Technically Thinking

Opera Mini 4 was released in November of 2007. The built-in BlackBerry Browser is okay for quick searches and such, but Opera Mini is far better for web browsing. Instead of showing a simplified version of web pages, Opera Mini will usually show the whole page as it would be shown in a desktop internet browser, allowing you to zoom in on the part of the page that you want to see (see screenshots below). A small cursor, which you can control with the scroll ball, allows you to move around the page and select links and form elements (such as text boxes and buttons).

The Start page, pictured above, gives you quick access to an address bar, searches, your customized list of bookmarks, and your recent history. New searches can also be added to the quick search bar using the “Create Search…” option available when entering text into a text field on any web site.

INSTALL

To install Opera Mini, open the browser on your BlackBerry, click the “menu” button and then click the “Go To…” link. Navigate to the Opera Mini download url, http://mini.opera.com/, and click on Download Opera Mini (as described on their download page).

CONFIGURATION

Once you have Opera Mini installed, I recommend that you review the settings. Setting the font size to “Small” was important for getting pages to look right on my BlackBerry Curve. Also, I like running in “full screen” mode so I can see as much of the page as possible at one time.

MORE CONFIGURATION

When attempting to Browse the internet with Opera Mini, your BlackBerry may pop up a dialog saying:

The application Opera Mini has attempted to access the network. Would you like to allow this?

Clicking “yes” will allow the connection to be made. In order to prevent this from popping up the future, I first tried going to Options->Advanced Options->Applications and changing all of the permissions for Opera Mini to allow, but this did not work. After doing some searching I discovered that this can be resolved by going to Options->Security Options->Firewall, and change the status to “Enabled”. The next time you browse the Internet with Opera, a dialog should pop up saying:

The application Opera Mini has requested a http connection to server4.operamini.com

This dialog box will provide a check-box for allowing “all http connections” in the future. Click this check-box and then click “Allow this connection”. This issue that made these steps necessary will hopefully be resolved in a future release.

SCREENSHOTS TAKEN ON MY BB CURVE

I just got a BlackBerry Curve. One of the first things I was interested in getting working was an ssh client. I was very pleased to find MidpSSH had a free mobile ssh client that worked on the BlackBerry. Here is the short and sweet installation (exact steps may vary depending on your BB version):

1. Open the browser on your BlackBerry, click the “menu” button and then click the “Go To…” link. Navigate to the MidpSSH download url, http://xk72.com/wap (as described on their download page).
2. Click on the “Latest Stable Release” link. Navigate to the BlackBerry Build section and download the OS version that matches your BlackBerry OS. Follow the on-screen steps.

The MidpSSH software should now be installed. When I attempted to connect to a server at this point I received the error:

Session Error - Writer: Invalid tunnel name

If you receive this error, refer to this forum post regarding Configuring Full Internet Access on your BlackBerry. I needed to configure my APN by going to Options -> Advanced Options -> TCP. The APN settings for common providers are listed on that forum post.

That’s it. You should now be able to create a new session in MidpSSH and make an ssh connection.

Dave