Skyfire Updated

Skyfire Logo

It seems to be raining mobile browser updates.  Yesterday Bolt issued a major update  and it looks like Skyfire did a bug fix release on Monday.  There are quite a few fixes in it.  Here are the release notes.

Skyfire 1.0 update – Release Notes (Windows Mobile and Symbian)

Released: June 30, 2009

Since our Skyfire 1.0 launch, we’ve fixed a few bugs and are releasing this new update. We encourage you to upgrade today by going to http://get.skyfire.com with your device.

1.0.0.12114 Symbian

1.0.0.12113 Windows Mobile touch and non-touch

What’s new in this 1.0 update?

  • Reduced Memory footprint. We reduced the memory footprint of Skyfire for both Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. This should help folks reporting issues on memory constrained devices.

Fixes in this release

  • History is presented in the proper order.
  • Cookies in the UK data center are handled more reliably.
  • Sharing links via SMS are handled more reliably.
  • Reconnect correctly loads the last page in history plus we’ve improved reliability.
  • Site specific issues have been resolved for Rooftopcommedy.com and thefind.com.
  • Zoom buttons behave properly and disappear after a couple of seconds.
  • Default browser setting works more consistently.
  • Text entry on Symbian has been improved with one caveat below.

Known issues in this release

  • Multi-line text entry on Symbian: Skyfire might exit the text entry mode when the user is choosing a word from the predictive text list. Plus, using the down key might NOT get you out of text entry mode. If this happens, use enter or center OK. Issues 7149 & 7112
  • Superbar state on Symbian: sometimes when you enter into the superbar with the cursor, existing the Superbar via the ‘cancel’ option will navigate to the previous page. Issue 7158
  • Change connection on Symbian: Choosing the search WLAN option might not change the WLAN connection. Issue 6633.
  • Samsung Jack (AT&T): Because of a security policy on this device, it will not allow uninstall of Skyfire if there is not SIM card in the phone. Simply insert a SIM card.

I’ve installed the new version on my N95-3 without problems.  Interestingly, the version number is 1.0.0.12214 rather than the 1.0.0.12114 mentioned in the release notes.  Typo or a new silent release? In any case, as expected from the nature of the update, there are no obvious changes.  Everything I said in my Skyfire 1.0 review still applies.  Skyfire is the best way to watch web videos on a S60 or Windows Mobile phones, but the tiny fonts at the default zoom level make it less pleasant for sites that are mainly text.

The reduced memory footprint should allow this version to run on phones like the N73 that didn’t have enough RAM to work with Skyfire 1.0. Elsewhere on the web; @kiyo21 reports that pasting text from the system clipboard into the “Enter URL” field now works on S60.  I can confirm that.  A commenter at All About Symbian noted that entering text in web forms seems slower in the new version.  It IS slow although I don’t know if it’s any worse than before.  Skyfire users, what are your experiences with this upgrade?

Related Posts

Skyfire 1.0 Reviewed
Skyfire 0.9 – WVGA Support, Twitter and Facebook Integration
Skyfire Browser Beta 0.85 for S60 – Full Review

8 thoughts on “Skyfire Updated

  1. Mackay, I was only giving my opinion, I don’t have any insider information and I don’t know for a fact if Skyfire is developing a S60 2nd ed version. Why don’t you ask on the Skyfire Forum.

  2. So you’re saying that skyfire would not be available for my phone. Then skyfire is rubbish. Was thinking it could be the browser that would make me forget about operamini.

  3. Makay, I doubt that S60 2nd will be supported anytime soon if ever. Skyfire is a small shop with limited resources. Their next targets are probably BlackBerry and S60 5th then maybe Android. Developing for an obsolete platform with a declining user base doesn’t make sense.

  4. Well, the report is both good and bad. Good – it now just about loads on the N73 if you close down most background apps. Bad – try task switching and it will close down on you or try turning on some of those background apps (rotate me, magickey etc) and it will soon report memory is full, close some applications etc. But still at least I can test it.
    Btw, don’t you find that the new version of Bolt is much slower? I’m sometimes to hasty to complain (hence, often wrong) but one of your speed tests would be interesting – I mean comparing previous bolts.

  5. Agreed, the user agent that Skyfire sends identifies it as Firefox 2.0 on Windows which is sneaky and misleading.

    It is possible to detect Skyfire, BTW, as there are several “x_skyfire_*” headers including “x_skyfire_phone header” which contains the original phone UA.

Comments are closed.