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Got this e-mail from Skyfire, tested it and yes...it's true sometimes even better than the benchmarks but never worse...
In a recent review by Laptop Magazine, Skyfire was put to the test against Opera 9.5.1 and the new 3G iPhone. Skyfire raced ahead of its competitors with download speeds that far surpass our competitors. (Source: Laptop Mag)
NYT.com
Skyfire Beta: 6 (sec)
Opera 9.5.1 Beta: 60 (sec)
Safari: 29 (sec)
I'm not sure what you're talking about. Things have varied for me when I tried skyfire against PIE. Both seemed to load about the same, yes skyfire was easier to move around in but skyfire failed serveral time to be useful.
I wasn't able to open links or download files that PIE would with no problem.
I don't mean youtube stuff, I'm talking about opening email from aim.com (just like hotmail.com) and downloading any file at all.
skyfire for me = fail
My browser needs to do it all, if it's slow thats ok but it can't lead me somewhere and then not complete what I need. If I surf for something for 20 minutes and then I can't open a link I get pretty pissed off. PIE can do it.
Also I couldn't copy the URL I was at. I don't think
the initial page may come up faster, but skyfire only initially loads up an overview of the page. it still needs to load the individual parts as you zoom in on them. so those results are very misleading....
for me it's annoying...i'd rather wait a bit more on initial page load (opera 9.5/safari) than waiting every time you scroll around inside the page (skyfire).
for me the fastest is opera mini.
I'm a skyfire fan, but I imagine things would speed up if everything wasn't passed through their servers first....I guess it has to be though
yeah i does load quickly and have embedded flash, but zooming is more combersome compared to opera mini, and when you look around when zoomed in the page has to load even more.
opera: fast but no flash
PIE: slower but plays mobile youtube
skyfire: embedded flash but cumbersome zoom.
take your pick. however skyfire is currently in beta testing, the zoom loading could be a problem they're working on for final product
Anyway to turn off the zoomed-out mode on ALL pages?
It makes mobile-friendly pages unusable, and SkyFire unusable. I don't have a 800x600 screen so I really wish it wouldn't assume all HTML-compliant (meaning content will auto-flow) pages such as Google Reader Mobile loaded as such.
MineralGray02K said:
I imagine things would speed up if everything wasn't passed through their servers first....
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Click to collapse
It's actually the opposite. Their servers have fast access, will recompress the page data and pre-render them, just like with opera mini. That's what speeds up the whole process so much. a 1MB page will be recompressed by the servers to a few dozen kBs, speeding up not only the download but also saving a lot of time the small processor of the PPC would need to render that amount of data.
That's why it's faster than the others, which have to deal with it all. It just can't be compared. And to me a browser that requires the availability of a 3rd party server isn't really a browser.
If only it had text wrap like opera mobile/mini.
kilrah i have to disagree.
opera mini may take slightly longer to load a full page but it renders the whole page, which means zooming, any where fast. in the long run its faster than skyfire beta browsing wise (for now)
All i can tell you is i can do the streaming tv on skyfire and that makes me happy.
I hope they add the "touch flo" like feature to Skyfire. It really is cumbersome to scroll around the page without it. Perhaps, though, it is not possible because skyfire doesn't preload the pages.
Just my thinking.
Having tried opera mini 4.1, opera 9.5 beta, and skyfire beta 1...first of all, O mini is like the kindergarten browser version of opera 9.5 so it's almost not even worth mentioning unless you're looking for the simplest of pics n text browsing. Opera 9.5 is the most fluid, responsive, intuitive, and easy to navigate browser. Then you boot up skyfire; supports every online video and audio codecs, from youtube, redtube, comedy central, fm radio streaming; any websight imaginable; even apple web trailers stream flawlessly. As much as I dig Opera's interface, getting the "this device does not support flash 8", is simply not an obstacle for skyfire, and does something not even the "delivering the real internet" Iphone can do. Hopefully, opera will soon follow suit
I tried Skyfire on my Kaiser, BlackJack II, and Dash. I already stopped using it on all three. I browse mainly mobile friendly sites with my phones so I didn't gain much. But I missed the tabbed browsing which I would have expected from the "greatest browser ever" comments I kept seeing.
I'm a huge fan of Opera Mini and keeping an eye on Torch Mobile's IrisBrowser. If they can make Iris work as smooth as the iPhone's browser, it will be a winner. OperaMobile still seems buggy...
Until then, I'm back to PocketIE and Opera Mini.
-Mc
looks like PocketIE PWNZ!!!
Opera 9.5 + Flash 3.1 = FTW
i did some testing on the browsers skyfire and opera mobile just to see which browser has the faster loading speed. here are the results:
to google.com
opera
-loading time
4.28 seconds
-zoom (to clarity or read ability)
1.91 seconds
skyfire
-loading time
1.99 seconds
-zoom
less than 1.00 second (couldn't hit the stop watch button fast enough)
to forum.xda-developers.com
opera
-loading time
1 minute 15.90 seconds
-zoom
2.66 seconds
skyfire
-loading time
20.37 seconds
-zoom
2.69 seconds
i have noticed that on a slower network opera dose give a better experience in zooming but skyfire still takes the cake in loading times. all of these tests were done with the phone in the exact same place it was not touched by any person or object at any point during testing to ensure no outside forces influencing a certain outcome. if you have any questions just post them on the forum
akawings said:
i have noticed that on a slower network opera dose give a better experience in zooming but skyfire still takes the cake in loading times
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I don't get why people compare loading times between Skyfire and Opera Mobile. and are shocked that Skyfire is always faster. Skyfire uses server side rendering so it's always going to load the webpages faster then Opera Mobile which does not use any type of server side rendering (that could change though)
@akawings
You should also compare display quality, Opera is rendering webpages in full 640x480 while skyfire only in 320x240 (becouse of server side rendering).
Since the usability/configuration of Opera is 5x as developed as Skyfire why not use both? I only use Skyfire when I cant get my sports picks in or want to play some flash games..
norkoastal said:
Since the usability/configuration of Opera is 5x as developed as Skyfire why not use both? I only use Skyfire when I cant get my sports picks in or want to play some flash games..
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Click to collapse
That's pretty much what I do, I use Opera Mobile (or Mini) for most of my browsing, if I want to watch some flash video, like hulu, I use Skyfire.
I wish the skyfire provided the real vga instead of blown up 320.240.
Now that Iris is relatively stable (Latest release hasn't crashed/locked on me yet) why not take a peek at that?
In my opinion, it's the best one out there. Sure, SkyFire has its uses with the off-machine rendering (like flash heavy sites) but, really, Iris is top-notch. It will be interesting to see if Fennec is close.
ekruse said:
Now that Iris is relatively stable (Latest release hasn't crashed/locked on me yet) why not take a peek at that?
In my opinion, it's the best one out there. Sure, SkyFire has its uses with the off-machine rendering (like flash heavy sites) but, really, Iris is top-notch. It will be interesting to see if Fennec is close.
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Click to collapse
I've been quite impressed with Iris so far, web kit was made for mobile devices IMO. The only thing I wish they would work on is the overall UI is a bit akward, but they probably wanted to get the rendering issues fixed first then work on the UI.
why compare both browsers?
opera better for general nav and skyfire mainly for flash.
opera can't play some flash video players like skyfire's yet
Title pretty much says it all. I know a lot of you guys talk good about Opera, but the latest download on their website says that it does not support flash, and that is pretty much the reason why I want to use something other than mobile IE that came with the phone from HTC.
iris or skyfire, opera has flash but it crashes mostly
So which out of those two is best and/or easiest to use?
EVOIXGSR said:
So which out of those two is best and/or easiest to use?
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i say skyfire, it handles every detail of the web practically flawlessly, but iris is sharper in rendering
but for your needs, skyfire
Skyfire gets my vote - it has been able to render everything I've tried.
Thanks mike
There's also minimo which is Mozilla Firefox, I use that. My suggestion is try them all out and see which one fits your needs the best. There's cab files for all of them floating around, just use the search.
cheetoh said:
Skyfire gets my vote - it has been able to render everything I've tried.
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co-sign....same here.
the only thing i hate about skyfire is that god awful text resizing, it really makes the page look horrible with bigger text while the rest looks small, is there a way to fix that?
I use Skyfire for most of my browsing, and I don't run into issues with sites loading up in mobile format like Opera Mobile does. As well, I can go to my bank's website with Skyfire and veiw my account just fine, Opea does not work.
I have tried Iris, and it is pretty cool, but it doesn't really do anything for me that Skyfire doesn't already do. Skyfire also has amazing flash support, test it out and check out Youtube with it... there is some delay issues and what not, but once it gets going it is awesome! My delay issues could be the fact I am on EDGE. I have yet to test it on WiFi to see if it does anything to help that out, as if just crossed my mind.
Skyfire gets my vote although when Im in a hurry and need to look something up, I wuse Opera only because it loads faster for some reason - other than that... Skyfire for browsing....
For flash, Skyfire is superior, no question. However, it has no text reflow, which is the dealbreaker for me. For flash, I use Skyfire, for everything else, Opera Mini 4.1 and Mobile 9.5. As for Iris, it's alright, but still somewhat unpolished and it needs a little work. However, it passes the ACID3 test, and renders things quite well.
Dave
I feel like using skyfire kills my battery really fast, does anyone else have that? Or maybe i'm just trippinn.
I get that with Skyfire too. I don't think it is any worse than Opera Mobile if you are not scrolling much, but if you are scrolling a lot, then it seems to eat a little more, and if you are youtubing it drains it fast!
I still prefer Skyfire for the majority of my browsing. I use Opera for forums because of the wrap around, but it is too sensative to the double tap zoom in and out.
i know a lot of people will tell u opera, but I found skyfire to be just the thing I needed! soo blazing fast, nice look and feel, zoom in and out much like opera, very finger friendly..hands down best mobile browser
skyfire hands down!
Im using Skyfire now since I wanted a browser that supports Flash but Im having some issues with the audio. I can see the video beautifully but it has no audio. Ive tryed different vids on youtube and I cant hear single one. Any one have a suggestions.
I have had success with Skyfire playing both Audio and Video without any real issues when my phone wasn't muted. If Audio & Video is important to you, I would vote Skyfire, but Opera is my overall preference for other sites.
Jason
ripinfamous, do you have the latest version? One of the .8x builds of it gave me the same issue, but the newer .9x versons work fine again. If you do, just wait for the next version to be released.
Dave
In my mind there is no perfect browser. The perfect browser would have Skyfire's functionality for flash, Iris's animations and touch response, and Opera Mobile's UI. Iris needs Opera's text wrap. Perhaps Opera Mobile 9.7 when it comes out my work out better. I use Opera Mobile and Skyfire.
Does skyfire web browser work well in Touch Diamond2? How good is this browser and is it true that it supports flash websites? If so why is it not such a big hit? why opera still rules?
it works, but the screen is better for vga size. when you run it, the screen will be upsize. waiting for wvga version of skyfire. but so far, flash works, albeit a little slow.
It works great, but there's some aliasing going on since like grabejud says, Topaz screen is WVGA (800x480) whereas Skyfire is designed fro Vga (640x480) so it scales to fit.
Flash works fantastically - Youtube and Playfish Pet Society
Ok..cool.. what about flash games?(miniclip.com?)
Yes, if it uses flash, it will work with Skyfire
ok..but is it possible to play those games?..i mean there is no Dpad on TD2 right?
Hi guys, I want to share with you some of my impressions considering the options we have for web browsers.
I personally don't like browsers like skyfire/opera mini which does not render the real page, but prerendered on server image kind of page (streamed to the browser). Also in some cases it is much slower, because some local sites must go to outside servers, rendered there and put back on my "browser". For such sites, the connection I have is much better than the connection skyfire server has.
Opera 9.7: even in it's early beta stage has problems rendering pages, some of which look very awkward. Have you seen this forum on 9.7, the links to the threads are HUGE comparing to all other browsers. Many other sites I visit do not render correctly too, problem that does not exist in Opera 9.5. I hope that they will fix that in the later versions of 9.7.
Iris Browser: so far the best browser in rendering quality and almost the same speed as Opera 9.5/9.7. That's because of its engine: WebKit - it is far superior in standard support and rendering quality than Opera's engine for example. The only 2 minuses I see in it is that first it lacks full screen (the one they call full screen has the buttons on the bottom still visible, which is not the same as Opera 9.5/9.7's full zoom). The other drawback in this browser is it's double tap zoom, very often the zoom is not enough and I need to zoom in one or twice to make the text easily readable.
Flash support: I have flash support under 9.7 and it is as bad as it was before. Only some banners are rendered, the online videos can not be streamed, and when I zoom page, very often the flash banners are moved on wrong coordinates, placed on text or somewhere else it should not be. All in all, its far better without it.
Opera 9.5: so far the most reasonable choice as it has better zoom than Iris, and renders pages better than 9.7 (still not as good as Iris, but usually with no problems).
I can't search for "opera 9.5" in the forum (the numbers are confusing the search engine and after search no results can be found). I am using Itje's Touch-it 10.4, which has no opera 9.5 in it. Can you please send me a link to the latest 9.5 builds of Opera. I really miss that browser. Thank you in advance!
I'm a new fan of Netfront v3, seems a pretty good and fast browser.
I'll dig the .cab out for you and post it.
I'm a new fan of Netfront v3, seems a pretty good and fast browser.
I've dug the Opera .cab out for you:
Opera 9.5 listed here
rp-x1 said:
I'm a new fan of Netfront v3, seems a pretty good and fast browser.
I've dug the Opera .cab out for you:
Opera 9.5 listed here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much or this link. I've also installed NetFront 3.5. It is fast browser, but it doesn't seem to have tap-to-zoom feature, also I can't zoom more than 125%, which on X1's display is still too small for text reading.
rp-x1 said:
I've dug the Opera .cab out for you:
Opera 9.5 listed here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this tha latest R3A stock Opera Rom? I cannot remember the latest stock Build number.
The point for all browsers is: Only the X1 Stock Operas support the optical joystick.
Its straight off my R3AA013 O2 UK stock ROM.
thelucius said:
Opera 9.7: even in it's early beta stage has problems rendering pages, some of which look very awkward. Have you seen this forum on 9.7, the links to the threads are HUGE comparing to all other browsers. Many other sites I visit do not render correctly too, problem that does not exist in Opera 9.5. I hope that they will fix that in the later versions of 9.7.
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Click to collapse
in opera:config you can change zoom to make links and text better. I changed it from 200 to 140 and it works better. clicking on links in 9.7 is better than 9.5. The only thing I miss from 9.5 is scrolling with optical joystick.
agree with thelucius
opera 9.5 is best for now
iris is good but font rendering not comparable to opera
fennec seems bulky
and skyfire looks blurred
can anyone please make a cab of default sony ericsson x1 start page.
missing it on custom roms as it was easier to get user guide with it
thanks
DatDereX1 said:
in opera:config you can change zoom to make links and text better. I changed it from 200 to 140 and it works better. clicking on links in 9.7 is better than 9.5. The only thing I miss from 9.5 is scrolling with optical joystick.
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Click to collapse
The 200 to 140 thing really helped, thanks!
I still prefer Opera to anything else, just has the best UI in my opinion.
Once I installed operamobile 9.7
I completely ditched 9.5
9.7 is faster and has even better UI.
Both crash anyway.....
So my main browser is OMini 4.2,
with 9.7 doin' what 4.2 cannot do!
rp-x1 said:
Its straight off my R3AA013 O2 UK stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much .
opera 9.7 for reading/browsing (turbo : on for text/pic only , off for more complex uses) ,
mach 5 for multimedia
souljaboy said:
opera 9.7 for reading/browsing (turbo : on for text/pic only , off for more complex uses) ,
mach 5 for multimedia
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opera 9.7 also let's open links zoomed out.
What is Mach 5?