Out of the way

Opera Mini on Mac OS

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I was working on a paper about mobile access, and I noted that in the "State of the Mobile Web" report, top devices for mini included "desktop" as number 3 in Zambia and number 4 in Swaziland. Then I ran across instructions to use Opera Mini on Windows and on Linux, but not Mac. So here is the recipe...

The nice thing is it seems to be slightly simpler smile As far as I know, this requires a mouse to work (I skimped on testing so far in my rush to write)

There are two things you need to install.

First download Opera Mini - you can use the same code that runs on actual phones, of course). Get the generic jar and jad files and save them somewhere.

Second, get Microemulator and unpack it.

And there you need to follow at least 3 of the following 4 instructions...

Run microemulator.jar, which is inside the Microemulator folder you now have.

You can make it use your full screen and get rid of the bit that looks like a phone. (If you want it to look like a phone emulator, skip this paragraph). In the Options menu, choose select device, which will give a list of devices. Use the "+" button to add a device, and in the popup, look for the "microemulator - resizeable" inside the devices folder in your microemulator folder. Then you can set that device as a default, resize the window, or use the resize button to say what you want.

Now, from the file menu, select "open file" and open the operamini .jad file you downloaded.

You will see Opera Mini as an option - click it. And away you go...

I haven't yet tried to enable Save Page and Find Text features, but I will edit this to add those instructions when I have figured it out. There are also more Windows instructions and more Linux instructions around...

changing 'puters againGrammar, people, really...

Comments

Scott Ripponsrippon Thursday, January 22, 2009 3:07:45 AM

Thanks heaps for these instructions Charles smile
It's very cool to be able to test things will look like in Opera Mini from your PC.

Cheers,
Scott Rippon.

Charles SchlossChas4 Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:05:08 AM

thanks for the info smile

Manrique Lopezjsmanrique Thursday, January 22, 2009 3:55:12 PM

After that you can package the complete app (microemulator + operamini.jad + launching script) in a MacOS X app. I use Platypus (http://www.sveinbjorn.org/platypus) for that task, and after that, I have a nice OperaMini icon in my desktop that launch OperaMini directly.. Very nice for demos ;-)

Charles McCathieNevilechaals Sunday, February 1, 2009 7:24:09 PM

@Scott, @Chas4: No worries smile As I said, I really just read how to do it for Windows and Linux, picked the thing that seemed likely to work easiest, and tested it smile

@jsmanrique: Cool - thanks for the tip. I should do that (although to be honest it only takes me a minute to get the thing running so I never quite get around to it smile ).

Charles SchlossChas4 Sunday, February 1, 2009 7:51:23 PM

chaals I can use it to show off Opera Mini for the Opera Campus Crew yes

It tests very well, I find it funny that Opera Mini 4.2 does better on the Acid 2 test than IE 7 that makes a bloody mess

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Ie7acid2.png/150px-Ie7acid2.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_2_test

KimberlySqueakeyCat Sunday, February 1, 2009 10:09:58 PM

ok, think u can help with a situation i have? i just got me a Linux Ubuntu and can't get Opera or Java to install. i keep getting errors. Tamil has tried to help, and i even have him baffled. c the post here:

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=265464&t=1233513424&page=1#comment2882655

and thx for ur input

DanielcowsAndPassingTrains Monday, February 2, 2009 11:04:55 PM

This is really cool.. I had no idea this could be possible! Nice! Any dragonfly support planned? smile

Charles McCathieNevilechaals Tuesday, February 3, 2009 6:17:08 PM

@Chas4: to be fair to IE, Mini is based on a modern rendering engine, whereas IE7 represents a heroic effort by a reconstituted team to pick up a piece of technology that had last been seriously developed half a decade ago. And I am told IE8 actually passes the test (which it turns out is effectively broken for Mini by design, so we would have to make some big changes to pass it completely, something that may or may not be the most important thing we could focus on).

@SqueakeyCat, sorry but I am not really a linux user anymore, so I think the other people following up are going to be more helpful.

@cowsAndPassingTrains, as far as I know there are no plans to put Dragonfly directly into the Mini client (but then, I probably wouldn't know if there were). But you can rest assured that we are thinking about ways to handle this - although it is complicated...

Charles SchlossChas4 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 10:21:04 PM

Opera Mini comes close to perfect on Acid 2 test, I tried the test using the combo listed in the article here. IE 8 defaults to standards by default smile

KimberlySqueakeyCat Thursday, February 5, 2009 12:32:58 AM

CHAAIS: np hun, just thought i would post it and let u know...and yes, i am getting great help with it, even if i did stump Tamil on it

Pujo Ajiajikoe Saturday, February 21, 2009 3:08:24 PM

Great information!!! I found some problem when using microemulator 2.0.3 (it frequently hangs, the opera mini ok button does not work etc.). When I use 2.0.4 preview it works perfectly!!! Keep up your good work, I will wait for your information about saving the page.

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