ie9

Microsoft released a second "platform preview" version of Internet Explorer 9 on Wednesday with faster JavaScript and better Web standards compliance--plus an argument for how future Web technology should develop.

Central to the second IE9 preview (download) is progress toward matching rivals in SunSpider, a speed test of Web-based JavaScript programs, and Acid3, a test of adherence to some Web technologies. On the first, Microsoft improved from 590 to 473 milliseconds; on the second, from 55 to 68 out of a possible 100. But there's more to the story than benchmarks.

The new platform preview, arriving seven … Read more

Deepening a rift in a key Web standards debate, Microsoft said Thursday that Internet Explorer 9 will support the variety of Web video Apple built into Safari but not the one embraced by Firefox and Opera.

"In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only," Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch said in a blog post. His reasons for the support: the format is widely used in the computing industry, from video cameras to Google's YouTube, it benefits from hardware decoding support that improves performance, and there are questions about the rights to … Read more

Competition among browser makers is getting fiercer, and Mozilla programmers are pushing a schedule in one hotly contested area, hardware-accelerated graphics.

On Windows, this takes the form of support for Direct2D and DirectWrite, technology to tap into the graphics processing unit (GPU) to process and display graphics and text faster. Direct2D support is one of the highlight features of the upcoming Internet Explorer 9, but Firefox programmers are working on it, too.

And now the Mozilla graphics team have issued themselves a goal, according to a mailing list message: ship a developer preview version of Firefox with Direct2D support that … Read more

For those of you who missed it, this week brought my birthday. I am still recovering. It also brought much news from the world of tech hardware, and I'm more than happy to power through my lingering hangover to share with you, the readers, some of the most interesting stuff we covered.

Take, for example, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, who would like everyone to know that the reason the PS3 is still more expensive than the Xbox 360 is because it has a Blu-ray player instead of a regular DVD player. And I guess this makes sense, but honestly … Read more

Microsoft is a bit like Tiger Woods at the moment--industry darling that became too dominant, then had a fall accompanied by a thick layer of schadenfreude, and now is trying a come-back. Microsoft is being replaced in the big-bad-wolf department by Google and Apple and finds itself in the odd position of being an underdog, and people love to root for underdogs. In fact I'd say that Microsoft is further ahead on the comeback trail than Tiger is if you look at some of its recent announcements: Bing, Windows Phone 7, the Courier journal concept, and the just-announced IE9. … Read more

As much bad press as Microsoft gets for Internet Explorer, we can't fault the software giant for continuing to develop what remains to be (for better or for worse) the world's most-used browser. In response to criticism, Microsoft started showing what it terms an Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview. We're told that the forthcoming IE 9 will include modern browser tricks, such as video that can play in the browser without a separate plug-in, better graphics performance, and the HTML5 Web standard that will let the browser handle a more complex class of Web apps. Although IE … Read more

If 3D is the chicken and the Avatar DVD is the egg, somehow we should all get free chickens or 3D is DOA. Or something like that. We've all still got a bit of a BBQ hangover from our time in Austin, but at least Rafe's here to make a little sense. Oh, wait, he came up with the 3D chicken thing. Anyway, Facebook rules the Web, IE 9 may or may not embrace actual standards, and Droid users are getting 2.1, finally. We're home.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview release on Tuesday sent a strong message to Web programmers that a host of standards will become safer to use. But in the case of one standard, Web video, Microsoft arguably pushed one controversial impasse deeper into gridlock.

The standard in question involves Web video that doesn't require a plug-in such as Adobe Systems' Flash or Microsoft's Silverlight. It's one of the big elements of HTML5--the Hypertext Markup Language standard now under development and aiming to expand the abilities of Web pages and Web applications.

The rough version of IE9 … Read more

Microsoft is keeping busy at this year's Mix conference in Las Vegas, and earlier today announced that it would be offering a preview version of its next-generation Internet Explorer browser. Sure, it's missing some important things like a "back" button, but that shouldn't stop early adopters from giving it a spin. We also report on the FCC's National Broadband Plan, a Dell lawsuit against LCD makers, and the Nexus One finally being available for AT&T and Rogers Wireless users who want to partake in glorious 3G data speeds. That, and much more … Read more