The announced but not yet released WebKit-based BlackBerry web browser was shown off via video demo twice today at Mobile World Congress. Mike Lazaridis, RIM's Co-Founder and Co-CEO, gave it a minute of glory during the morning's general session, while an hour later it was Mike Kirkup, RIM's Director of Developer Relations, who gave a quick walk through of what's in store for the browser at the BlackBerry Developer Day at App Planet to those in attendance (video above).
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Things are definitely looking promising here for us BlackBerry users, even when taking note of the fact the demo provided today was a recorded video vs. a live demo and you can see the browser was connected to WiFi vs. 3G. Getting data down to the BlackBerry fast has never been an issue for the BlackBerry web browser, rather it's the rendering of the page once that data is on the device. It seems the Torch Mobile folks that joined RIM were able to hit the ground running and the BlackBerry is rendering Javascript and pages A LOT faster than any other previous BlackBerry web browser. I'm not sure if RIM has any devices on hand at MWC with the WebKit browser installed but I'll do my best to get a minute of hands-on time with one if they do.
Original Video Demo File:
No word on roll out yet, but the sooner the better, that's for sure. Wouldn't it be nice if the rollout came along with an OS update that featured some significant UI updates? BlackBerry Heaven, that's what I'd call that. Stay tuned for more!
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Is that Ironman on his laptop?
Yeah it is. I got it on mine too, you can get them on Etsy. Also can't wait for this browser...Html5 support is huge
acid 3 results that are impressive
Blackberry webkit browser (mobile) -100
google chrome(pc) -100
firefox (pc) - barely 93
internet explorer(pc) - 20
I got the same with my Firefox and IE8. Surprisingly, my BB browser resulted in 26 beating out IE8! Seems a little odd.
Me wants it bad.
i need this in my life
The sooner, the better!
Looks pretty quick. Hopefully this will roll out soon...
over here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIbHsrCiez8
blackberry heaven. lol. that'll be too good to be true :(
embedded that video too.
YAAAAA!!!! Can't wait, and it looks like the demo was on a 9700!!!!!
This is good news!! Can't wait for the browser to roll out. It's the ONE thing that us BB users get killed on by others.
With Webkit and an updated os rim will have the best hardware with a mean outlook on software.... Lets GO!!
looks sweet. depending on the reviews when it gets out this might be the reason for me to get a berry
RIM, please follow this up with an ETA!!!!
I can't wait for the browser to get released. IMO, that's the most important feature of BBs that needs improvement.
agreed
You know, I was interested in the 9700 launch but not excited because I'm a on CDMA. As I'm sure GSM people arent excited about the 9650. This is one thing about 90% of blackberry users will get excited about, more so than OS5, which doesn't feel that different than what was before. It's huge.
And, it runs pretty well on something that at least looks like a 9700, which hopefully means it will run on most of the OS5 devices.
iNEED this.
Oooh My sweet loving BB!!! wow..
drooling all over myself.BB Webkit Browser + OS Update?!
I need not breakfast anymore. My soul just got well fed. lol
Is that Flash running?! or i'm day dreaming?
I just went through the entire video and could not see any flash running.
I read all the angry comments about the BESX, and now look, lo and behold, here's the webkit browser everyone cried about!
Just blowing off some steam, this browser looks sick, even tho browsing isn't a huge thing for me, I do browse quite a bit on my BB, this will be awesome.
I wanted this for the longest time! I need this now, please please please, leak it send it twit it fax it read updated!~
I Can't wait at all. i need this now. can't wait to see it on the 9550
Goodbye bolt..goodbye opera..and oh hello BB browser! ^^
ALLLLLLLL thats left is some UI updates
I feel like ive betrayed RIM by drooling over Windows Mobile 7 series .
Some UI updates PLEASE RIM lolol
Looks amazing! I hope this would work on OS 5.0 in general and not only on their newest handsets. Would love to get this on my BlackBerry Bold 9000.
Nice I can't wait now, I have the suspense of the 5.0 now. Damn you RIM keep up the good work.
RIM failed us on OS 5.0 and have struggled for years now to make a decent browser. How long will this take to be released? Will they release it only on "new" BB's, forcing us into another round of buying with what we should have had in the first place? I'm skeptical.
No reason to believe that there is anything here that is not software. As such no reason to believe it won't work on current devices. That said Verizon's top of the line BlackBerry the 9630 still hasn't been upgraded to 5.0
RIM better get their act together fast. This is a nice 'demo' but let's get this soon. After the Windows phone 7 series demo yesterday, I'm thinking RIM needs a huge jump in the OS to not fall too far behind. Competition is heating up and RIM needs to show us they are still in the game. If Microsoft is changing their business phone view, maybe RIM needs to as well. They can keep one or two phones for business environments for secure reasons, and open up the platform for consumer phones.
Don't worry about Windows Phone 7. That platform is not doing well, and forcing manufactures to use their interface is a giant step backwards, and may scare off HTC who is their lifeblood at this point...
I agree currently it is not as popular without the help of HTC ui. After watching the new Zune like interface, I don't think they need HTC ui to help. I believe seeing the iphone, android and now windows7 systems, the future keeps moving towards a large screen touch enabled OS. I hope OS6 from RIM brings us some big reasons to stay with the brand.
Better than what they currently have, but still an inferior browser.
Looks quite a bit slower than other options out there.
Another RIM failure.
Im sorry I completely disagree with your opinion. To call this a "failure" is unwarranted. It looks just as fast as the android browser and Mobile Safari. Im really not sure what other options you are looking at because this browser really is on par with the other mobile browsers on the market right now. Here is a video of the Nexus one and the iphone's Acid3 test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lc_Y6JjH2s
The Blackberry Webkit browser actually beats nexus one, and is on par with the iphone browser.
Current BlackBerry Browser scores a 91 on the Acid3 test
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2336232/blackberry_browser_impr...
Score of 100 would actually be higher than Firefox.
The big issue though, is the speed of the pan/zoom and javascript (any word on what javascript engine this is using?)
(Or how many years it will take Verizon to roll out whatever OS this is a part of?)
What is the Acid3 test about? What and how does it measure?
It measures compliance with web standards. It's more of a theoretical test than something important, but it's still a good sign that the browser can score 100%
It's actually a pretty good indication of the fidelity with which a browser can render pages and interpret JavaScript, especially when comparing these scores with desktop browsers. Although the current BlackBerry Browser has a 91/100, the render is incorrect and the numbers don't increment smoothly, which are also criteria that Acid3 performance is judged by. I just want a WebKit browser because that engine underlies many desktop and mobile browsers and is an easy development target.
Acid3 is not as important as supporting HTML5. More important than the 100/100 is the speed at which it gets there, which based on this video is rather impressive...
I have five bars right now Capital EV and three times in a row I got a 38 on BB browser. Took the same test on Opera mini Beta 2 and got a 98.
have rim taken it down? probably..
Works for me?
Keep in mind that this is a test on WIFI only, just tested the same pages on wifi on my regular 9700 browser and was not that much slower than the new browser. Question is how fast is it on 3g and EDGE?
WIFI will always be faster.
Still BlackBerry is usually (slightly) faster than other smart phones when it comes to pure downloading speeds. The problem was the rendering speed, and that appears to be fixed.
I don't know about you, but when I request a link, it requests for a good 10 seconds before loading any data. Yes the data loads fast, but the requesting really slows me down.
I got a 100/100 on Bolt 1.7 and 79/100 on Opera Mini 5 Beta 2.
Looks so sick. We need this, NOW.
My browser failed the test...