Samsung Instinct – Opera Mini Canada Workarounds

On screen keyboad for PSP and Samsung Instinct

Last year I blogged about the Samsung Instinct, a CDMA touch screen feature phone that superficially resembles the iPhone, and the problems that users where having running Opera Mini and other third party Java applications on it.

The issue was that the JVM on the Instinct was missing the Java ME LCDUI package which is the way that Java applications create user interface components like textboxes. This meant that was no way to enter text into any text fields in generic java apps like Opera Mini, Google Maps and Mail, or IM apps like eBuddy,   making these applications essentially useless.

A resourceful user eventually created a partial workaround in the form of a  JavaScript based online keyboard at proceemo.com/bookmarks which made it possible to open any URs in Opera Mini and to do Google searches. In November 2008, U.S. operator Sprint issued a firmware upgrade that fixed the text input problem for Instinct users on its network making the Proceemo keyboard unnecessary for them.

The Canadian operators Bell, Telus and SaskTel, who also sell the Instinct have never made the LCDUI upgrade available to their users so Canadians still need to use Proceemo.  Late last week the Proceemo.com site went down and is still down leaving Canadian Sprint users once again unable to enter text in Opera Mini.

User “xaznxplaya” on the Opera Mini Forum has found a replacement for Proceemo at http://zx81.zx81.free.fr/public/psp/keyboard/qwerty/. It was designed for the Play Station Portable but looks like it will work as well or better than the Proceemo one with the Instinct.  It even has a backspace key and a numeric keypad which the original doesn’t. The keyboard was created by “zx-81” and the HTML/JavaScript source code is available from his blog for any one is interested in modifying or extending it.

So how do you get to the keyboard page on the Instinct in Opera Mini if you can’t enter URLs?  Here’s the trick.

  • On Opera Mini’s home screen click the “Opera Community” link. When the page loads, click “Forums” and then click the “Opera Mini” forum link.
  • Scroll down a couple of pages and click the Proceemo doesn’t work anymore? link. Scroll down to the third post and click the zx81.zx81.free.fr/public/psp/keyboard/qwerty/ link. When the page loads bookmark it.  Now you can input any URL or do a Google search using the on screen keyboard.

The “Proceemo doesn’t work…” thread will eventually drop off the front page of the forum, xaznxplaya has asked the forum moderators to “sticky” the thread to keep it on the front page although that hasn’t happened yet.

I’m not in Canada and I don’t have an Instinct so I can’t actually test this workaround. If you are a Canadian Samsung Instinct user please leave a comment and let us know if it works for you.

Instinct users should also check out Instinct-Samsung.com, which seems to be the best online  forum and help site for Instinct users.  There’s even a dedicated Canadian board on Instinct-Samsung.com which is loaded with tips and discussions about using the Instinct on Canadian operators.

I really don’t understand why the  operators and Samsung  aren’t making the update available to their users.  The JVM on these phones as shipped is clearly broken.  A fix exists for this broken product, you would think that they  would be eager to deploy it to protect their reputation for quality and to keep their users happy.  If you are a Canadian Instinct user,  please sign the petitions that have been started requesting that the patch be deployed.  There are separate petitions for Bell and Telus. I couldn’t find a SaskTel petition, someone want to create one?

5 thoughts on “Samsung Instinct – Opera Mini Canada Workarounds

  1. Bell doesn’t always have the coolest or most useful phones but their service is pretty stable. Customer service is isn’t that great.

  2. How is this a proper workaround? It takes 1/2 second PER CHARACTER to input, entering a long web URL would be torture. not to mention that it is not properly formatted to fit on screen. Tell me please how this is better than the (admittedly inadequate) browser included with the phone?

  3. Hi All,

    I just updated my firmware from Bell for Samsung instinct and now you can use enter text into any text fields in generic java apps like Opera Mini, Google Maps and Mail, or IM apps like eBuddy.

    Enjoy.

  4. In my experience, the Samsung Instinct users are really active and enthusiastic users of their mobiles. Despite the problems with the JVM on the phone, the Instinct is still one of the most popular phones on Phoload. It seems crazy that the update has not been made available to so many users. It smacks of a ‘sell the phone and forgot about it’ attitude. Contrast that with all of the firmware updates the iPhone receives…

  5. im from canada and like the other samsung instinct owners i bought this phone from bell. i thought this would be the best phone aside from iphone owners..i dl operamini 4 my phone and faced a no keyboard on my screen ,so i looked all over spent lots of hours looking 4 a solution and this WEB PAGE came up and bingo now im navigating on the opera mini to all this is the best way to get the most from our bell’s instinct

    mad props homie

Comments are closed.