BlackBerry has demoed its upcoming WebKit browser today at Mobile World Congress. Overall, the browser appears to be quite fast, though it still uses the nubbin/cursor and there isn’t an enormous amount of screen real estate. The new browser achieves a 100/100 on ACID3 and supports HTML5 and CSS3. And yes, it supports AJAX—a big departure from BlackBerry’s current browser which doesn’t even support XMLHttpRequest.
Monday, February 22nd
Every major mobile platform is now either using WebKit or will be soon. Except for one.John Gruber, on RIM’s new WebKit-based browser, the one obvious holdout being Windows Mobile. (via jimray)
Tuesday, February 16th
Monday, February 8th
New BlackBerry browser faster than Android, iPhone?
Electronista cites an anonymous source at RIM as saying BlackBerry’s upcoming WebKit-based browser could be up to 30–60 percent faster than other WebKit devices, thanks to the BlackBerry Internet Service.
Wednesday, October 21st
RIM is working on a WebKit browser for BlackBerry, and they need help
MobileCrunch summarizes RIM’s recent acquisition of Torch, and looks at a revealing LinkedIn job post:
Utilizing their expert knowledge in C++ programming, the successful candidate will be working in a fast-paced, dynamic development environment to develop a WebKit-based browser for the BlackBerry Platform.
Monday, September 14th
Getting harder and harder to find mobile platforms that don’t use WebKit.John Gruber on the RIM acquiring Torch Mobile
Monday, August 24th
Our team of developers will join RIM’s global organization and will now be focused on utilizing our WebKit-based mobile browser expertise to contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the BlackBerry® platform.Torch Mobile, the company behind the WebKit-based Iris browser, has been acquired by RIM, makers of the BlackBerry. The current BlackBerry browser is infamous for its many downfalls, so this is great news for both users and developers.
Friday, April 10th
Let’s face it — if RIM really wants to win over a bunch of consumers in one fell swoop, it has to fix the browser because it just isn’t happening.
Hands on: OS 5.0 on the Bold (via BGR)
One of the few times I find myself agreeing with Boy Genius Report. I think RIM should really consider the win/win opportunity to cut internal development costs and satisfy consumers by adopting WebKit.
