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Video demo: SkyFire’s S60 mobile web browser accessing Hulu and YouTube

by Steve O'Hear

November 24th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | CommentsView Comments

In my first attempt at a video demo — something I hope to do a lot more of — I’ve been putting SkyFire’s new mobile web browser through its paces, running on my S60-powered Nokia e71. What sets SkyFire apart from other mobile browsers, the company claims, is its ability to display the web in its full desktop glory, including Flash, Quicktime and AJAX-heavy content. To achieve this, web pages are processed by the company’s own proxy servers before being served up on the phone.

Check out my video demo after the jump, in which I try visiting last100 (Flash ads included), a page with a YouTube video embedded, and more ambitiously, the online video site Hulu — it played but was out of sync. I also tried accessing the web version of BBC iPlayer, but due to SkyFire’s use of a proxy server, I was blocked from accessing the UK-only service as it presumably thought I resided outside the country…

last100 is edited by technology journalist and consultant Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

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  • Steve O'Hear
    @Pete

    Thanks!

    @Steven Hoober

    That's interesting re: SmartFit. Perhaps it's more of an issue with the CSS of last100.com, although the standard Nokia S60 browser on the e71 does handle re-flowing of text fine.
  • Not sure what is wrong with SmartFit on your device, but it works fine on mine (N95-8GB, NA). Doesn't even get confused when I switch orientation.

    It just works in the Opera-Mini mode, and the text is wrapped to the size of your screen when zoomed in. No spare whitespace, though like all of these it often gets a little confused, and centers you a bit offset, so you need to tweak the view to see every character in the column.
  • Pete
    Great video review Steve.
    I'm looking forward to seeing more product video reviews from you.

    Moving pictures are worth thousands of words :)
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