Skyfire browser goes beta for BlackBerry

The BlackBerry version of the Skyfire mobile phone browser has been released in beta form for the first time.

At the end of last week, according to reports, beta version 1.0.0.12304 came out. Symbian and Windows Mobile users already have full releases of the browser, which is notable for the server-side rendering it uses to give a desktop-like web browsing experience, complete with Flash support.

Several enhancements have been made since the second alpha release of the BlackBerry Skyfire. Keyboard shortcuts have been mapped to be similar to those in the native BlackBerry browser and, once the new browser has been installed, an option in the native browser's menu allows the user to choose to open links in Skyfire rather than the native browser.

Text can now be entered in the thumbnail view, rather than having to zoom in to fill a dialogue box. Contextual zoom has also been added, as with the other handsets' versions of Skyfire, and the developers claim much faster zooming in the beta than in the alpha.

According to Crackberry.com, however, the beta version still has "some serious memory issues".