Mini Experiences 2.0

As everyone knows, Opera has released version 2.0 of their Opera Mini browser.I wrote about how it was changing my behavior and use of my RAZR. There are several new features that Opera released with this version, so I decided to play around with things a little bit and see how the new version felt.I immediately noticed the screen transitions, which Opera labled as “visual navigation”, which really does give the browser a very polished feel. In playing with some of the new settings on my RAZR I did notice that the response time after a button push in the menus was a little slow — to the point where I was wondering if I had pushed the button. Maybe the save of settings just took a while.

I opened my Bloglines feeds and it loaded pretty quickly. The screen transitions make going back and forth from feeds to the feed list nice because you know what’s happening — the screen tells you that you are moving rather than just waiting in mystery for the app to respond. Interestingly enough, here the soft key response was snappy. Next, I changed my browser’s skin first, which was easy. It hit the network to give me my options for the skins, then hit the network again to apply the skin — but it was smooth. I also noticed the new feature: “Speed dial”, which shows * number short cuts for each HomePage bookmark. Yep, less typing to get to where I want to go, I’m a fan.

I wanted to test out the “content download” feature, next, so I grabbed a small mp3 file from the Princess Monoke soundtrack and dropped it on my web server and pointed the browser there. Unlike the previous versions, this time I was prompted that I might have to leave the browser to continue. I said “Yes”, and the browser opened up the native Moto WAP browser to download the MP3. After downloading the MP3, playing it in the Moto preview screen, I was able to save it to the phone, and resume browsing. Pretty slick. I can totally understand that this is a significant update for Opera because it takes it one step closer to being the definitive mobile browser.

I do find myself wanting to look up words every now and then, so I changed my “Multisearch” settings on the front page to Dictionary.com. No trouble there, and looking up words is that much easier. I also added the Weather Underground to my presets for the multisearch so I could check weather easily without much typing. Just put your zip code in the search box and you have local weather.

Despite the sluggish button response, which could be the Moto RAZR more than anything, I’ll definitely continue to look forward to what Opera’s going to do. I still continue to use this single app more than any others on my phone. What’s next Opera? I’m curious to see further development of the “Browser-to-SMS” feature that they noted in their release. It looks like it requires work on the Content Publisher side to enable special processing for the Opera Mini so that a step in the SMS to purchase flow can be eliminated. Looking forward to it!

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