Skyfire, the audio and video-friendly browser for Android, has reached version 4, consolidating its position as a viable alternative many other browsers for Android.
Skyfire’s major selling point is undoubtedly its built-in support for video and high level of social media integration. It’s also fast, with easily-navigable history, downloads and bookmarks, and excellent settings designed to get the most out of your media-rich browsing.
Audio and Video
Skyfire focuses on video, especially Flash, which traditionally has a hard time on mobile devices. Unfortunately, the app lags behind in other formats, as it doesn’t currently support Windows Media, Silverlight or QuickTime. Even so, it has an in-built video player that grabs your video from the original site and plays it in a really user-friendly interface.
Easy Access
This app scores well on instant-access and multi-service social media integration. Skyfire’s bottom bar gives you access to a variety of sharing services, most notably Facebook, but also some other, interesting options, such as Fireplace (a Facebook personalization feature), Google Reader, various sharing options and an Ideas feature, although it's not 100% clear how this works. What's more, Skyfire allows you to both remove, re-order and edit these quick accesses.
All in all, Skyfire is an interesting browsing experience. It’s easy to use, fast, has good options and focuses on two of the most important features for mobile browsers today – social media and entertainment. Skyfire has bunches of options that should help you tailor the app precisely to your needs, and we were real fans of the ability to easily toggle between as the desktop or mobile version of webpages - as well as the extensive security options.
Skyfire is an excellent mobile browser, and has really come into its own in this latest version.
