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IE 8 has been marinating for some time, and press info and betas had provided a solid picture of its features. Now TGDaily has taken a good look at a near-complete version of the browser.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 9:30 AM on December 16, 2008
There's a completely BS article by Fran Foo over at Australian IT today about Google Chrome's "failure to shine in its first 100 days". Apparently, according to Nielsen Online statistics, less than one per cent of visitors to Fairfax and News Ltd websites in Australia use Google Chrome. For a start, since when is News.com.au or The Age a reliable metric for how a browser "shines"? I might just go out on a limb and say that the reason 70% of their audience still uses IE is because in many cases they're completely ignorant about the superior alternatives, while many workplaces also restrict which browser can be used.
Then there's the line, "Some argue Chrome's languishing figures could be bolstered if it were pre-installed in computers." Now, I don't pretend to speak for Google at all, but considering they have 10 million active users worldwide after just 100 days, I don't think they'd be describing Chrome as languishing. Seriously, I thought The Australian was meant to be objective.
TechCrunch reports that the Google Chrome browser will soon graduate from beta status into a final release. Even if you've tried Chrome and passed, rest assured you haven't seen the last of it.
Google's vice president, Sundar Pichai, noted to The Times that after Chrome exits beta in January 2009, Google will begin an aggressive push to boost the browser's marketshare. More interestingly, he said that Google is exploring new ways to make Chrome more ubiquitous, and that they'll "probably do distribution deals" with OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers. This might mean that Internet Explorer finally has some competition out of the gate.
The Windows Mobile team has confirmed that the upcoming IE Mobile 6 browser or "IE 6 on 6" will not be made available as a separate download for current WinMo 6.1 smartphones. Instead, the update will only show up on devices released starting at the end of this year or in early 2009. The reason, according to Microsoft, is that "the rich media experiences that IE Mobile 6 enables require more powerful, advanced devices." IE doesn't have a whole lot of fans, but if you already have a WinMo smartphone it would suck to miss out on what appears to be a huuuge improvement. [Mobile Burn]
Not content to sit still while Opera and Skyfire kick its ass in the Windows Mobile browser space, Microsoft is previewing Internet Explorer Mobile 6, the next version of the notoriously rendering-impaired mobile browser, through a downloadable emulator. The addition of a "desktop" mode is promising, as is the fact that it appears to correctly render MSNBC's javascript-rich homepage, something with Mobile IE5 couldn't dream of doing. It's probably reasonable to expect IE6 to make an appearance in Windows Mobile 6.5, but XP and Vista users can test it now, right here. UPDATE: Impressions and feature list after the jump.
It's not out yet, but this is how Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile 6 looks. It will be part of Windows Mobile 6.1, finally replacing the old browser codebase from 1997's Internet Explorer 4, bringing much-needed modern standards support. It has two modes of operation, which can be specified in a preferences screen: Mobile Device and Desktop Computer.
We've posted our first impressions of Google Chrome, and after extended use most of them have held up. Chrome is fast, feature-rich and stable, not to mention highly usable. But Google's in-house innovations (the multi-threaded engine, Javascript handling and task manager, mainly) make up a tiny portion of the user experience. The rest of the interface features, usage mechanics and touted features have clear and very public parentage—in one of Chrome's four largest competitors.
Now, that's not to say that Google has explicitly "stolen" anything from IE, Firefox, Opera or Safari. They have, as of now, acknowledged that they owe a great debt to some of the other large players in the browser market. After all, they're using Safari's WebKit engine, receive billions of revenue-pumping referrals from Firefox's Google search bar, and have open-sourced much of Chrome. For most users, though, these gestures and acknowledgments will go unnoticed, and features previously incorporated into other popular browsers will be seen first on Google's. I've put together a list of some of Chrome's most interesting features, including the mainstream browsers that "inspired" them.
Here's something you don't want to hear describing your latest browser: "epically porcine." Yes, that's exactly how software research firm Devil Mountain CEO Craig Barth described it. Just how bad is the bloat on the latest beta? Well, on a 10-site scenario test, Firefox 3.0.1 consumed 159MB of memory. IE7 consumed a heartier 250MB. IE 8? A whopping 380MB of memory. Yikes.
What is the best way for IE to gain market share back from Firefox? Porn. That's right--when it comes to the internet, the answer is always porn. You know it, I know it, and apparently Microsoft knows it because there are rumours floating around that they may incorporate a private browsing feature, a.k.a "porn mode," similar to Safari (Firefox pulled the feature from 3.0) that would allow users to thoroughly cover up their smutty tracks from anyone who might be checking their browsing history.
