Skyfire beta updated; one step closer to the real, real web on mobiles

Skyfire pitches its like-named mobile browser beta with the tag line, “The PC web. On your phone. Real fast.” Simple yet poignant. Many companies make similar claims yet fail to deliver. Apple, for example, had a long commercial run highlighting the iPhone’s ability to display real webpages. That’s nice and all, but try to download a file or listen to / watch some embedded media and you’re reminded pretty quickly that you’re not, in fact, dealing with the real web. S60’s browser on the other hand, while a whole lot less visually pleasing, does take things one step further. Users can download and upload files or even watch an embedded video or two courtesy of Flash Lite integration – sometimes without crashing. With the newly updated Skyfire browser however, things just got a whole lot more interesting. Skyfire claims users of its browser which recently entered open beta can “watch any video” and “listen to any music”. While the word “any” takes those statements slightly outside the realm of reality, the fact is the Skyfire browser is pretty remarkable in terms of speed and multimedia capability. Forget about YouTube videos, we’re talking full-on Hulu.com, TV network sites and more for video, and music sites that had been previously unaccessible as well. If you’re packing an S60 handset and you’re in a region where Skyfire is available (US, Canada, and UK), definitely do yourself a favor and hit get.skyfire.com from your lame current mobile browser.

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