Can Skyfire replace Safari with its promise of delivering Flash videos to your phone? We’ll find out inside.
Introduction to Skyfire
When first introduced earlier this month, the mobile community was abuzz. Could Skyfire really bring Flash video content to the iPhone in a seamless, fast way? Having first launched on the Android platform, Skyfire 2.0 has proven that it is a solid contender. But, is it enough to replace Apple’s Safari browser on your iPhone? In this review, we’ll find out!
Concept and Design
Skyfire is a full-featured mobile web browser. It supports bookmarking, tabs, quick access to Google, video, or Wikipedia searching, a customizable homepage, pinch-to-zoom multitouch, and even a private browsing mode. The headline feature, of course, is the ability to play Flash videos through Skyfire’s Flash-to-HTML5 conversion service.
Another unique feature is the ability to show similar websites, much like Internet Explorer 8’s “Suggested Sites” feature on Windows. The Skyfire browser app can do everything you would expect of a standard desktop web browser. You can even emulate a mobile or desktop browser through user agent switching in case whatever website you happen to be on has a separate watered-down mobile portal.
Functionality, Content, and Bugs
The browser in its most basic sense, functions as it should. It will give you and sides and helps you information quickly. A nice feature is the ability to orient your iPhone or iPod touch in all 4 directions. So, as the IPAD, there’s no single right way to keep it. Search capabilities are great. Like a desktop browser, you can search Google, videos, and Wikipedia on the toolbar. I hope they extend to films allow for other sites, and it gets through Safari is accepted, as it was some in desktop browser for the time.
Because Skyfire converts Flash videos in HTML5 videos, it only works for video and. This means that no Flash games, applications, or interactive content. And unfortunately there are some websites (Hulu in particular), blocked cell phone browser due to licensing issues and their Hulu plus app. Speaking of HTML5, leads Google instant apparently without crash (works on Safari) work.
If you are jailbroken and already use Frash, it will work in Skyfire the same way it works in the default Safari browser or any other app. Together it makes a pretty good combination allowing you to play a good amount of Flash content. Still of course, no games or apps!
On the downside, one of the things I did notice is the lag when browsing large pages and especially pinching to zoom and scrolling from side to side. It would stutter and jerk as you made your movements, something you rarely see from Safari. Even when a page fully loaded, it was jerky.
Beginning, Skyfire is first published, streaming video (conversion of Flash HTML5) slowly by the great demand on their servers setting. Now that the app has for a little while, things have sped up. It is still not 100% reliable, but is probably the best solution. In fact, there are many it only videos refuses to play for one reason or another. Remarkably, is one of the things, lacks the ability to scrub video that is, able to his then go to the video on various points. So if it to skip only a part you luck. Perhaps this is a limitation of the HTML5 player or something the forward-looking can come.
Value
The Skyfire Browser sells for $2.99 in the Apple AppStore. They claim that is the “ONLY WAY” to browse Flash videos. We know that’s simply not true with Frash for Jailbroken devices, but I guess, they can claim it’s the only Apple sanctioned method. For $2.99, I’d say it’s worth the ability to play videos. It’s definitely worth at least a test to see if it will play the videos you watch regularly. For a full-fledged product, $2.99 isn’t outrageous and still cheap enough to buy to have handy.
Skyfire Browser for iPhone Overall Conclusion
Overall, I would give it a 3.5/5 because there are still many bugs and reliability that needs to be worked out. It marginally gets my recommendation. For me, it will not (yet) replace the default Safari browser (and Frash combination) which has been so well tested and works. The developer has promised future support for Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Media which would be a welcome addition.
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