Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: skyfire, mobile, browser | Themes: Software, Smartphones
- 1. Is This The Browser To Beat?
- 2. Zoom When You Want To
- 3. Pages and Plug-Ins
- 4. CSS and JavaScript
- 5. Full and Fast Browsing
- 6. CSS Performance: Flickr
- 7. Web Performance: CNN and BBC News
- 8. Video Performance: Hulu and YouTube
- 9. Making Browsing Easier On A Phone
- 10. Bookmarks
- 11. The Skyfire Start Page
- 12. Getting Social with Skyfire
- 13. Better Search
- 14. Prefer the Mobile Web?
- 15. Conclusion
- 16. More on this topic
9. Making Browsing Easier On A Phone
Viewing a Web page on a smart phone screen is only half the battle as you have to get to the right page in the first place and often you want to interact with a Website by filling in forms and entering text. Even if you have a phone with a QWERTY keyboard, typing in a long URL isn’t always easy, especially if you're trying to use the phone with one hand. However, you can use the Superbar at the top of the Skyfire window to type in a URL or to search (via Google) and Skyfire offers suggestions based on common search terms and URLs. You thus often only have to type a few characters to enter a full URL or complex search.
The numeric shortcuts for key menu items help as well. If you don't have a touch screen, trackball, or five-way controller on your phone you can press 2 and type in a URL or search keyword, while 5 refreshes the page the way F5 does in a desktop browser. You will still need to use the keyboard and the cursor that lets you pan around even without a touch screen, but shortcuts like these make it easier to browse on the go using only one hand rather than having to stop and sit down to get anything done.
- Previous page Video Performance: Hulu and YouTube
- Next page Bookmarks
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