FAQs - Skyfire Browser for iPad

Skyfire Web Browser for iPad makes searching, discovering and surfing the touch-enabled web incredibly easy. It also allows users to watch millions of Flash video (FLV) streams on iPad, including breaking news, live sports and full-length entertainment videos.

When you come across a website on your iPad that has a Flash video embedded on the page, the flash video will not work since iOS does not support Flash playback. Please note: The Flash video box on the page, will still display a message saying flash is broken or that you need to install flash. However Skyfire, has the capability to detect these broken Flash Videos on the page and fix them (even though the flash error message is still there).

A Skyfire “Video alert” will appear from the top automagically; Or you can always tap the “Video” button in the top right corner to have Skyfire scan the page for a flash video to fix. This Skyfire Video alert will notify you of the progress as Skyfire’s servers analyze the page and then stream that video to your iPad. Skyfire uses adaptive streaming to provide you the best quality for the given network conditions.

Skyfire is the most customizable, most personal browser on iPad. With Skyfire’s mobile browser extensions, you can customize & personalize your browser with webapps (buttons) that give you one-tap access to the web’s most popular social networks, content feeds, and utilities. These offer you relevant recommendations, search suggestions, related apps, deals and sharing features based on your current browsing context (the pages you are browsing at the moment). You’ll wonder how you ever browsed without them.

Skyfire for iPad runs on any iPad/iPad Mini with iOS 5.0 and up, including the most up-to-date 6.x versions.

Skyfire for iPad is available worldwide!

In “Settings” the “Load page as” option allows you to identify Skyfire as either an iPad or Desktop browser, enabling either a standard iPad websites to load or full desktop style websites. Simply toggle between the settings to view your favorite websites however you see fit. In tech speak: this changes the browsers user agent (UA) signature.

Pro Tip: Some sites offer video in the iPad version and some offer more videos in desktop format. Try going to www.thedailyshow.com and switching between Desktop and iPad modes .

In “Private Browsing” mode, your browsing history and cookies will not be retained. Private browsing is active on a per tab basis, once a private browsing tab is closed, the new tab will revert back to regular browsing.

If you browse to a page with a Flash-enabled video on it, a Skyfire Video Alert with a “Play Video” button inside of it will appear from the top of Skyfire. This means we've recognized a video that you'll likely be able to play on your iPad. Just press that " Play Video" button inside the alert pane; Skyfire will analyze the page and enable Flash video to play for you. It takes about ~20 seconds for the analysis and preparation of the video to happen. After that, the video is a click away to play and enjoy.

No. Unfortunately, this action is not supported by Apple.

Yes! You can do this under Settings. Tap the settings button in the top right corner. Then tap “More Settings” . From there you can clear cookies, history, and the browser cache.

Touch Effect is a special effect that allows users to see where they are touching on their screen.  This helps users on handheld devices with smaller screens, where links and buttons may be tiny. Seeing where the center of your “Tap” is helps you target better !  You can disable Touch Effects in Settings.

We call the bottom toolbar the Skyfire Horizon Toolbar. It opens a world of social and contextual browsing to you. You can remove any of the webapps, re arrange them, or add new webapps to the Toolbar from the “add more” menu. You can also turn off the toolbar in settings. For more info check out the “Skyfire Horizon Apps” tab in the FAQ for more details.

That's OK. Skyfire does not fix the Flash error message on the webpage. But if you think that there might be a video on that page (that Flash error box), then go ahead and press the "Video" button on the top right toolbar. We will make that video available from our toolbar.

Go to a webpage that has a flash error message and press the video icon on the top right of the toolbar. We support videos from more than 200,000 sites.  Our coverage is not perfect, but we are constantly increasing our site coverage.

Yes! In fact, Skyfire adapts the stream to your connectivity conditions, including network connection quality and bandwidth. You get the best video experience given your current bandwidth situation. Skyfire adapts these parameters on-the-fly.

We have a special low quality mode.  Slideshow snapshots with continuous audio from the video allow you to continue viewing under the worst conditions.

Though if the connection is really bad, we cannot do much about it and video playback will fail.

When there is poor connectivity, Skyfire changes the video to a mode where audio continues to play, but only a snapshot from the video is displayed every couple of seconds.

This is a way for you to continue to enjoy the content of the video even under bad conditions. As soon as the network improves the video should play normal again. When network conditions deteriorate (check your connectivity!) it is difficult to continuously stream video.

This depends on the type of video and how we process it. In most cases you will be able to pause and resume.

Every URL is scanned for Flash Video content. However, we do no process secure pages or password protected pages.

No, they are not stored on the server.

Skyfire never sends any user passwords to the server. Cookies are used temporarily for analyzing pages, however they are immediately discarded.

We take user privacy very seriously. You can read about our privacy policy on our web site at http://www.skyfire.com/about/privacy-and-security

Skyfire supports Flash Video and Quicktime.

No. Our focus is on enabling video playback.

The Skyfire Horizon toolbar lets you pin useful webapps to the bottom of your browser for quick access. Skyfire has a gallery of webapps that work in the toolbar– from contextual recommendations to App discovery to social applications and browser utilities. With one-click access to News Feeds and one-click sharing of content via Facebook™, Twitter™ and other communities, along with community- and friend-based recommendations, Skyfire’s Horizon webapps make browsing the web on iPad convenient and fun.

Yes! You can add/remove apps on your Skyfire Horizon ToolBar by tapping the blue ribbon with a white plus sign on the right of the Skyfire Horizon ToolBar.

Tap the plus sign on the side of your favorite app and it will be added to your Skyfire Horizon toolbar.

You can choose between many different news sources (Mashable, Engadget, Reddit), Shopping apps (Amazon, Target, Living Social), Social apps (Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram) and much more to enhance your browsing experience.

Yes! You can always find all of our useful apps by tapping on the blue ribbon with a white plus sign on your Skyfire Horizon toolbar, even after removing them.

Yes! It’s as easy as 1,23.

1. Press and hold one of the apps on your Skyfire Horizon ToolBar until the app starts shaking and an “x” appears in the upper right corner of your app.
2. Move your app to the desired location
3. Tap the center of the screen to save your changes.

The Skyfire Horizon ToolBar is always available unless it has been disabled.  Just swipe down on your screen and the ToolBar will pop up again.

If you have removed all of the webapps in the toolbar, the toolbar is turned off automatically. You can re-enable it again in settings.

The Skyfire Horizon toolbar can’t be removed, but it can be disabled by going to your Settings and turning off the ToolBar (But, why would you want to do that?).

Wired – New and Developing Tech News. Tech’s affect on culture, politics and the economy.
Digg – Social News. The most interesting and talked about stories, videos and more on the web
Fandango – Movie News. Read movie reviews, get movie times, buy tickets in just a few taps.
Gigaom – Tech Business News. Breaking news and in-depth business analysis of the tech industry.
The Verge – Tech and Media News.  Articles, podcasts, product reviews, shows and more!
TechCrunch – Tech and Start Up News. An iconic blog covering tech, start ups, gadget, and venture capital.
CNN – U.S. and World News.  Breaking news, business, entertainment, political news and more!
OMG! – Celebrity Gossip and Hollywood News.  Videos, pictures and news from Hollywood.
Yahoo Finance – Finance News.  Stock quotes, portfolio management, market news and more.
Reddit – Social News. User-generated news in various categories. See what’s trending on the web!
Thrillist – Men’s Lifestyle News. Keep up with trends, find food, entertainment, and more in your city.
Mashable – Social Media News. Trending social, tech and media articles.
Google Reader – Google News.  All the news from your Google Reader feed.
Engadget – Tech and Gadget News.  Current and developing tech news, product reviews, and more.

Readability – Read any web article comfortably in Skyfire anytime.

Bing – Bing with automatic search suggestions related to what you’re browsing
Google – Google with automatic search suggestions related to what you’re browsing.
DuckDuckGo – A great search engine, that gives you great results in a simple interface
Yandex.ru – Russia’s(.RU) #1 search engine.
Yandex.com – An English version of Yandex.ru (Russia’s #1 search engine)
Amazon – Search and Shop Amazon.  Suggested searches related to what you’re browsing.
IMDb – The Internet Movie Database. Suggested searches related to what you’re browsing.
Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia.  Suggested searches related to what you’re browsing.
Yelp – Business Reviews.  Suggested searches related to what you’re browsing.
Related Apps – iPad App Finder. Suggested searches related to what you’re browsing.

Feedback – Give the Skyfire team feedback about this app.
Like – The easiest way to post the current web page to your Facebook feed.

Target – Shop furniture, electronics, toys and more!
Walmart – The largest selection of electronics, home furnishings, video games, baby gear and more
Best Buy – Shop electronics, computers, appliances, video games and more.
eBay – Buy and sell practically anything.  Shop from Skyfire.
Gilt – Designer Fashion Retailer.  Shop for the latest and trendiest chic couture.
Fancy! – Discover new, amazing and trendy gadgets, clothes and more!
LivingSocial – Deals of the Day. Restaurants, Services, Gear and more for less.
Groupon – Daily Deals. Never miss a deal again!
Hot Apps – iOS and Apps.  Find the latest and greatest apps in the Appstore.
RetailMeNot – Tap for coupons and discounts of the page you’re on.
Offers – Tap to find savings and deals related to the page you are currently on.

Facebook – Social Multitasking: Web browse and Facebook at the same time
Twitter – Tweet your followers or browse your newsfeed and keep up with the latest.
Pinterest – View, collect and organize the things you love on your pinboard.
Instafire – The best way to post and view pictures on your Instagram account.
Meetup – Find and join nearby Meetup events about your favorite hobbies and topics.
Popular – See what’s popular, according to your friends, on the page you’re viewing.

Sports – Tap into ESPN’s SportsCenter feed to see the latest sports news, articles and scores.

ZipList – Save recipes and create shopping lists from Skyfire.
+ Add to Stumble – Tap this button to Like the current URL on StumbleUpon. 1 tap submits the link.

LinkedIn – Shortcut to LinkedIn.  Tap into your professional network and newsfeed.
Gmail – Shortcut to your Gmail.  Read and send email from your Gmail inbox.
YouTube – Shortcut to YouTube. Watch and share video, post comments, and more.
StumbleUpon – Shortcut to StumbleUpon. Tap to discover awesome/random websites and articles.