Friday, November 18, 2011

App Review: Skyfire 4.0

Skyfire 4.0 browser is one of the native mobile browser alternatives available in the Android Market. Fortunately, the Skyfire 4.0 is available for free unlike its iOS counterpart. Skyfire 4.0 for Android 2.0 or higher devices brings following features to the screen - flash video, social sharing, built-in feed reader, user-agent switching, Facebook quick view and Twitter quick view.

Loading up the Skyfire for first time will take you through initial formalities to accept the terms and conditions along with lengthy explanation of features packed in. Pressing Next button three to four times is bit tedious so it would've been great if the developers would have placed the list of features more appropriately than in the first run.

Skyfire loads with a list of featured sites that include variety of popular websites from NYTimes to Yahoo. But this list of featured sites can't be edited and no new links can be added there.

By default, the Skyfire offers full screen browsing and lengthy articles will appear as if you will have to scroll endlessly. The bottom Menu bar dubbed as the "Skybar" has fourteen different items with each offering a distinct function. For instance, the Video button offers links to the videos related to the being watched in the web browser. Users can swipe from right to left on the Skybar to explore different menu items offered.

People who love browsing and sharing links with friends can immediately tap the Like button in the bottom-right corner. User will have to login to Facebook just once. Similarly the Facebook community comes to the aid when you tap the Popular button in the Skybar. For instance, if you are just done reading about the a recipe then tapping the Popular button will take you to most popular recipe website/page that has been recommended (Like-d) by the Facebook user community.

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