Opera Mini 4.2

Opera Mini 4.2 offers several important upgrades. Opera Software switched on a new U.S.-based server park in an effort to render pages faster for its U.S. and Asia-Pacific users. Opera Mini 4.2 also synchronizes notes from the Opera Desktop browser using Opera Link. Users can also personalize Opera Mini 4.2 with new skins (actually a feature added and then removed back in Opera Mini 3).

First, some caveats on hardware requirements: Opera Mini will work on any handset that can run Java apps natively. That includes all recent BlackBerrys and most feature phones. Infuriatingly, T-Mobile blocks third-party applications from accessing the Internet with some devices, and Opera Mini doesn't work at all on Verizon (BREW) feature phones. Also, Windows Mobile and Palm OS smartphones require that you run a separate Java virtual machine before loading Opera Mini each time. And some carriers will hit you with persistent nag screens every time you fire up Opera Mini on certain handsets—an annoyance, though at least you can still run the app.

To install Opera Mini, head over to mini.opera.com using your cell phone's current Web browser, and then follow the instructions to download and install the app on your handset. Most likely, you'll see a new icon in the Applications folder of your handset, where other third-party apps are stored (if it's not part of the top level). For this review, I tested Opera Mini 4.2 on a BlackBerry Curve 8330 running over Verizon Wireless's EV-DO data network, and it required a reboot once the installation was completed.

Load the browser and you'll find a clear, well-organized home screen. An address bar is at the top, with a Google search box beneath—you can also set the latter to search Amazon, eBay, or Wikipedia. Below the search box is a list of Bookmarks and an icon for RSS feeds. When keying in URLs, the default view brings up a zoomed-out view of the entire page, with a zoom box drawn around Opera Mini's mouse cursor. From there, clicking on any part of the page will zoom in to it so that you can read text. If there are related RSS feeds, an icon appears at the top that lets you subscribe with a single click. At any time, you can flip the view to landscape mode by pressing * and # in succession.

The Menu key brings up options for jumping to the home page, displaying or adding bookmarks, viewing browser history, finding text on a page, and saving a page for off-line viewing—Opera Mini lets you choose the default folder on the BlackBerry. The Settings menu, meanwhile, contains the new Change Skin function and a toggle for auto-complete. There's also a configurable Mobile View that defaults to one column and a higher zoom level, and a Full Screen mode that makes the top bar disappear.