Anyone try the Skyfire or Fennec Beta Browsers yet?

[dodger55fan]

I just downloaded both of them, if anyone wants them I can post them (if that's okay?), but was wondering for those of you who have tested them on your Droids what you think?

EDIT: Here are the links (they're megaupload, I can post a mirror, or someone else can if you want but this site is generally very fast for me).

Skyfire Alpha - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MSCZYR8S
Fennec Beta - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VBLWUOC4

 

[potatolover1102]

I just went to skyfire and got your phone is not supported?? I would love the beta

 

[CRPercodani]

I don't see any problems in posting them so please do.

 

[dodger55fan]

I don't see any problems in posting them so please do.

Okay sweet am uploading them now, they will be ready in a couple minutes, then I'll just edit them to be in the first post.

 

[Fabolous]

Going to try these right now...

 

[dodger55fan]

Not sure if all features on the skyfire one are supported, I've been playing around with fennec which is pretty cool but rather slow, and I just read that skyfire disabled videos for some of their releases until the official release is out.

 

[dmodert66]

For Fennec, if you are referring to the user built port, then yeah, it's pretty slow. Is the APK for Fennec that you linked at top that version, or an official beta?

 

[Redflea]

Fennec is the firefox browser, right?

 

[dodger55fan]

Alright so after checking both of these out, fennec one is pretty useless it's just way too slow but hopefully we'll get a better build released soon. However, the skyfire one is pretty cool if you ask me and it's pretty fast. The two real disappointments in my opinion so far would be no pinch to zoom support, and a lack of integration with the android system (the menu button is pretty useless, and instead the real menu is below the address bar).

 

[monsterenergy22]

Fennec is the firefox browser, right?

Yes.
Fennec M12 (Beta 1) for Maemo release notes

 

[dodger55fan]

For Fennec, if you are referring to the user built port, then yeah, it's pretty slow. Is the APK for Fennec that you linked at top that version, or an official beta?

I'm not sure about that, I know that the skyfire one is official, however I believe the Fennec one is probably unofficial because it is extremely slow.

Fennec is the firefox browser, right?

Yes.

 

[Fabolous]

Typing this response from Skyfire. This one seems to have the most potential, as the Fennec port is just too laggy and takes 45 MB!

Once they release video and pinch to zoom for Skyfire, it'll be kick ass.

 

[dodger55fan]

Typing this response from Skyfire. This one seems to have the most potential, as the Fennec port is just too laggy and takes 45 MB!

Once they release video and pinch to zoom for Skyfire, it'll be kick ass.

Wow, I didn't realize how big the Fennec port was, that's crazy. And yeah Skyfire looks to have great potential, I read on their site they dropped development for BlackBerry to focus simply on Android OS so hopefully the final release will be good. Also, a pretty cool feature I haven't seen on many apps is if you go to settings-->applications-->manage, and click skyfire you can either clear the cache or press manage space (to left of uninstall), which wipes all the data the app has downloaded (cache, form data, history, etc).

 

[CRPercodani]

Fabo - Can you confirm or disprove Flash is working in Skyfire?

 

[Fabolous]

Haha, an FYI, trying to load a huge Wave collaboration will cause Skyfire to explode.

@CRP - Flash is currently disabled in Skyfire, unfortunately

 

[Redflea]

In Skyfire I selected one of the alternate layout modes (I think it was single column?) and it shut down as soon as I did so and now shuts down right after I launch it...just warning others...

 

[monsterenergy22]

Skyfire FC's for me right after opening.

 

[Fabolous]

Seems to me Skyfire takes a bit of memory as well...

First time I've ever returned to my homescreen and had to wait for the icons to repopulate

Here's a little SC of no Flash:

 

[pinesal]

Shyfire force closes on start up for me. DROID Cyanogenmod.

 

[CRPercodani]

Ahh ok, I had heard flash worked in all Skyfire build's due to it using it own servers to render pages. I would be very interested in 1x comparisons of Skyfire vs Browser.

 

[CRPercodani]

No FC's for me and I am on CyanogenMOD 5.0.5.7

 

[Fabolous]

Seems very quick to me. Loaded up the full ESPN website over 3G in 5-6 seconds. And it renders pages exactly like the desktop!

 

[CRPercodani]

Fabo - Seems to take around 4-5MB for me, closed everything else and then opened Skyfire and that is the difference I got both times I did it. The settings options are pretty good for beta and I also like the choices it has for Share, Related and Video when you use the menu softkey.

 

[dodger55fan]

Seems very quick to me. Loaded up the full ESPN website over 3G in 5-6 seconds. And it renders pages exactly like the desktop!

Haha that's the first page I went to when testing.

And as for the Hulu/Flash thing, like CPR said they use their own servers, if you press the soft menu button on a page you can see a videos link, and right now it says "there are no videos on this page" or something like that even when there clearly are videos, however in the future I would assume that that would be where we get the videos (which would be streamed/run through Skyfire's servers).

 

[Fabolous]

Yeah, I know the rendering is done server side. They probably anticipated that they'd get hit with huge traffic if that feature was enabled right now. Probably just being careful.

Also, I think I got the memory issues worked out. It was just an isolated occurance where I might have been multitasking a little too hard

Cool stuff though!