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Research in Motion Acquires Torch Mobile - WebKit Browser Coming to BlackBerry!

by Kevin Michaluk on 24 Aug 2009 10:26 AM
52
 

Torch Mobile Acquired by Research in Motion

You've been wanting a new and improved WebKit-based Blackberry Web Browser? Well, it looks like it's on the way!!! Research in Motion has acquired Torch Mobile and as part of RIM will be working to enhance the BlackBerry platform and of course the web browsing experience. You can click the image above to jump on over and learn more about Torch Mobile and their existing Iris Webkit browser. What a great way to start the week - this is the kind of news we like to see! Excited much??

Update: What's good news for us BlackBerry users is bad news for others. Our friends at WMExperts.com contacted Torch Mobile who replied that the company will no longer be developing for Windows Mobile or Windows CE.

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52 Comments

Posted by crackberryn00b Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

This is pretty freakin' huge. I was wondering if they were going to start from scratch or not... maybe this means a browser much sooner than later, eh?

 
 
Posted by schagg Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

w00t!

 
 
Posted by rudefyet Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Iris is my favorite Windows Mobile browser, so I'm stoked to hear this after falling in love with BlackBerry OS and my Tour.

 
 
Posted by gabrielzorz Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

You must be retarded to fall in love with the blackberry OS. Even 5.0 is a piece of shit.

 
 
Posted by Bla1ze Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

wth took them so long? lol

 
 
Posted by storm83 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Gotta give RIM credit. They are listening to us.

 
 
Posted by Dsmithjr Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

What devices do we think will be able to run this browser?

 
 
Posted by collin16 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Probably every device that gets 5.0

 
 
Posted by Metanoia Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

This is great news!!!

 
 
Posted by TallyHo Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

.....on me getting the S2. Webkit browser with that big ole screen. Sweet!!!!!

 
 
Posted by gthompson75 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

This is great only if RIM can get a decent browser out in a reasonable amount of time, if they go as slow as usual they will be so far behind on the browser that they will never catch up. Isnt the idea in business to try to stay a step a head not 3 steps back. Oh ya it will also be useless if we all have to get new devices with more memory.

 
 
Posted by TallyHo Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Thank you negative Nancy....

 
 
Posted by TonyMotto Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Baahahahahahahahaha

 
 
Posted by gabrielzorz Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

You're right though. Just now RIM gets the smart idea to make a WEBKIT based browser? Dumb asses. What amazing innovation will the 'geniuses' over at RIM think of next; an Operating system that works? Or perhaps a touch screen phone that is somewhat functional/useful?

 
 
Posted by vdiesel Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

How do you know they haven't been looking into a WebKit option for some time now?

 
 
Posted by Tpony Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

This is such great news. WHat a great piece of news for a Monday. Way to go RIM, I cannot wait to see the end product. :O)

 
 
Posted by cenloe Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

The important thing, IMO, is that RIM is listening to its customers. This new browser, with Flash implemented, will put the BB's browser ahead of the iPhones. Negative Nancy is right though, RIM needs to stay ahead of the game and this could be the start.

 
 
Posted by Syco54645 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

this is fargin awesome!

 
 
Posted by BigTechTony Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Kudos to RIM!!!

 
 
Posted by 1magine Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Only Lite version. Still no full flash. What about the 'complete web' don't these people ever get?

 
 
Posted by Barack-Berry Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

hopefully it will run on current bbs and we wont have to get new ones

 
 
Posted by just2043 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

I found this pretty good review of the Iris Browser for WM on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPPbC7gJMXg&feature=fvw

 
 
Posted by The_Engine Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Love the way it handles tabs. Almost the card deck in Web OS, or the Album Cover display on I Phones or Slacker.

I am sure with Several months to take this technology and implement fro RIM OS they can improve the speed as well as implement full Flash, which is what RIM has promised.

 
 
Posted by mikegcox Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

I watched the review on YouTube, but I don't see how this is a better browser. I sort of like the way the BlackBerry browser renders pages into a readable column by simply pressing the Column View button. Maybe I just don't browse the web enough on my Storm to recognize the crappy browser that we have.

 
 
Posted by thablackguy Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Oh yeah!! ... storm 2 better have flash enabled browser now !!! there's no excuse for it anymore !!!

 
 
Posted by A£aric Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Finally WebKit! This is frackin HUGE....

 
 
Posted by citi Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

I love flash as much as the next guy, but it's not ruining my "MOBILE" browser experience. Geez guys, no matter how much you want it to be a high performance computer, it won't be for a long time. Next you'll be complaining about the lack of dual processors!

 
 
Posted by BigTechTony Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

"Update: What's good news for us BlackBerry users is bad news for others. Our friends at WMExperts.com contacted Torch Mobile who replied that the company will no longer be developing for Windows Mobile or Windows CE." Oh snap!!!

 
 
Posted by ptb6744 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

While I agree this is a big move for RIM and I hope it turns out well because if so, then I may end up coming back to a Blackberry much faster then I expected but RIM would do much better if they were proactive and not reactive. A proactive approach would mean they'd be able to compete step for step with the iPhone instead of trying to play catch up on it's web browsing capability. RIM makes a complete device, and so does Apple but to me the web browsing is why I have an iPhone and why I am reluctant to switch. I hope this yields a fantastic browser!

 
 
Posted by Digital_Cataclysm Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Good news. :) That IS a nice way to start off Monday.

 
 
Posted by donald.aleshire Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

agreed! this is awesome news to start a Monday!

Now as soon as the Wifi Tour comes out, I am upgrading!

 
 
Posted by zeiroe Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

This is indeed good news. Sorry WinMo users.

 
 
Posted by mrich70 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Can someone tell me what is Webkit and what does it mean for us blackberry owners???????????

 
 
Posted by gabrielzorz Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

webkit is basically a standard for making a browser...any browser that isn't based on it is a piece of shit (like the blackberry browser) and any browser that does use it tends to properly render webpages etc etc. (like Safari or firefox and now IE exploerer 8 I believe).

Read for yourself, weakling:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webkit

 
 
Posted by cwong15 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Webkit actually has a relatively tiny share of the browser market. Originally limited to the Unix world, the source code became prominent because it was used in Safari and later Chrome. Firefox and IE do not use Webkit, nor Opera.

 
 
Posted by tghockey07 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Its About time.

 
 
Posted by Andy348 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

I want tabs!!!

 
 
Posted by 22hinds Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

The browser on the Storm is pathetic. My next phone may not be a Blackberry unless the browser is fixed.

 
 
Posted by Alexontherun451 Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

"The browser on the Storm is pathetic. My next phone may not be a Blackberry unless the browser is fixed."

You are aware that your device is a BlackBerry and therefore you can download another Browser if you don't like the one that came with it, aren't you?

 
 
Posted by vdiesel Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

There aren't exactly very many good browser options. Actually, there are no good options. Opera Mini sucks, and so does Bolt (which is WebKit, btw). I think they're both worse than the BlackBerry browser on the Tour.

 
 
Posted by kumplocke Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Good!

 
 
Posted by Massonite Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Why worry WinMo fans? You have Skyfire and PIE 6. Better options IMHO.

 
 
Posted by Avink Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Anyone know if this can just be a downloaded update or o ly coming on newer phones??

 
 
Posted by Berrydale Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Although this company was just purchased by RIM, and this company has a history of developing for WinMo, why would they discontinue to do so? Wouldn't it make financial sence to keep selling to an existing customer base?

Secondly, for those commenting about this meaning the Storm 2 will, or should, have a much improved web browser, I am guessing the Storm 2 is so close to release and the time needed to develope this technology for the BlackBerry platform that it won't be available on anything BlackBerry for a while yet.

I'm not a tech savy person, so if I am wrong feel free to correct me.

 
 
Posted by 1776-1865_RIP Monday, Aug 24, 2009 898 days ago

Considering Storm 2 has me thinking about switching back to a blackberry device (the first Storm did as well until I used one), I hope you are wrong . Sadly my guess would be that you are right considering the difficulty of porting applications from one family of OS to another. Then again we have no idea how long they may have been working on this, RIM can't possibly have just suddenly realized how far behind they are in the web browser realm.

 
 
Posted by Swoopster Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009 898 days ago

...this will TORCH the competition. :-)

Actually: I don't know why I say that..I:m a fan of any decent mobile device; RIM's devices definitely have huge shortcomings in the broswer area...so hopefully this will up the ante a bit.

 
 
Posted by renegade37918 Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009 898 days ago

give us more app memory. i have 856mb of device memory going to waste and no app memory..congrats on the takeover

 
 
Posted by renegade37918 Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009 898 days ago

thinking the bold will be my last bb until they do something about memory and memory leaks.

 
 
Posted by AClayeJ Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009 897 days ago

Two videos of the Iris Browser for anyone who doesn't know what it is:

http://www.torchmobile.com/products/iris.html

 
 
Posted by HighFive52 Friday, Oct 16, 2009 846 days ago

I'm using the LG Dare and thinking about upgrading to the Storm 2. My family had the original Storm and really liked them for the most part.

However, I wonder if buying a 3G phone this year is worth it if the 4G phones are going to start arriving next June. VZW is rolling out 4G in 2 markets this year and then many more next year.

 
 
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