Database Users

Quick question on Opera Mobile

Does Opera mobile run in the java applet on a PPC?? Also, does it allow you to view vidoes from websites like youtube??
Thanx

Opera and Java
My experience of using Opera mobile was that I couldn't view videos or operate java applets generally. I don't know of any browser that lets you do this. Be nice if someone could shed some light on how to.
I would also like to be able to stream from the bbc video/radio player effectively. I know you can download an old realplayer mobile CAB and get the radio that way but its too long-winded.
I failed to see the appeal of Opera - certainly wouldn't pay for it. I road-tested it for a week on my Vario II and it was not only slower than PIE but loaded up web pages FAR more erratically.
When opening new web pages Opera displays a constant trickle of downloaded data on the progress bar (in contrast ti PIE's stuttering progress bar) as a means of deceiving you into thinking it's loading up pages faster. In reality it isn't.
I had frequent problems of sign-in boxes not appearing on certain websites too.
Now I use the PIE + application instead - loads better (no pun intended!)
Be interested to hear other people's views on Opera - is it ****, or have i just not given it enough time?
And once again - how do we stream vids/media easily from Youtube/BBC!?!?!
someone must know.....

1) I think the OP was talking about Opera Mini. Opera Mini loads up in the Java Midlet Manager on your PPC. It is a very small very quick web browser that functions excellantly. It does NOT allow you to view basic flash content of any kind. It does a very good job of working quickly and displaying web pages well for a PPC.
2) Opera Mobile is an actual Windows Mobile application. I agree with mrleoni in the aspect that it is quite a bit slower then the built in PIE and it does not work nearly as well IMO. It gives the illusion of being faster, but when you figure in the lag in the app when it's loading web pages up, PIE is much faster. I also use the PIEplus add on for PIE and recommend it. It has some nice features that SHOULD have been built in to PIE but were not, and it just makes PIE that much easier to use.
For general web surfing I use Opera Mini most of the time. Some times I use PIE because I need to see animated gif files (radar) which Mini won't do, or see basic flash things... which brings me to my next point.
3) Flash/Youtube... There is a flash plugin for PIE on Windows Mobile. It will allow you to view/use flash animations. It's actually pretty neat. Nothing nerdier then watching home star runner on your PPC. But, it's like flash version 6 or something. Sites like Youtube stream their video over flash, but it's the latest flash... flash 9 or even 10 now I think. Therefore, there is no way (that I am aware at least) to stream sites like youtube to your PPC.
Final thoughts:
Don't get Opera Mini and Opera Mobile mixed up.
Mini = Java Browser, very fast, very good
Mobile = Windows Mobile Application, slow, laggy, not good

Thanx for the response guys. Yes, i was talking about Opera Mini. I think im gonna try it out. I need webpages to load faster. Even with an overclocked 8125, pages still seem to load kinda slow using PIEplus.
Sorry to get off topic but, how is Minimo compared to Opera Mini? Any faster?

freeyayo50 said:
Sorry to get off topic but, how is Minimo compared to Opera Mini? Any faster?
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The worst/slowest browser available!
Everything is better than Minimo! 8)

where can i find pie+? I've been using opera mobile for right now. I like it better than the original pie. but i would like to try it with that addon. I've tried searching the forums and the internet, but im not able to find it. Can someone point me in the right direction.

k2snowboards88 said:
where can i find pie+? I've been using opera mobile for right now. I like it better than the original pie. but i would like to try it with that addon. I've tried searching the forums and the internet, but im not able to find it. Can someone point me in the right direction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go.
Cheers
hrb
http://www.reensoft.com/

GldRush98 said:
Mobile = Windows Mobile Application, slow, laggy, not good
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Let me disagree. Opera Mobile is still WAY faster than any other fully-fledged PPC browser. It can NOT be compred Opera Mini because the latter receives "dumbed-down" webpages.
Yes, I've thoroughly tested this and yes, I have numeric benchmark results to back up my claims: please see for example this.

k2snowboards88 said:
where can i find pie+? I've been using opera mobile for right now. I like it better than the original pie. but i would like to try it with that addon. I've tried searching the forums and the internet, but im not able to find it. Can someone point me in the right direction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In addition, check out my PIEPlus review if interested.

rottie said:
freeyayo50 said:
Sorry to get off topic but, how is Minimo compared to Opera Mini? Any faster?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The worst/slowest browser available!
Everything is better than Minimo! 8)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not (necessarily) any more, I'd say. The latest versions of Minimo (I've tested the latest nighyly - make sure you always download the nightly builds, NOT the latest official version, which is some 3 months old and is considerably slower than nightly builds) are pretty usable. Not as quick as Opera Mobile, NetFront or even IEM, but pretty usable, particularly when you take into account that it's free (unlike Opera Mobile and NetFront).
I really recommend my comparisons of the available Web browsers on my blog (also cross-posted here on XDA-Dev in the General forum), it answers almost all questions asked in this thread (for example, Java support in borwsers, the difference between Opera Mini and Mobile etc)

Menneisyys said:
GldRush98 said:
Mobile = Windows Mobile Application, slow, laggy, not good
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Click to collapse
Let me disagree. Opera Mobile is still WAY faster than any other fully-fledged PPC browser. It can NOT be compred Opera Mini because the latter receives "dumbed-down" webpages.
Yes, I've thoroughly tested this and yes, I have numeric benchmark results to back up my claims: please see for example this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That has not been my experience at all.
Some quick testing I just did:
Loading up app:
PIE Load time with PIEplus installed as well = 2 seconds
Opera Mobile load time = 11 seconds
Weatherunground animated radar:
PIE = 20 seconds
Opera = 23 seconds
xda-developers front page
PIE = 17 seconds
Opera = 20 seconds
My own forums, gldrush98.com/forum
PIE = 29 seconds
Opera = 50 seconds
hmm... so PIE is faster at the first 3 sites I tested.
And considering Opera doesn't understand how to handle tel: links, Opera can't save images, and it costs money, and don't even start on how it handles bookmarks (read: poorly)... I don't understand why anyone would say Opera is better. It's pretty much worse on all counts.
Don't get me wrong... I like Opera... Opera Mini is an amazing product and it's free. But Opera Mobile is less then impressive.
I will have to try out the nightly build of minimo though and see if it's better then the current official release.

alright, I've been playing around with the latest minimo nightly.
I must admit, I am impressed. It seems far better then I remember the current release being.
And it does understand tel: links. Very nice. It doesn't have a way to save images though, and it takes quite a bit of time to actually load the browser.
Out of all 3 browser I've played with, I'll admit that Opera did the best job of rendering the pages correctly for a small screen. But I still think PIE is the best choice, and with PIEplus, has matching features to others.

GldRush98 said:
Loading up app:
PIE Load time with PIEplus installed as well = 2 seconds
Opera Mobile load time = 11 seconds
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Click to collapse
Yup, it's very slow to load.
Weatherunground animated radar:
PIE = 20 seconds
Opera = 23 seconds
xda-developers front page
PIE = 17 seconds
Opera = 20 seconds
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Click to collapse
Thanks, interesting; I'll re-test these. (May be an AKU2 improvement? I'll re-run my tests.

Emulation of iPhone Browser? Why not?

This question always crossed my mind, how come nobody has emulated the iPhone web browser? I've tried IE, Opera, and the mobile Firefox but they're all junk compared to the mobile Safari - mainly because of the finger movements that make it super easy to navigate. This is really the only advantage other than GUI "swiftness" the iPhone has.
Please discuss, and if your response is "why dunt u buy an itele lolz", you totally missed the point.

you have to try picsel browser, some ppl say its better than safari,
and about opera, if you tried opera mobile you have the wrong version because opera mini is the one you want to have. It is not very finger friendly but it is very fast and also very good to use with d-pad
cheers

well i only use opera mobile mini is not really my cop of tea

Look at skyfire.com. It's not out yet, but seems promising!
jv

Anyone know if skyfire is a proxy? or is it just a different engine? WebDAV?

johnnyv5 said:
Look at skyfire.com. It's not out yet, but seems promising!
jv
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does, nice demo.

Thanks, SkyFire looks very nice! I'm using Opera atm because it's the only half-decent browser I've found - however the zoom features suck because it can't render text correctly and you can't browse as swiftly compared to Safari. However SkyFire is very interesting, I'll be looking into this further.
Cheers

Saw in the Hermes thread that the WM6.1 PIE has an option that allows you to view the entire webpage then tap to zoom in on a certain portion of it. Sound familiar?

Wonder whatever happened to M$ deepfish browser? I wasn't one of the lucky ones who got on the beta test list. And I don't see anything new posted on the project website.

Is there any way to fool PIE into telling a site that it is an iPhone??
I know it's possible to get PIE to broadcast that it is a desktop, so why not an iPhone??

gregoryx said:
Anyone know if skyfire is a proxy? or is it just a different engine? WebDAV?
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Click to collapse
Yes, it is proxy-based . However, it is the best browser Ive seen for a mobile device to-date. They have a video on YouTube & it looks very promising. Definitely better than Safari because it not only supports AJAX, but full FLASH 8 & 9 as well. If you access ESPN.com, you can actually see the video's of the highlights to the right of the page just like you would on a regular desktop.

gregoryx said:
Anyone know if skyfire is a proxy? or is it just a different engine? WebDAV?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is proxy-based . However, it is the best browser Ive seen for a mobile device to-date. They have a video on YouTube & it looks very promising. Definitely better than Safari because it not only supports AJAX, but full FLASH 8 & 9 as well. If you access ESPN.com, you can actually see the video's of the highlights to the right of the page just like you would on a regular desktop. Full sound & everything! Ive just been waiting for them to send my invitation since I signed up 2wks ago.

Well... Opera Mobile 9.5 will be released in a week or so. It's much better than Safari

Pisel would be just as good as safari - correction, better - if it supported flash. My only two gripes with picsel is the inability to view flash, and not being able to set it as my default browser. Its fast, the nearly-limitless zooming beats the pants off of anything available now or in near future. If I'm not planning to edit them, i open my text files with it too. :thumbsup:

Before we get Opera 9.5, the top two browsers in terms of speed are Netfront 3.5 followed by Opera Mini 4.
Netfront is way better than Picsel browser. Picsel is slooooww. It also have memory full problem, on top of other bugs.
I hve done some bencemark between all these browser in the Athena forum, if you're interested.

i been playing around with netfront... and im very impressed... its prob the fastest browser per load time... and its browsing is very nice allowing finger movements... also double tap on screen to zoom out of the page
which in turn opens up a window and allows u to use a nav box to scroll along the bigger portions of the page... i highly recommend for people to try it out ....
Edit: Netfront also has full ajax2.0 support

Best mobile browser?

Hey guys what is the best browser on the vogue? opera, netfront, picsel?
Im waiting for my skyfire beta code btw cant wait to get it.

Opera mini 4 is great ---Skyfire was buggy,
already deleted it.

Don't like Netfront.
Opera 9.33 look promising.
But my favourite is still Opera Mini 4, very fast and very reliable. Ok so it doesn't support flash etc. but hey this is a phone!

I like NetFront. It hast a fast page load, nice zoom in out feature, and works well for forum and news sites. Still no flash but, no body has that working perfectly yet for PPC.

wldthng842 said:
I like NetFront. It hast a fast page load, nice zoom in out feature, and works well for forum and news sites. Still no flash but, no body has that working perfectly yet for PPC.
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I second that!

skyfire out,when?

honolulu said:
skyfire out,when?
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Click to collapse
There was a sign up for the beta but only a handful of the people who signed up got it. I'm still waiting for mine....

I hear skyfire is a scary data mining company anyone else catch this?
I like picsel and pieplus/tpcmp for watchig youtube.

fuzzydeer said:
I hear skyfire is a scary data mining company anyone else catch this?
I like picsel and pieplus/tpcmp for watchig youtube.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
because its on BETA skyfire has it in its agreement that they can keep records of all and every website you access- so they can see what people use and access most
AFAIK

alpha_omega said:
I second that!
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Click to collapse
With netfront .. can you zoom in and out of the page like with picsel Browser? Only option I see is the zoom (25/50/75%) style not drag and zoom style

MattOktaNZ said:
With netfront .. can you zoom in and out of the page like with picsel Browser? Only option I see is the zoom (25/50/75%) style not drag and zoom style
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, when you double tap on the webpage, it'll zoom out and show the whole page in the foreground and the zoomed in part in the background. You have to see to understand. I've tried opera 9.5 beta and netfront. Netfront is better right now for format when zoomed in view, although the latest opera beta is an improvement. Haven't seen skyfire yet, but I've read that it's not living up to the hype.

i love my picsel browser but it used to be slow as hell!! after a rom update and registry tweaks i got it as fast as opera so its sweet!!!! i just wish you could download straight from the browser otherwise id delete opera mobile, but opera mobile is the best browser pound for pound

I am a big fan of irisbrowser

Opera Mobile 9.5 hands down

If you really really use the browser to surf the web, the only real choice is Internet explorer. The others are really fancy but, for the majority of the website, reflow on IE work much better and a lot more stable.
Opera Mobile 9 will be the best when they came out. I am using the beta version it is great! It has zoom capability and reflow together!
Zooming alone like Netfont doesn't help if you really really us it to surf the web.
The other one hasn't been out of beta yet.

skyfire is hands down the best. i have experienced no bugs thus far and have not found a single site that does not work with it.

gold_sprinter said:
I am a big fan of irisbrowser
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just gave Irisbrowser a try. It's suprisingly good and fast. I'm astounded that this is the first time i'm hearing about it.

I find myself using Skyfire for most things. It really works well, especially for Digg and Drudge Report. The only problem is that the code on some pages it seems prevent Skyfire from properly reformatting the text to fit in the zoom window, so you have to scroll all over to read them. The most annoying place this occurs is Google Reader - there is just no good way to view this site on Skyfire that I have found. However, Opera 9.5 can view the iPhone interface of Google Reader (www.google.com/reader/i (instead of /m), so I use that when I'm browsing RSS. The version of Netfront I had was buggy, and cut off my data connection somehow when I minimized the app (couldn't get mail, check the HTC home weather, etc.). Prolly just a bad build, but Skyfire and Opera kill it anyway.

ok i have the verizon vogue or xv6900. what browser is best for that device cuz i went to operamini.com and said this wasnt a compatible device

mcforan23 said:
ok i have the verizon vogue or xv6900. what browser is best for that device cuz i went to operamini.com and said this wasnt a compatible device
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Click to collapse
You must of somehow skipped over the entire thread...........!

iris web browser must try!

its easily faster than opera... runs pretty smooth and i actually enjoy the small scrolling screen they got from the netfront browser as well.
http://torchmobile.com/

boinger66 said:
its easily faster than opera... runs pretty smooth and i actually enjoy the small scrolling screen they got from the netfront browser as well.
http://torchmobile.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its faster over wifi but I don't think it's as quick over gprs.
Its definitely getting better each release though.
I still use netfronts' simple browsing for things like forums, nothing is a quick as that one..

fards said:
its faster over wifi but I don't think it's as quick over gprs.
Its definitely getting better each release though.
I still use netfronts' simple browsing for things like forums, nothing is a quick as that one..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UCWEB6 flies! It's basic html only though. I use it for very basic functions like really quick google searches, spelling corrections, eBay etc.

Tried it a long time ago and didn't like it...

Its page displaying seems to be slower than opera

spr33 said:
UCWEB6 flies! It's basic html only though. I use it for very basic functions like really quick google searches, spelling corrections, eBay etc.
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Click to collapse
its a java proxybrowser though isn't it? I'm not very keen on those..

orelsi said:
Tried it a long time ago and didn't like it...
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Click to collapse
Try again, they update quite often. I use it sometimes since it can display anything. It has perfect javascript functionality.
I use Opera Mini for common browsing, but when I find a page it has troubles with, Opera Mobile usually has problems too.
Still Opera Mobile is best adapted to screen size and touch controls. Give me Opera Mobile with compatibility of Iris and I will be happy.

Dr.Sid said:
Try again, they update quite often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just did. I still don't like it . It feels uncomfortable to work with, and has much less options than the Opera. I keep it installed though, along with other browsers, in case my Opera brakes down hehe.

right now, Iris is only great for Iphone optimized sites... for everything else, Opera is the way to go.

fards said:
its a java proxybrowser though isn't it? I'm not very keen on those..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think you should give ucweb a try. its tiny and it does not require JAVA and its much more funtional than opera mini
its a really good secondary (when on EDGE or 3G) efficient browser.
good 4-min video review http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=7232

It is a very good browser, and a fast one. It definitely renders HTML better than Opera Mobile 9.5. It works very good with X1.
My only concern is that when I double tap a page, the zoom is not to 100%, but less. I mean the image I see after a double tap is smaller than if I choose zoom to 100%. Anyone having the same issue?

I use Iris for few months and must say - it's getting better and better. Still it's not a perfect browser - but show me one that is. I'm waiting for update which can allow to watch youtube movies directly from pages like www.pocketnow.com etc. Now for those pages I use Skyfire.

Does it have embedded Flash support, like on desktop browser? Any news on such upcoming feature?

http://www.torchmobile.com/products/faq/
How do I make YouTube work?
YouTube's standard desktop version requires Flash 9 or above. This is not available for Windows Mobile. If you leave the browser in Mobile Mode (Page->View->Mobile Mode in the menu), you can visit YouTube and will be redirected to the mobile edition. If you happen to have the FlashLite 3 ActiveX control installed, Iris Browser will automatically use it and videos should work.

For youtube.com I use Zenyee application. More usefull would be possibility of playing implanted movies on sites. This is possible for now with Skyfire and Mach5 I suppose.

Latest SkyFire any good ???

Anybody have any experience with latest ver of Skyfire browser in HD2 yet?
How does it compare to Opera?

1.5? used it for a bit.
its generally good.
lags a bit when trying to navigate though.

I use it for Flash only, like for watching Freeview on TVCatchup or, everynow and then, YouTube.
I think the quality of the webpages produced is poor, it's like they are hazey, not clear and crisp like Opera is, however I like the main page which has a Skyfire home page and a bookmark and history page.
I have 4 browers installed on my HD2, two versions of Opera, 9.7 and the new Opera 10 beta, Skyfire and Internet Explorer, and I use them in that order. 99% of my web browsing is done on Opera 9.7, you can't beat it.

SAman1 said:
Anybody have any experience with latest ver of Skyfire browser in HD2 yet?
How does it compare to Opera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For general browsing it's rather sluggish. In particular, every time to cklick a checkbox or radio-button it has to do a round-trip to the server, so filling in a survey is a nightmare. But it scores highly for compatibility - just about any page is rendered correctly, much more often than is the case for Opera. It also handles Flash and Silverlight very nicely.

Kalavere said:
I use it for Flash only, like for watching Freeview on TVCatchup or, everynow and then, YouTube.
I think the quality of the webpages produced is poor, it's like they are hazey, not clear and crisp like Opera is, however I like the main page which has a Skyfire home page and a bookmark and history page.
I have 4 browers installed on my HD2, two versions of Opera, 9.7 and the new Opera 10 beta, Skyfire and Internet Explorer, and I use them in that order. 99% of my web browsing is done on Opera 9.7, you can't beat it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can you watch Freeview on the HD2?

steveianson said:
How can you watch Freeview on the HD2?
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Click to collapse
www.tvcatchup.com
pretty good quality too!

Thanks for your responses guys. I read about it on another site where people were raving about how much faster the latest version made their internet experience and how the user interface had been improved, so i figured maybe it's a good alternative to Opera, but judging from the general consensus here I think I'll just give it pass. Especially since I don't really have a problem with the pre-installed ver of Opera.

you could always try it out yourself...

would be good to get a HD2 specific version, i think the bad text/page rendering has something to do with the massive resolution of the HD2. Some pages I have problems getting the keyboard out, any tips?
Sucks that Adobe said they were going to support flash for 6.5x then changed their mind for WM7

lepszy said:
you could always try it out yourself...
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Click to collapse
I took your advice and did just that. It sucks! Poor resolution and very slow, no match for Opera.
BTW How do I check what version of Opera I have?

paulking said:
www.tvcatchup.com
pretty good quality too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that's the one.

SAman1 said:
I took your advice and did just that. It sucks! Poor resolution and very slow, no match for Opera.
BTW How do I check what version of Opera I have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
open opera >menu>help>about>version on the top

SkyFire is no doubt a good browser. It has full flash support, and is meant to be the fastest web browser for WinMo! However, it is laggy when it comes to navigation ie scrolling up and down the website, and once certain Opera tweaks are applied (and Wifi N enabled) NOTHING beats it! Especially Opera 9.7. The downside of Opera is that it has lack of Flash support
But it's 100% smooth, and in my opinion a much more User-friendly and a lot more suitable for casual, usual day-to-day web browsing

skyfire is my default browser on my HD2, thoroughly recommend it.
it doesn't have and pinch to zoom function but the double tap works perfectly also it is the only browser with FULL flash 10 desktop support, pages look amazing.
only other nag is that there is no multiply tab support.

azahoth said:
open opera >menu>help>about>version on the top
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Click to collapse
I already tried that, but help brings up a page with 2 icons to choose from either desktop or mobile. Selecting mobile takes me to a page to select my phone and language, but HTC is not even listed ???
I'm using OS ver 5.2.21869, Official Rom 1.66.707.1 (76641) WWE 01/12/2010.
Thanks,

YauMannn said:
skyfire is my default browser on my HD2, thoroughly recommend it.
it doesn't have and pinch to zoom function but the double tap works perfectly also it is the only browser with FULL flash 10 desktop support, pages look amazing.
only other nag is that there is no multiply tab support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Si it lacks gestures & no multiple tabs. ....but, how do you get the pages to look good? I Agree Opera beats it in every respect including the failings already mentioned.

Kalavere said:
Yep, that's the one.
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Click to collapse
I can't sign up to it because it seems to be for the UK only, does anyone know such a site for the rest of the world (or the Netherlands)?