[PaulOBrien]

Skyfire - the remote server-based browser - has now left Beta and becomes a version 1.0 release.

Snipped from the press release [PDF]...

Quote

Skyfire Launches its 1.0 Version with Over One Million Users, Making it the Fastest Growing Downloadable Mobile Browser in the United States

Today Skyfire, the makers of the same-name PC-like browser for mobile devices, is announcing the launch of its 1.0 version now available for free download at get.skyfire.com. Over one million consumers have installed and used the Skyfire browser in just under five months, making it the fastest growing downloadable mobile browser in North America. This demonstrates the explosive consumer demand for exact-PC like full internet browsing on mobile devices.

Skyfire 1.0 delivers the PC web, real fast Skyfire remains committed to providing everything the PC web has to offer in a mobile experience with blazing fast speeds. For the first time, consumers can use their phones to watch any web video and live events, stay connected with friends, share web pages instantly, and use the full-featured PC versions of their favorite websites. Skyfire is the only mobile browser to support popular web standards and plug-ins such as Flash 10, Silverlight 2, Ajax, javascript and more, so the rich media on websites work on phones just like the PC. Known for its speed, Skyfire launches quickly and loads web pages quicker than other mobile browsers.

Skyfire users can customize the start page with RSS feeds from their favorite websites. In addition, they can integrate their Facebook and Twitter accounts to import status updates and tweets, and easily publish their status to these networks. Skyfire is the only mobile browse to share and publish any web page to Facebook and Twitter networks with one click.

What’s new in Skyfire 1.0

Improvements specific to the Skyfire 1.0 release include enhanced navigation, zooming and interaction as well as faster launch, power optimization, and new search functionality. Having previously delivered rich media and text readability on a small screen, the focus of this latest release was helping users get to the content they want more quickly.

As the new version starts-up, users can type a search or URL in the Superbar even while Skyfire is connecting in the network. After a web page loads, smooth scrolling and zooming – similar to an iPhone – helps users navigate the page more quickly. Likewise, now users can click on links on the first page load without having to zoom first.

Unique user activity – Doing things no other mobile browser can do

Skyfire users are different than iPhone and Opera users because they can watch video, and tend to watch a lot of video on their phones – something not possible on other browsers. They watch video on the PC version of websites such as Hulu, but also video embedded and shared in Twitter and Facebook updates from their friends. The also watch video on news sites and experience browsing and video in one experience, vs waiting to click through to a separate application. There is also high engagement with watching live streaming events such as the Barak Obama Presidential inauguration and Summer Olympics during the beta period.

Skyfire users are active on websites that don’t work on any other mobile browser. Consistently, the top websites used on Skyfire are the top websites used on PCs – such as the full-featured Hulu, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Google Docs,
full-featured Gmail, and professional sport leagues’ full websites.

Giving a significant installed base a better browser

Skyfire runs on more than 70% of the worldwide installed base of smartphones, based on figures from a March 2009 Gartner report. These include smartphone devices made by HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-
Mobile, to name a few, and newer models with VGA and WVGA screen resolutions all running on Windows Mobile or Symbian platforms.

These consumers now have a mobile browser that gives them an iPhone-like browsing experience but more, since Skyfire offers Flash 10 and Ajax. With the Skyfire 1.0 release, this large installed base can get the PC web on their phone
with a simple to install, free download.

I'm intrigued to know what percentage of members are using Skyfire as their main browser? I am going to give 1.0 a shot, but previously i've always ended up falling back to a local browser... i.e. Opera. \Which browser do you use?

P

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[dr_nick]

seems like only available for WM6.5?

I get a 500 server error when I try to navigate to get.skyfire.com directly from my device.

not sure I have the time nor inclination for a 6.5 upgrade considering how laborious the reinstall process is

(still wishing for a SIMPLE AND QUICK utility to reinstall all my apps and settings)


dr_nick

[Rado]

dr_nick, on May 27 2009, 19:17, said:

seems like only available for WM6.5?

I get a 500 server error when I try to navigate to get.skyfire.com directly from my device.

I can get to their page normally from my HTC Touch Diamond (WM6.1) - using Opera that came with it. I've already downloaded the PC installer but was too busy to try it out yet.

Normally I use Opera all the time, if SkyFire doesn't offer tabs, then I'll stick with Opera. Pity that Opera is limited to a max of 3 tabs...

[Darthlord]

dr_nick, on May 27 2009, 14:17, said:

seems like only available for WM6.5?

I get a 500 server error when I try to navigate to get.skyfire.com directly from my device.

not sure I have the time nor inclination for a 6.5 upgrade considering how laborious the reinstall process is

(still wishing for a SIMPLE AND QUICK utility to reinstall all my apps and settings)


dr_nick

Just download the cab file from PC soo...

Dunno why but the 1.0 is slower than the 0.9 with me o.O

[Takarin]

I used to use Skyfire exclusively on my Moto Q9c. Since moving to the Omnia i910, I really like Opera Mobile. It kills me that Opera doesn't support flash; I keep Skyfire installed so I can hit up YouTube, Hulu, etc. I also use the Facebook integration quite a bit. Very convenient for updating status.

I've played with Skyfire 1.0 for only a few minutes, so I can't really give it a fair review.

Reading up on Opera Mobile 9.7, it looks like that will be very similar to the way Skyfire works... should be interesting.

This post has been edited by Takarin: 27 May 2009 - 09:58 PM

[argh]

Rado, on May 27 2009, 19:38, said:

Pity that Opera is limited to a max of 3 tabs...

That can be changed in Opera settings. Sorry, I can't remember where - give it a Google

[Rado]

argh, on May 28 2009, 03:34, said:

That can be changed in Opera settings. Sorry, I can't remember where - give it a Google

Nice - thanks for the tip, didn't know it isn't hard-coded
Found the special URL opera:config and changed the "maximum allowed tabs" setting - works nicely.

[ad3]

argh, on May 28 2009, 01:34, said:

That can be changed in Opera settings. Sorry, I can't remember where - give it a Google

[size="3"]
Hi there,

type in opera on the url bar; opera:config

ppfff have a good tweak.... day! [/size]

[argh]

ad3, on May 28 2009, 08:02, said:

[size="3"]
Hi there,

type in opera on the url bar; opera:config

ppfff have a good tweak.... day! [/size]

Yeah, I was just about to go to sleep and typing in Opera Mobile, which means that I couldn't see what I was typing as the screen doesn't scroll to the width of the text box, so I didn't go in to much detail. I knew it was opera:config but I'd forgotten the section/name of the actual option to modify.

Anyway, back to Skyfire - I'm liking it. It seems much faster than I previously remember it, although I was temporarily using a Symbian Device during the beta, which might not have been so optimised. Great startup time, great page load time (rivalling opera mini, at least on wifi, I haven't tested 3G) and good Flash/DHTML content (especially audio). It really is a pretty good desktop-style experience, but doesn't appear to render pages in a more mobile friendly way. I've only had a quick play so might have missed this option.

This post has been edited by argh: 28 May 2009 - 01:43 PM

[Menneisyys]

Takarin, on May 27 2009, 23:57, said:

Reading up on Opera Mobile 9.7, it looks like that will be very similar to the way Skyfire works... should be interesting.

Not really: OpMobile (with mobile operator support, which will only be available later - not now!) compresses the traffic, but uses full local HTML rendering, while SkyFire renders HTML on the server.

Also see my dedicated articles if interested; they're all cross-posted to the Apps section here at MoDaCo.

[Menneisyys]

ad3, on May 28 2009, 10:02, said:

[size="3"]
Hi there,

type in opera on the url bar; opera:config

ppfff have a good tweak.... day! [/size]

See the "Opera Mobile 9.5b2 / Samsung Omnia b15233" in the "Multitab/page" row at http://winmobiletech...sers/chart.html , it has a mini-tutorial, with tons of screenshots, showing all this.

(The chart is part of one of my latest Web browser bibles at http://www.modaco.com/content/pocket-pc-ge...cl-iem6-review/ . I REALLY recommend thoroughly reading all my articles because they contain tons of tricks and tips like this one.)

[mstephenson]

Finally got round to downloading this last night and I have to say, it's a huge disappoitment

I'd been using the beta as a secondary browser for a select few websites that just wouldn't load on PIE. These used to load fine on the beta version but for some reason just will not work on this new version

After accepting that I could no longer access one particular site with Skyfire I thought i'd check out youtube to see if there were any other reasons to keep this browser. I tried about 5 videos in total and just 1 worked.

The above reasons were enough for me to decide to discard Skyfire anyway but on top of that, about 50% of the time I go to load Skyfire up it just comes back with various error messages, despite me being in a full coverage area.

The most annoying thing about all of this is, the sites I wanted to look at used to work! Seems (for me at least) the full release has actually taken a rather large step backwards.

[camz]

I tried Skyfire but there was no sound produced when I am on YouTube.. I still prefer Opera at the moment..

Installed on the device but still no luck, no sound produced.. Sigh

This post has been edited by camz: 02 June 2009 - 10:10 AM

[Jabar38]

Have some privacy concern using SkyFire browser... Your browsing habits.websites visted,etc. are being monitored

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