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Torch Mobile has unveiled its new WebKit-based browser for Windows Mobile at the Mobile World Congress. Similarly to Apple’s Safari and Nokia’s S60 Browser, the so called Iris Browser delivers much faster (than IE) web browsing experience on all smartphones and PDAs powered by Microsoft’s mobile OS.
And while we’ve seen this (WebKit on Windows Mobile) happening in the past, it’s nice to hear that the new browser should “work wonders” for the Windows Mobile users — including customizable UI, touchscreen and rotating screen support, multi-window and multi-tab browsing, several zoom modes (including block zoom), and advanced security and privacy features (SSL, anti-phishing and pop-up blocking).
You can already download a free preview of the Iris Browser for Windows Mobile 6 from here, or check out the full release after the jump.
PRESS RELEASE – One of the world’s most experienced developers of WebKit-based software solutions today announced the launch of Torch Mobile and the introduction of the company’s flagship product, the Iris Browser. The company and product are being introduced for the first time at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Spain.
Since 2003, the people behind Torch Mobile have been acknowledged as experts in the KHTML and WebKit development communities. Led by George Staikos, a key contributor to the WebKit project and other popular open source initiatives, Torch Mobile is hitting the ground running with the launch of the Iris Browser. Currently in preview release for Windows Mobile 6 and available for free download at www.torchmobile.com, the Iris Browser brings a desktop-quality Web experience to mobile and embedded systems of virtually any size.
“As mobile and smartphone devices become more powerful and more prevalent, people want a complete Web experience in the palm of their hand,” said George Staikos, President of Torch Mobile. “With the Iris Browser, we’ve distilled our years of development experience into a product that we think brings the pinnacle of Web functionality to a broad range of devices.”
The Iris Browser is a flexible, high-performance application, designed to provide users with a full-featured browsing experience on mobile phones, set-top boxes, portable media players and other resource-constrained devices. Based on the WebKit rendering engine, the Iris Browser provides a powerful and standards-compliant Internet experience that is consistent across different mobile Web devices. Some of the key features of the Iris Browser include:
- Customizable user interface;
- Touch screen and rotating screen support;
- Multi-window and multi-tab browsing;
- Several zoom modes (including block zoom);
- Advanced security and privacy features (SSL, anti-phishing, and pop-up blocking).
The Iris Browser has been developed to support a variety of popular mobile environments. The first version available for open public beta supports Windows Mobile 6, with additional versions already developed for Trolltech’s Qt embedded 2.3, Qtopia Core 4.3, and Qtopia 4.3.
Torch Mobile will be co-exhibiting with Trolltech at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Spain from February 11–14. To see the Iris Browser in action, visit Torch Mobile online, or at stand 2C72, Hall 2.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
