BlackBerry shows off its new WebKit-based browser

Filed under: BlackBerry, Browsers, Mobile

Mobile browsers have come a long way in the past few years. The days of stripped down WAP pages that make the web look like it did in 1994 are all but gone. Now you can use an iPhone, Android handset, or Windows Mobile device to view full web pages much the same way you would use a desktop browser. Sure, some content (most noticeable Adobe Flash) is hit or miss. But for the most part, mobile browsers are fast and actually useful today.

Some of the most successful mobile browsers are based on the open source WebKit project. The default browsers for the iPhone and Google Android are WebKit-based. And so was Iris, a mobile browser from for Windows Mobile from Torch Mobile that was purchased by Research In Motion last year.

Now RIM is starting to show off the fruits of that acquisition: A WebKit-based browser for BlackBerry phones. The company demonstrated the new browser at Mobile World Congress in Spain today. There's no word on a launch date, or which phones will be compatible with the new browser. But one thing is clear: It looks pretty hot.

In the video above you can see the BlackBerry browser loading some full web pages pretty quickly. Zooming and scrolling also looks very smooth. Oh yeah, and the browser also gets a perfect score on the Acid3 web standards test -- something many desktop browsers still struggle with.

[via Engadget]

BlackBerry shows off its new WebKit-based browser originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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