Iris browser brings WebKit to Windows Mobile

The Windows Mobile browser market is getting awful crowded lately, and the latest entrant brings a little Apple to the mix -- the Iris browser, from Torch Mobile, is based on WebKit, the same KHTML-derived rendering engine in Safari. We won't know how it compares to the iPhone's Mobile Safari until we get a chance to play with it, of course, but with support for touch, rotation, tabbed browsing and multiple windows, a customizable interface, and Netscape plugins, it's safe to say that we'll be keeping an eye on this one. If you're feeling brave, the preview release is available just beyond the read link.

[ieatpoo @ Feb 11th 2008 2:30PM]

I just tried this on the Blackjack and it's pretty much unusable. It loads small webpages wonderfully and in full screen. Endgadget.com and other sites with alot of content lock up the device. I'm sure it'll be much more useful on faster devices with touchscreens.

[fred @ Feb 11th 2008 2:31PM]

WinMobile is about to make things veeeeery interesting in 2008-09.

[SIC TR4NSIT @ Feb 11th 2008 2:36PM]

I just tried this and it sucks horribly... Im beta testing Skyfire and it friggin rocks...

[Student Driver @ Feb 11th 2008 3:28PM]

Indeed, I can't believe how bad it is. I signed up the for the Skyfire beta and I'm waiting to get it. If ever.

[Andrew @ Feb 11th 2008 4:35PM]

How did you get skyfire already?

[SIC TR4NSIT @ Feb 11th 2008 5:02PM]

I signed up a while ago and wrote an email requesting to participate in the beta...

[Churma @ Feb 11th 2008 2:39PM]

One word...Garbage!

[enrique @ Feb 11th 2008 2:39PM]

i guess ill be one of the first to try this browser out.. downloading now

[SIC TR4NSIT @ Feb 11th 2008 2:49PM]

dont bother, Im sure Im not the only one who did... and like I said before, it sucks and yes Churma, it is garbage. The navigation, controlls, loading time, everything was horrible... Almost as bad as that damn Wall Street Journal thing for WinMo that crashed my phone everytime I tried to launch it.

[Zorin @ Feb 11th 2008 2:54PM]

WHY do people keep developing more browsers for Windows Mobile instead of PalmOS, when it already SHIPS with a decent browser (Pocket Internet Explorer is much better than Blazer)??????

Us PalmOS users have been dealing with crappy browsers on our Treos for *years* and people keep developing browsers for a platform that already has plenty of good browsers instead of the entirely untapped PalmOS market.

And yes, I've tried Opera Mini and Xiino. Both are lacking.

[GL @ Feb 11th 2008 2:57PM]

@zorin, why are you even using Palm?

[spam @ Feb 11th 2008 2:59PM]

Beacuse despite having a crappy browser, PalmOS does everything else much faster and better than WinMobile, and I don't browse much on the go.

I just wonder why no one has written a good browser for PalmOS. There are a LOT of us Treo users out there.

[LaughingMan @ Feb 11th 2008 6:11PM]

Pocket Internet Explorer is far from a decent browser. It renders maybe 1% of pages out on the net correctly.

[enrique @ Feb 11th 2008 2:55PM]

arg the only page i could get it to open was google. not even engadget loaded. wheres my skyfire beta email? :(

[Student Driver @ Feb 11th 2008 3:30PM]

I don't know what you're talking about, as Engadget loaded on my overclocked Dash in record time (about 10 minutes)!

[Andrew @ Feb 11th 2008 3:07PM]

Yeah, I just tried it, definitely horrible. It's got the finger navigation but it's INCREDIBLY slow. I'll pass.

[3rdsun @ Feb 11th 2008 3:21PM]

it needs refining

[ev01 @ Feb 11th 2008 3:53PM]

Seriously, is this software a joke? I installed it on my touch for about 1.7 minutes then promptly removed it. PIE works better than this piece of crap.

[cmcman @ Feb 11th 2008 3:55PM]

ditto on the suckfest that is this browser. Installed on BlackJack first edition. Kinda like the developers have never seen the buttons on this "obscure" phone ;o) Obviously there's a market, so looking forward to more options, keep em coming.

[sfiorito @ Feb 11th 2008 4:42PM]

Sucks on my BJ...Skyfire is much better.

[Ayle @ Feb 11th 2008 5:03PM]

Wow! Chill people! It's a freakin preview! Not even a beta what did you expect?

[Alden @ Feb 11th 2008 6:50PM]

Ugh. I'm not impressed at all. So far the best browser that I've used on my phone (T-Mobile (nee HTC) Wing) is Opera Mini. It's fast and lightweight.

[Evan @ Feb 11th 2008 8:49PM]

Can barely load pages with an ATT tilt... very slow, loads page and then crawls when trying to interact with it. Basically not worth releasing this as a beta because it is going to turn off anyone who might have potentially used a better version that may possibly be released....

[Wizlevard @ Feb 11th 2008 8:53PM]

I'm with Ayle. Even says on the download page: "Please remember that this is early preview software and does contain many known flaws. It will be updated frequently. You are encouraged to check back at this page often for updates, or make use of the built-in update feature in the browser." Nothing wrong with getting an early cut into the market for folk to hammer on. Not surprised to hear its sucking on the BlackJack. Thats an underpowered toy phone.

[George Staikos @ Feb 12th 2008 2:11AM]

Thanks for all the comments and feedback - here and through our site. We've poured a lot of work into the Iris Browser, but we know it's not perfect yet. We tried to be clear that this first release is a very early preview - but we wanted to get it out there to demonstrate that it's definitely not vaporware.

A quick observation about some of the feedback: we're getting a few questions and comments about the performance of the Iris Browser on low-spec phones. We're confident that we can optimize it to work really well on a range of devices, but the experience is always going to be better on the higher end smartphones, and this release is only designed for Windows Mobile 6. We've tested on the Motorola Q and the HTC TyTn II. We know it doesn't work well on the first versions of the Samsung Blackjack. We're still sprinting as hard as we can to improve and update the preview release every day, and hope that those of you who didn't like the first cut will bear with us and give the Iris Browser a second look in the next couple of weeks.

-- George Staikos, President, Torch Mobile