June 21, 2007

Opera Mini 4: Get the Full Picture of a Web Page

Opera launched a new version of its free mobile browser: Opera Mini 4, currently in beta. One of the coolest new features is that the browser renders the page almost the same as a desktop browser, so you'll be able to see the web page at a glance. But because the screen of your mobile phone is very small you can't actually read anything: that's why you need to select an area of the page and zoom in. Opera Mini is smart enough to detect the most important part of the page and automatically selects that part.

There's even a small cursor that changes when you hover over a link and moves your position so you can actually read the text.

To try it, go to mini.opera.com/beta on your mobile phone and download the browser or test it on your computer (JAVA required).


One thing I don't link about Opera Mini 4 is that it's much slower than the previous version, but hopefully Opera will improve the performance until the browser gets out of beta.

Opera compared it with iPhone's Safari browser, but, as you can see in this video, iPhone's transitions are much smoother and there are multiple levels of zoom.

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9 comments:

  1. 1June 21, 2007 at 6:36 AM

    We have the same thing (whole page rendering with zoom ability) in standard Symbian browser "Web", that is supplied by default on Nokia phones.

    And I clearly prefer Opera Mini because you don't need to go left-right-anywhere-wasting_my_precious_time.

    I really like that pages in Opera could be scrolled only vertically.

    I just don't understand why they totally change their (working!) approach.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex ChituJune 21, 2007 at 8:33 AM

    You can switch to the old rendering if you select "fit to width" in the settings. I think this change makes it easy to locate the main content of a page without scrolling, but Opera should add intermediate levels of zoom.

    ReplyDelete
  3. nortiJune 21, 2007 at 10:43 AM

    And Opera Mini 4 already fits the width in the "zoom" mode too, so you can use the only-scroll-down-and-up feature plus you can jump between the columns right and left easily.

    And only Nokia phones have the great page rendering browser, SE and UIQ phones not, so Opera Mini is still better on those phones, than the built in Opera mobile or other browsers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJune 22, 2007 at 5:50 AM

    Hi

    Can I download Opera Mini 4 on my pc and then transfer it on my phone?

    Please let me know in case someone has a method to do this.

    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  5. Alex ChituJune 22, 2007 at 5:57 AM

    Direct link to the JAR file:
    mini.opera.com/dl/k9-jKDmPc2UvUX3kAhEAACEODw8C/mini.jar. Note that it may not work for your phone, so it's safer to use the link from the post and download it using your phone.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alex ChituJune 22, 2007 at 6:00 AM

    You should also transfer the JAD file.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousSeptember 20, 2007 at 7:32 AM

    Not being able to download it on my computer directly from operamini.com, argh. Just found how to snatch it on this funny blog psot.

    ReplyDelete
  8. downhistoryNovember 21, 2007 at 8:26 AM

    Dear friends

    I have just installed Opera Mini browser in my Sony Ericsson phone after downloading it to a computer.

    My phone Explorer has an option for installing a JAR application through their file explorer menu.

    I had connected through Bluetooth, but I am sure you could do it through a USB cable also.

    Just to be sure, download both the JAD and JAR files to the same folder on a Windows computer.

    It is easy and quick.
    Opera is great on a SE, which begs the question why SE continues to promote its own Net Front browser whsich is soso.

    Regards

    Rajasekaran

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousApril 16, 2009 at 7:08 PM

    hi im danish khan



    Hi

    Can I download Opera Mini 4 on my pc and then transfer it on my phone?

    Please let me know in case someone has a method to do this.

    Thank you It is easy and quick.
    Opera is great on a SE, which begs the question why SE continues to promote its own Net Front browser whsich is soso.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete

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