With the Xiino [xiino3.4, xiinodead, xiinooffline] web browser offline, I decided to try Opera Mini 4 on my Treo 650. I'm a huge fan of Opera on the desktop, and despite its quirks, Opera Mini is a worthy handheld sibling.
Opera Mini is not a native Palm OS application. To use it, you need to download and install IBM's Java VM. Together, Opera and the JVM take up somewhere under 1.5MB, which is in line with other browsers. This lack of native Palm OS support leads to several issues:
However, if you can get past the Java issues, Opera Mini is a fantastic browser:
Opera Mini also has a bookmark sync'ing feature, which I have not tried.
Other minor issues to consider:
All in all, there is no comparison in the mobile web browser world. Opera Mini is the most impressive mobile browser I've tested yet on Palm OS (compared to Xiino, nWeb [nwebreview, nweb, nwebcache], Blazer, NetFront, WebPro, etc.) It is a shame that Opera is saddled with such a clumsy, non-standard UI and no real Palm OS integration. Opera could be, and should be, the standard browser for the platform.
Did I mention that Opera Mini is free?
As I prepared to settle in for a Saturday evening, I embarked on the creation of a cold beverage. But alas! The source bottle had a new, confounding screw-top design not seen on previous bottles. When I attempted to turn the screw to break it free from its base, the base turned with it.
That will never do. But a man will not let a mere poorly-designed screw-top impede an essential beverage objective. This called for a new set of bar tools.
Never let it be said that anything gets between a man and his martini. Never.
I decided to shop around for a lightweight guitar amp, and the Roland CUBE 30X hit the sweet spot perfectly. Very affordable at under $250, the amp has a 10" speaker, the usual BOSS/Roland COSM amp modeling system, and weighs just under 20 lbs.
The only downside to the amp is an issue common to most small amps: an overly boomy mid-range and brittle high-end, neither of which can be "tuned away" with the basic tone controls.
A speaker-swap was in order.
Eminence makes a variety of guitar speakers, and they provide excellent performance details on their web site. The Delta Demon 10" speaker has the flattest frequency response and smoothest high-end of their selection, so I ordered it.
Wow! The sound quality of the CUBE 30X with the Eminence Delta Demon is stunning. I can't believe an amp this small can sound this big and warm. No more booming mids and amazingly warm high-end. No, this doesn't have the tube warmth of my main rig, but the sound is the best I've heard from any amp under 20 lbs.
It makes me wonder if Roland shouldn't market this amp with the Eminence speaker pre-installed. I'm blown away.
Yeah, I know, my blog posting frequency has dropped off a lot, but hey, three years on, and I've still got a blog. And I'm still running Blosxom, with a hack or two here and there to fend off comment spam. I have yet to find a reason to switch to any other software.
I've got plenty more to blog about in the future, so here's to the next year of blogging. 
I suppose I should update my CSS stylesheet one day…
