SkyFire launches "world's first" flash-enabled mobile browser for Android. [Spoiler: It's awesome!]
GadgetSteria - April 30, 2010
...and just like that, Fennec was beaten to the punch.
...and just like that, Fennec was beaten to the punch.
While Fennec may be the hot stuff in the media's eye currently with pre-alpha's jumping around, another contender need not be forgotten -- SkyFire. It's been around for quite some time to Symbian and WinMo users, though today it's Android's time to shine.
You may recall a leaked beta of SkyFire for Android surfacing about a week ago that was honestly kind of rough around the edges. The task of getting a public-ready version so soon is quite a surprise and caught me off guard no doubt. I was prepared to wait a solid 1-2 more months to play with SkyFire on Android. Nevertheless, what does SkyFire 2.0 for Android have to offer? Continue on?
First off, the biggest treat with SkyFire 2.0 is Flash! That elusive technology has been reigned in and designed to turn the countless blue boxes and LEGO-looking icons into actual viewable content. All I can say is it?s not a moment too soon!
**We must highlight however that it isn't true flash in the phone's browser. Instead, when the browser detects Flash video on a page, it engages in the server-side compression and conversion tom foolery to translate that Flash video into a more mobile friendly HTML5. Regardless, videos in the browser. Wo0t!
Second, a sort of smart search "Explore" feature will allow users to click a single button and have all kinds of content aggregate based on what they're viewing at that very point in time.
Third, sharing web content is easy with the one-click share button. The now standard options for sharing content include: Facebook, Twitter, email, and SMS.
Finally, SkyFire uses cloud-based technology for pre-rendering/crunching down web pages on their end and sending smaller (though still high quality) web pages to your mobile device. Opera Mini is one browser that also operates this way.
Overall it looks very promising. I've been playing with SkyFire since last night and am really impressed. The staple feature "sudo-flash" works beautifully and was buttery smooth on my DROID. I also like how easy and quick it is to switch between mobile and desktop version of websites.
The SkyFire team did an awesome job here. It hands down beats the stock Android browser in speed. And personally, I like the layout much better as well. We'll continue flogging it for the rest of the week and report back later how much we love love/hate it! Stay tuned! Video and press release below.
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