Opera Mobile 8.65 beta for Windows Mobile – First Review

• 2. April 2007: added some minor updates to this review
• 3. April 2007: it is possible to import IE bookmarks from the GUI – thanks for your comment Denya
• 5. April 2007: g will search with Google according to the changed changelog
• 17. April 2007: now the changelog says again g will search with Yahoo!
• 24. April 2007: in addition to the official changelog proxy settings are taken from the system settings and there is a workaround for the font issue displaying Windings, Greek or other not fitting fonts.
• 20. June 2007: since 1. June 2007 there is a slightly updated version – running until 1. October 2007
• 29. June 2007: added some information to new feature and problem with Save image
• 29. June 2007: added section "New possibilities for customization" with hints towards userJS, userCSS and the possibility to stream media with TCPMP by editing [file types] section in opera.ini

Summary:

With the small raise in number from 8.6 to 8.65 lots of the most wanted features were added in the new beta of Opera Mobile: Flash support, saving of images, grab and scroll, import IE bookmarks, trouble-free install to storage card etc. Some bugs are gone, some minor flaws came (especially with some of the new functionality) but overall the new Opera Mobile 8.65 beta is really good and stable with strong (and unobtrusive) improvements.

Read on for the details or try yourself – the beta should run until 1. June 2007 1. October 2007 (new version with fixed launcher application ("not enough resources" etc.)

If you don't know Opera Mobile at all: it is a fully capable browser based on the Opera Desktop 8.x core and the most powerful Browser for mobile devices – at least until Opera Mobile 9 will be released 😉
For the previous version 8.6 you can read my Guide for Opera 8.60 for Windows Mobile, Pocket PC

… …

Test environment

Opera Mobile 8.65 beta1 for Windows Mobile 2003SE PPC
on my iPAQ rx3715 running Windows Mobile 2003SE
specifications: QVGA (240 x 320px), Samsung S3C 2440 processor (ARM), Internet via WLAN 802.11b

Installation

I used the cab file which installed without flaws to main memory and to iPAQ filestore (using CABinstall). As with Opera Mobile 8.6 there are nevertheless some files (< 500 kB) installed into \Application Data\Opera in main memory (including cache, which has still to be moved manually in opera.ini). But different to 8.6 now default browser settings work also when installed on a different place but main memory (what is really great as it saves nearly 5 MB in main memory without tweaking).

Update from previous version (Opera Mobile 8.6):

Installation over previous Opera (8.6) should be no problem if you haven't manually edited Opera files of your old installation. The update will overwrite all ini-files, skin and the start page. Cookies, history+bookmarks seem to be preserved.

First startup

On first startup there appears a question whether Opera should be the standard browser (you can manually activate and deactivate this later in the Menu – Tools – Settings – Misc.).

Afterwards there is the simple question "Import IE Favorites?" – (you can manually repeat this later with Menu – Tools – Manage Bookmarks – Menu (yes, Menu again) – Import IE Favorites)
there seems to be no option in the GUI to do this later, but you can install Opera again (bookmarks remain, manually edited ini-files are overwritten) or simply edit opera.ini
[Install]
Hello=Yes

What is new on first look: Opera has a refined skin and the Yahoo search field on the startpage (instead of Google until version 8.60). On the lower part is written: "This version of Opera Mobile will expire on June 1, 2007"

Screenshot of the new startpage.
There are many screenshots with nearly all menus and settings in my Photo Album.

Well, not a lot of changes on first sight. So lets proceed and look what's under the hood.

New features and improvements

• Support for Macromedia Flash Player 7 (for WM2003 + 5) and FlashLite 2.1 (for WM5) – both are to be downloaded and installed separately
• Support for (built in) Windows Media Player
• Grab and Scroll (PocketPC only as Smartphone has no touchscreen) – this is you put your stylus on the touch screen and drag the webpage around (don't wait too long with moving your stylus or the context menu will open). It is activated by default and if you want to select text you have to disable this feature in Menu – Tools – Settings – Misc.: "Use grab and scroll" (which is far too complicated if you happen to use both at least once in a while)
• Copy text with the context menu (click and hold on highlighted text) – or select all or paste in text field (8.6 only worked via CTRL+C / CTRL+V)
• Send link as e-mail and in Smartphone edition (?) also via SMS and MMS – just click + hold on a link and choose "Send address as"
• as already described: Import IE bookmarks – but only once at first startup (or after editing opera.ini)
• Being default browser while installed outside main memory now works
• Download window is really closed on Menu – Close (stayed open as background application before)
• Easier and more secure to exit: Menu – Exit (instead of Menu – Tools – Exit in 8.6) and afterwards confirmation dialog "Do you really want to exit the browser", what could save you from accidentally close lots of tabs
• Support for site patching via browser.js adds the possibility for fast, version independent fixes for not normally working pages and JS. I suppose nevertheless it has to be supplied as minor update with complete install packages as there is no update functionality in GUI and I doubt there is a weekly check like on desktop. As usual browser.js will not work if changed
• According to the change log improved performance, improved Fit-to-screen, improved rendering and scripting support and lot's of fixes (scrolling on pages with multiple links, navigation on sites that blur links when they are focused, downloading attachments on some sites, including Yahoo! Mail)
• Smartphone version for WM5 and 6
• "Opera also allows you to download images from Web pages. Activate the context menu over an image, and it will offer the option to save the image." (cite from the help file) – no request for a download location but instantly saved to nowhere (at least I didn't find it, mentioned with problems below). On a Smartphone, you have to first choose Image mode.
• Web search in address bar: type "g {searchedword(s)}" in the address bar like on Desktop Opera and find the search term – with Yahoo! Y finds with Yahoo, too.

search.ini

there are 6 entries in search.ini with predefined (and I assume customizable) search engines:

key	name	search-url	remark
g	Yahoo!	search1.opera.com	redirects to us.m.yahoo.com
s	Opera Web search	search.opera.com
a	Answers.com	opera.answers.com
z	Amazon.com	www.amazon.com
y	Yahoo!	search1.opera.com	redirects to us.m.yahoo.com
w	Wikipedia	www.wikipedia.org

Well, "g" has nothing to do with Yahoo which is twice in the list while Google is totally missing – IMHO either a bug or bad contracts and or bad politics. There will be a guide how to change this …

As it is listed like a feature in the changelog to search g – Google it seems to be a bug which will change in the next version. The changelog was changed and in the previous version of the changelog it was listed as g – Yahoo! (and it seemed to be no bug). The changelog was changed again towards g – Yahoo! I still hope this is just to meet the functionality in the current beta and will change in the next version.

Flash video in Opera
(QVGA, fullscreen, zoom=50%, landscape and menu-display-desktop)

Other fixed issues (not mentioned in the changelog)

• Wished by some users and easier in most cases now the system proxy settings are used by Opera. Therefor the proxy-settings in the Opera GUI are gone (and some people wish them back again because of some limitations of the Windows Mobile proxy settings and because it was comfortable to use just tow different applications with two different network connections that require different proxy settings.
• Adding font-settings to opera.ini is now working (not completly sure whether this already worked in 8.6 but I doubt it). The user can customize the fonts especially in all the cases there are problems when Opera automatically selects inappropriate fonts out of the \Windows\fonts folder (e.g. Windings = symbols). See my comments in the forum for details.

Problems

• Save image doesn't display a download location and the image seems not to be saved: I couldn't find it in opera.ini's default Download Directory=\My Documents nor anywhere else on my device (well, maybe I didn't look hard enough and surely it is stored in cache4 as some opr00xx.jpg file – according to ahv >>Images are saved in "Pictures" under "My documents"<< – but there is feedback by other users that this doesn't work.
• Click on the arrow next to the address bar sometimes flashes the keyboard and the address bar list very short – workaround: first open keyboard and then the address bar list remains(also described in the forum)
• Landscape mode fullscreen – switch to portrait, switch fullscreen off => menu bar is not on the bottom edge
• default browser doesn't work for URL files (PIE-Bookmark files)
• when I wrote a comment to operawatch.com and clicked "Submit Comment"

Flash issues – this is IMHO not a flaw of Opera but due to the requirements of the Flash-plugin, Flash not always useful, at least on my slower device

• With Menu – Display – Fit to screen YouTube videos are only shown in a small ribbon, enabling Menu – Display – Desktop solves this problem, but on my QVGA device I had to set landscape, zoom 50% and full screen to see (not really watch) the entire video
• With YouTube vids I get a frame rates of about 1-2pics/sec and broken (interrupted every second) sound – also with reduced quality. Another page (flash only) www.faune.de wasn't opened at all (probably needs a higher flash version).
• several crashes and sticky behavior when I had an older flash version installed on some pages (e.g. Adobe.com)

New possibilities for customization

• at least some userJS is working – yet I didn't manage to get it properly working
• at least some userCSS is working while I encountered some problems with media types not properly applied any more
• some people report problems with streaming media via built in Windows Media Player (while the same links seem to work called with PIE). There seems to be a working solution to open certain file types with a user provided application. After I gave Tachyon the hint on IRC to try to use [File type] section in opera.ini he found a working solution: simply put in the path to TCPMP player.exe instead of wmplayer.exe / streamingplayer.exe

Please leave a comment if you are interested in more details (I have nothing fancy yet) or if you can provide working examples. For the last point about streaming media I'd be especially interested in URL and Mediatype which is working with your TCPMP from my Opera.

Links:

Download Locations:

http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/index002.dml


• http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobile/
• http://get.opera.com/pub/opera/winmobile/865b/
• ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/winmobile/865b/

Change Log:

• http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/winmobile/865b/

Supported Flash Plugins:

• Adobe Flash 7
• FlashLite 2.1
• Ismail about the new ActiveX plugin in Opera 8.65 Beta for Windows Mobile

PPC-Expert Werner "Menneisyys" Ruotsalainen:

• GREAT Web Browsing news: Opera Mobile 8.65b, Minimo 0.2, 1st Deepfish beta out & other news!
• new Web Browsing Bible
• comparison / feature chart

Please provide feedback towards Opera Mobile 8.65 beta in

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=183282