Web Browser News and Reviews » Skyfire

Skyfire Receives Additional $8 Million In Funding

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:49:02 +0000

As if $23 million were not enough, Skyfire, a company behind mobile web browser for Android and iOS, has raised another $8 million in funding.

Although users can download Skyfire for free, which they did more than 12 million times, a video optimization feature dubbed as “Skyfire Video License” will cost you $2.99.

So what about funding? Interestingly enough, money comes from the Verizon Investments as well as previous investors, such as: Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

According to Skyfire, cash will be used to “meet the demands of its growing list of wireless operator customers through increased engineering”.

In addition to that, Skyfire has found few partners for its upcoming and current features. Rocket Toolbar, a carrier customizable “scrollable toolbar embedded into the phone’s default browser that recommends content based on user preferences” that will be launched in late 2012 is likely to be used by Verizon, as an “unnamed” tier-one US carrier has signed a deal with Skyfire.

Furthermore, the company has also found two tier one partners for its Skyfire Rocket engine, which compresses video while streaming.

[Via: TechCrunch]

[Thanks, Serhat Tonbul]

Skyfire to Kill Windows Mobile and Symbian Products

Vygantas Lipskas — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:33:12 +0000

With the decreasing popularity of Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms, Skyfire has decided to do some changes for its own eco system.

Starting from December 31, 2010, Skyfire will stop supporting its 1.0 browser for both Windows Mobile and Symbian devices.

What does that mean?
Flash and Silverlight is no more, as its proxy servers will be shut down.

Any solutions?
If you can’t live without such components, try Uzard (Beta) web browser.

We do expect to bring Skyfire 2.0 to additional platforms, and have begun discussions with some carriers and OEMs to decide which will be our next OS. Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 and Nokia’s MeeGo platform are both shaping up as platforms with a lot of potential and the recent launch of the new Blackberry OS 6 with a WebKit browser core makes for interesting potential for a future release of Skyfire 2.0.

Said Jeff Glueck, the CEO of Skyfire.

Skyfire Cashes in Almost 1 Million Dollars

Vygantas Lipskas — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:56:56 +0000

Might make Opera jealous.

With all the “problems” that plagued Skyfire for the iOS launch, the numbers are in.

According to the MobileCrunch post, a company behind mobile web browser Skyfire has sold more than 300 000 copies for their first weekend.

If we do the math:
300,000++ * $2.99 = ~$900,000

Now, Skyfire will obviously not receive all that cash, as Apple wants their cut as well (30%, if no exclusive deals were made).

That still leaves the company with more than 600,000 USD to spend on candies and chocolate.

Skyfire: Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:40:16 +0000

Apparently, recently released Skyfire for the iOS became top selling app in just over 5 hours and was doing so well that its publishers had to actually remove it from the app store.

According to the blog post, it far exceeded their initial expectations and was too much for the servers to handle.

When can you expect it to re-appear?

As soon as they increase the capacity of servers. No ETA yet.

Apple Approves Skyfire, Brings Flash Support

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:18:00 +0000

Well, what do you know; Apple has just approved the Skyfire mobile browser for the iOS.

According to CNNMoney.com, it shall be available on Thursday and is priced at $2.99.

Is it any good? Well, the main selling point is this: Skyfire has a built in Flash video to HTML5 converter. Therefore, iPhone, iPod or iPad users will be able to enjoy Flash content. However, don’t get to excited as it won’t convert games or other non-video related content.

Android Browsers: Skyfire vs. Dolphin HD vs. Opera Mini vs. Mozilla Fennec

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:55:57 +0000

Guys at PCWorld benchmarked Skyfire 2.0, Dolphin HD, Opera Mini, Mozilla Fennec, Android 2.1 and Android 2.2 stock mobile web browsers.

As you can see from the results above, Opera Mini and Skyfire 2.0 took the lead, followed by Android 2.2, Android 2.1, Dolphin HD and lastly, Mozilla’s Fennec (Alpha) browser.

Interestingly enough, Skyfire 2.0 beats Opera Mini when loading pages directly from the web (they both compress content), while Opera Mini performed better during cached pages load test.

Skyfire Submitted to Apple’s App Store

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:15:10 +0000

Just as expected, Skyfire Team has submitted their mobile web browser into Apple’s App store and is awaiting approval.

If Apple approves the app, Skyfire would allow iPhone/iPad users to enjoy Flash content that is being transcoded into HTML5 via company servers.

According to press release, Skyfire Team followed Apple guidelines, including the use of a WebKit browser core shared with Safari, and h.264 adaptive streaming.

SkyFire for iPhone to be Submitted Soon

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:38:57 +0000

According to MobileCrunch, a company behind SkyFire will be submitting its mobile web browser to Apple’s app store early next week.

If SkyFire for iPhone/iPad is anything like other platform versions, users will finally be able to watch Flash videos or other media content.

Skyfire Labs, Inc. did not comment on the story.

Skyfire Halts Most Countries Support

Vygantas Lipskas — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:10:13 +0000

Just a couple months ago, Skyfire has decided to expand its services and provide with an opportunity to download mobile web browser for people outside the U.S.

Well, it appears that company is backing up this decision. Starting from tomorrow (July 1, 2010), Skyfire will stop supporting countries other than UK, USA and Canada.

Users from other countries will receive the following message:

Dear Skyfire User, As, of July 1st, 2010 Skyfire will no longer be providing service in your country for the windows mobile and symbian browser. In order to offer the best possible service level for our officially supported customers and countries , Skyfire is consolidating the countries in which it operates. We apologize for this inconvenience and hope you have enjoyed the Skyfire will work on your phone until July 1st 2010,at which time the service will be de-activated and your browser will no longer function. You can direct inquiries about this to geo AT skyfire.com.

Skyfire Team has replied to member complains in forum, explaining that it’s hard to provide such support for all the countries.

[digg-reddit-me]

Weekly Browsers Recap, May 31st

Vygantas Lipskas — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:44:26 +0000

FavBrowser.com

• Windows Phone 7 to Feature Upgradeable Internet Explorer
With many mobile web browser choices floating around, Internet Explorer is certainly not one of them.

• Synchronize Between Firefox and iPhone with Firefox Home
Mozilla has recently announced an upcoming project that is “Firefox Home”.

• Google Releases Chrome 5 Stable
Few days ago, Google has released the final version of Google Chrome 5 web browser, tagged as version 5.0.375.55, for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

• Google Chrome to Android Extension
Here is a nifty extension for Android 2.2 and Google Chrome users.

• Opera Mini for iPhone: 2.6 Million Users
It appears that Opera Mini for the iPhone is doing really well.

• Opera Pokes at Google Chrome Speed Test
Couple weeks ago, Google came up with Chrome speed test video.

• Tab Phishing
As Mozilla Firefox creative lead Aza Raskin describes it, the attack is as elegant as it is simple.

• uZard – Windows Mobile, BlackBerry Web Browser with Flash & Silverlight Support
uZard Web P is yet another web browser for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry platforms.

Bonus

Thanks to Nox and zoori for links.

[digg-reddit-me]