14 DAY TRIAL // Recently, Skyfire announced the release of its Skyfire Browser 2.1 for handsets running under Google's Android operating system. According to the company, the new solution comes with a great deal of enhancements, including support for a number of 750,000 additional websites that include Flash content. The new release follows the addition of over 500,000 new users within six weeks from the initial launch of the solution on Android.
“Skyfire enables Flash video from across the millions of web sites that use the popular Flash plug-in. Skyfire plays Flash video by transcoding video files into HTML5 in the cloud and optimizing them for mobile delivery. Skyfire’s cloud technology means videos play faster and smoother, with less buffering, less 'stuttering', and better battery life,” the company stated.
Tests conducted by Skyfire showed that its solution enables users watch twice as many minutes of video per hour when compared to native Flash 10.1 for Android, in addition to boosting the battery life by 30 percent. Since most Flash content around the Internet is aimed mainly at desktop users, the payback of videos is somehow difficult on mobile phones, and Skyfire’s cloud technology was designed to ease this task.
Additionally, Skyfire comes with social networking integration. Users can easily follow links from Facebook, Twitter, iGoogle, Digg, and more, or they can play the videos on these links shared via the social media sites. Not to mention that they can take advantage of the Share button on the SkyBar so as to share content with multiple contacts, or that they can use the Explore button on the SkyBar to access the latest news, tweets, videos, or popular blog posts.
“Skyfire’s success on Android raises the bar for the mobile internet in general. Android users have demonstrated that smartphone users want all the content on the Internet to work on their devices, not just one or two ‘mobile’ sites,” said Jeff Glueck, CEO of Skyfire. “The content that matters changes each day and runs across millions of ‘long tail’ sites. Skyfire users don’t need to wait for a WiFi connection to enjoy great video.”