9 replies to this topic

[philly-d]

The browser wars continue with Skyfire 1.5 heating things up!

The "dodgy on VGA devices" screen resolution and fuzzy fonts have been replaced with crisp finger friendly graphics and text, along with a speed boost too!

If you haven't heard of Skyfire before, you won't know that it supports full Flash and Windows  Media videos and is generally very good at rendering websites as they should be seen.

From the release notes for 1.5:

Quote

• Full VGA support: Skyfire now provides native support for the high resolution VGA and wVGA screens as available on many newer Windows Mobile phones. Web pages now render sharp and crisp with full fidelity
  
• Finger friendly UI: A new, intuitive, and finger friendly UI  for high resolution phones provides an easier browsing experience
  
• Smooth Scrolling: Kinetic scrolling has been added to Skyfire. Pan or flick the screen to move in any direction smoothly
  
• Full screen mode: For touch screens, browse in full screen mode with no UI elements on the screen for maximum page visibility

Enhancements:

• Auto-move text entry box when the (virtual keyboard) is used: Assures that a text entry box moves into view in case the virtual (on-screen) keyboard covers it
  
• Updated Flash and Silverlight: Updated both to the newest version available
  
• Updated Start Page: Optimized for high resolution devices
  
• Performance: Upgraded  both client and server for faster and more responsive browsing

So head over to the Skyfire site for more info and download, or visit m.skyfire.com from your mobile browser.


So what's your favourite mobile browser at the moment...Skyfire, Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, Bolt, Internet Explorer? Let us know!

[Rado]

Just did a very quick test, and it looks nice! Feels responsive, and it's very good at rendering Flash content, whether simple animations, or interactive stuff. URL autocomplete also works nicely. On the other hand, it looks like it doesn't have a password manager or support for tabs (or I just didn't see it).

It would take much more time to test it properly though... it stays installed on my Diamond, but I'll probably keep using Opera Mobile as my primary browser, and may launch SkyFire from time to time to play with Flash websites, etc.

[buzz83]

philly-d, on Dec 10 2009, 09:20, said:

The browser wars continue with Skyfire 1.5 heating things up!

The "dodgy on VGA devices" screen resolution and fuzzy fonts have been replaced with crisp finger friendly graphics and text, along with a speed boost too!

If you haven't heard of Skyfire before, you won't know that it supports full Flash and Windows Media videos and is generally very good at rendering websites as they should be seen.

From the release notes for 1.5:
So head over to the Skyfire site for more info and download, or visit m.skyfire.com from your mobile browser.


So what's your favourite mobile browser at the moment...Skyfire, Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, Bolt, Internet Explorer? Let us know!

Love the flash support in skyfire 1.5. It appears to be a very nice browser... however Opera 10 beta 2 seems to render pages faster and has tabbed browsing. I'll run both on my TP2, but Opera will remain my default browser.

[Bouvrie]

I like things fast and responsive. After having used Opera Mini for a while, I'm currently running UC Browser/UCWeb. It's a pretty fast browser, with tabs and animated gif support over Opera Mini.

I'm going to test this new Skyfire release, but wonder whether it starts up and responds as prompt as UCWeb. The Flash support is a nice feature.

Edited by Bouvrie, 10 December 2009 - 07:30 AM.

[agent.m]

I love it. Its my default at the moment. But not sure about using to view sesitive information. online banking and hotmail etc. But its what i wished for from skyfire. It looks great!! My only problems have been loading times. But im going to reflash my phone cause its been giving me probs. You have to try this on a VGA WVGA phone it looks much better than previous versions. Why isnt skyfire on marketplace yet??

[tedious]

agent.m, on Dec 10 2009, 15:45, said:

I love it. Its my default at the moment. But not sure about using to view sesitive information. online banking and hotmail etc. But its what i wished for from skyfire. It looks great!! My only problems have been loading times. But im going to reflash my phone cause its been giving me probs. You have to try this on a VGA WVGA phone it looks much better than previous versions. Why isnt skyfire on marketplace yet??

I tried it on my Touch Pro. Not bad. Looks better than before. One thing is bugging me though - my hardware keyboard is not recognized by the browser, I have to use the touch screen one? Anyone having the same troubles?

[buggs1a]

Flash sucks royally on the tp2 verizon. frame rate is terrible.
skyfire does not format text to fit the screen like opera 9.5 does when zooming so skyfire really kinda sucks.

[hendhess]

Wow, what a difference! ESPN looks gorgeous on the Touch Pro. My hardware keyboard works well.

I think Skyfire has 're-reclaimed' the browser crown over Safari with this one, but I'll certainly have to see these new Opera 10 builds.

Too bad Hulu continues to block video off Skyfire -- This browser certainly has enough muscle to handle it...

[buggs1a]

I don't know how anyone can say skyfire is better then safari. It's not even close. SAFARI IS WORLDS BETTER THEN ANY OTHER BROWSER EXCEPT MAYBE THE DEFAULT jmoto droid one. Sorry for all caps.

Skyfire doesn't have nearly as smooth framerate when zooming or scrolling etc. Pages are still not formatted correctly to yer screen and the text is still ugly specially when zoomed.

1.5 though is better then it used to be.

[paThaLim]

I just installed this yesterday after flashing a new Rom...

It works great on youtube playing video fullscreen is not possible.