(keitai-l) Re: Opera Mini (was: Lengthy review of the WS003SH)

From: Chris Houser <houser_at_kinjo-u.ac.jp>
Date: 07/26/06
Message-ID: <6ca63eda0607260353t742a1fdu9be43bb35b74bfb4@mail.gmail.com>
On 7/26/06, tiger@zombiezodiac.com <tiger@zombiezodiac.com> wrote:
>
> Are folks on the list just using English phone UI and browsers?

I am. (This is an English-language mailing list.)

> I'm trying to
> figure out why there were such vocal recommendations of Opera.

Opera just works; the competition is very limited.

> It's useful
> to remember that JA-JP as my only accept-language.

I'd bet Opera.com ignores that.
I think it's very unusual for sites to look at your accept headers.
Instead they seem to guess your language from guessing your country
from your IP address.

> 3) Looked for a Japanese press release to make sure Mini 2.0 is really
> available
> in Japan.

Well, Opera Mini is free and downloadable. It's available everywhere!

> Found one, but it wastes a bunch of time talking about "seamless
> support" for SMS.  Who in Japan cares about SMS?

Everyone who travels abroad, or has friends abroad.

But surely Opera Mini has nothing to do with SMS.

> 4) Went back to the marketing site and got the URL for download.  No QR
> Code on
> the marketing site.

I'm pretty sure QR codes work only on some Japanese phones;
Opera is not a Japanese company.

> 6) It then tells me that if they're wrong, I should go ahead and install.  How
> do I know if my phone is really supported??

Just click the link - you'll see either "installing...done" or "wrong
Java version."

> 10) Help installation page wastes a bunch of time talking about
> Internet Access
> Points.  How many wifi phones exist in Japan?

Few. Japan is in the dark ages.
(Although McDonald's recently got much more descriptive pamphlets.)

> That's way too much energy for me.  I'm giving up on Opera Mini.  I'm
> left with
> the impression that although Opera is translating their software, they haven't
> done any work to appropriately release their software in the Japan market.

Opera Mini is a MIDP2 program; it should work on any modern occidental
phone, and most Japanese phones (except for old DoCoMo's, which use a
non-standard Java library - curse of the early adopter).

> In my mind that's much worse than the WZero3 review that started this thread,
> which essentially said that the device is too Japanese (keyboard, etc), and
> needs different default settings.

I think the Wzero3 exhibits most of its problems (battery life etc.)
in Japanese too.

> Actually that's just what the review really
> meant - what it said was that Microsoft is conspiring to ruin the life
> of every
> PDA user.

=)

From what I understand, Microsoft is definitely winning the
PDA/smartphone market.

> Even if that's the real intention of WZero3, at least it's in
> Japanese.

=)

> It's weird, because I just got the Nintendo DS browser and so far I'm really
> happy with that.  I guess it must be Nintendo engineering and business folks
> that did the real work of polishing it.

Doesn't Nintendo use Opera? Or is Opera an add-on?
Do you know the providence of the DS browser?

> > I tried Opera Mini on the W-ZERO3 but couldn't get it to work fully.
> > I think I couldn't send it an Okay/Enter command which made it
> > very difficult to use.

Maybe instead you could tap on the buttons (using the stylus).
Received on Wed Jul 26 13:53:40 2006