Comments on: The fat lady has sung: Opera Mini for Palm Treos and RIM Blackberrys

By: Scott_H

Scott_H — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:42:23 +0000

Even though Opera lists compatibility with various non-Treo Palm devices, it’s clear that Opera Mini was designed with phones (and keypads and small displays) in mind. It’s main claim to fame is that Opera’s proxy server re-formats web sites so they’ll be “phone” friendly. As with many web pages designed for cell phone display, this means that often what might be displayed as one long page in a browser such as Blazer (which is perfectly fine) is sliced up into several smaller pages — presumably for cell phone display.

Strictly speaking as someone who uses a PDA with a relatively large display to browse the web (rather than a cellular or smartphone), I much prefer to use Blazer — which works more like a browser on your PC. On my TX, Blazer is faster and more user-friendly than Opera Mini, in my opinion. On the other hand, there are lots of folks who absolutely hate Blazer. Different strokes, I suppose.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 19:05:04 +0000

Has anyone tried it on a 700P? I see that they only list the 650. Do you guys find it worth the upgrade from Blazer? What are the main benefits?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 14:46:03 +0000

Scott is correct. I had it on my Treo 600 for months. Still, if it’s an update, that’s still good news!

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 14:38:34 +0000

Scott, this is what I get for living under the Windows Mobile rock. Time for me to get some playtime with a Blackberry or Palm OS device! It’s actually very confusing as the press release from Opera today doesn’t speak of any prior availability. Thanks!

By: Scott_H

Scott_H — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 14:28:13 +0000

What am I missing here? This isn’t anything new with respect to the Palm OS devices — or is it?

Opera Mini has been available for the Palm OS since way back in March. I know they listed it as only being compatible with the Treo 650, or something, at the time, but as long as you could get the Websphere Java environment to run on your Palm (which includes LifeDrives, TXs, T5s, T3s, etc.) and could access the Internet (via WiFi on non-Treo Palms), it worked fine. I had it running on my Palm TX the day they released it back then.