Wayne D's Blog

Updated December 3rd 2009
Opera Mini Beta 2 was released yesterday and it fixes the irritating backspace bug deleting all the characters in a text entry box that was a problem on the Blackberry in beta 1.

Back at the end of December I wrote a post about Opera mini for the Blackberry. That was version 4.2 and though it addressed some of the problems with the built in Blackberry browser it still had some irritating features. One example, when filling in a text field on a web page it would switch away from the browser view to a text entry view. It was ok and better than the native Blackberry browser. Opera Mini 5 beta not only fixes that niggling issue but adds a whole pack of new features along with a slick new look and a more intuitive user interface.

Opera Mini 5 beta adds many of the features that we have grown used to on our desktop browser including tabbed browsing, navigation buttons, password management. The staring screen offers nine user selectable thumbnailed web pages that Opera refers to as speed dial which you can set to your favourite sites for easy and fast access. This newest version of Opera Mini also includes support for phones with with touch screens.

I've always recommended Blackberry owners install Opera mini, the addition of these new features and improved usability moves Opera mini 5 goes to the top of my must have apps to install on your Blackberry. I've made a short video highlighting some of the new features and embedded it below. Even though when I downloaded Opera Mini 5 beta opera warned me that it hadn't been tested on the Blackberry 8800. I haven't experienced any problems so far. One problem I have found is that when I enter text in a text entry box like the one at the top of the twitter.com page if you hit the delete key to correct an error all the characters in the text entry box are deleted one by one, very irritating, I hope Opera fixes it soon. (added Sept. 22nd)

To give Opera Mini 5 beta a try visit m.opera.com/next on your Blackberry or other smart phone to download it and give it a try. On the Blackberry it's a no risk proposition, the beta will install alongside your current Opera installation.