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View Full Version : Skyfire Hits 1.0 Release!


Jon Westfall
05-28-2009, 07:30 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.skyfire.com' target='_blank'>http://www.skyfire.com</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Today Skyfire, the makers of the samenamePC-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"</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1243532213.usr7.png" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Much buzz has surrounded Skyfire, and now it's 1.0 version is available for download! Check it out if you're into alternate browsers - I'm sure you won't be let down.</p>

whydidnt
05-28-2009, 09:08 PM
I tried this on my VGA HTC X7500 and it looks awful. It's like the application is VGA aware, the text is fuzzy and images are pixelated. Is this the case on all VGA devices? Any solutions?

Reid Kistler
05-28-2009, 09:50 PM
I tried this on my VGA HTC X7500 and it looks awful. ....the text is fuzzy and images are pixelated. Is this the case on all VGA devices? Any solutions?

Don't have a particular solution, but have used the last 2 releases (currently at 0.9) on my Fuze - also VGA - and the screen display has MOSTLY been fine: sometimes it takes a while (or Quite A While) for Skyfire to 'resolve' the screen, and it does appear that some of its "built in" screens appear at lower resolution than external sites.

Then again, because it often attempts to show a "real" web page, the screen on the Fuze is so small that one could not really expect a crisp image.

All in all, 0.9 still seems like a work-in-progress, and often move to Opera - the default browser on the Fuze - as that simply seems to work better with many of the sites visited.

(Although, while traveling this past weekend, had to move to IE as NEITHER Opera NOR Skyfire would connect to the hotels wifi!)

yawanag
05-28-2009, 09:59 PM
This was a timely topic for me because I have been searching for a browser since I got my Touch Pro almost a month ago. I tried almost everything out there. I thought I'd be sold on "Iris" but I got tired of dragging and zooming so I could view the full content. I've got old eyes and jeez that print was small.

I have a VGA and fuzziness wasn't a problem. It was just that I like viewing everything on one page like my PC. Right after I deleted "Skyfire" I reinstalled PIE Plus v 2.2 and I'm a happy camper again.

I love showing off my device and I could just see myself trying to tell someone what I love about a PDA when they couldn't see what I wanted to show them or I was the only one that could handlel it while they looked on.

OSUKid7
05-28-2009, 11:44 PM
Wow. I was intrigued, so went to install it, and am glad I restrained myself before clicking "Accept" on the License Agreement screen. It starts off with:

Skyfire Labs, Inc. ("Skyfire") has developed a mobile web browser ( the "Browser") that enables you to access the internet, interact with websites, and send and receive content (collectively "Browser Usage") on your mobile phone, PDA and other handheld electronic devices (your "Device"). Skyfire software connects to the Skyfire servers in order to render web pages and content. When you use the Browser, Skyfire has access to and in many cases will monitor, your Browser Usage.

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I will not be using this browser for my regular browsing. Just knowing that Skyfire is in effect implementing a man-in-the-middle attack on every webpage viewed is enough for me. No need to let them monitor everything I do.

For now, Opera Mobile seems to be my mobile browser of choice.

crimsonsky
05-29-2009, 12:48 AM
And still seems to work only on phones and not PDA's. It worked on my Wing (before I finally retired the cursed thing), but even though I can download it on my iPaq 110, it won't launch, so using Iris instead.

starstreak
05-29-2009, 03:35 AM
It's how skyfire works. You have to use something like Opera. Skyfire, renders all your pages first, then sends it to your pda/phone, so it knows what page you have been to.

Wow. I was intrigued, so went to install it, and am glad I restrained myself before clicking "Accept" on the License Agreement screen. It starts off with:



I'm not sure about anyone else, but I will not be using this browser for my regular browsing. Just knowing that Skyfire is in effect implementing a man-in-the-middle attack on every webpage viewed is enough for me. No need to let them monitor everything I do.

For now, Opera Mobile seems to be my mobile browser of choice.

OSUKid7
05-29-2009, 03:54 AM
It's how skyfire works. You have to use something like Opera. Skyfire, renders all your pages first, then sends it to your pda/phone, so it knows what page you have been to.
Oh I realize that's how it works, but I'm not comfortable with the phrase "Skyfire has access to and in many cases will monitor, your Browser Usage."

Yes, the browser works by rendering on the Skyfire server, but to me, that's an unnecessary third party. Traditional browsers are powerful enough to render the display on the client device. I, personally, don't consider the features of Skyfire to be enough to compromise my privacy/security by allowing Skyfire to monitor my activity.

srmz
05-29-2009, 08:29 AM
No matter what it merits are but there is still no text wrapping to fit the width of the screen. Till this is achieved it will stay on my phone for that occassional browsing of video enabled sites but cannot hit the status of my main stream browser. For the time Opera Mobile remains my primary browser.

cgavula
05-29-2009, 07:18 PM
No matter what they say, Skyfire is NOT a browser - it is a browsing service front-ended by a screen-scraping software.

Everything is caches and rendered on their server, then the audio/video/images/text are set to your divice for display. Is you have ANY concerns about privacy/security, you should probably lconsider other options.