The Download Blog

Split screen is Bolt's take on zooming.

(Credit: Bitstream)

We were impressed with the Opera Mini 5 beta browser, which came out in mid-September. At CTIA Wireless 2009, a smaller player, Bolt Browser, leaves its beta behind to chase after Opera's dominance as an alternative browser for Java phones.

We liked what we saw the first time we tested out Bolt as a beta (video review) on a Samsung Propel. Bolt's rendering felt truer than Opera Mini 4.2 on many sites, but it didn't seem faster. Now that Bolt has shucked off its beta, we find performance essentially unchanged.

True, Bolt has undergone some cosmetic alterations, such as a Google search box that's separate from the URL bar, and a welcome download manager that lets you download files as well as upload. It also caches pages now, so you can jump back to the previous page without reloading it. Bolt 1.5's new video manager selects the best of three delivery mechanisms for streaming video on your device, including triggering your media player if the phone isn't well equipped for playback.

But what of those speed claims? Bolt, a proxy browser built on Webkit, now claims that it's about 15 percent faster than before and compresses data at a 23:1 ratio. In other words, 2.3MB from the Web shrinks down to 100KB. That may be, but we pulled up our online stopwatch to run our own surf tests.

Without ever budging from our roost, we tested navigation three times on each of three sites, keeping the routine the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2. We would have thrown Opera Mini 5 beta into the mix, but it didn't seem compatible yet with our testing phone, a Samsung Propel on AT&T's 3G network. We're telling you this because we know what a difference carrier, data strength, and handset type makes in each user's result. Were you to run the same test, you might get slightly different numbers.

Bolt took 12-14 seconds to load and navigate on Nordstrom.com versus Opera Mini's 9-13 seconds. It took 26 seconds to load The New York Times site and two other stories on Bolt. On Opera, the same stories loaded in 19, 11, and 10 seconds. Yelp was about the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2, about 14 seconds, but one Bolt page ran 2 seconds slower. Our tests clearly favor Opera Mini for speed, but there are one or two other caveats and clarifications to consider before declaring an all-around winner.

First, Bolt renders pages more faithfully than Opera Mini, with sharper text and photos, and with all the photos intact. Opera Mini 4.2 tended to overly compress some, but it bought it speed. On some sites, Opera Mini stripped an image or two out, or the photo footprints drastically condensed. Bolt also has an interesting feature that Opera doesn't--the capability to split the screen. This is essentially Bolt's zoom feature. As you pass the cursor over the zoomed-out section up top, the same area is zoomed in below. The 5 key toggles split-screen view on and off.

So which Java browser prevails overall? It's a tough call: Bolt renders graphics more clearly, but Opera was speedier. We'll see if these numbers continue to stand up when Opera Mini 5 comes out of beta. In the meantime, try them both out and chime in with your own views. You may find that a few seconds are worth it to you to use Bolt's interface. Maybe speed is all that matters and you'll stick with Opera Mini for now. You tell us.

Bolt browser 1.5 is free to download. BlackBerry owners should download the optimized version for BlackBerry phones, which integrates RIM's typical operating system shortcuts.

These days, Mozilla's Fennec and the Skyfire browser have been stealing all the thunder in the mobile browsing space. On Wednesday morning (that's Tuesday night for us in San Francisco), Opera yanked some of it back with the release of Opera Mini 5 beta for Java phones.

Introducing a graphically enriched layout topside and new features below decks, the new Opera Mini beta browser is snappier, more attractive, and more advanced than last year's predecessor, Opera Mini 4.2. Mini 5 beta brings over several features from Opera's desktop browser (Opera 10 for Windows | Mac.) Tabbed browsing is among them, as is a password manager. Each page opens with Speed Dial, a grid of nine thumbnail images and Opera Desktop mainstay, that you assign to favorite Web sites and can select among to quickly launch a Web page. The Speed Dial view replaces Opera Mini's previous landing page, a tangle of links capped with a search box and URL field. These thumbnail images make the landing page more meaningful, both in giving users a visual they can instantly recognize, and creating an easier target for users to accurately hit on touchscreen phones than a scrawny little link.

While the URL field and search bars haven't joined together in this beta as they have in other mobile browsers and in most desktop browsers out there, Opera has at least consolidated the two onto a single line. To address another long-overdue fix, Opera now lets you type directly into a text field. In previous versions, clicking a field opened up a blank page, where you were prompted to start typing before you could return to the main interface.

Opera Mini gets into Opera Desktop's Speed Dial start screen.

(Credit: Opera Software)

Opera Mini's navigation menu received another overhaul in Mini 5 beta. Opera moved it up to the top and made it completely icon-based. Press downward (on a D-pad for a keypad phone) to engage more items, like bookmarks, history, settings, and the Find in Page search tool, a new one for Opera Mini. Find in Page has previously been available in Opera Mini; it's nice to see it return.

The password manager that's new to Opera Mini works as expected, producing a dialog box the first time you log into a site asking if you'd like it to remember your credentials. You can turn this off in the Privacy portion of the Settings submenu.

Many additional features carry over from previous Opera Mini versions, including options to view the page as you would from the desktop versus a mobile view. There are also the usual shortcut keys and support for landscape mode on most phones (not on BlackBerrys, unfortunately, an ongoing omission). There are also additional options that pop up in response to long presses on the 'select' key or on the touchscreen, like for selecting and copying text, opening the image, and now, for opening content in a new tab.

A chief rival to Opera Mobile in the cell phone browser space, Skyfire has released a new version for Windows Mobile (touchscreen | non-touchscreen) and Nokia's Symbian-run E or N series phones. Version 1.1 makes some minor, but still welcome, improvements to navigation and performance.

My favorite is that you'll now be able to punch the "2" and "8" key on keypad- or keyboard-equipped phones to navigate up and down. Pressing the asterisk (*) will jump you to the joint address/search bar. Of course, this may not work identically on phones with nonstandard keypad arrangements.

Web surfers will also notice that Skyfire may now show a Web site's mobile version more often than before. Behind the change are new WAP features that detect mobile sites better. In addition, Skyfire's browser will zoom in on the page automatically, saving you a step. The new treatment won't work for sites, like Yahoo's mobile.yahoo.com, that use "mobile" as part of a URL intended to be viewed from the desktop.

Behind the scenes, Skyfire's mobile browser also received updates for Flash, QuickTime, and Silverlight, all which give the browser the edge in streaming videos. Other tweaks and fixes are designed to speed up the time it takes for a page to load, and quicken scrolling on Nokia phones. Skyfire's blog has a full list of changes.

Skyfire mobile browser is free to all users. You can also download it over the air by pointing a different mobile browser to http://get.skyfire.com. If you're an existing user who can weather a short wait, Skyfire will push the update to your phone. This should save you having to reconfigure all of RSS and social networking feeds.

Article updated at 12:15 am PT with a clarification on how mobile site detection works.

The last peep we heard about Fennec was in late June, when Mozilla updated its mobile edition of the Firefox browser for Windows Mobile phones. This week, the Firefox browser maker has released an updated version for the platform powering Nokia N800 and N810 Internet Tablets: Fennec 1.0 Beta 3. (You can also download a desktop emulator for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.)

Following 'the rule of threes,' it could be a good guess that after this third beta, the final version will be next in line. A Mozilla spokesperson, however, told CNET that more beta builds are expected in the future.

This beta update for the Linux-based Maemo operating system especially addresses performance and user interface, starting with a theme refresh. In the future, the interface will also be better able to support a variety of devices and orientations.

(Credit: Mozilla)

Additionally, Fennec 1.0 beta 3 takes on slow scrolling and panning. The third beta should see sped-up performance and the ability to scroll iframes. As you pan, Fennec for Maemo's new image-rendering system will save more of the screen. It should take less time to refresh the screen as you navigate back and forth.

The next build will focus on smoothing out rough edges, Stuart Parmenter, Mozilla's director of mobile engineering, said in a blog post. The team will particularly pay attention to using the browser's new rendering system to nix the checkerboard pattern you see when panning around.

As a beta product, Fennec 1.0 beta 3 is intended for testers to help work out the kinks. Read the full release notes here.

Article updated at 1:15 pm with a comment from Mozilla.

Updated July 28 at 9:45 a.m. PDT with more information about the leak.

On Monday afternoon, Skyfire announced it would put a temporary halt on its alpha program for BlackBerry. The makers of a popular alternative mobile browser for Symbian and Windows Mobile phones pulled the private testing program when they discovered earlier Monday that a nondisclosure agreement had been broken and the program's download link had been leaked.

Co-founder Nitin Bhandari wrote on Skyfire's blog, "During the time it was leaked, there were many BlackBerry users trying the alpha release on Curves, Storms, and other BlackBerry models--it was not intended for these devices."

This statement suggests the company might fear the possibility that negative press could plague the product before its sanctioned beta release. A Skyfire spokesperson told CNET that the leak was not internal.

This alpha photo was leaked last April.

This is not the first time Skyfire has had problems with overenthusiastic alpha testers. In April, screenshots of an even earlier-stage alpha build for BlackBerry hit the Web, much to Skyfire's consternation.

Skyfire has not said when it will reinstate the alpha testing program for its BlackBerry browser.

We knew that Opera Mobile 9.7 beta was on its way (in fact, we expected it in May,) but the build released to Windows Mobile consumers on Monday morning isn't exactly what we had anticipated given certain hints in the business build that support for Flash video was on its way. We should say, the inclusion of Opera Turbo was dead on. What we hadn't expected was a separate widget gallery to replace the one built into Opera Mobile 9.5 beta, the previous version.

More on Turbo and widgets in just one moment, but first the answer to what we think you really want to know--should you upgrade? Based on our tests of the preview build Opera let us test the Friday before the release, here's our take: While it won't slow you down if you do upgrade to Opera 9.7 beta from Opera 9.5 beta, and while it may even help you in a pinch, those with reliable fast coverage who don't plan on using more than Opera Mobile's core browsing features won't have much cause to reinstall.

Turbo-charged Opera Mobile 9.7

Enable Opera Turbo when you've got a weak connection.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

Now back to your regularly scheduled review. Opera Turbo is the by now much-touted compression and proxy engine used in Opera 10 beta (review), the desktop browser version released the first week of June. On Windows Mobile phones, Turbo also makes browsing faster for data connections below 3G speeds--in other words, EV-DO, EDGE, and other 2.5G connections. When Turbo's revved on the phone, it sends the page data to Opera's servers for proxy rendering. The servers then send a lighter version of the page back to the phone. While that makes Turbo much faster on data- and image-rich Web pages over slow connections, it also predictably slashes image quality.

Turbo's implementation in Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is (disappointingly) unchanged since we got a demo at CTIA in early April. Though automatic detection is enabled in Opera's version 10 beta desktop browser, beta testers will need to manually switch it on and off each time. It's easy enough to do in the Advanced portion of Opera Mobile's settings menu, but there is a detriment to letting Turbo slave away. If you're on Wi-Fi or 3G, you could experience more lag time while Turbo sends your data to Opera's servers and back. Also, your image quality will suffer. This will be the singlemost challenge for 9.7 beta testers.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

The problem with statistics is that it's too easy to jigger data down to numbers that prove in the end how quickly the exercise can resemble art as much as science. Take the latest stats regarding Opera's mobile performance, for instance. StatCounter's Tuesday graph showed proof of Opera's climb above the iPhone's Safari browser for the month of May.

Yet the claim that "Opera took 24.6 percent of the worldwide market compared to 22.3 percent for iPhone" is quickly followed by the admission that one only needs to calculate page views from the iPod Touch for mobile Safari to bypass Opera's lead. Web surfing from the Touch alone represents 14.9 percent of May's mobile browsing, according to StatCounter. Add it to iPhone's browser score and Safari's 37.2 percent overall market share quickly outpaces Opera's not-quite-25 percent.

The deeper you dive, the murkier it gets. What StatCounter didn't make clear in this report, and what is absolutely essential to gauging the popularity of one browser solution over another, is which Opera browser StatCounter counted. Was it Opera Mini, the build for Java phones? Or Opera Mobile, which works with Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms? Or was it both? If the final count indeed includes page views from all the browsers powered by Opera Software, then it could also cover white labeled browsing from a number of Archos personal media players and from the Nintendo DSI. If it doesn't, should it?

Even Opera isn't totally certain what StatCounter's methodology sucks in, though a spokesperson did tell CNET that the company puts a lot of faith into StatCounter's figures. A representative at StatCounter was not immediately available for comment.

Opera versus Safari, or iPhone versus everything else?

You might also wonder if this statistical volley between Opera and Safari faithfully compares apples to apples, or if it is in effect one more measure that pits the iPhone and iPod Touch against other handsets. After all, iPhone accounts for 10 percent global smartphone market share while Symbian phones alone hold nearly 50 percent of the rest. By all logic, iPhone's Safari shouldn't come close to generating the greater-than-20 percent of the world's mobile traffic StatCounter says it has.

And yet, since Apple has shut out all browsing competition on the iPhone, I argue that the browser's seeming popularity is more a testament to the hardware's browsing-friendliness than it is to the browsing vehicle itself. In other words, it appears that more people browse more often on the iPhone than they do from other mobile phones. Would we see similar results were Nokia to lock out third-party browsers, too? Or perhaps Apple's minimalistic monopolistic limited approach to handsets and mobile browsers is one key to Safari's success. The irony, of course, is that Apple isn't ideologically selling its browser the way Opera is. It's selling devices, plus brand confidence and Apple's "cool factor" appeal.

So, does all this add up to a hollow numbers victory for Opera?

Not necessarily. Whether Opera or iPhone's Safari (plus iPod Touch) is truly in the lead, the mobile browser's (or browsers') numbers are up. Following StatCounter's stats, Opera's mobile browser almost fully recovered in May from a steady three percent decline since January to April 2009. In January, StatCounter called Opera out at 24.69 percent of the mobile browsing market, 0.05 percent higher than it is this month. However the usage numbers shake out this month, that turnaround, at least, is something Opera can unquestioningly be proud of.

Read and filter RSS feeds, and update your social status.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

A little over a year after Skyfire began making a splash, the Silicon Valley startup has officially released version 1.0 of its free third-party mobile browser for Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. During its beta tenure, the newbie browser whipped up its fair share of excitement and kudos. Indeed, Skyfire has arrived at its first full release with a fairly fast and solid mobile browser offering. From a usability standpoint, its streaming video and social bent are Skyfire's strengths. Small, but significant navigation holes are drawbacks in what is an otherwise stable and serious effort.

While beta users won't find Skyfire 1.0 dramatically altered from version 0.9 beta, there are noticeable changes to the interface design from the first iterations. The lists of featured links that originally graced the Start screen have now been replaced by a customizable RSS feed. You can sort by filters and post article links to Facebook and Twitter. Separately, you can upload a new social networking status from the screen. The joint address-search bar has crept to the top, leaving more reading space. Video playback has become much smoother, too, since it was first introduced, though it still sometimes suffers from catches and varying picture quality (this isn't Skyfire's challenge alone.) Panning, zooming, and processing performance are neater as well.

In version 1.0, Skyfire has concentrated on the theme of picking up where you left off browsing. When you navigate away from a page or exit Skyfire--yet keep it running in the background--the browser will now remember your page position, returning you to your last zoom level and approximate location on the page.

Operating speed was another focus of the 1.0 release. Now when you load a page, you can click a link without having to zoom in first--a real benefit if high resolution or your own familiarity with a Web site makes zooming in before clicking a link an extraneous step. Likewise, you'll be able to enter a URL or search term into the search bar 2-3 seconds after the page begins loading, versus version 0.9 beta's 8-10 seconds of lag time before you could begin typing.

What's missing?

While Skyfire supports Flash and Silverlight plug-ins, it doesn't support those applications that require text entry. It likewise won't work for media players requiring the 'local storage mode,' as do Pandora, Rhapsody, and Netflix. Unlike Opera, it's lacking some niceties that make browsing life easier, like copy and paste, and the ability to search a block of text for a word or phrase. Copy/paste would have been useful for filling in a URL during testing when the URLs for several over-the-air downloads were not linked. There's also no way to cancel a page from loading in Skyfire 1.0 if you've changed your mind. It's not a deal-breaker by any means, but is a slight annoyance nonetheless.

Flash support enables streaming video.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

The Twitter and Facebook feed updates, while a nice addition, frequently cut off longer messages. Rather than reveal the whole message when you tap, Skyfire directs you to your contact's profile page. If your goal is to just read the comment and possibly respond, navigating around the profile page is overkill. Likewise, Skyfire's built-in reformatting engine needed to be taken in a few pixels on our Samsung Omnia. Version 0.9 did away with the SmartFit menu option of previous versions in favor of automatically refitting the screen width after zooming into a story. Instead of eliminating the need to pan, on the test phone, slight panning was a must.

Finally, having the virtual keyboard on a touch screen phone pop up when you tap an area of text entry would have saved countless steps while searching, commenting on Facebook profiles, and entering passwords.

For the most part, these minor drawbacks are the sort that Skyfire can fix in upcoming releases. In the meantime, what it's offered Internet-seekers is a strong contender to Opera Mobile 9.5 beta that's more engaging in terms of a superior video playback solution (Opera Mobile does not currently support Flash Lite natively, but is expected to offer Flash in the next release) and also better attuned to newsgathering and sharing on social networks. With these two features, Skyfire could wing its way into Opera Mobile's turf on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. If it wants to maintain its position in the face of Skyfire's official mobile browser launch and Mozilla's impending one, Opera's response must at least match Skyfire's video playback and speed, plus overturn its own UI foibles.

Note: Skyfire 0.85 users and earlier will need to uninstall Skyfire before downloading version 1.0.

Related story: Leaked: Skyfire browser's BlackBerry alpha photos

It seems that the fellas over at The Boy Genius Report got their hands on leaked screenshots of an alpha version of Skyfire's mobile browser for BlackBerry. Their source has proclaimed it "already being the best BlackBerry browser ever."

The BlackBerry version of Skyfire looks a lot like the other smartphone versions, just wider.

(Credit: Boy Genius Report)

Wow, that's some potentially overblown praise, especially as Opera's mobile browser has been the alternative of choice for many BlackBerry users. It's also not the first time that the free Skyfire browser has been overhyped. No disrespect meant to Skyfire--its mobile browser for Symbian and Windows Mobile has a solid design, competitive speeds, and supports (imperfect) video playback--but let's give this all some perspective before declaring it the next killer browser.

First, we've known for a while that BlackBerry was next on the list of Skyfire's smartphone development, after Windows Mobile and Symbian, which are available now in an advanced beta that's very soon expected to tip over into the first full release.

Second, a look at the screenshots reveals a design that's very similar to the most recent, and still frequently tweaked, builds available now. Sure, that won't help you if you're a BlackBerry user, but in absolute development terms, it's less interesting than the fact that at its inception, Skyfire hatched exclusively on mobile (versus Opera Mobile and Mozilla's Fennec, both products born first from desktop browsing) and emerged seemingly out of nowhere to become such an anticipated application. I'm all for choice when it comes to mobile browsing, and I'm happy to see Skyfire being prepped for BlackBerry fans, too, but also keep in mind that it could be a long road between now and final development, and that much could change in the mobile industry from now until then.

Third, Skyfire brings some interesting features and good diversity into the mobile browser mix that Opera Mobile has held onto for so long, but it's far from being the magic bullet of mobile browsing. Support for downloading certain content is still variable and video playback can be choppy even over a strong, secure Wi-Fi connection. The browser can always get faster, and it still lacks some of Opera Mobile's advanced features, like in-line search.

It's unsurprising that Skyfire had no official comment to share, but the leak's photographic evidence makes it apparent that something's in the works. Again, it may be some time before Skyfire publicly acknowledges the alpha, and opens up a beta app, but when it does, we'll be there with a hands-on review.