OPERA MINI MOBILE BROWSER

BY

DANIEL D’UWA

Mobile internet has much potential as the mobile phone had in the fringes of the turn of the centaury here in Kenya. However, this potential seemed to be targeting only first time internet users & social teens who spend endless hour on nonsense chat on social phone websites like Facebook. The mass majority of folks who have grown with proper web on computer are yet to be fully reached.

However, not all is lost, these fickle crowds of adamant web users like their counterpart are adoptive and mobile internet is not only a lifestyle change but also a necessity. At the heart of this silent revolt is a tiny little application called Opera Mini a natural web based browser shrunk to mimic an almost web experience. But as with all things ‘Mini’ it only mimics but does not necessarily replace or properly replicate the true web experience. For that, get yourself a computer of any size or shape.

Originally designed in Scandinavia for TV viewer, my first encounter with Opera Mini was in 2006. As for now it seems to target enhance WAP or GPRS based mobile experience with little regard for high-end mobile users. Not every web-browsing phone can download web browsers or they should. Opera Mini mimics the computer experience but WAP based phones cannot access such downloads. It would be nice if they worked on a web clouds the same way e-mail or M-Pesa exist on web servers & do not require to be downloaded.

For instant if, you have push e-mail as plain & boring as it looks to the eye, and most high-end phone outside of Blackberry support push e-mail there is little or no inspiration to download a browser like Opera Mini. On the very low end, the latest Opera Mini 5 is about 11k in size, and even Safaricon Pepea demands that you download into the phone meaning that load end web browsing phones cannot access this or other download browsers.

To start with, Opera Mini is not the only mobile web browser, but rather the most popular because it is fast & rather cost effective by compressing websites. It also works on also every phone but my experience is that depending on the phone brand use other browsers. If say you have Apple’s iPhone, iPad or iMac range of products stay with the Safari browser it sync well across all the product range. On the other hand, HTC phones are gaining popularity here & like other phones that run on the Google’s Android operating system, the Android browser works well & synchronizes with Google online services seamlessly.

Other browsers are the Internet Explore (IE), which was the most famous computer browser till Google, introduced the Google Chrome. IE has always been a disappointment, the user experience has been stuck in the late1999s with little innovation but this is a good addition on Window Based mobile phones. Firefox have the best browsers on computer & phone despite the popularity of Opera. Despite Opera Mini, this Firefox browser allows for multitasking. Like many web users, open many tabs E-mail, Facebook, New York Times, Nat Geo & other sites all at once. This browser supports mutli-tabs without crushing the phone or freezing like Internet explorer. For those who like fancy displays Skyfire browser is ideal for mobile websites that run on Java platform. It does not work on every phone & when it does, the experience is not that exciting. Other browsers such as Java based Teashark, mutli split screen Bolt, social Mozilla Minimo can be considered. Some phone have dedicated browsers like most Nokia phone run S60 browsers, Blackberry have its own, Samsung used to but they are going Android but soon it wouldn’t matter what phone since browsers are getting standardized to work on across platforms.

Opera Mini 5 and Safaricom Pepea Opera are amazing at compressing website saving the money & time. Both requires download Opera Mini 5 free from www.opera.com/mobile & Pepea free from Safaricom homepage or request by dialing *554# and subscribing to unlimited 10MB of internet. Once downloaded, you have to launch or open it and on Pepea, the interface is as of testing uncluttered just like Google search. Navigation is rather easy as opposed to the BlackBerry or Safari browser that takes a bit of getting used to.

The little widgets or shortcuts helps but if the site you seek is not listed a Google search box is on the left corner. At present, it is the default search although it would be nice to have other search boxes. But what Pepea does well is hide the gems of web browsing in a corner span on the right lower screen. Here all the bookmarks, applications, your web history, homepage, saved pages, downloads, search, help, and user preferences can be access. However, if you miss this link you might wonder how to log off. Nevertheless, it is easy to find. In many ways this browsers was made touch screen phone just as keypad phones.

There are empty boxes to add on your favorite web short cuts or delete the default shortcuts. It loads pretty fast and smooth but while using a phone with both touch & keypad, the letters typed on the keypad imprints numeric (numbers) so you are forced to use the touch screen virtual keyboard. The keys on this virtual keyboard are miniature most woman fingers work perfect on, but slow men typing abilities. The forwards & back arrows makes the madden plain task of browsing an event. If you are reading an article & have to go back to your mail, it is just tap back or forward. This application as of yet doesn’t support live chats on social network site like Facebook, MSN or Yahoo or VOIP calls like Skype (at least not in this market)but the functions might make a debut on Opera 6. The Opera 6 like other browsers will also enhance reading books & other published materials in the likeness of Apple iPad or The Kindle.

You can navigate around using the cursor on your keypad zooming your view in portrait & landscape given that your phone (has an accelerator) allows rotation. But this did not work on either Blackberries &HTC phones. However, the overview function still needs some work it does not work too well on tiny mobile screen.

But to enjoy this browser, you might need to upgrade to newer phones touch screens offers a far better experience but keypad are great too. Given that you will download loads of music, videos & other self-inspiring media, you will need stored & phones that hold SD card slots are a must. Mobile phones that support Java are at an advantage and soon those that support voice are will be invaluable.

Like the clattered World Wide Web, Opera Mini is your gateway to mobile internet but the internet goes beyond news & social networks. There are other values information & entertainment sites that can inspire but most of all open your mind to new opportunities. However, the internet is also home to lots of scammers, as a rule of thumb never shares your personal or confidential info like passwords, money transfer & trust to strangers.