Oct 14

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Beta Download Coming Soon

Posted in: Internet Explorer, Pre-Release, Release Date, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on February 25, 2008 by CyberNet.

internet explorer 8 crane Microsoft has started to send out emails to select individuals indicating that Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 is right around the corner. The email is targeted to people whom they would like to receive feedback from before they open the doors to the general public, and no specific date for the IE8 Beta release has been given.

Activewin has posted the full email that was sent out to people, but this is the only part that really matters to me:

We are nearing the launch of Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 and we will be making it available for the general public to download and test. IE8 Beta 1 is focused on the developer community, with the goal of gaining valuable feedback to improve Internet Explorer 8 during the development process.

We don’t really know what to expect from IE8 other than the fact that it will pass the Acid 2 test when running in the Super Standards Mode. The Beta version will also let users switch the user agent of the browser between IE8 and IE7 for compatibility reasons, and you won’t have to restart Internet Explorer each time you change it.

The real question is whether Microsoft can do enough in Internet Explorer 8 to prevent more users from flocking to other browsers. Personally if Internet Explorer 8 is well developed I would consider switching to it, but Microsoft would really have to impress me with features and performance. I know a lot of you have the minds set on the fact that you’ll never switch back to Internet Explorer, but I like to always keep an open mind.

The guy who runs the Internet Explorer team is going to walk through some of the features in Internet Explorer 8 at MIX08 this year, which is held on March 5th to March 7th. This seems like a good point for Microsoft to release IE8 Beta since all eyes will be on the conference, but we’ll keep you posted if an official release date emerges.

[via All About Microsoft]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 10

CyberNotes: Acid3 Browser Results

Posted in: CyberNotes, Internet Explorer, Opera, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Windows

This article was written on March 05, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Web Browser Wednesday

The other day, the Web Standards Project released the Acid3 test that will push browsers to a new level. I’m sure many of you are already familiar with the Acid2 test which has become famous because of the often discombobulated block-like smiley face most browsers produce.

Browsers such as Safari, Konqueror, and Opera already pass the Acid2 test, and when Firefox 3 is released later this year it will as well. Microsoft has also put some work into Internet Explorer 8 so that it will pass the Acid2 test when it is eventually made available. All of the main browsers will be passing the Acid2 test about 3 years after it was initially released.

Now it is time to move on to bigger and better things… Acid3! The test is not nearly as cool as the smiley face in my opinion, but it does extensively test different aspects of the browser’s rendering engine. It runs a hundred different tests on the browser, and the result should look just like this:

acid3 test correct

This new test targets DOM scripting which is frequently used by Web 2.0 services for advanced interaction. Here’s what the Web Standards Project said about it in their press release:

The Acid3 Test is designed to test specifications for Web 2.0, and exposes potential flaws in implementations of the public ECMAScript 262 and W3C Document Object Model 2 standards. Collectively known as DOM Scripting, it is these technologies that enable advanced page interactivity and power many advanced web applications such as web-based email and online office applications.

We thought it would be fun to test out the browsers that are currently available to see how they stack up to each other on the Acid3 test.

–The Browser Test–

Here are some things to note about our tests:

  • All of these browsers were tested on Windows Vista.
  • The browsers started with a clean profile and no extensions or add-ons were installed.
  • The results below are sorted from the best to the worst.
  • Click on any of the screenshots for a full-size version.

Safari 3.1 (Nightly r30626): 86/100

acid3 safari31

Firefox 3 (Nightly 03/04/2008): 67/100

acid3 firefox3

Opera 9.5 (Beta 9815): 65/100

acid3 opera95

Firefox 2.0.0.12: 50/100

acid3 firefox2

Opera 9.26: 46/100

acid3 opera 926

Safari 3.04 (Beta 523.15): 39/100

acid3 safari304

Internet Explorer 7: 12/100

acid3 ie7

 

–Overview–

So it looks like the nightly builds of Safari really take the crown for this test. It was the closest browser to perfectly complete the test by quite a large margin, with Firefox 3 and Opera 9.5 coming in second and third place. It’s obvious from the results posted above that the current stable builds of all the browsers are definitely not close to passing the Acid3 test.

If you’re on a Mac or Linux machine I would love to hear what you’re results are in some of the other browsers that are available.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 08

Where is the Browser Market Headed?

Posted in: Firefox 3, Internet Explorer, Opera, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on December 16, 2008 by CyberNet.

firefox chrome ie.pngThere has been more talk about web browsers in the last few weeks than any time I can remember in the past. Google Chrome came out of the Beta phase, Opera unveiled the first Alpha release of version 10, Internet Explorer 8 is suspected to have a 3rd Beta coming in the next month, and Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 was just unveiled. This is becoming a hugely competitive market, and it’s made me wonder whether Mozilla will be able to hold their ground.

Taking a look at Firefox 3.1 I’ve noticed that some great features have been added to the browser, but will it be enough to retain and attract new users? A lot of my friends have already jumped ship to Google Chrome because it has just the right features without overdoing it. Once Chrome supports extensions like Firefox does, which is supposed to be soon, I’m sure Mozilla will be in for a rude awakening as they lose more of their users.

Is Mozilla at risk more than others? I believe so. Firefox users show that they’ve been willing to switch browsers once in order to find something that better fits their needs. For that reason I feel that initially Google Chrome’s marketshare will be eating away at Firefox’s, but it could be another story if Google follows through on their plan to have their browser ship on some new computers like they already do for some of their other software. Doing that would surely lay down the gauntlet for the competition… especially for those browsers who have been relying heavily on word-of-mouth.

Is Firefox 3.1 going to be enough to keep you a faithful Mozilla user? Remember the Ctrl+Tab switcher that Mozilla had in earlier releases? After receiving some negative feedback Mozilla decided to yank that feature out of the browser, and I think that might be the right call. I thought it was kinda nice to have, but I heard more complaints than praises about it. That’s a good sign that they are definitely listening to their users, but what about the other features they are including:

  • Private browsing mode
  • Enhanced session recovery – after the browser crashes you can select which tabs you want to restore
  • Some support for operating system sounds
  • Selective results in the address bar using symbols [read more]
  • Tab detaching
  • Improved performance
  • Better support for the Acid 3 test

I feel that Mozilla is trying to keep up with some of the other browsers as well now. For example, the private browsing mode was originally said to be pushed back again, but once Google Chrome came out Mozilla seemed to think it was a higher priority. They also added a tab detaching feature similar to that of Chrome, and it’s one thing I truly wish I could disable. I find myself detaching tabs by accident all of the time, and it’s a pain since they will then open in a new window when that happens.

Personally I’ve been a huge fan of Firefox since before version 1.0, but I’m happy to see all of the competition they are getting. Firefox has been pushing Internet Explorer to rethink their browser for years now, and Microsoft now pays more attention to how they can make their browser better for their users. I think Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera are doing the same thing as Firefox by making it more important than ever to come out with useful and innovative features.

So where do you think the browser market is headed? Are we looking at one browser that will take the crown, or will we never see one dominate like Internet Explorer once did?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 24

IE7Pro 2 Lets You Pause and Resume Downloads

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Internet Explorer, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

IE7 Pro 2

IE7Pro just released version 2.0 to the public, and it has a few notable new features. For starters it has been modularized which will help increase its stability, and there is also a 64-bit version available on the download page. The biggest news, however, can be summed up by looking at the screenshot above. Yep, that’s a built-in download manager! It automatically integrates into Internet Explorer 7, and as you can see from the screenshot it supports the pausing/resuming of your downloads.

They took an interesting route with the way they implemented it, but I think they did it the right way. The download manager has a System Tray icon, and by default it is always running. Even if you close the browser the download manager will still remain open. One of the benefits for this is that your downloads will continue chugging along even when the browser has been closed, but there is an option in the settings to have the download manager close after all of the downloads have been completed.

One thing I’m sure many of you are wondering is whether you can completely shutdown the download manager and resume your downloads at another time. As it turns out you can! With this you can essentially restart your computer, and still pickup where your downloads left off. Now try doing that with Internet Explorer 7 out-of-the-box.

Personally I would never use Internet Explorer 7 without the IE7Pro add-on. It actually makes IE7 bearable. :)

Download IE7Pro 2.0

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 24

IE7Pro: Inline Spell Checking and Statusbar Weather

Posted in: Freeware, Internet Explorer, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

IE7Pro is the single biggest browser add-on that I’ve ever seen. We’ve previously outlined some of the features that it enhances Internet Explorer 7 with, but we thought that it was time to take another look at it. Heck, in the last 5-months it has received 7 updates, and almost every update adds at least one new feature.

Looking through the changelog these are the things that stood out to me the most:

  • Support for Internet Explorer 6
  • Greasemonkey script support, with several popular ones included such as the YouTube video downloader.
  • IE7Pro can update itself with just one-click.
  • Autofill function
  • Improved plug-in support: IE7Pro includes weather, Alexa/PageRank, and site information plug-ins by default. All of those display in the Statusbar as shown in the screenshot below.

And then there is the biggest feature which was just added at the beginning of June: inline spell checking! Just like in Firefox 2 you can have Internet Explorer 7 check the words you type for misspellings. If it finds that you spelled a word incorrectly it will be underlined in red:

IE7Pro

The latest version of IE7Pro added spell checker support to both Gmail and Yahoo Mail as well, which is probably the two most popular locations where people would want it. You can even add additional dictionaries to make spell checking in other languages a piece of cake.

I don’t use Internet Explorer very often, but if I did there is no way that I would use it without IE7Pro installed. It adds a lot of functionality that I feel is necessary for Web browsers to have these days, although it does still lack session restoring. I guess IE7 does have session restore capabilities built-in, but it only pops up when you go to close the browser with multiple tabs open:

IE7 Session Restore

Thanks to Dark Shroud for pointing out the IE7Pro spell check update in the comments.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 22

Microsoft boots Windows Phone manager following mini-review of Nokia’s Mango handset

Posted in: Internet Explorer, mango, Microsoft, mobilepostmini, nokia, Today's Chili, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7

The man who previously led the development of IE Mobile for Windows Phone is no longer with Microsoft, whose termination followed a series of tweets regarding one of Nokia’s unreleased Mango handsets. A representative of Ballmer & Co. has confirmed to us “that Joe Marini no longer works at Microsoft,” and while the company refuses to discuss the details of his termination, you be the judge. In his first tweet, Mr. Marini expressed glowing enthusiasm for the device, having called it one of Nokia’s slickest ever. Then, however, he went on to give the phone an “8” (to summarize his 144 character review), criticize the camera as being good, but not great, and bemoan its screen size. Oops. If anything, unbridled enthusiasm is encouraged at Microsoft (just think back to Steve Ballmer’s monkey dance if you had any doubt), but when sheer excitement erupts into stunning frankness regarding unreleased products from partner companies, perhaps this ex-Microsoftee should have kept his thoughts offline. We wish you luck, Joe, but next time, just remember that review scores are a relic of the past. Instead, just let the words speak for themselves.

Microsoft boots Windows Phone manager following mini-review of Nokia’s Mango handset originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WPCentral, TNW, GeekWire  |  sourceTwitter  | Email this | Comments

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Sep 15

Microsoft’s Metro-style IE 10 has seen the future and it’s plug-in free

Posted in: flash, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 8, Windows8

Microsoft seems intent to push things forward, judging by its recent Build 2011 conference and the Windows 8 goods on display. Now, in an official blog post from the Redmond-based company, comes word that Internet Explorer 10 will be doing double duty, accommodating the web’s old architecture and its HTML 5 future. Users who opt for IE 10’s Metro-style app will be treated to a plug-in free experience, as MS has its eye on the evolving underpinnings of our information superhighway. Not to worry, though, the desktop app of the company’s refreshed browser will still function as it always has, providing compatibility for Flash, and a host of other extensions. The company made the decision after surveying 97,000 internet sites worldwide, deducing that a portion of the 62% sampled defaulted to HTML 5 in the absence of plug-in support. Due in part to this intentional omission, the Ballmer-led co. now claims the new, touch-optimized version of IE 10 will run faster, sustain battery life and offer improved security and privacy. Not convinced? Well, you’ll be able to test that out for yourselves when those Windows 8 slates hit the market.

Microsoft’s Metro-style IE 10 has seen the future and it’s plug-in free originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Apple Insider  |  sourceMicrosoft Blog  | Email this | Comments

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Sep 06

Firefox, Safari, & Opera Hit Record-High Market Share

Posted in: Freeware, Internet Explorer, Opera, Software, statistics, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

may 2008 browser stats-1.pngWe’re almost halfway through the year, and it looks as though Internet Explorer is once again continuing its steady decline in usage. April’s stats were interesting because Internet Explorer appeared to have a nice boost in market share, but it was then discovered that there was a big IE marketing campaign going on that caused the stats to be skewed.

All of the mainstream browsers other than Internet Explorer saw a nice little bump in market share for May 2008. In fact, Firefox, Safari, and Opera all hit record highs according to the statistical history available at Net Applications. Those three browsers combined now control over a quarter of the browser market.

And then there is the whole “Safari on Windows” saga that continues. Safari for Windows only saw a 0.04% increase in market share over the previous month despite Apple’s valiant effort to push the browser on any user with iTunes or QuickTime installed on their PC. That brings the total market share for Safari on Windows up to 0.27%, which isn’t too shabby considering how new it is.

Alright, here’s the rundown on the top 10 browsers in terms of market share for May 2008, along with how much they changed over April:

April 2008May 2008Change
Internet Explorer74.83%73.75%-1.08%
Firefox17.76%18.41%+0.65%
Safari5.81%6.25%+0.44%
Opera0.69%0.71%+0.02%
Netscape0.56%0.62%+0.06%
Mozilla0.16%0.08%-0.08%
Opera Mini0.05%0.05%0.00%
Playstation0.04%0.03%-0.01%
Pocket IE0.03%0.02%-0.01%
Konqueror0.03%0.02%-0.01%

Congrats to Firefox for being the biggest mover of the month! Can’t wait to see what the next few months are like as Mozilla tries to attract new users with Firefox 3.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 02

Visualized: an interactive timeline of the web

Posted in: Chrome, Google, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, Today's Chili, web

Ever wondered what the World Wide Web’s illustrious history would look like if plotted in timeline form? Well, thanks to Google’s “Evolution of the web,” you won’t have to. The delectable chart traces the evolution of HTML, the web technologies that came alongside it and the browsers that’ve held it all together — all in a seriously meta HTML5 package. Ready for a trip down memory lane? Hit the source, friend, and revel at how far we’ve come.

Visualized: an interactive timeline of the web originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Evolution of the Web  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 05

IE8 in Windows 7 is Nice

Posted in: Internet Explorer, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on May 27, 2009 by CyberNet.

I’ve got a lot of friends I talk with that are already running Windows 7 RC1 as their primary operating system, and they are very impressed with it. Many of them are rather diehard Firefox or Google Chrome fans, but all of them admit that Internet Explorer 8 handles nicely in the operating system. All of them even gave me the same reason… awesome integration with the new Taskbar.

If you’ve used IE8 in Windows 7 the chances are good that you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, well, you’ll see why it’s rather nice in just a second. One of the features I’m talking about is the way the Taskbar previews are able to treat individual IE8 tabs as if they were separate windows:

ie8 windows 7 previews-1.jpg

This kind of thing makes it even easier to switch between tabs in the browser, and will probably make the whole tab situation less confusing for users who don’t even understand what tabs are… because now they will just appear as if they are individual windows. You can always change this behavior in the options if you only want the active tab to appear in a preview.

ie8 jump list.pngThen there is also the “jump list” that gets displayed when you right-click on the IE8 icon in the Taskbar. It basically shows a list of your most frequently visited sites, and you can pin them to the top so that they are always quickly accessible. It’s essentially another way to bookmark your favorite sites.

Now I know what some of you are going to say… there’s already a Firefox “extension” called WinFox that promises to add some of these features. Very true. These are some features that can’t simply be added through an extension though, and so WinFox is actually an application that has to be running alongside the browser. Plus if you read through the comments you’ll see it’s not the most stable thing in the world, but in its defense it is in the early stages of development.

Basically what needs to (and will) happen is that the browsers themselves will start to take advantage of features like this as well. These are things that I believe need to be offered out-of-the-box for Windows 7 users, and having talked to a few people I know I’m not alone in that thinking. These features aren’t enough to really make me want to move away from Firefox, but I want to see the browser integrate itself into the operating system even more.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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