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Skyfire For Android Enables (Some) Flash Video

Posted by timothy on from the not-your-grandma's-headline dept.

harrymcc writes "Skyfire, a browser formerly available only for Windows Mobile and Symbian, is releasing a beta for Android. The most notable feature: It can identify Flash video on Web pages and convert it to HTML5 and H.264 on the fly, so it'll play on Android phones. It doesn't support all video, and may be rendered somewhat superfluous when Adobe ships Flash Player 10.1 for Android — but it's an impressive trick."

8 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What could go wrong? by teh31337one · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not actually doing Flash video, it signals Skyfire's servers to fetch the video and transcode it from its original format to HTML 5 video. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20003714-1.html

  2. Re:What could go wrong? by nine-times · · Score: 3, Informative

    Of course, it's got to use a lot of CPU cycles on the server side to do this at any sort of scale, built into a browser. But I guess if you are making enough money off your browser, then cool.

    That depends on whether they're really "transcoding". Most Flash these days is H264 anyway, so it might just be doing something to bypass Flash and give the device access to the video stream. Of course, most sites are going to start doing this anyway (giving HTML5-capable browsers the ability to bypass Flash and go straight to the video), but this might work as an interim solution.

  3. Last I checked... by TrancePhreak · · Score: 2, Informative

    Skyfire would show more than just videos, it would show pretty much all kinds of flash content. From games to vector videos like Strongbad emails.

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    -]Phreak Out[-
    1. Re:Last I checked... by jpmorgan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Indeed it has full support for Flash and Silverlight in the Windows Mobile version. However if you've ever used it substantially, it becomes apparent that the backend for WinMo is basically implemented using screen-scraping. The Skyfire client is basically just a clever image viewer.

      From the sound of it they're implementing something more advanced (probably their own WebKit derived renderer) for the Android backend. Although I wonder if they're still delivering images, or just sending a special markup like Opera does with its Mini browser.

  4. Uh oh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the license agreement:

    When you use the browser, Skyfire has access to, and in many cases will monitor, your Browser Usage.

    also

    Personal information collected by Skyfire may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Skyfire Labs, Inc. or its agents maintain facilities. By using Skyfire products and services, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.

    I understand that to work Skyfire needs to translate some stuff from Flash to HTML 5, but the word "monitor" is a little scary. Also I don't appreciate the fact that the GPS turned on before I even got a chance to read the terms of use.

    So... speaking personally... I'm not accepting.

  5. Re:Android does support Flash? by linzeal · · Score: 2, Informative

    Windows Mobile with skyfire is pry the best flash platform for mobile flash viewing, atm.

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    An Education is the Font of All Liberty
  6. Re:Android does support Flash? by lonecrow · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think the issue that that Apple forbids flash whereas flash support for Android has just not yet been developed.

  7. Re:Is it really Transcoding? by buchner.johannes · · Score: 3, Informative

    It is neither, it works per proxy server.

    Like Opera Mini, earlier versions of Skyfire for Windows Mobile and Symbian were proxy browsers that compressed Web pages on the server side before transferring them to the phone. With this Android edition, the Skyfire folks are shifting strategy. Android’s Webkit-based rendering engine is already capable of displaying Web pages swiftly and accurately, they figure, so they’re not trying to duplicate it. Skyfire for Android uses the same Webkit rendering that Android’s default browser does–but rolls it into a browser with a bunch more features.

    The most notable of these new capabilities is Flash video playback. For that, Skyfire still uses a proxy approach: When you come to pages with Flash videos, it identifies them, compresses them, and converts them to H.264 and HTML5, then transfers them to your phone for playback.

    Would have been too cool if they had managed to do it on the client. I'd have wanted it as a Firefox plugin ...

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    NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.