To be-, or not to be-ta? The mini question
Tuesday, 19. June 2007, 13:25:44
The beta version of Opera mini 4 is out today.
It has some cool features, like the kind of adaptive zoom that the iPhone, and Nokia's browser for high-end phones before it, was supposed to use to revolutionise the web. Except of course that this runs on the $50 pre-paid phone I bought when I realised that I had forgotten my phone, not just on some $500+contract superphone. On the other hand, it is a beta, so it isn't everything that mini4 will be.
I normally run the very latest builds of Opera on my desktop - the internal builds that we get in the development process - so I am not scared of our beta software. I even have my mail in it. But I am not quite so pushy about the phone browser. Mini Just Works™ for the stuff I do (looking up songs and lyrics, buying travel tickets, a bit of reading news, and looking up pointless things at parties).
The new version is nice. I have played around a bit with the "desktop mini simulator" - there is a simulator that runs the same program on a desktop, where it draws an imaginary phone around it so you can get an idea of how it works.
I am not so fond of the zoom thing for everyday use. But then, I hate it on the other browsers I have tried it on, too. When I browse on a mobile, I want something that really really works for mobile, and I don't find it hard to understand the way that things are adapted to best suit mobile. Some usability testing suggested that people prefer having a full-screen mode that made the layout like desktop, so there are plenty of people out there who love it.
Certainly, it can be useful. It is nice to see a mouse pointer on so many cheap phones. It should handle some really badly written systems that are monstrously hard to adapt, too. And it is properly written to dynamically fit as columns wobble around and change size.
Am I just an old fuddy-duddy, wanting things to be the way they were, or is it really easier for someone who uses mobile a lot (It is about 3 years since I first bought a plane ticket on my phone)? I don't know. Even in "old-fashioned" mode (which of course it still does) the new beta feels even faster. Maybe it is just that I am not a very visual person.
One warning (Hey, it is a beta!): in the beta, they have not yet enabled the always-on security that made Opera mini a really cool application for me - one that I use for buying real stuff. So I either have to leave off putting my credit card about until the next update is out, or stay with the current release version. And that is the real dilemma....
... because actually I want to upgrade. Maybe I will just do it on the phone that has Opera mobile with SSL, Password management, Ajax and so on, and leave the cheap phone I bought at a train station with the secured release version for now...
It has some cool features, like the kind of adaptive zoom that the iPhone, and Nokia's browser for high-end phones before it, was supposed to use to revolutionise the web. Except of course that this runs on the $50 pre-paid phone I bought when I realised that I had forgotten my phone, not just on some $500+contract superphone. On the other hand, it is a beta, so it isn't everything that mini4 will be.
I normally run the very latest builds of Opera on my desktop - the internal builds that we get in the development process - so I am not scared of our beta software. I even have my mail in it. But I am not quite so pushy about the phone browser. Mini Just Works™ for the stuff I do (looking up songs and lyrics, buying travel tickets, a bit of reading news, and looking up pointless things at parties).
The new version is nice. I have played around a bit with the "desktop mini simulator" - there is a simulator that runs the same program on a desktop, where it draws an imaginary phone around it so you can get an idea of how it works.
I am not so fond of the zoom thing for everyday use. But then, I hate it on the other browsers I have tried it on, too. When I browse on a mobile, I want something that really really works for mobile, and I don't find it hard to understand the way that things are adapted to best suit mobile. Some usability testing suggested that people prefer having a full-screen mode that made the layout like desktop, so there are plenty of people out there who love it.
Certainly, it can be useful. It is nice to see a mouse pointer on so many cheap phones. It should handle some really badly written systems that are monstrously hard to adapt, too. And it is properly written to dynamically fit as columns wobble around and change size.
Am I just an old fuddy-duddy, wanting things to be the way they were, or is it really easier for someone who uses mobile a lot (It is about 3 years since I first bought a plane ticket on my phone)? I don't know. Even in "old-fashioned" mode (which of course it still does) the new beta feels even faster. Maybe it is just that I am not a very visual person.
One warning (Hey, it is a beta!): in the beta, they have not yet enabled the always-on security that made Opera mini a really cool application for me - one that I use for buying real stuff. So I either have to leave off putting my credit card about until the next update is out, or stay with the current release version. And that is the real dilemma....
... because actually I want to upgrade. Maybe I will just do it on the phone that has Opera mobile with SSL, Password management, Ajax and so on, and leave the cheap phone I bought at a train station with the secured release version for now...
WIDGETIZE
Walter Tamboer # 19. June 2007, 14:17
Now I'm wondering, what if an does occur in OM4, how is it handled? Will I actually see that message on my mobile phone?
Daniel Goldman # 19. June 2007, 16:00
Non-Troppo # 19. June 2007, 21:11
What is *utterly* cool about zoom is this: I know where my content is more or less spatially from my memory of the normal web page. Desktop mode allows me to get right where I want to quicky zoom to useful content (e.g. guardian has two columns so i can spatially navigate right then zoom into the right column in no time). Zooming gives a neat pseudo SSR column mode, so it still uses the best of mini 3 behaviour IMO. Press "1" to toggle between modes quickly for full flexibility. As a luddite with mobile phones, I'm pretty blown away by the current dimension UI...
Charles McCathieNevile # 20. June 2007, 23:26
@danigoldman, @non-troppo, I understand that people like to have the spatial version. My experience is so far that I am happier with the adaptation mode in general. (What I really like is when someone makes a decent handheld stylesheet...). I am generally used to the layout in mobile mode as well as in desktop mode, so I haven't felt the need to have zoom yet.
Still, I will keep playing around with it and see when I love it and when I don't. I am certainy really impressed by what they have done with the UI in such a little application. (I forgot to check if I could use them concurrently... that's probably a good solution).