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Skyfire Resumes Alpha Testing Of BlackBerry Browser

Skyfire offers a capable mobile browser for both the S60 and Windows Mobile platforms. It had been working on a version for BlackBerries, but hit a few speed bumps. Now, things appear to be back on track, and Skyfire Alpha 3.5 is available for its BlackBerry testers.

I use Skyfire on both Windows Mobile and S60 devices. It works very well. I prefer it to most other mobile browsers I've used. It would be nice to have the same option for BlackBerries, and it looks like things are headed in the right direction.

Skyfire recently contacted its alpha testers and offered up an explanation for killing off the alpha version of Skyfire for BlackBerries earlier this year. Apparently Skyfire is serious about only a set number of alpha testers using the program at the moment. It doesn't want the alpha distributed to the masses.

The new version of Skyfire for BlackBerry is specifically aimed at the Bold right now, running firmware versions 4.6.0.167 and 4.6.0.247. Skyfire says it is okay to test on the 8900 Curve running OS 5.0, as well.

One big change-up compared to the 3.1 alpha is that Skyfire has removed media streaming. Skyfire says that there were just too many errors for the time being, so it remove the feature while it works out the bugs.

That deletion aside, there are plenty of new features in the browser. Some of the features include inline text entry, click-to call, set as default browser, improved downloading of files, improved scrolling, and reduced checkerboard occurrences.

According to Skyfire, a firm limit is in place that will keep tabs the number of new users that its systems will accept.

Skybire alpha testers, you know who you are. Go snag the download and start testing.

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