Steel is a discontinued

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

developed by Michael Kolb under the name kolbysoft. It is a fork of the default browser for Android, taking its

WebKit WebKit is a browser engine primarily used in Apple's Safari web browser, as well as all web browsers on iOS and iPadOS. WebKit is also used by the PlayStation consoles starting with the PS3, the Tizen mobile operating systems, the Amazon K ...

-based layout engine and providing what is intended to be an easier and more "touch friendly"

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

. Steel was one of the first Android applications to support automatic rotation based on the hardware's

accelerometer An accelerometer is a device that measures the proper acceleration of an object. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change (mathematics), rate of change of velocity) of the object relative to an observer who is in free fall (tha ...

and a

virtual keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the Input device, input of characters without the need for physical keys. Interaction with a virtual Computer keyboard, keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take p ...

. This feature is now more common among Android applications. In 2010 Skyfire purchased kolbysoft and the Steel browser.

Features

Steel's

(UI) is intended to be more "touch friendly" than that of Android's default browser, and thus emphasizes ease of use on a touch screen. Back, forward, zoom, and bookmark-related buttons are all on the bottom toolbar. A

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

-entry box is on the top toolbar, and beside it is a refresh/stop button, which displays if a page is fully loaded or still loading, respectively. Both toolbars are only shown if "pulled out" by two semi-transparent handles at the top and bottom of the display, and after a short period of not being used will hide themselves again. Until 0.0.4, Android's status bar containing system information was only shown when the top toolbar was out. Starting in 0.0.4, it is either visible or not depending on whether the browser is set to run in fullscreen mode.

Hardware controls

Steel will switch between portrait and landscape modes based on which way the device running it is rotated. By contrast, the Android default browser at the time of release required the user to "Flip Orientation" in a menu or, on the T-Mobile G1, open the phone's keyboard. In an attempt to avoid opening the aforementioned keyboard when possible, Steel has a virtual keyboard which appears when a user selects a text box or the URL entry box in the toolbar. It is modeled after that of the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

, and as of version 0.0.4 causes the device to vibrate when a key is successfully pressed.

Reception

Steel's first public release received a 3-star rating fro
AppVee
praising its user interface and accelerometer support but pointing out that it was not at its development stage an application to rely on fully. Shortly after the release of 0.0.3, which added multiple features including the virtual keyboard, on December 13, 2008, Steel became the second most popular communication app in the

Android Market Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifi ...

, with an average rating of 4 (out of 5) stars from users. In May 2009 an Android Tapp review gave the Steel Browser a 4.5/5 rating, saying that it had a "hands down a better UI for the browser."Steel Android Web Browser
Android Tapp, 2 May 2009

References

External links

* {{web browsers 2008 software Software based on WebKit Android web browsers Discontinued web browsers