Microsoft IE11 Makes Browsing Easier For The Visually Impaired

Fret not if you happen to be visually impaired – the folks over at Microsoft have thrown in their fair share of improvements to its Internet Explorer 11 web browser which will play nice with the Windows Narrator screen reader feature that came sometime last year when Windows 8 was launched. IE11 will be on the receiving end of its fair share of improvements when it comes to editing web-based emails as well as online documents. In one of them, it will boast of auto-correct for misspelled words in IE, while in another, it will inform the user the exact letter that has been deleted whenever the user verbally issues the command “backspace” in Windows Narrator.

Microsoft also mentioned concerning the formatting of the email or document, “For example, Microsoft Narrator says ‘bold’ and ‘end bold’ to let the user know that a section of text was emphasized with bold styling.” The video that you see above will depict just how the process works, which makes plenty of sense to watch it since a picture is worth a thousand words.

Apart from that, Microsoft also improved support in IE11 whenever visually impaired users want to access Input Method Editors, which comes in handy if one wants to type East Asian languages using an English language keyboard. [Press Release]

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  • Microsoft IE11 Makes Browsing Easier For The Visually Impaired original content from Ubergizmo.

        



    Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 is available now as a Release Preview

    Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 is available now as a Release Preview

    Microsoft announced back at its Build developer conference that it was bringing Internet Explorer 11 to Windows 7, and it’s already partially made good on that promise by letting developers get an early look. By now, though, the company’s given the browser enough spit and polish that it’s ready for public consumption: the Release Preview is now available for anybody to download. As you’d expect, Microsoft claims IE11 is the fastest desktop browser available, and that it’s 30 percent quicker than the next-fastest browser (that would be Firefox, or at least that’s what Microsoft says). Also, the Release Preview is apparently a bit speedier than the Developer Preview was back in June: Redmond says average SunSpider scores have dropped from 144ms to an even-better 137ms. At any rate, now that the browser’s available, you’re free to download it and benchmark it yourself, if that’s what floats your boat.

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    Source: Microsoft (1), (2)

    Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 11 developer preview for Windows 7

    Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 11 developer preview for Windows 7

    As promised, Internet Explorer 11 is making its way to Windows 7, slowly but surely. Almost a month after we got our first serious taste of Microsoft’s latest browser, currently available on Windows 8.1 only, the developer preview version for Win 7 has hit the web. Obviously, there’s a lot less Metro-flavored flash, but the most important features and improvements should still carry over. The biggest news is the improved performance and load times. Microsoft is quite proud of the enhancements it’s made to Chakra, it’s JavaScript engine, and claims it’s significantly faster than Chrome, Firefox and Opera. As always, though, you can take these self-administered benchmarks with a grain of salt. There’s also support for WebGL and advanced HTML5 video features, like those powering the next-generation Netflix player. And, seeing as how this is a developer preview, the package wouldn’t be complete with out some updated tools for building sites and web apps, in the form of an overhauled F12, that borrows heavily from Visual Studio. If your’e looking for some more fine-grained details or just want to download it for yourself, hit up the source link.

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    Source: MSDN

    IE 11 on Windows 8.1 preview supports HTML5 Netflix streaming right now

    Netflix recently detailed some of the technological developments needed to transition from Silverlight to HTML5 streaming video in the browser, and in a notable turn one of the first companies on board is Microsoft. It’s not that surprising since Microsoft has made it clear it’s pushing other technologies going forward, but it’s still a stark example of how much things have changed in recent years. Netflix’s Tech Blog announced today that anyone running Internet Explorer 11 in the Windows 8.1 preview can visit Netflix.com today and try out HTML5-powered video streaming right now. Already available on ARM Chromebooks (pictured above), Netflix says Microsoft has implemented the Premium video extensions it’s been working on to provide support for GPU-accelerated 1080p video, DRM and encryption without proprietary plugins.

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    Source: Netflix Tech Blog

    Microsoft confirms Internet Explorer 11 is coming to Windows 7

    Microsoft confirms Internet Explorer 11 will receive Windows 7 support

    With Windows 8.1, Microsoft has pushed out a revamped version of Internet Explorer that is supposed to be significantly faster than its predecessor, not to mention the fact that it claims to be easier on battery life. Fortunately, it appears that the company fully intends to make IE11 available to Windows 7 users as well. While Microsoft opened up about this fact, it wasn’t so keen to offer up any timing expectations. Thus, it’s quite possible that we may not see it show up on Win7 until after it’s had some time to bedazzle those who are already packing the latest and greatest version of Windows.

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    Windows Blue Leak Point To WebGL Support In IE11

    Windows Blue Leak Point To WebGL Support In IE11Remember last weekend, when the world was treated to a leak of an early Windows Blue build? Well, that certainly helped the masses get a better idea on what kind of direction does Microsoft want to take their desktop operating system too, and it certainly also lays down the other plans that the software giant has lined up for their default browser, Internet Explorer 11 . Among those features include tab syncing and a downloads list feature for the Modern version among others.

    Not only that, it does seem as though there will be WebGL support in IE11 as well, where web developer Francois Remy wrote in his blog, “I didn’t get webgl working, even by trying using iesl, hlsl and other combinations. So, it seems like WebGL interfaces are defined but not functional at this time.” Well, it seems that the Microsoft IE team did insert some programming that will support WebGL, although full compatibility has yet to be implemented. Do you think that IE11 will be able to help Microsoft win back some of their browser market share?

    By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Skype For Windows 8 Updated To Version 1.6, IBM Roadrunner Hits The End Of The Road,

    Internet Explorer 11 user agent makes browser look like Firefox, thumbs nose at legacy CSS hacks

    Early build of Internet Explorer 11 tells people it's 'like Firefox', enjoys the look on their faces

    Subtlety can’t always avert controversy. That leaked build of Windows Blue is a case in point: it suggests a relatively incremental update to Windows 8, yet some of its revelations are already causing quite a stir. Neowin now reports that Internet Explorer 11, as contained within the leaked build, identifies itself to host websites as “Mozilla… like Gecko.” Confusing, right? Perhaps, but it’s not really as underhand as it sounds, as you can see from the full line of code in the picture above.

    The program still identifies itself (in brackets) as IE 11, but it forgoes Microsoft’s older identifier (“MSIE”) and simply describes itself as being a browser that renders HTML in a similar way to Firefox’s Gecko layout engine. Neowin speculates that the reason for this could be to start afresh: by confusing host websites with a new identifier, IE 11 might avoid having legacy CSS code thrown at it, dating back to the bad old days when web designers had to give Internet Explorer special treatment. It’s also been suggested that this could cause problems for business apps that genuinely rely on legacy CSS code — although it’s worth remembering that we’re not looking at a final release here, and none of us (ahem) are even meant to be using it.

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    Via: Slashdot

    Source: Neowin