Webware

Updated July 28 at 9:45 a.m. PDT with more information about the leak.

On Monday afternoon, Skyfire announced it would put a temporary halt on its alpha program for BlackBerry. The makers of a popular alternative mobile browser for Symbian and Windows Mobile phones pulled the private testing program when they discovered earlier Monday that a nondisclosure agreement had been broken and the program's download link had been leaked.

Co-founder Nitin Bhandari wrote on Skyfire's blog, "During the time it was leaked, there were many BlackBerry users trying the alpha release on Curves, Storms, and other BlackBerry models--it was not intended for these devices."

This statement suggests the company might fear the possibility that negative press could plague the product before its sanctioned beta release. A Skyfire spokesperson told CNET that the leak was not internal.

This alpha photo was leaked last April.

This is not the first time Skyfire has had problems with overenthusiastic alpha testers. In April, screenshots of an even earlier-stage alpha build for BlackBerry hit the Web, much to Skyfire's consternation.

Skyfire has not said when it will reinstate the alpha testing program for its BlackBerry browser.

Read and filter RSS feeds, and update your social status.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

A little over a year after Skyfire began making a splash, the Silicon Valley startup has officially released version 1.0 of its free third-party mobile browser for Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. During its beta tenure, the newbie browser whipped up its fair share of excitement and kudos. Indeed, Skyfire has arrived at its first full release with a fairly fast and solid mobile browser offering. From a usability standpoint, its streaming video and social bent are Skyfire's strengths. Small, but significant navigation holes are drawbacks in what is an otherwise stable and serious effort.

While beta users won't find Skyfire 1.0 dramatically altered from version 0.9 beta, there are noticeable changes to the interface design from the first iterations. The lists of featured links that originally graced the Start screen have now been replaced by a customizable RSS feed. You can sort by filters and post article links to Facebook and Twitter. Separately, you can upload a new social networking status from the screen. The joint address-search bar has crept to the top, leaving more reading space. Video playback has become much smoother, too, since it was first introduced, though it still sometimes suffers from catches and varying picture quality (this isn't Skyfire's challenge alone.) Panning, zooming, and processing performance are neater as well.

In version 1.0, Skyfire has concentrated on the theme of picking up where you left off browsing. When you navigate away from a page or exit Skyfire--yet keep it running in the background--the browser will now remember your page position, returning you to your last zoom level and approximate location on the page.

Operating speed was another focus of the 1.0 release. Now when you load a page, you can click a link without having to zoom in first--a real benefit if high resolution or your own familiarity with a Web site makes zooming in before clicking a link an extraneous step. Likewise, you'll be able to enter a URL or search term into the search bar 2-3 seconds after the page begins loading, versus version 0.9 beta's 8-10 seconds of lag time before you could begin typing.

What's missing?

While Skyfire supports Flash and Silverlight plug-ins, it doesn't support those applications that require text entry. It likewise won't work for media players requiring the 'local storage mode,' as do Pandora, Rhapsody, and Netflix. Unlike Opera, it's lacking some niceties that make browsing life easier, like copy and paste, and the ability to search a block of text for a word or phrase. Copy/paste would have been useful for filling in a URL during testing when the URLs for several over-the-air downloads were not linked. There's also no way to cancel a page from loading in Skyfire 1.0 if you've changed your mind. It's not a deal-breaker by any means, but is a slight annoyance nonetheless.

Flash support enables streaming video.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

The Twitter and Facebook feed updates, while a nice addition, frequently cut off longer messages. Rather than reveal the whole message when you tap, Skyfire directs you to your contact's profile page. If your goal is to just read the comment and possibly respond, navigating around the profile page is overkill. Likewise, Skyfire's built-in reformatting engine needed to be taken in a few pixels on our Samsung Omnia. Version 0.9 did away with the SmartFit menu option of previous versions in favor of automatically refitting the screen width after zooming into a story. Instead of eliminating the need to pan, on the test phone, slight panning was a must.

Finally, having the virtual keyboard on a touch screen phone pop up when you tap an area of text entry would have saved countless steps while searching, commenting on Facebook profiles, and entering passwords.

For the most part, these minor drawbacks are the sort that Skyfire can fix in upcoming releases. In the meantime, what it's offered Internet-seekers is a strong contender to Opera Mobile 9.5 beta that's more engaging in terms of a superior video playback solution (Opera Mobile does not currently support Flash Lite natively, but is expected to offer Flash in the next release) and also better attuned to newsgathering and sharing on social networks. With these two features, Skyfire could wing its way into Opera Mobile's turf on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. If it wants to maintain its position in the face of Skyfire's official mobile browser launch and Mozilla's impending one, Opera's response must at least match Skyfire's video playback and speed, plus overturn its own UI foibles.

Note: Skyfire 0.85 users and earlier will need to uninstall Skyfire before downloading version 1.0.

Related story: Leaked: Skyfire browser's BlackBerry alpha photos

It seems that the fellas over at The Boy Genius Report got their hands on leaked screenshots of an alpha version of Skyfire's mobile browser for BlackBerry. Their source has proclaimed it "already being the best BlackBerry browser ever."

The BlackBerry version of Skyfire looks a lot like the other smartphone versions, just wider.

(Credit: Boy Genius Report)

Wow, that's some potentially overblown praise, especially as Opera's mobile browser has been the alternative of choice for many BlackBerry users. It's also not the first time that the free Skyfire browser has been overhyped. No disrespect meant to Skyfire--its mobile browser for Symbian and Windows Mobile has a solid design, competitive speeds, and supports (imperfect) video playback--but let's give this all some perspective before declaring it the next killer browser.

First, we've known for a while that BlackBerry was next on the list of Skyfire's smartphone development, after Windows Mobile and Symbian, which are available now in an advanced beta that's very soon expected to tip over into the first full release.

Second, a look at the screenshots reveals a design that's very similar to the most recent, and still frequently tweaked, builds available now. Sure, that won't help you if you're a BlackBerry user, but in absolute development terms, it's less interesting than the fact that at its inception, Skyfire hatched exclusively on mobile (versus Opera Mobile and Mozilla's Fennec, both products born first from desktop browsing) and emerged seemingly out of nowhere to become such an anticipated application. I'm all for choice when it comes to mobile browsing, and I'm happy to see Skyfire being prepped for BlackBerry fans, too, but also keep in mind that it could be a long road between now and final development, and that much could change in the mobile industry from now until then.

Third, Skyfire brings some interesting features and good diversity into the mobile browser mix that Opera Mobile has held onto for so long, but it's far from being the magic bullet of mobile browsing. Support for downloading certain content is still variable and video playback can be choppy even over a strong, secure Wi-Fi connection. The browser can always get faster, and it still lacks some of Opera Mobile's advanced features, like in-line search.

It's unsurprising that Skyfire had no official comment to share, but the leak's photographic evidence makes it apparent that something's in the works. Again, it may be some time before Skyfire publicly acknowledges the alpha, and opens up a beta app, but when it does, we'll be there with a hands-on review.

(Credit: Microsoft)

The enhanced usability features of Windows Mobile 6.5 (coverage) may not be available for a few months yet, but that doesn't mean you have to wait for Microsoft's newly announced mobile operating system to start sampling some of its new features. There are a couple of similar applications that are available now.

Instead of twiddling your thumbs over the new MyPhone service--which will back up your phone's contacts, photos, and texts--you can sign up for Dashwire (download). Dashwire's free service for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 uploads your calls, texts, contacts, photos, videos, and ringtones to an online dashboard. You'll be able to access and also interact with your phone's contents; for instance, reply to a text, e-mail a photo or video, and read visual voicemail.

Similarly, Microsoft's revamped Internet Explorer Mobile looks promising, with added support for Javascript and Flash, and some more sophisticated page navigation than in previous versions. Chances are, if you're using IE Mobile on a Windows Mobile 5 or Windows Mobile 6 phone, downloading Opera Mobile or Skyfire (beta) will give you some of those promised features today. The most recent version of Skyfire, for instance, comes with Flash 10, Silverlight 2.0, and the latest Quicktime, and can play media directly from the browser. Opera Mobile, on the other hand, has similar icon-based navigation to what Microsoft previewed in Barcelona this week, and some advanced features to highlight and search text. Opera Mobile's larger buttons already make version 9.5 beta 2 a finger-friendly option. In fact, some Windows Mobile phones, like the Samsung Omnia, come shipped with Opera as a browser option.

It will definitely be interesting to see how Microsoft's new features play out in the phone's ecosystem compared with the services that already exist. In the meantime, Dashwire and the alternative mobile browsers can give you a taste of what's to come.

Skyfire (coverage), the plucky mobile browser that could, inches closer to a full-version release on Thursday with version 0.9 beta for Symbian and Windows Mobile phones. Despite some rocky loading issues with our preview version, Skyfire's significant additions to its feature set leave much to be admired.

Many of the changes are technical, such as support for all screen resolutions on Windows Mobile phones and a Symbian client that has lost over 50 percent of its kilobyte bulk. Many more developments pack on greater browsing power, like the capability to download some MP3s and videos.

Skyfire's revamped interface.

(Credit: Skyfire Labs)

A few features really stood out after playing with Skyfire 0.9 beta for a few hours on a T-Mobile Dash. The first is the RSS feed that's taken over the tabbed main screen. Search, the directory of top links, and History get their own tabs, but the primary screen now shows editable RSS feeds that include, by default, Hulu, Yahoo stories, Twitter, and Facebook--you'll of course need to sign into these last two. The RSS feeds are handy if you're into RSS, but if you're not, we think Skyfire should let you set any of these four tabs as your default.

The way Skyfire now handles articles, blog posts, and other big chunks of text is also different from in previous versions. The SmartFit menu option no longer exists; instead, after zooming in on an article, Skyfire will automatically reformat it to fit the screen's width. The best way to deal with text articles has been an ongoing debate in the mobile browser world for some time. Skyfire's latest solution worked seamlessly in our tests and offered hassle-free reading.

Downloading media is another new feature that piqued our attention. Certain media files that you can play in Skyfire, like an audio file or some videos, you can now also download to your phone. We were able to download a CNET TV video this way.

Video handling is one of our main interests with all mobile browsers. While some video was still choppy using Skyfire on a secure home Wi-Fi connection--like those streamed on CNET TV--an entire episode of House played with just a few jerky interruptions when we fired up Hulu. The video quality was pretty weak, but the show was, by all means, watchable.

Another feature of interest is Skyfire's refinement of the address bar, which, like other desktop and mobile browsers, doubles as a search bar. If you choose a search term that Skyfire has auto-suggested after you began typing, it will offer a second set of more refined search terms. For instance, typing in 'hot potato' gave us 'hot potato salad,' and then led to more specific recipe options.

A few more tweaks worth mentioning include a bug fix that lets you launch a long URL from an e-mail as long as Skyfire has been set as your default browser, and updated plug-ins for Flash 10, Silverlight 2.0, and the latest Quicktime.

Skyfire has come a long way since its humble beginnings, but there's always room for improvement. For instance, is a dedicated search tab really necessary when your address bar performs the same search? Speed and video quality can also always be improved, and Skyfire is still missing some of Opera Mobile's more advanced features, like searching for text in-line.

While we likely won't see any of the advanced gesturing tricks that are expected of Mozilla's Firefox Mobile (Fennec) in Skyfire anytime soon, its mobile browsing solution is fairly sturdy, which means that the company has a chance of winning you over before Mozilla drops its mobile-browsing bomb.

You can try Skyfire 0.9 beta for Windows Mobile and Symbian phones by pointing your mobile browser to get.skyfire.com.

(Credit: Skyfire Labs)

Updated on 10/21/08 with more detail.

Starting Friday, Americans won't be the only ones able to test drive the newly opened beta for Skyfire's mobile browser.

Now Canadians can, too, after one or two tweaks to Skyfire's registration process gives northern numbers the green light.

While Canada may be the first country outside of the U.S. with a chance to download the mobile browsing alternative, it won't be the only one for long--Skyfire won't announce particulars, but did say that it expects to expand its service to other countries soon. This is the official word, of course. Some users tell us they unofficially downloaded Skyfire months ago using random U.S. phone numbers to register.

Skyfire's claim to fame is its zoomed-out browsing mode that replicates desktop browsing on a much smaller screen. A mouse lets you navigate around the page. You click as you would on a desktop browser to zoom in for a closer look.

By using a proxy server to help serve and render Web pages, Skyfire can also stream Flash video and support Ajax and Quicktime.

However, it's far from the only one of its kind. Skyfire mobile browser, which updated to version 0.8 just over a month ago, currently poses the most substantial competition to Opera Mobile 9.5 beta. Both Opera Mobile and Skyfire are available for Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. Opera Mobile slightly edges Skyfire in the model count with its additional support for Symbian UIQ handsets and its more toned feature set, but young Skyfire is quickly catching up and raising the stakes with a simplified interface that still packs the links in and decent video support.

As Skyfire fans its flame to Canada and other countries after that, Mozilla continues to develop its own mobile Firefox Mobile, code-named Fennec. We previewed the alpha installation for two Nokia models, and so far it looks great. But we'll really know where each stands on speed, video support, and navigability when the alpha code for Windows Mobile is released and we can compare Opera Mobile, Skyfire, and Firefox Mobile side by side.

In the meantime, Canadians and Americans can surf over to Skyfire.com to download the version 0.8 beta.

Related:
What Skyfire's Symbian beta means for Opera

Skyfire, a Mountain View, Calif., start-up that competes directly with Opera Mobile browser, announced Wednesday the opening of its public beta for Windows Mobile phones. This is good news if you've been waiting months to join Skyfire's private beta program.

In addition to going public, Skyfire has upgraded from version 0.6 to version 0.8, a move that brings significant performance improvements and a more fleshed-out start screen design.

Skyfire's new start screen adds icons for a richer look.

(Credit: Skyfire Labs)

On the start screen, Skyfire has shifted from a spindly design of bare text links to a fleshed-out look that includes shaded boxes and icons. The headline content--world, business, sports, elections, and a weather widget--is all fed by Yahoo, though it's not an exclusive partnership.

Skyfire has introduced SuperBar in version 0.8, a field that combines the address bar and search into one. SuperBar helpfully offers suggestions to complete your query as you type, but unlike Opera Mobile 9.5 beta (which has separate search and URL fields), Skyfire doesn't remember your URL history. Nevertheless, it's one new feature that helps elevate Skyfire from a scrawny mobile browser with potential to one that is a viable browser alternative.

Vastly improved streaming video quality is another feature that gives Skyfire an extra dose of credibility. Video streaming in previous versions was watery, more a proof of concept than anything you'd want to use to watch videos. Version 0.8, on the other hand, delivers decent full-screen quality with streaming that matches sounds and images with fewer hiccups than before. There's still work to do to smooth over the humps and improve image clarity, but these latest improvements are notable.

Video streaming is much improved in Skyfire 0.8 beta.

(Credit: Skyfire Labs)

You can now also download images and PDF content, send stories via SMS, and type text directly into Skyfire, instead of typing into a separate entry field like in previous versions--something that hasn't yet been implemented in Google Android.

Improved zooming controls, quicker launching and page loading, and the ability to set Skyfire as the default device browser are smaller, but still significant changes that bring the browser closer in line with the much brawnier, more mature Opera Mobile 9.5. Skyfire has also made the browser much more stable.

Skyfire has continued to differentiate its browser from Opera Mobile, mostly in its tiered design for bookmarks and search results that lays out a handful of browsing categories without taking up much space.

Skyfire's unique layout crams a lot of links into a little space.

(Credit: Skyfire Labs)

Skyfire could still use a few additions, like a stop button to abort page loading. It also wouldn't hurt for Skyfire to gain a few of Opera Mobile's tricks, like searching within text and highlighting a text selection. Copy and paste would naturally follow. Still, with the ability to save images, stream videos, and quickly surf and browse, Skyfire is on its way to threatening Opera's dominance as the go-to mobile browser.

Skyfire beta is available for those of you in the private beta program through a program update; new users can get it for Windows Mobile phones by pointing the mobile browser to www.skyfire.com.

Editors' note: Since this article published, Skyfire has offered the first hundred CNET readers immediate access to Skyfire's Symbian beta program. (Note: Only U.S. phones at this time.) Enter the promo code CNET100 in the sign-up page. Once you have signed up for the Skyfire Symbian Beta with the beta code, an SMS message will be sent to your mobile phone prompting you to create a password. Once you enter a password, you will be presented with a download link.

On Thursday, mobile browser start-up Skyfire announced the opening of a private beta for the Symbian Series 60 (S60) platform--nearly a week after a Symbian users Web site busted the news.

Skyfire is positioned as a resource-light Web browser that relies on Web servers to deliver a desktop browsing experience. I covered Skyfire soon after its initial Windows Mobile release and agree that it has a nice design and good potential; however, with rendering and crashing issues, it's not nearly ready for open beta. That's too bad because adding an identical build for Symbian means that Skyfire has two platforms in private beta with some tall performance hurdles to leap.

Skyfire will debut on 10 Nokia handsets, including the high-end N95 and E71.

(Credit: Skyfire Labs)

Going global (and taking on Opera)
Skyfire's Symbian beta program is the mobile browser's second platform, and its entree into the European market, where it will be rolling out later this year. This move improves Skyfire's competitive position against Opera Mobile, whose release of a free version 9.5 beta for Symbian is also scheduled for "the near future."

Opera Mini, Opera Software's build for Java phones and BlackBerry, has pretty much dominated alternative browsers in Europe, but Skyfire could destabilize that position. As a direct competitor to Opera Mobile 8.65, which sells for $24, Skyfire's free beta brings a few advantages to the table. It's true that Opera Mobile 9.5 beta is also currently offered for free, but with its Symbian build also in development, there could be an interesting battle over Symbian owners.

Pricing isn't the only point of comparison between Opera and Skyfire. Opera wants to bring Symbian owners the "authentic" desktop experience through a rich client and Skyfire will attempt to do so by pulling data from its servers. That makes Skyfire lighter on system resources, but it won't have as many search and linking capabilities out of the gate as Opera Mobile 9.5 beta, which integrated some tricks from the desktop browser. Conversely, Opera's cell phone browsers verge on cluttered, so there's a benefit to Skyfire's pared-down look.

Article updated 5/2/08 at 8:00am with additional information.

The youngest mobile browser to hit the scene can do quite a few more tricks after this week's feature-enhancement and bug-fixing release.

At the request of testers enrolled in Skyfire's closed beta program, version 0.6 has included several housekeeping functions. There are the basics of pasting a URL or search term, deleting bookmarks, and beefing up the soft-key menu with a shortcut to search the current Web page. There's also the highly demanded security nod that disguises passwords as you type. Though this hasn't caught on to the text field on the T-Mobile Dash I was using, Skyfire's CEO and co-founder Nitin Bhandari has assured me that experience is atypical and the feature is expected to work on most Windows Mobile phones, including other T-Mobile Dash handsets. (There may be an issue with my phone's configuration that Skyfire's tech team and I are in the process of working out.)

The zooming features, so crucial to reading in full-Internet mode, have also been enhanced. Double-tapping and -clicking will now zoom the screen in and out (in addition to using the Back key.) Additionally, Skyfire has relaxed a stringent return to default settings across Web pages and settings. Now, persistent sound, zoom, and SmartFit settings will carry from one URL and session to another. Touch-screen users can also achieve variable levels of granularity by clicking and dragging to resize the zoom box. On both touch screen and non-touch handsets, using the 1 and 3 keys moves you through four levels of magnification.

In addition to the zooming and maintenance work, Skyfire has paid attention to text. Instead of a single line of entry with a maximum of 256 characters, users can now type in up to 2,000 characters on multiple lines of text for any text field, making lengthier blog authoring or form-filling possible. Newly added support for predictive text will make inputting text faster and less nerve-wracking, too.

Finally, folks with 12-key and half QWERTY Windows Mobile phones will now also be able to surf on Skyfire with or without a virtual keyboard. The former feature in particular readies the browser for mass-market Symbian phones, which Skyfire has told me will debut when the beta opens. The combined changes in this 0.6 update give Skyfire a much better footing as the clean-looking application develops, though it has miles to go before being pit against Opera Mini in any meaningful way. Perfecting flash video playback would be one key victory.

Beta users should act fast to download the 0.6 upgrade from Skyfire's site. According to a statement, both 0.5 and 0.55 releases time out on May 7th and users will lose any bookmarks and cookies created after April 30. Skyfire is still technically accepting beta testers, though newly signed-up users may be months away from access.