Opera Mini’s online video playback is, to put it mildly, pathetic. The analogy to give for Skyfire would be that it is the ‘Google Chrome’ for the world of mobile web browsers. And just like the search giant, ht refuses to get rid of the ‘beta’ tag at the end of every product release and update.
Skyfire’s video playback is superb, especially since it has the latest Flash plugin built into its architecture and also comes with Microsoft’s Silverlight and Apple QuickTime plugins (that’s right, no additional download). Videos from YouTube, Hulu, MetaCafe, and even some major sites like Rediff load without any problem.
Furthermore, the browser even allows you to download some of these video files! For a Bell phone where data costs are always an issue, it’s a very useful feature. And yes, this ability also extends to some audio files.
As is obvious, the focus on Web 2.0 takes center stage with skyfire. The home screen itself is proof of this, with a window showing four tabs: RSS Feeds, Search, Bookmarks, and History.
The first tab with the RSS is where the browser shines. It automatically integrates sources from various popular sites (Google News, Yahoo News, YouTube, Digg, Hulu, etc.) and also combines two of the most popular social networking services: Twitter and Facebook. Of course, you’ll need to log in to take advantage of the latter two, but they’re a delight to use. And this is only further enhanced by the addition of a small text bar at the top that allows you to update your status on the fly.
The search tab is basically a directory of popular services, while the bookmarks and history are pretty self-explanatory.
Mi Google Chrome, Skyfire has added a ‘super bar’ at the top – a URL, address bar that doubles as a search bar.
And taking some advice from Opera Mini, it also incorporated a remote server to compress data and an engine that adapts a desktop web page to a mobile screen.
Skyfire is not compatible with as many devices as Opera Mini, but I recommend you to install both on your Nokia N97 or any other smartphone if it is so compact. Use Opera Mini for your regular browsing and skyfire for all your Web 2.0 needs.
Unfortunately, Skyfire is compatible with Symbian V3 smartphones, only currently it won’t work on Nokia N97, but the good news is that Skyfire team has started alpha testing Skyfire for Symbian V5 smartphones like Nokia 5800, Nokia N97 , etc. So I think we can expect it in two months.
