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Skyfire Windows Mobile Browser 0.8 Improves Video Quality, Speed and Text Entry
Posted by Jason Chen at 5:40 AM on September 26, 2008
Skyfire, the third-party Windows Mobile browser that does much of the desktop-class page rendering server side to spit out to your phone, has just gotten an upgrade to version 0.8. Among the list of features that get bumped or added are video quality, launch speed and auto-reconnect, zooming, downloading of content and in-line text entry.
The browser still supports dynamic AJAX content, Flash, Quicktime, and Windows Media, but our hands-on attempt in watching a YouTube video started well but ended poorly. Skyfire is still (and will always) render stuff on the server side, which will lead to good compatibility but poor speeds, if your phone isn't pulling and rendering down the images fast enough. On the whole, we like 0.8 a lot and things are improved all around, but there's a reason why it's still in beta. [Skyfire]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
ws6kid
Posted 6:09 AM 26/9/08
no pandora, cant type to login.... :(
ws6kid
bosspants
Posted 5:52 AM 26/9/08
Flash? Awesome. I hope they perfect it.
bosspants
danatoth
Posted 5:52 AM 26/9/08
That is balls they render server side, they should fix that.
danatoth
strangepork
Posted 5:46 AM 26/9/08
I don't suppose they've got sound in there yet, have they?
strangepork
ws6kid
Posted 6:22 AM 26/9/08
@pure241: Yeah i thought they had maybe fixed it in this version though.. But i cant even login to see...
ws6kid
pure241
Posted 6:18 AM 26/9/08
If you haven't already figured I love Skyfire. I can go almost everywhere I do on my desktop. Including banking sites and flash websites.
pure241
pure241
Posted 6:16 AM 26/9/08
@ws6kid:
I tried using pandora on the last version. Pandora needs to be able to cashe locally, which Skyfire doesn't do = server side rendering.
pure241
pure241
Posted 6:14 AM 26/9/08
@strangepork:
They've had sound for a while.
pure241
pure241
Posted 6:13 AM 26/9/08
@strangepork:
It's had sound for a while. In fact the sound has always run better than video.
pure241
RobertJP
Posted 6:43 AM 26/9/08
@pure241: I wouldn't feel comfortable giving Skyfire my financial passwords...why do you?
RobertJP
ws6kid
Posted 7:19 AM 26/9/08
@Superjuanvi: are you a registered beta tester?
ws6kid
Superjuanvi
Posted 7:15 AM 26/9/08
this piece of crap won't install on non-phone pocket pc. It has a complicated system that links SMS messages with the installation files. If the application is free why the hell go though so much trouble to verify installation, its not like someone is going to hack it, so they do not have to pay!
Superjuanvi
Ron-Mexico
Posted 8:02 AM 26/9/08
Kind of surprised to see my good 'old' phone on Giz. Still love this little thing.
I keep waffling between Skyfire and Opera Mobile 9.5 as my primary browser. They each have their advantages. However, in the brief time I've had to tinker with this latest Skyfire version, I'm pretty impressed. It seems notably quicker.
Honestly though, nothing beats a good feed reader for sheer content consumption. Trying to browse full web pages on ANY phone is going to involve a lot of squinting, zooming and panning. Fun at first, but gets old after awhile.
Ron-Mexico
IngramPorkchop
Posted 6:13 AM 26/9/08
Of course they render server side. How do you think they manage to support all of those formats without any plug-ins!?
IngramPorkchop
Darkest Daze
Posted 8:26 AM 26/9/08
@danatoth:
It's actually the reason it's so fast and renders so well. Plus it's better for your battery if your phone isn't doing all the interpreting of the websites and it's content.
Darkest Daze
Superjuanvi
Posted 9:02 AM 26/9/08
@ws6kid: Yes, I registered. But it does not make a difference.
Superjuanvi