Archive for: skyfire
- December 16, 2010 2:29 pm
Skyfire announced today that they have pushed the iPad-specific Skyfire app to Apple for approval. Skyfire, for those who don’t know, is a replacement browser that offers up a more sophisticated UI along with several integrated options for social networks and sharing via Facebook and Twitter. Users will also be able to check up on their RSS feeds thanks to the built in Google Reader support.
As always, the amount of time that an app spends in Apple Approval limbo can vary from a few days (for special people) to weeks. Also unknown at this time is what price Skyfire for iPad will sell for. If we had to guess, we’d say $5.99 given that the iPhone-specific version goes for $3.
Any iPad users yearning for a mobile Safari replacement?
- November 23, 2010 10:59 am
A few weeks back, the desktop-based social browser titled “RockMelt” was released. The goal was to make sharing things online easier, more streamlined, and more fun. Over the last few weeks, I’ve come to find it quite handy in many situations. And in much the same way, SkyFire 3.0 for Android is aiming to make the mobile browser a lot more social as well.
The biggest social upgrade in SkyFire 3.0 is a universal “Like” button that is tied to your Facebook account allowing extremely quick sharing on the largest social networking website. Other features include OneTouch Search (quick searches performed on Amazon, Digg, Facebook, Google, Twitter or VideoSurf), FirePlace Feed Reader (Facebook feed reader basically), and “Popular Content”. The latter of which is pretty handy for those who not only search the internet, but meander as well. Click the Popular Button on the Skybar to instantly comb through the hottest articles according to Facebook’s 500 million+ users.
We’ll be trying it out soon. In the meantime, hop inside to see a video of SkyFire 3.0 in action.
Fans of the popular Flash-to-HTML crunching Skyfire browser on the iPhone (and many other platforms) will be happy to know that the Skyfire team is working on an iPad-specific version. At the time of writing, there aren’t many details to share. Ok, there aren’t any details to share. For a possible release date keep checking back.
So far, my personal experience with Skyfire has been pretty good. The only hiccups were around launch day when the servers imploded under the insane stress placed upon them by countless hundreds of thousands if not millions of users. So stay tuned iPad users, your day is soon coming…
It was but two short days ago that Skyfire for iOS was both released and yanked shortly thereafter. But this time, instead of Apple being the one pulling the plug, it was the Skyfire itself. Long story short: Skyfire’s Flash-to-HTML5 crunching servers were being pounded. So the app had to go. The accompanying announcement from Skyfire was that the app would be back “soon”, and that the company needed to expand their resources.
Apparently “soon” means 2 days. Because Skyfire is back — sort of…in limited form. Skyfire CEO took to the company’s blog today to set the record straight, and notify the masses that downloads for Skyfire are re-enabled for certain “batches”, though said batches are first come first serve. The U.S. batch is already live, with more countries to go live in the coming days as resources/bandwidth improve.
Catch the official statement after the jump…
Yesterday we told you that Skyfire was officially coming to iOS this Thursday at 9am. Well, we were wrong — but in a good way. Apple jumped the gun because Skyfire is now live in the App Store!
A quick refresher as to why you should care about Skyfire:
- Play millions of embedded flash videos
There’s plenty more to like about Skyfire, but you should really experience it for yourself. Pick up Skyfire in the App Store for $2.99 — [iTunes Link]
Update
Well that was quick — Skyfire has officially been pulled from the App Store…by Skyfire. Apparently, they drastically underestimated the wrath tens of million sof iOS users would place on their Flash-to-HTML 5 rendering servers. The short oversight nearly melted their headquarters (just kidding). In all seriousness, Skyfire has said that they are upgrading their systems as fast as possible and that we’ll see Skyfire back up in the App Store at the earliest possible time.
Did you snag it before it was pulled? How’s your experience been so far?
- November 2, 2010 11:13 am
Following several other concessions on Apple’s old iron grip, another awesome iOS app has finally broken though — Skyfire.
For those unfamiliar with Skyfire, it’s a pretty awesome mobile web browser that’s been around on Android for several months now. The way it works is that it helps navigate Flash-heavy websites by stripping said content and then sending it back to Skyfire’s servers to compress and convert to HTML 5 video. From there, it’s back to the handset in a much more mobile-friendly format. In this case, the handset in question is the iPhone/iPod Touch.
Users looking for interactive Flash game compatibility and other non-video Flash-based services are still out of luck. Because of how Skyfire works, such things aren’t possible. But then again, if they were, Apple probably wouldn’t have approved Skyfire in the first place.
Look for SkyFire to go live in the App Store this Thursday (November 4th) at 9am for $2.99.
- September 2, 2010 10:20 am
It’s easy to say the weekly stories of App Store approval/rejections are an emotional roller coaster. But finally — Finally! — we can say that Apple appears to be weeding out the stupidity and employing some people with common sense once and for all. At one point, apps that “copied functions of native iOS apps” were banned outright — no matter how good they were. But Apple has at least relented a tiny bit of control. Now there are several stand alone browsers to choose from, namely Opera. But a new high profile contender has hopes that it too will soon be in the fight.
The folks behind Skyfire are pleased to announce that an official iOS Skyfire app has been submitted to the App Store. The thing that made Skyfire so great on other platforms such as Android, was the way it handled flash video…or that is, how it didn’t handle it natively. Skyfire works much like Opera Mini — the rendering is done on a Skyfire server, compressed, Flash video converted to HTML 5, and then that compressed information (up to 75%) is sent to the phone. Using Skyfire as your main web browser, should it be approved, could literally give you more mileage on your daily crawl across the internet.
The way it handles Flash should appease Apple whom we all know is absolutely not a fan. The bigger picture, however, is that server-side rendering is a huge benefit for mobile browsers as they have to deal with mobile processors, smaller screens, and shrinking bandwidth woes. For now, it looks like we can be fairly certain Skyfire will be approved. According to the devs, they worked closely with Apple to assure that Skyfire complied with all of iOS’s and Apple’s rules. Though we can’t help but look back at the countless lapses of common sense that Apple has shown us regarding app approvals in the not too distant past. With that said, we are waiting and watching…
…..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…
Being a BlackBerry user is both rewarding and painful. One one hand, you have one of the best platforms for messaging — whatever type it is — and rock solid stability. However, on the other hand you have a platform that let’s face it, in the consumer age is falling behind faster and faster with each passing day. Just look at the BlackBerry browser — it’s a joke. RIM might as well not even include it for consumer oriented BlackBerries because it’s so slow, renders for crap, and is all around terrible. The BlackBerry platform as a whole needs some dramatic revelation.
And that is precisely why Skyfire for BlackBerry is no more. *Gasps!* Yes, that browser that was shown off a couple months back was quite a looker even in it’s beta stage. It easily beat the pants off the stock BB browser and was promising enough from early previews to even unseat Opera Mini and Bolt. But again, that may not ever be.
According to the Skyfire team, because of the unrefined and frankly, outdated BlackBerry platform when compared to more modern mobile OS’s such as Android, Windows Phone 7, and the iPhone, the BlackBerry is lacking. The biggest culprit as highlighted by the Skyfire team is the inconsistence, scattered nature of BlackBerry API’s and the downright laughable Java machine that is present.
With all of this new found time on their hands, what will the Skyfire team do to pass the team? Work on their Android port of course! Good news for Android users, not so much for Berry users. Looks like the only saving grace BlackBerry aficionados have now is waiting for RIM to rollout that webkit-based browser they’ve been so feverishly busy on.
Any of the aforementioned geeks and/or camps care to weigh in?
IntoMobile > Skyfire
