SkyFire: Access full web content on a mobile web browser

Filed under: Windows Mobile, Mobile Minute, Beta

SkyFire: Access full web content on a mobile web browser

by Brad Linder Jan 28th 2008

While mobile web browsers have come a long way in recent years, so has the web. Today's mobile browsers like Opera Mini and Safari for the iPhone let you zoom in and out of web pages and let you scale text and images to fit on a small screen. You can even watch some web video. But mobile browsers still have a tough time handling pages that make heavy use of Ajax, Flash 9, JavaScript, and other modern technologies.

Skyfire is a new browser for Windows Mobile smartphones launching in private beta at this week's DEMO 2008 conference. The Skyfire team claims that the mobile browser is the first to support Flash 9, and as you can see in the video above, the browser seems to handle YouTube and other multimedia content much the same way a desktop browser would. You don't have to download and convert files to view them or open them in a separate video player.

According to Webware, the way Skyfire achieves this is by acting as a proxy browser. In other words, the Windows Mobile application isn't really a full web browser. Instead, Skyfire hosts an application on its servers that does all of the hard work of rendering the web content and then delivers it to the client software on your phone. On the one hand, this makes it easy to deliver full web content to the underpowered device in the palm of your hand. On the other hand, we're a bit concerned about what would happen if Skyfire actually becomes popular and the company's servers start to get hammered by users making web requests from their mobile phones.

Skyfire currently supports Windows Mobile 5.0/6 phones with full QWERTY keyboards. A Symbian client is coming soon.

Tags: demo, demo-2008, mobile-browser, mobile-web-browser, opera-mini, safari, skyfire

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mxxcon said 10:33AM on 1-28-2008

this is the same way OperaMini, TeaShark and DeepFish work.
they all are proxy browsers. their master server downloads content, 'pre-chew' it and then send ready to display tiled images to your phone/device.
On one hand it's great because underpowered devices can display complex pages quickly without draining battery. On the other hand, if those master servers are overloaded, you might as well forget about your 'mobile web' and wait until you get to a desktop to browse web.

Fred said 11:03AM on 1-28-2008

I'm not sure I'd worry too much about their servers. As of November, Opera Mini had 26 million users and was serving a billion pages a month, and I've certainly never noticed a problem. Skyfire would require far less infrastructure.

mxxcon said 12:37PM on 1-28-2008

still, i notice w/ operamini pages load somewhat slower than using opera mobile or ie

James said 12:52PM on 1-28-2008

Uh, hasn't Google done this for a really, really long time with their mobile searches? I guess it's good to have as many competitors as possible -- somebody's going to do it better than everybody else, obviously -- but it's not really *new*. Personally, I'd rather have a device powerful enough to do desktop-grade rendering (like the iPhone or the higher-end WM smartphones), rather than having somebody figure out how to water it down for my puny little underpowered handset.

That said, it's good to have options for those of us stuck with low-end devices. I hope they have a Nokia 770 port =-)

Adam Reiniger said 5:27PM on 1-28-2008

I surprised noone picked up on this though (which comes from the privacy & security part of www.skyfire.com). Pretty much says: we'll watch what you do, and keep the data.

Once you have subscribed to and begin to use the Browser, we will collect information about your use of the Browser on your Device (“Browser Usage Information”). Browser Usage Information includes such information as which websites and programs you access or download on your Device, how long you visit such websites and use such programs, your activities (such as products purchased or advertisements viewed) on such websites, which specific areas of a website or webpage you use and for how long, websites you bookmark, search terms you use, referring/exit pages, browser and platform types, the geographic location in which your Device is being used and information you provide on third party websites. All of your Browser Usage Information is stored by Skyfire under an automatically generated, random identification number (“ID Number”) that will not be associated with or linked to your Personal Information. Please be aware, though, that your Browser Usage Information, when viewed in the aggregate, may reveal your identity even if it is not associated with or linked to your Personal Information. By downloading our Browser and accepting our Terms of Use (which includes acceptance of this Privacy Policy), you have given us your express consent to collect and use Browser Usage Information and tie it to an ID Number.

Adam Reiniger said 5:30PM on 1-28-2008

Thomas Atkinson said 10:18AM on 2-12-2008

I can't see why they just allow you to download it of the Net, Put the Installer onto your PDA or otherwise and hey presto! Install it!!!!!

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