Opera Mini, mobile Opera for the rest of us

Look, until Firefox/Mozilla goes mobile (it'll happen, we swear), we're not gonna pretend to be perennially satisfied with Pocket IE, Blazer, or whatever crap got embedded into your non-smartphone. Which is why we were down with Opera Mobile (which previously came on the Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 platforms), and now their latest, Opera Mini. Yes, finally you can escape your phone's embedded biz if you can run J2ME apps. Mini doesn't pull pages directly, but is kind of like a browser-front end, so you can be assured that Opera's speed and screen-crunching powers will work their magic without you having to download a 4MB JAVA app every time you want to get on the Internet. Happy browsing!

[Lee Gibson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Opera for the rest of us...that are in Norway.

[Idso @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Ahem...for now, Opera Mini is only available for us filthy rich and oily and already spoiled brats called Norwegians:

http://www.opera.no/products/mobile/operamini/faq/

But, it'll go universal shortly, I'm sure.

[serkan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

unfortunately this thing is only available in Norway. Looks like thats a se 750 in the pic, which is the phone I have. anyone know if it will work in the US or does it require some system to be setup by the provider?

[Frank @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Looks good. Too bad it's not available for download and is only available from UK operators. Any chance we can get a us.engadget.com that only reports on stuff we have access to? Or is that not enough content to fill a blog? The repeated disappointment is working on me.

[Tom @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Yes!, it WILL work in the US*!
*(provided that the US is in Norway)

[Frode @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

This downloaded as a 58kb java app and it is working well on my old Nokia 6100 considering it's 128x128 screen. Cool.

[Tony G. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

with your phone browser go to: http://mini.opera.com/tv2/

[anthony @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

What will service charges be? One of the reasons I don't use the wap browser on my S710a is because Cingular charges by the kilobyte. If this is mobile web for non-smartphones, is it true mobileweb? I can only imagine what the Kb charge would be. When I had my SMT5600 I had to get the unlimited GPRS access because loading real pages (just smaller) used many many Mb of data...

[bigtrouble77 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Will this work on a treo 650 with J2ME installed? I'll do anything to get off of blazer and it's limitations.

[thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

it works great! MUCH better than that embedded "browser" in my k750.

http://img14.imgspot.com/?u=05/221/13/Operamini1.JPG

http://img14.imgspot.com/?u=05/221/13/Operamini2.

http://img14.imgspot.com/?u=05/221/13/Operamini3.JPG

[num10ck @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

actually i've been keeping an eye on minimo, the mozilla browser for pocketpc,etc. so far, version .07 is pretty fast and stable, but the UI is missing a few buttons still... they've been releasing new versions about monthly. and yes, it has tabbed browsing.

[NekoTsukimi @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Because of Cingular's stupid network integration, I'm having a hard time downloading the file from my phone... Heck, I'm having a hard time doing anything internet-related on my phone.

[Tony G. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

NekoTsukimi, download it to your computer and then transfer to your phone via data cable, bluetooth or infrared.

[Sasha @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Tony G., I have tried this but I only get:

"Feil!

Du m?nytte deg til denne tjenesten via WAP-leseren p?in mobiltelefon"

Any help would be appreciated...

[matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

http://mini.opera.com/tv2/ seems to bring me to the right place, but when i try and download (high memory version, K750i) it says "The Requested Page can not be displayed"

anyone else?!

[doppler @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

im getting a poorly formed wml page on my 7100t

[doppler @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

can someone host it? im sure its a tiny file :)

[Vinit @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Hmm, even without knowing any nl-NL, i can translate that to mean "you need a WAP enabled mobile phone" or some such.

If you read the file at the prior link, you see this

Download low memory version (1.0.1479)

Download high memory version

[Jesse @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

As num10ck alluded to, there IS a Mozilla/Firefox for phones in the work: minimo
Still in early phases, but no doubt will be quite nice in the end:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/

[Paul @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Um, cecil (#12) a GPRS only app that runs in Norway isn't going to concern Verizon.

[A. Davis @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

So here's the deal for those of you that can't read Norwegian... the Opera site says its only available via TV2. If you SMS the link anyway (from the US), they never reply. If you do it from a Norwegian phone, they reply with a link. However, the link is just to a site on opera.com (http://mini.opera.com/tv2/). Going there anyway, depending on your phone, offers a low memory or high memory version. From my Treo 650, it says I don't support Java (which isn't true, I installed Java for KMaps). Basically, once you click either the low memory or high memory version links, you are taken back to http://wapb.tv2.no/opera/get and are giving some Norwegian text as others have posted. Trying to go to that URL from a regular browser gives an Apache/Tomcat 404 error. Here's why... if you happen to be in Norway and you SMS them and get a reply, you also get a valid session ID in the URL that will work against their database. Without the session ID, you get the 404. So, what we need here is a very kind Norwegian person to get the installation file (after jumping through the proper SMS hoops), then re-distribute the file (not the URL as once its downloaded, the session ID will expire).

If any kind Norway peep's would like to assist, you can feel free to email me the file or a URL to it at andrew_at_nccomp_dot_com. Heck, I'll post it on my site until I'm ordered to take it down.

In the meantime, enjoy my Mobile Optimized site at http://palm.nccomp.com.

[cecil @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

#21, It was supposed to be humorous, whatever the app - Verizon doesn't let you do anything worthwhile for free.

You people with your sim cards, wide-open bluetooth, unlocked phones etc.... I mean the nerve ;)

[thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

#22 i can do that if someone can explain me how i do it.. mail me at thomas.haugen at gmail dot com..

[Zip @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Firefox mobile browser = Minimo. Available soon for Windows CE 2k3.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/

[Permanent4 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Personally, I'm still waiting for Opera for Palm OS 5. How come that never happened? I mean, I can see why Symbian got priority, but why should only Windows Mobile get all the love?

[Spiderman_00 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

404 error. There has to be a way for us to do this. But this quote from the site seems interesting.

"Opera Mini is offered to operators and mobile content providers worldwide, and not as a download from opera.com."

[dt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

What?.. when trying to download it on the phone it gets a "500 Internal server Error" message. :(

[paul @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

So..has no-one put the installer online? :-
paulie

[thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

i can do it if someone explains how to do it. i know there is a way to trick wap pages to think that firefox is a cell phone but i dont know how i do that.. send me a mail at thomas.haugen at gmail dot com if you know how..

[sheik124 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

aw, tried to download it on my v600 (Cingular) and then I got a 500 error, come on, greedy norwegians, we want some opera lovin too!!

[thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

basically they just need to translate a few words and voila, an english version..

[Virtuous @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Requireless has had a Java-based browser call Webviewer for years. Opera Mini is hardly groundbreaking.

[Timmay @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Opera for Treo anyone?

http://mytreo.net/downloads/details-838.html?Opera_Mini

Timmay

[emyh @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

What a tease. Only for Palms... I would die for this to be on my k700i

[emyh @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

What a tease. Only for Palms... I would die for this to be on my k700i

[Spiderman_00 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

This has been on the front page all day and still nothing. This sucks. Why would they release it and then make it impossible to get???

[mroach @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I'm in the US, and I got it! However, I happen to have a Telenor SIM card handy :)

Once I swapped my T-Mobile USA SIM back into my phone, the browser still works perfectly, which means that they aren't doing IP filtering based on country of GPRS origin.

Unfortunately there's no way to extract the jar file from my Nokia 6230. However, my K750 arrives tomorrow (hopefully) and from my experience with my SE Z800, I know that you can save programs to the memory card. If I do that, I can just put the memory card in a memory card reader and post the file online.

I'll update y'all either way.

[MACALEX @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

If anyone have go the jar file, could pack it back to computer and host it somewhere for download to everyone? I don't understand why they provide this Opera only through wap and only to Norway cell phone network providers.

[petro @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

come on people... someone must have a copy of the opera mini file to post on the web somewhere? somehow?

[mroach @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

#38: Probably because it's not just a browser, but a client to servers that compress content. If they let everyone in the world use it, their servers would be crushed by the load. Maybe they will release it to everyone eventually. They're probably just testing the waters with Norway, seeing as that's where Opera is from and that Europeans are on the ball when it comes to mobile technology, unlike the US.

[MACALEX @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I've got the low memory version 100Kb file, it starts on my K750i, show the logo of Opera start to do something and after few seconds just quit.
:(

[thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

i tried getting it off my memcard from my k750 but i dont have a memcard reader so i just tried browsing the memcard while it was in the phone connected to my pc.. but if someone has a memcard reader then that'll probably work.. and for those of you who get it to work heres a translation:

meny = menu
avbryt=cancel
avslutt = quit
verkt? tools
hjelp = help
rapporter feil = report bu
innstillinger = settings
historikk = history
startside = homepage
bokmerker = bookmarks
skriv inn adresse = type adress

=)

[emyh @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

thomas, have you tried hooking it up through the USB cable and then palling the .jar file off of the memory card?

[petro @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

I'm starting to get quite embittered towards Norwegian people as a whole because of this Opera Mini situation.

Come on Thomas... you gotta come through with the goods.

[Michael Roach @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

#44: What an attitude...that's a pretty immature thing to say. Grow up


I moved the application to the external memory on my K750, but they're .jar.sest and .jad.sest files. They seem to be encrypted. I can't do anything with them.

I'm almost out of Telenor ringtid, I probably only have enough for one more download after I get my phone flashed tomorrow.

[petro @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

#45: get a sense of humor, it'll take you far.

[ResuRRectoR @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Michael Roach can you at least provide the names of the files ? Maybe I'll find them on another site...

[thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

ok guys here it is

http://img14.imgspot.com/u/05/223/05/OperaMiniRenametorar.jpg

as you see, u have to rename it from jpg to rar.

[ResuRRectoR @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Do we have to have all the 4 files on the phone ?

[thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

i dont know, usually theres just a jar and sometimes a jar and a jad file.