Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: skyfire, mobile, browser | Themes: Software, Smartphones
8. Video Performance: Hulu and YouTube
You may not have to load the Hulu front page very often, as Hulu is one of the video feeds that shows up on the Skyfire start page, so you can click to go straight to a video.
When you do load it, it’s fast. This isn’t a complex screen, but it has a lot of images and CSS to build the layout. It loads very quickly in Skyfire on a 3G connection because the images are compressed on the server rather than resized in the mobile browser. The iPhone screen shows more of the Hulu page so it has more images to load, which also slows it down. On the BlackBerry, rendering layout and scripts takes up a lot of the loading time. With Opera, the page loads slow–and instead of the large image banner at the top of the page, it shows a warning that the browser can’t play the Flash videos on the site.
Hulu relies on streaming and buffering the streaming content for a good experience when playing longer video clips. With Skyfire, the buffering happens at the Skyfire server, but this manages the connection to the Skyfire browser so you still get a good streaming experience if your connection is fast enough (you need to be on WiFi or 3G). The video quality is also extremely impressive.
- Previous page Web Performance: CNN and BBC News
- Next page Making Browsing Easier On A Phone
Now, if only they would release an iPhone app for this...
I'm not much for windows mobile after I used the BlackJack. It tends to slowly turn to crap as time progresses. It would be really nice to see this technology on a phone that's already championed as the best phone ever (generally).
This browser looks great and does great, except for smth. that is important for a phone like mine (Nokia E51) with a smaller screen: it cannot rotate the page which is annoying esp. when watching video...
somehow i cant see a third-party app beating a native browser, then again we have firefox....
@pocketdrummer; Skyfire can't produce a version for iPhone (keen as the team would be to do it) as Apple doesn't allow other browsers on the iPhone.
@pocketdrummer; Skyfire can't produce a version for iPhone (keen as the team would be to do it) as Apple doesn't allow other browsers on the iPhone.
there are alternatives im sure of it but there more based on the integrated safari?
I wonder how skyfire stacks up against bolt? It would be nice if this worked on my 8230...
Now, if only they would release an iPhone app for this...I'm not much for windows mobile after I used the BlackJack. It tends to slowly turn to crap as time progresses. It would be really nice to see this technology on a phone that's already championed as the best phone ever (generally).
Sorry to hear of your WinMo experience. I have the 2yr old Tilt on AT&T and haven't looked back since. Had to replace only once after having dropped it...Oop's! Waiting till my November date to get my discounted TP2. Of course my WinMo is XDA hacked running SPB Shell 3.0