browsers.

[l.a.rossmann]

Here is my experience so far. Please tell me if I am missing any options that alleviate the cons of one browser or add the pros of one to another. Feel free to mash my face in as long as you're educating me on my ignorance of any of the following programs in the process. My goal here is to learn something about each browser so that I can have a good browsing experience on this phone.

Blackberry browser.

Pros:

Integrates well with phone. meaning,

a) When I hit URL bar, keyboard displays.

b) Works with the clickscreen.

c) I can hit menu to copy and paste from the URL bar without using that abortion of a text entering method I must use with opera mini.

Cons:

Takes 3 minutes to load pages opera mini will load in 15 seconds. Is slower than a Pentium II running XP.

Opera Mini 4.2

Pros:

Actually loads pages within reasonable timeframe.

Cons:

a) Sometimes, when typing a URL, if I hit o twice(as in google), p will show up. This has happened enough times for me to know I was not accidentally hitting P. I watched o light up as p appeared. It thinks I am using a 9 key phone where I hit o twice to get to P.

b) Keyboard does not show when I go to type in the URL bar.

c) Menu key does not allow me to paste in URL bar unless I somehow get it to use the "old" non-inline input method.

d) Requires I touch a url for a second instead of working with clickwheel. Slows clicking.

Bolt.

Pros:

a) Faster than BB browser.

Cons:

a) Can't paste into URL bar.

b) Fonts are utterly disgusting compared to opera and default browser.

c) Is a royal pain in the *** to touch URLs. I am always touching the wrong one, or not touching what I am touching. This doesn't happen in opera or bb browser. No integration with clickscreen.

Opera Mini 5 beta.

Pros:

a) Unlike Opera Mini 4.2, the keyboard will be hidden then pop up when I click the URL bar. INTUITIVE!

Cons:

a) WON'T ACTUALLY BROWSE!! I will hit the URL bar, type google.com, and hit enter. It won't go anywhere or do anything. I have to enter google.com into a speed dial page, then hit that page in speed dial, for it to visit the website. Otherwise, it is utterly unable to browse. I cannot simply type a URL into the URL bar, hit enter, and have it browse.

[GpCaptMandrake]

Well put. My one word reply: Droid.

[l.a.rossmann]

I was afraid of that.

I am not a browsing lunatic for news and facebook. I am a housecall repair person, so having mobile web browsing allowed me to ballpark repair quotes and timeframes for certain services which was great. The weakest link in the chain becomes clearly apparent when 2 or 3 people are staring at you waiting for a response as you stare at your phone for 40 seconds with an empty screen and a bar that says "24K of 204K loaded" with the default browser or with a look of frustration as you try to hit a URL with your fingernail in bolt.

What I do now with the blackberry is have categories for contacts. In the notes section I take down as much info about what they want then put them in the appropriate category(like such and such console module repair, water damaged this, etc), and after I am done input information on the date, time, parts fixed, and part cost/profit information.

What I don't feel like doing on the go I do in outlook, which I then sync with the blackberry. I do this with the calender.

One pet peeve is that I need BES to put different entries onto different calenders, but this would very much unclutter my day. The other is having to use outlook 2007 on windows to do this.

I also like that with texting I can see prior texts in the history, and that they can be separated from the basic message inbox. I like that I have the choice of looking at all messages, great for when I wake up to 37 things, and that I can look at individual categories.

Lastly, I like that I can search through texts or emails by the title, name of the person, or the body of the message. This is invaluable to me.

If I went droid, would I be disappointed on any of the texting, email, or contact, or calender management front? If I wouldn't be, I know what to do.

[sr_erick]

l.a.rossmann,

I'll try and be as helpful as I can since I've had my Droid for about a week and a half now and have had time to play with it.

I am not a browsing lunatic for news and facebook. I am a housecall repair person, so having mobile web browsing allowed me to ballpark repair quotes and timeframes for certain services which was great. The weakest link in the chain becomes clearly apparent when 2 or 3 people are staring at you waiting for a response as you stare at your phone for 40 seconds with an empty screen and a bar that says "24K of 204K loaded" with the default browser or with a look of frustration as you try to hit a URL with your fingernail in bolt.

I had a Storm before the Droid, and a Pearl before the Storm. The Storm had a much better browser experience than the Pearl. The default browser is pretty good for navigating pages (better than other software such as Bolt or Opera) but it's slow and doesn't render things the nicest. I eventually converted over to the Bolt browser to render anything more complex than a mobile site. It was much faster, but still cumbersome. The Droid browsing experience is lightyears ahead of anything you can get on the Storm. Not only is it FAST, it renders pages almost perfectly as if you were on a PC. It's very intuitive, easy to click links, etc, etc. You wouldn't be waiting around quite as much.

What I do now with the blackberry is have categories for contacts. In the notes section I take down as much info about what they want then put them in the appropriate category(like such and such console module repair, water damaged this, etc), and after I am done input information on the date, time, parts fixed, and part cost/profit information.

What I don't feel like doing on the go I do in outlook, which I then sync with the blackberry. I do this with the calender.

One pet peeve is that I need BES to put different entries onto different calenders, but this would very much unclutter my day. The other is having to use outlook 2007 on windows to do this.

The solution for this on the Droid (or any Android device for that matter) is to set up a Google Calendar. If you enter something from your PC online it is automatically synced with the phone and vice versa. You can also set up separate calendars. No more BES, no more Outlook, no more messing around. Just simple and easy to administer via a web browser and automatic syncing to and from your phone with multiple calendar support.

I also like that with texting I can see prior texts in the history, and that they can be separated from the basic message inbox. I like that I have the choice of looking at all messages, great for when I wake up to 37 things, and that I can look at individual categories.

Lastly, I like that I can search through texts or emails by the title, name of the person, or the body of the message. This is invaluable to me.

Android on the Droid comes with threaded SMS/MMS texting. It is also separate from the email inbox. Yes, you can search through text messages and emails. One thing with Android, if you don't like the layout of the texting application you can simply get another one via the app store and replace it (honestly, it's great though). That's the beauty of Android...don't like something? Replace it with a different app. Another thing is built in support for voice dialing, contact searching, or just searching anything on the phone and/or web instantly. Hit the search key and say what you're looking for and in seconds you can perform a Google search. As you can imagine, an operating system coming from Google for a phone incorporates some pretty powerful search capabilities.

If I went droid, would I be disappointed on any of the texting, email, or contact, or calender management front? If I wouldn't be, I know what to do.

Honestly, on these four fronts, I don't think so. I'm not a fanboy either, I've been a device owner for a week and a half but have been in the BlackBerry world for two years. You won't be disappointed. It will take a little getting used to the more responsive touch screen but I am getting a lot better even after a week and a half of use. Also, the physical keyboard isn't the greatest, but practice makes perfect. I'm not perfect yet, but I'm getting better. There is also some new keyboard software which will soon be available to give you the "SureType" key layout (two letters per key) in portrait mode. I can't wait to get my hands on that, as that was my primary layout on the Storm and, quite obviously, the Pearl.

Hope this helps. I know this is a BlackBerry site, but you asked for info so this is what I have to offer.

[leglace]

I have been hopefull Opera Beta 5 gets an update for the Storm to fix that issue of non response. Betas get updates all the time. I recall opera Mobile 9 & 10 periodically creating updates that fixed bugs during its beta version.

opera Mini 5 is so close, yet its 3rd on my list after Bolt and BB browser. The finished non-beta version of Bolt can paste URL's. I uses "select", "copy", and "paste" and it works fine. I just dislike how you have to click on URL's.

[BigDaddyNYY]

Not sure if I have a different version of Opera Mini 5.0 (5.0.15655), but once I type in the address and click "GO" it launches the website/search. Actually, I have even run a few tests with based on the droid vs. storm 2 youtube reviews, and using Opera Mini 5 on a storm, my pages loaded just as fast as the pages loaded on the Droid. The Droid did pull up the initial images sooner, but total load time based on the progress bar was actually consistently better on the storm 1 using Opera. I was really surprised by this.

I can also copy and paste text from within an article or from the url bar by simply holding my finger on the screen and selecting to copy or select text and then copy (depends on if I am copying the URL or . Not sure if I missed something from your review, but I have been successful with this all along. Again, maybe I have a different version, or I have my settings set different, but this has worked fine for me.

My biggest complaint about Opera Mini 5 is trying to use the virtual keyboard, especially without the use of suretype, which has been my savior on the BB Storm. I just can't successfully hit the correct key on the virtual keyboard in portrait view using opera. I know that if I hover over the letter, it will highlight and then when I remove my finger it will type the highlighted letter, but that significantly slows the process down. Guess this is also why I am hesitant to make the move to the Droid, but I plan on spending some time playing with it this weekend at the verizon store, if I get a chance. But I am seriously questioning moving to the Droid if the Storm can browse at a similar speed using Opera.

If you would like me to post any of my settings for Opera Mini 5, I would be happy to do so, as it seems like the issues you are having may be settings related. Not sure. I know that I have in line editing turned on, which many have complained about, but I also have never had an issue of deleting the entire line as many have complained about. Just make sure that the entire address is not highlighted when you hit the backspace button, and do not hold down the back button (simply tap it) or else it will delete all of the text.

I hope some of this may help you or others.

[BigDaddyNYY]

Just realized that your device is listed as a 8330, but this was in the storm rants and raves, so I was responding based on my use on a storm. If the issues you are having with Opera Mini 5 was on a 8330, then I am not sure if my response was any help at all. If you are using it on a Storm, again I would be happy to check my settings if it would be any help to you.

[leglace]

Have you not experienced urls not registering at times. It happened to me one out of 20 times. It got annoying. I too winded up creating shortcuts for it, in order for it to register.

BTW, I went to Verizon today. I checked out the Droid Eris, Moto Droid, & Storm 2. I was surprised to find how different the Moto Droid was from the Droid Eris. Eris is much smoother, especially when browsing. The Moto Droid is not a comfortable device to use. The buttons on the bottom took a couple taps to make work. I am sure the interface is very customizable. The one I used was not that friendly. Browsing was much faster than the Storm 2, but not as smooth as the multi touch capable Eris. I liked the Eris. However, I had issues with the browser showing the links at the top of the Crackberry site. It just didn't show anything.

Anyhow, I really loved the Storm 2 better as it pertained to simple interface (simple program launcher), and typing. I started a ton of apps on the Storm 2 and checked the memory. I was well over 108 mb. So app memory is not a concern anymore. For me I was sold on the Storm 2, except for the BB Browser. It loaded the Crackberry Site in 36 seconds. My Storm 1 was loading it at the same time, and it took 43 seconds. The Droid Eris did it in 15 seconds. The Storm 2 browser renders images better than Storm 1, but thats it. So here we are. The Storm 2 's weak link is its browser.

When can we expect this webkit from Torch? What happened to Skyfire?

[ChuckH0308]

It amazes me how many people think Opera Mini 5 is the most awesome thing ever. I use it for two websites and that's it. It does two things better than the BB browser and that's that it renders photos better and it's faster. BUT, it's only faster when it actually works correctly. Half the time I click on a link with it I get a blank screen and sometimes it takes three, four, five tries before it goes to the pate. Or I click on a link and it refreshes the page I'm on, over and over again. Also, if a link has numbers in it, if you accidentally tap over the number part it freakin puts the number into the phone dialer and dials it. WTF? And only two zoom level, tiny and small. And scrolling is miserable too. Let's see, missing letters from words, print over the top of other print, missing link boxes, partial page loads... and more!

I haven't uses Bolt for awhile...it really pizzed me off. It would always load a page to 20% and then quit. And it was super painful to use, what with having to use the menu to zoom in and out? What a PITA!

The RIM browser is clunky and slow, but it works. And let's face it, no matter how pretty they make it, it's still going to be slow as long as the data is going through RIM BIS/BES. The plus side to that of course is less security risk.

Maybe someday we'll get a decent browser and RIM server enhancements, but for now we're basically screwed any way you slice it.

[BigDaddyNYY]

I hope that you didn't think that I was making opera sound like the best thing ever. I actually rarely use it but was trying to offer the op some assistance on its use. I was surprised to see that using opera on my storm was just as quick as a droid though, all of the Droid trolls make it seem like the storm has no chance of competing with its browser. Looks like we storm users could say there's an app for that.
I actually use the BB browser and for the most part it is fast enough for me as I am usually loading mobile sites which do not require excessive loading times. I am sure that even these could be loaded quicker but it has never been much of an issue.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[SilvioBenussi]

Originally Posted by l.a.rossmann

Here is my experience so far. Please tell me if I am missing any options that alleviate the cons of one browser or add the pros of one to another.
Opera Mini 5 beta.

Pros:

a) Unlike Opera Mini 4.2, the keyboard will be hidden then pop up when I click the URL bar. INTUITIVE!

Cons:

a) WON'T ACTUALLY BROWSE!! I will hit the URL bar, type google.com, and hit enter. It won't go anywhere or do anything. I have to enter google.com into a speed dial page, then hit that page in speed dial, for it to visit the website. Otherwise, it is utterly unable to browse. I cannot simply type a URL into the URL bar, hit enter, and have it browse.

Perhaps you need to reinstall Opera 5 Beta on your BB Storm?
I can put any URL inside of the URL bar and it loads freakishly fast.

I can frankly say Opera 5 Beta is the best browser I've used!
It is comparable to the Droid's browser and meets it in speed, no less.

[floridatank]

to get the browser to work I need the At7t service books, can someone please help.

PM or email me please.

John

[scott9050]

Those unhappy with the lack of a keyboard popping up in Opera 4.2 need to do as I did and have it pop up with a convenience key. It was a quick solution to that shortcoming.

[tghockey07]

Originally Posted by GpCaptMandrake

Well put. My one word reply: Droid.

My 5 word reply: Android browser kills blackberry browsers!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[l.a.rossmann]

Originally Posted by scott9050

Those unhappy with the lack of a keyboard popping up in Opera 4.2 need to do as I did and have it pop up with a convenience key. It was a quick solution to that shortcoming.

How do you do this? I don't see it in Opera's options.