Skyfire, the people who brought you the flash-capable iOS web browser of the same name, have released Skyfire VideoQ, an app that lets users view flash videos from any iOS browser including Safari. Available for iPhone and iPad users through the App Store for $1.99, VideoQ worked as advertised during our hands-on time. Clips loaded in anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds depending on their size and our connection speed. Our connection speed also greatly effected the quality of the clips we viewed, with poorer connections causing videos to blur and tear. However, VideoQ’s set-up was more than a bit complicated.
We first tried downloaded VideoQ From the App Store and tried to installed it on an iPad running iOS 5, but quickly ran into a problem syncing the device with iTunes 10.5 Beta, and were unable to to proceed. So we grabbed another iPad, this one also running iOS5, found a newer iTunes Beta and proceeded without incident.
The first time we started up VideoQ it asked us to register an e-mail address. The service works through your e-mail, requiring you to send a link for the video you want to view to video@skyfire.com. Then, you close Safari (or whatever browser you happen to be using), open Skyfire, and your video should appear in the app’s video queue. The app essentially serves as a viewer window to the embedded video you are trying to view.
Once the registration was done, we jumped on Safari and started looking for Flash videos. We wanted to watch some clips of The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with John Stewart, so we went over the Comedy Central’s website and started tapping on video links. Each time we found a video we wanted to watch we tapped the bookmark icon and selected the Mail Link to this Page option. A draft email came up with the embedded link and we sent it off to video@skyfire.com. As soon as we sent the video, we closed Safari, opened VideoQ, and refreshed our queue list, and each time our video showed up without fail. The queue also serves as a video locker, allowing you to store videos for later viewing.
In addition to letting you watch embedded videos from your favorite websites, VideoQ also includes Hot and Channels tabs. The Hot tab, as the name implies, gives you a constantly updated list of videos and clips that are being viewed most by other VideoQ users. The Channels tab provides you with a list of different channels ranging in topic from Technology and News to Humor. Each channel offered a veritable grab bag of videos for their related topics, which was fun when we were looking for something to pass the time on the bus. Currently there are only eight channels available, but Skyfire says they’ll be adding more to the app over time.
While VideoQ works well enough, certainly adds a lot of steps to view a single Flash video. On top of that, Skyfire says that not all Flash videos will work with the app. However, we didn’t run into any problems. For less trouble you can always download Skyfire’s web browser for $4.99 from the App Store. It offers the same Flash functionality without the additional steps. Overall, VideoQ served us well in the short time we had with it. We would, however, like to see Skyfire add more customization options to the Channels tab, so users can narrow down their available videos easier.
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