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The first beta of its Skyfire eponymous Web browser for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices is now available. Initial invitations to download the Skyfire beta 0.5 have been sent out to some of those who’ve signed up to take part in the start up’s private beta program for the software.

A Skyfire representative told SmartPhoneToday many beta sign ups are still waiting to download the browser, however, as the company extending invitations to do so at a measured pace.

As we reported before, Skyfire promises to bring the PC Web experience to the hand, like other mobile browsers. Unlike those, Skyfire appears to deliver on that promise. Unlike the iPhone, Skyfire seemed to handle most any Web site thrown at it. The reason: it supports all the important Web standards—including dynamic Flash, advanced Ajax, and Java—used in site development today, something the mobile version of Safari does not.

When you head over to a site, Skyfire displays the whole splash page. To zoom in on any section, simply tap that part of the screen. Skyfire will automatically fit text and other content to a smartphone’s screen, so as to minimize scrolling. It also supports thumbnail views.

You really notice the difference between Skyfire and other browsers when viewing multimedia, however. Take YouTube, for example. Skyfire loads the whole index page of the PC, not the mobile, edition of the popular video site.

And because Skyfire supports Flash, videos run directly within the browser when you go to view them. This goes for any site, of which there are many, that sport a Flash (video or animated) component.

In addition to a broad level of compatibility, Skyfire promises its browser will load sites on a smartphone at speeds comparable to a broadband connection to a PC.

Skyfire's quick speed is a direct result of all content not being delivered to the end user directly, but only after it has been optimized through the company's proxy server, a process similar to but apparently done much better than what Palm's blazer browser does. The server does all the heavy lifting, processing videos for example, before sending the page onto a smartphone or handheld.

Fore more on Skyfire, see here) and the top link below.