Hello Android lovers! Skyfire has been updated to version 2.2 (details below). This browser is one of many offered on Android (Stock, Dolphin, Steel, and Opera Mini) Which one do you like best. Let us know in the comments section.
Skyfire is a web browser which operates by rendering requested web pages on a server using the Gecko rendering engine before sending the rendered output to the browser. The output is sent as images annotated with interactive items such as links and text-fields.
Consequently, the browser is able to use features from a full desktop web browser without the need to have a powerful mobile device. Features such as Adobe Flash, Silverlight and QuickTime are usable without additional plug-ins on the device, and can be easily updated server-side without the need to update millions of individual client installations.
Awards
- 2008 Read Write Web’s one of six must have applications for Windows Mobile
- 2008 Laptop Magazine’s Mobile Maverick Award
- 2009 Webby People’s Voice Award for Best Mobile Application
Features:
- Enjoy Flash video content
- View mobile or desktop versions of websites
- Intelligent related media recommendations
- Share instantly with your friends
- Innovative toolbar UI for easy and fast access
What’s new in this release?
- GeoLocation Support. Skyfire now supports the HTML5 GeoLocation feature. Thus, for example, Google and other web pages that use the location feature will be fully working.
- Vertical Search Results. When searching with Skyfire several result options are available, such as Google, Videos, Trends, Twitter and Amazon. We will add more providers from time to time, so send us feedback.
- Set as Default Browser. For Android 1.5 to 2.1 Skyfire supports setting the default browser option within Skyfire. Unfortunately, Android 2.2 does not provide that option.
Enhancements in this release
- Android 2.2 / FroYo enhancements: Fixed some cosmetic and crash related issues that were FroYo specific.
- Flash 10.1 related enhancements: Addressed UI overlap and background audio issues with Flash. We recommend that users change the Plug-in setting to “On Demand” under the Browser Settings tab for snappier browsing experience.
- Updated Video startup behavior: We optimized the video start sequence to clearly differentiate between pre-loading and buffering.
- Disable standard Zoom buttons: we reintroduced this feature (was missing in Skyfire 2.1). Thus you can remove the +/- zoom buttons if they are not wanted.
- Improved Pinch to zoom for HTC devices (Evo, Incredible etc). We found a way to reduce the page shifting behavior after pinching that was systemic to some HTC devices.
- Fixed some crash and force close related issues that we found.
Known Issues
- Finding videos and 25% stuck issues. Supporting videos from millions of websites on the Web is not a trivial undertaking. We are getting better and better at it and support more than 100,000 websites and counting. Another major upgrade due out soon so stay tuned.
- Hulu: Won’t work since Hulu does not have the rights to support content for mobile devices and thus is blocking Skyfire