Opera Mini 5 beta - a bit of good news? + howto update the icon — Samsung S60 5.0 phones - Omnia HD (I8910)

rleader 21 Sep 2009, 10:41

This weekend I had time to do another round of i8910 reflashing...
This time, I went back to Italian xxxIF7, then upgraded to xxII1 via PC Studio's updater - all standard stuff, as well documented elsewhere ...
(kudos to samsungi8910omnia.com)

Now, whilst putting back on all my contacts, data (NB I'm not losing data from Mass Memory on these firmware upgrades... but I always back up just in case) and various programs (still using Google Maps v3.0.1 - see other post! haven't tried v3.2.1 which was unusable), I noted that Opera Mini is now up to v5 beta!

And.. it works a treat. After two days, not yet had a crash or a slow down (Java heap issue). So far so good for me.

I've even been cocky enough to find out how to upgrade the low resolution (15x15 pixel) icon to a decent 100 x 100 one.
Kudos here goes almost exclusively to:
fonetalk.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/change-the-default-opera-mini-icon-on-your-symbian-s60-mobile-phone/

So, I followed this guide like this:
1) I had already installed Opera Mini 5 beta, so I left it alone on the i8910.
2) I went to Opera Mini website with my XP PC and manually downloaded the .jad and .jar.
www.opera.com/mini/next/download/
3) Using ZipGenius I opened up the .jar and manually dragged across the new Opera i.png icon (the 100x100 pixel one from the above fonetalk.wordpress.com link) and reinserted that, i.e. overwriting the already present i.png in the .jar file.
4) Using PC studio, I copied both the Opera .jad and (now updated) .jar files over into E:\Mass Memory on the i8910.
5) I tried to reinstall/overwrite my Opera 5 beta installation, but received the error ".jad and .jar files do not match" or something about size etc. This shows everyone I don't know much about Java, but hey! I just want a workable solution 😊
6) I deleted the .jad file and straightaway just tried again to reinstall the .jar alone by tapping on it within FileManager.
7) Yay! It worked. I then rebooted the i8910 for good measure and yes, in Applications, the new hi-res Opera icon is there. Opera took about 10 seconds to load up, which made me sweat a bit, but this was a first time load I think (my settings from previous Opera 5 beta install (with the low res icon) are still all there) & all else appears ok for now.

In any case, if you get a problem, I guess you can just remove Opera completely and start all over again with the standard OTA download.

The xxII1 3D task manager is indeed AWESOME!
Some fresh air for the i8910 at last.
Not had time to exhaustively test xxII1 out, but what other people are writing about on xxII1 appears to be correct. I think this is the firmware that the i8910 should have (just about) been launched with last May.

rleader 23 Sep 2009, 10:22

Well, it took about 3 days for my installation of Opera 5 mini beta to show what others report also; that eventually in a session it will slow down, start showing graphical glitches as you try and browse. By the time the graphical glitches appear on screen, then it appears each time you click a link, it will hang for 30 secs, then just reload the current page you are on.
Of course, as per Opera 4 mini, you can just quit and start again.
Here's the odd thing: over a few sessions ... the time you could use Opera 5 mini (before it started to hang) gradually decreased, until (I think) I have now reached a browsing session that lasts about as long as Opera 4 did on a 'good day'. It might be a little bit longer (and increased ram allocation?).

I reckon that Opera 5 mini, as in Opera 4, hits some kind of memory (fixed or dynamic) buffer, e.g. due to the underlying Java implementation... and when that point is reached, the buffer gets 'fixed' and is no longer cleared (even after restarting Opera). Like somewhere on the handset there is a temp files cache that is not being cleared.

However, for my first few days of browsing, I can but assume that (until the above threshold is reached and a cache becomes fixed), any sessions beforehand are not big enough cache-wise, thus ensuring the buffer is cleared upon each browser Exit. i.e. I was only doing short browsing sessions for the first few days. Each time I quit, the buffer was cleared. But when I became more confident with Opera 5 mini beta, I did a long browsing session e.g. more than 5 minutes+, the internal buffer was reached (i.e. (?) passed the dynamic ram allocation to this instance of Java (?)) and this then caused the code that would clear the buffer (temp files cache?) to malfunction. Hence the buffer (cache) is now always full... and sessions crash more quickly. You can tell I am not a developer, but I thought I'd report what I observe as best I can, in case someone out there knows a fix & can tell someone else!
Opera 5 min beta, is just that,a beta, but I think people may agree it is getting very close to being a lovely browser alternative to the i8910's now (admittedly much improved) internal S60 browser.

rleader 02 Oct 2009, 13:48

Ok - essentially, Opera 5 mini beta is just as poor as Opera 4 and I'm back to pretty much always using the built-in browser which is more stable (assuming I actually bother to take the i8910 with me anywhere these days).

I've deinstalled Opera5beta a few times, and essentially it is as I report above; for some 'minutes' of browsing, you get a 'decent' experience, then things go wrong, and it is only on a full deinstall and reinstall do you get some more hassle free minutes of use. Yes, beta is completely correct, but getting close to something good. Here's wishing the Opera developers well! I love the mobile version on my old WinMo handset, which I still use quite a bit of the time.

EDIT: 5 Nov 2009 - It looks like it has been out for a few days, but now I have dumped Opera 5 mini beta and now using Opera mobile 10 beta for Symbian (yes! mobile!). It installed ok on a newly flashed 'fresh' handset, and so far today, so good. Looks much improved! Well done Opera! Now to stop watching those YouTube reviews of the HTC HD2;... must,... save,... money... ! help!? 😊