Mini Me on my Mini Opera

When I received the Samsung a920 one of the first applications I downloaded was Opera Mini. Its GUI looked a lot better than the default WAP browser. I’ve used Opera on my Windows, and Linux, as my main browser for years, so I’m rather spoiled. This first version was certainly stripped down compared to what I’m used to, but the bookmarks are easier to navigate than the default WAP browser and Google search is conveniently placed at the top of the home page.

When I heard there was a new Opera Mini I immediately wanted to update. From the phone I went to the Opera web site and after finding the the right file for my phone among the list, I clicked the Download button.

A prompt appeared: “Application Already Exists” – I didn’t need to retain the older version so I let it overwrite with 2.0 , then is asked, “Save data from your current version?” and I clicked YES because I wanted to keep my bookmarks and settings…

Opera Mini 2.0 is faster, and web pages are easier to navigate. There’s a better interpretation of what the web pages actually look like. When I click on large images there’s two actions I can perform. I can Download them, or I can Zoom them. The “Zoomed” page shows the image sliced up in smaller sections. I can view any of these sections by scrolling down the thumbnails and selecting them for a larger view. While it would be nicer to scroll around the bigger image, obviously this is not a possibility at the moment. Downloading images gives me the option to send it to an email address or number. You are warned that Opera Mini will be shut down. The Default WAP browser takes over for downloading. This is somewhat annoying. It happens smoothly enough, but it certainly feels a bit clumsy. Plus, I can’t save the files to my phone because Sprint regulates downloadable content through establishing a .gcd descriptor. It can work for some people. My point is that this process is not yet transparent. Ah well.

I love that now it show a clock (user configurable to be 12 or 24 hr) at the bottom of the screen. It was a bit silly that with the previous version of Opera Mini I couldn’t use the phone to keep track of the time! I also get to change skins – while I surf. So far there’s about four or five to choose from. The Home Page has a Multisearch function. It’s user configurable and comes with Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, and Google News and you can add more for the home page. It may be a small issue but I also like that Opera shows fav images. How cute!

Written by Cecilia