Skyfire has launched the first Flash video enabled mobile browser for Android-powered devices.
According to CEO Jeff Glueck, Skyfire 2.0 allows users to play millions of Flash videos around the web that are otherwise inaccessible on mobile smartphones.
“The [browser] unlocks content trapped behind those error messages with question marks and blue Legos. Behind the scenes, videos are translated into a format easier for the phone to play, like HTML5 video,” explained Glueck.
“Skyfire on Android uses cloud-computing technology to enable this web video; the benefits include faster and smoother video playback, and extended battery life by offloading more of the work to cloud servers.”
Glueck also noted that Skyfire 2.0 catapulted mobile browsing to “new levels” with the addition of SkyBar – an interactive toolbar that helps web surfers discover the “latest buzz” about any topic.
“[For example,] the ‘Explore’ icon brings the most relevant content on the Internet to a user’s fingertips based on what they are viewing at the time. [This] button pulls video, buzz, news, images and other sites from the web based on what is on the current page.
“[In addition], the ‘Share’ icon lets users share any article or video easily to their friends on Facebook, Twitter, or by email and SMS messaging, adding a comment and all with a single click.”
Glueck added that Skyfire 2.0 was built on a “webkit core” and featured pinch to zoom, copy/paste, text page “find,” as well as the ability to open up to eight browser tabs.
