November 7th, 2006
Mobile Phone Apps
It’s nearly been a week now but now is a good time as any other to talk about Java applications for your cellphone. I own a Motorola v186, basic and entry phone. Never cared much about picture, video and music options but one important thing to me is functionality.
Opera Mini: I’ve been using Opera Mini for quite some time now and was glad to see that version 3 is not far away and is doing some testing with it. The Opera Mini browser allows “regular” phones to access the Internet by way of the Opera servers processing and rendering for you a small-size version of nearly any web page. You can follow the different features that were included in previous version via my posts. As far as new features go Opera Mini 3 will feature RSS feed support. You’ll be able subscribe to feeds as you browse the net thanks to an auto-discovery feature. Other features include now secure browsing (https) and photo upload. No release date as of yet but it can’t be too far since it seems to work quite nicely.
Gmail Mobile: For quite some now Google email solution adapted it self to mobile browsing. It adopted a slim redesign for better viewing on small screens but they are now going a step further by leaving the constrains of your phones WAP browser or Opera Mini and reach out to be a standalone application. I would see how it could be useful and faster than a regular WAP browser but it does not match Opera Mini ease of use. The best feature they offer is intensive shortcut support specific to Google’s universe. In Opera Mini shortcuts are associated with the applications specific features; so in the case of Gmail you can archive, star, mark unread messages with a few clicks (or the press of one key). The only reason why I will not jump to the Gmail Mobile wagon is because of the default font size of my phone. It is huge and very little information fills the screen. Opera Mini on the other hand allows small font rendering similar to what you see on those screen captures. On my phone regular menus are really huge trust me (Menu and Refresh would be side by side with very little space between the two).
