a (compared to the unsigned case) new "always, don’t ask again" menu item (I’ve highlighted it in the following screenshot):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PermissPrompt2.png

Make sure you do select this before pressing OK. This will make sure you won’t ever need to answer this question any more.

Upon trying to saving pages, it even prompts you to switch to the signed version, should you still have a non-signed one:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PromptForSignedVersion.png

The link indeed takes you to a tutorial:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PromptForSignedVersion2.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PromptForSignedVersion3.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/042008OM41/OM41PromptForSignedVersion4.png

(as can clearly be seen, there is not a single word on Windows Mobile. Note that the tutorial is also directly available HERE)