Skyfire Beta 0.80 (NEW VERSION RELEASED)

From a Skyfire Employee at the Skyfire Forums

I am happy to announce that we have just released Skyfire 0.8 Beta.

We have been working hard on this release over the last few months, and we are happy that we were able to integrate many of your suggestions into this release.

This forum has been a amazing resource for us at Skyfire, and we are grateful for the effort that has been put into this forum by all members.

You can easily get the newest release by logging into your account at http://www.skyfire.com/users/login from your desktop. You will be able to download (SOON - making sure that the download link works first) the newest release via your PC or send yourself an SMS.

Thanks for all the support and the enthusiasm that you have brought to this product. We hope that you will enjoy this release.

Additionally I would like to introduce 'omahadave' (he is actually Dave from Omaha), who will be our new ears and eyes to help you in this forum. Feel free to say hello - you will see in the forum from today onwards.

Thanks, your Skyfire team.

(Robert Oberhofer, Product Management)


----- official release notes start here ----------


Skyfire 0.8 Beta Release Notes


Released: September 24, 2008

Skyfire is a new experience that brings the full internet to your mobile. Watch videos on YouTube or Hulu, connect with your friends on Myspace or Facebook, shop on Amazon or listen to music. Can you do it on your computer at home? Then you can do it on Skyfire on the go.
Skyfire is fast, easy to use and available for free on many smart phone models.
Skyfire 0.8 Beta is a new beta release of Skyfire for Windows Mobile (version 5 or 6). This release has been enhanced with both requests from our active community and new additions that we think will make Skyfire a better experience.
We greatly appreciate our beta community. Their support, active participation and feedback on the forums at http://support.skyfire.com/ helps us to constantly improve the product.

Whats new in Skyfire 0.8 Beta:
Skyfire 0.8 Beta has been under development for the past 4 months, integrating more than 1000 fixes and enhancements. The major focus of this release was to enhance usability, make the experience smoother, increase responsiveness, and improve audio and video quality.

* Contextual Zoom: Lets you simply and quickly get to exactly where you want to be on the page. Skyfires zooming capability has been improved, and now the camera corners feature shows you a match with major screen elements within its view.
* Super Bar: Use our handy new SuperBar to perform a search or enter a URL from a single field its a great time and space saver that is easily accessible.
* Content sharing: You can now share web content by SMS. We even make the URL short enough that it will fit easily into a SMS text message. Especially useful for the really long URLs used by many sites. You can now also share Skyfire itself with friends by SMS or email.
* Faster application launch: Skyfire launches much more quickly so you to get your content quicker.
* Video and audio: Weve improved the quality of both video and audio, so you can enjoy a smoother playback experience.
* Reconnect - Skyfire will automatically reconnect, so you dont need to restart when your wireless connection is dropped.
* Default browser: Now you can set Skyfire as your default browser. Clicking Web links in SMS or Email messages will automatically start Skyfire.
* Enhanced text entry allows you to more easily complete web forms right within a page. First you can enter the text right on the page. Plus you automatically move to the next form element (text field, list, radio button, or checkbox) after you have made a form entry using the OK or Enter keys.
* Content download: Allows you to download images and other content from most web pages.
* Home screen integration: Allows you to add a Skyfire search and URL bar to your Windows Mobile Today screen, so you can enter what you are looking for right away without first starting Skyfire.
* Mobile site support: If a website also has a mobile version, Skyfire can optionally hint to you about the availability of a mobile alternative. With the new mobile site indicator, youll get a quick link to access the mobile version then you can decide if you want the mobile or full website.
* Bookmarks have been significantly enhanced giving you much better control.
* Additionally we enhanced the start page: have the top news items accessible immediately via a headline widget.



Downloading and Installing:
To be able to use Skyfire, you first need to sign up for a Skyfire account at http://www.skyfire.com/register. Additionally you need a supported phone, e.g. Windows Mobile 5 or 6 (for Skyfire Beta 0.8) or Symbian (S60 3rd Edition, for Skyfire Beta 0.6). Please note: We currently only the US is supported.

If you are already registered then simply log into your existing account at http://www.skyfire.com/users/login and download the installation file, or request a SMS to be sent to your phone. Download the file and start the installer. There is no need to uninstall Skyfire first simply overwrite the existing installation during the process. No worry: your cookies and bookmarks will be preserved.

If you are new to Skyfire and you need to register, provide at your Name, Email and Phone number on http://www.skyfire.com/register. You will be sent an Email and SMS with a URL to complete your registration. Follow this URL (on your phone or PC Browser), and complete the registration. Once registered, you can immediately download the correct installation file for your device. If you downloaded the installation file on your PC you must first transfer it to your phone. Start the installer on your phone and follow the instructions. Once you start Skyfire you will be prompted for your Email address and the password you provided during registration. This will be just once, and you will not have to enter it again (remember the password though to log into your account!)

Known Issues:

* Installation: When the client receives an upgrade notification after resuming from the background it might not successfully resume (Issue 2923). Please exit Skyfire and start again.
* Uninstall: Skyfire uninstall might not be successful or complete when Skyfire is active at the time of uninstall (Issue 1861). Please exit Skyfire first before uninstall.
* When leaving the phone idle for more than 5 minutes Skyfire will display the start page (Issue 2892)
* Downloading files with long filenames might truncate file extensions (Issue 2726)
* Myspace.com: Have to zoom in to 100% to be able to click the log-in button (Issue 2115)
* Mobile site hinting and support: some mobile sites are rendering similar to a full web page (e.g. zoom and horizontal scroll). Often this is due to the web page not reporting itself as being mobile. We are looking for a solution.
* Playing video for a long time (> 5 min) might disconnect Skyfire (Issue 2827).
* Non standard SIPs (Soft Input Panel, e.g. on-screen keyboard) might interfere with Skyfire operation and showing artifacts
* Very long web pages might get cut off at the bottom (Issue 2800)
* Back and Menu soft-key buttons might disappear from screen (Issue 2793). Please use the right soft-key, it usually will bring the on-screen keys back onto the screen.
* In some cases the page might scroll to a different location when entering text into a text entry field (Issue 2678, 2729)
* When Skyfire is in the background the toolbar may become visible on Windows Home screen when switching programs in windows, or locking the phone. (Issue 2732)
* Skyfire URL bar becomes unresponsive when device was in standby mode. (Issue 2892)
* Links to media files (MP3s etc) currently only play back, and do not initiate download.
* Scrolling through very long list boxes has slow behavior (Issue 1202)



Not supported:

* VGA phones not supported yet (e.g. HTC Touch Diamond etc).
* DivX and XviD Video formats are not supported.
* Quicktime movies which require playback external of browser not supported (Quicktime clips embedded in page are supported).
* FTP browsing and access is not supported (e.g. URLs with ftp:// )
* Anchors (In-page links) not supported

[kaos]

ive been a tester since it was first stages.... .8 simply doesnt work for me.. username and password issues......

[scott8813]

my blank screen loads immediately.no more red bar. and granted it is a bit of a graphic intensive site for some reason, but more so than sites like youtube and myspace??? come on now. what's the real deal?

[sl8dogg]

Tried it today, and it started working again. They must be getting the username/password issue sorted out... Not sure...

[scott8813]

same here, but it keeps asking me to give my user name/passcode and still no access to Wckediden

[daniel1]

wow mine actually worked today! haha... it didn't seem to want to load when my keyboard was slid out, but it did immediately once i shut it (portrait mode).

[monkeyxiv]

“ Originally Posted by scott8813 ”

my blank screen loads immediately.no more red bar. and granted it is a bit of a graphic intensive site for some reason, but more so than sites like youtube and myspace??? come on now. what's the real deal?

you wanna get shitty with me? ok heres the REAL deal. the program is server sided AKA it works by loading on there server then going to your phone. as websites are accessed over and over it becomes faster aka youtube, myspace, espn, google. and all the main websites accessed by a ppc loads faster. also since these websites are highly accessed they do measures to make these websites work faster. BUT since only a select few access Wckediden they don't have much bandwidth with the website making it load slower. ALSO the forums are a completely different type of scripting aswell as its on an apache server. do i need to say more?

[daniel1]

“ Originally Posted by monkeyxiv ”

you wanna get shitty with me? ok heres the REAL deal. the program is server sided AKA it works by loading on there server then going to your phone. as websites are accessed over and over it becomes faster aka youtube, myspace, espn, google. and all the main websites accessed by a ppc loads faster. also since these websites are highly accessed they do measures to make these websites work faster. BUT since only a select few access Wckediden they don't have much bandwidth with the website making it load slower. ALSO the forums are a completely different type of scripting aswell as its on an apache server. do i need to say more?

..................
:pwned:

[monkeyxiv]

“ Originally Posted by daniel1 ”

..................
:pwned:

thats not a pwned thats straight facts.

[nadcicle]

I've learned that if you have issues you have to go and reset your password via skyfire website then uninstall skyfire from your phone and reinstall it. That seemed to fix all my problems. It now works 100 percent better than before with my new password.

[wcked]

“ Originally Posted by monkeyxiv ”

you wanna get shitty with me? ok heres the REAL deal. the program is server sided AKA it works by loading on there server then going to your phone. as websites are accessed over and over it becomes faster aka youtube, myspace, espn, google. and all the main websites accessed by a ppc loads faster. also since these websites are highly accessed they do measures to make these websites work faster. BUT since only a select few access Wckediden they don't have much bandwidth with the website making it load slower. ALSO the forums are a completely different type of scripting aswell as its on an apache server. do i need to say more?

plus you forgot to mention that php don't work well with mobile phone browsing.That's why lot of the website are using wml format and asp which is lighter.I don't have any issue login in to Wckediden through my phone i use either opera. ie or skyfire with out any flaws.

[monkeyxiv]

“ Originally Posted by wcked ”

plus you forgot to mention that php don't work well with mobile phone browsing.That's why lot of the website are using wml format and asp which is lighter.I don't have any issue login in to Wckediden through my phone i use either opera. ie or skyfire with out any flaws.

yeah i said that pretty much what i said with saying that its a different script then other websites.

[Damager]

finally got the ******* going!!

my first impression is.. i like opera for everything else other than sites with flash.

skyfire renders the flash video stuff nice and quickly.

as far as youtube goes, id prefer to use youtubeplay as it plays youtube the clearest.

all in all , will have a good play with skyfire. not bad

[sl8dogg]

Thought I'd mention.....For TV on the go, Skyfire will play movies & shows on demand from www.hulu.com. I frequent hulu from my PC, and it works pretty decent on the ppc with skyfire too. You just have to get the zoom just right, and be in a good EVDO coverage area.

[mouss]

hey i have a touch and i would like to no if i can work this on it im from canada

[DASH]

“ Originally Posted by mouss ”

hey i have a touch and i would like to no if i can work this on it im from canada

yes it can just use the special beta code phelps8

[Mike20PR]

“ Originally Posted by D/\SH ”

yes it can just use the special beta code phelps8

skyfire is open beta now, just sign up and start browsing!!! no beta codes necesarry anymore bro

[DASH]

“ Originally Posted by Mike20PR ”

skyfire is open beta now, just sign up and start browsing!!! no beta codes necesarry anymore bro

straight up?!!! hahah nice cant use it anymore since i know it doesnt support vga.

[Mike20PR]

“ Originally Posted by D/\SH ”

straight up?!!! hahah nice cant use it anymore since i know it doesnt support vga.

yup, these noobs are some lucky bastards LMAO, we had to wait 6+ months for this and they get it in seconds :Flush: unfair...

[DASH]

“ Originally Posted by Mike20PR ”

yup, these noobs are some lucky bastards LMAO, we had to wait 6+ months for this and they get it in seconds :Flush: unfair...

for sure and on top of that i signed up for the beta withing the first 5 minutes and people that signed up 2 months later got it before the first people did :<

[ratcheezy]

“ Originally Posted by sl8dogg ”

Thought I'd mention.....For TV on the go, Skyfire will play movies & shows on demand from www.hulu.com. I frequent hulu from my PC, and it works pretty decent on the ppc with skyfire too. You just have to get the zoom just right, and be in a good EVDO coverage area.

thx for this site, this will come in handy. I have to see how hard it will be to zoom in just right using skyfire. Don't really like the new zoom, since I don't know how to resize, does it automatically.

[spidercheck04]

i love this browser i can go anywhere there sound and everything lol i been using it for a week its great i still have opera but this one is better

[JD505]

I've been using Skyfire on my Touch for a while now. It is great, but I find that the Opera Mobile browser rendered the pages ALOT quicker, especially after having zoomed in on something. The only downside to the Opera Browser (for me at least), is that EVERY TIME I use it, once I'm done and exit, it sets all my alerts (voice mail, email,sms) to NO SOUND?!?!? That was the only thing stopping me from using Opera full time over Skyfire. Anyone else have this issue, or am I special?

[DASH]

“ Originally Posted by JD505 ”

I've been using Skyfire on my Touch for a while now. It is great, but I find that the Opera Mobile browser rendered the pages ALOT quicker, especially after having zoomed in on something. The only downside to the Opera Browser (for me at least), is that EVERY TIME I use it, once I'm done and exit, it sets all my alerts (voice mail, email,sms) to NO SOUND?!?!? That was the only thing stopping me from using Opera full time over Skyfire. Anyone else have this issue, or am I special?

i think your special there because i have never heard of that trouble before..... did you look through the opera settings and be sure you dont have something set to do that?

[mobiletilt]

anybody havin probs downloading. tried on many diff sites including this one... oh ya it finally "started" working...says d.l. failed try later

[DASH]

“ Originally Posted by mobiletilt ”

anybody havin probs downloading. tried on many diff sites including this one... oh ya it finally "started" working...says d.l. failed try later

there website is prolly down right now... give them some time and should be back up soon.... maby someone that has this version downloaded already can rapidshare it for you but you will still need to make a login and password if you dont have one already.

[mobiletilt]

sory dash i meant have problems downloading files from sites using your ppc with s.f 0.8....i know u dont use this browser but wonder if any of these guys are havin my problm..removed reset reinstalled many times just wonderin what gives

[BiG JeW]

i dont think you can download on skyfire..... that was one of the downfalls..

[splicitysplat]

“ Originally Posted by BiG JeW ”

i dont think you can download on skyfire..... that was one of the downfalls..

Now you can, and its great.

[trentonmac]

Been using the new version a couple days and it works great. Rendering could be quicker, but oh well.