Microsoft shows IE 8 at Mix
LAS VEGAS--Microsoft offered its first public demonstration of Internet Explorer 8 on Wednesday, a prospect that had general manager Dean Hachamovitch struggling to figure out what to cover.
"I'm so excited that I had to figure out how to focus," he told the crowd. The marketing folks naturally suggested he point to three major advances, but Hatchamovitch disagreed.
"These are developers," he said he told the marketers. "They can count higher than three."
So, instead he said he would talk about eight features: CSS 2.1 support, CSS Certification, performance, start of HTML 5 support, new developer tools, activities, Web slices and one he hasn't named yet.
Microsoft also said that the first beta of the browser, intended for developers, will be available after today's keynote.
One of the new features, WebSlices, allow users to break a Web site into parts and only get updates from the part they want.
In IE 8 users can subscribe to parts of Web page," Hachamovitch said. He showed an example in IE 8 where users can use Web slices to subscribe to a single eBay auction.
Apple has its own Web-clipping subscription method that is part of Mac OS X.
Separately, Microsoft said it was making available a beta version of Silverlight 2, which will move the technology further beyond delivering video and into creating rich Internet applications.
Among the features of Silverlight 2 is what Microsoft calls adaptive streaming: the ability of the client PC to decide how large a streaming file it can handle at any given moment based on its CPU and network resources.
"If the network gets congested it can drop down to a lower bit rate," said Scott Guthrie a vice president in Microsoft's developer division.
With IE8, Hachamovitch discussed Microsoft's commitment to compatibility. He relayed a story of what his kids used to say whenever they had Internet problems.
"They'd ask 'Daddy, did you break the web?'" Hachamovitch said. "Most of the time I could honestly say 'No.'"
In a broader sense though, Hachamovitch said, that others might disagree that Microsoft, had in fact broken the Web. "Web developers might answer the question differently," he said.
Hachamovitch then went on to talk about Microsoft's commitment to interoperability and steps that it has taken. Microsoft announced earlier this week that IE 8 would use its most standards compliant mode by default. The company said it believed that move would assuage developer concerns as well as regulatory and competitive issues.
However, a top Opera executive told CNET News.com yesterday that Microsoft's move addresses only one of several concerns that the browser maker had raised with the European Commission.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
As for the tabbed browsing.... better get used to it. Every single web browser on the market has realized that tab browsing is something that users want and that makes browsing a lot easier.
As for RSS-feeds, they are quite useful if you are trying to keep up on the latest web news or a frequently updated website.
I was waiting for it from last couple of months and finally it's here.
Will post my comments after I get my hands dirty.
and i think lots of poeple will also do this as FF3 will come much sooner than IE8, btw, i liked that web-slice feature, but i don't think it'll do much more than tabs or even a sidebar(that can be put as and addon to FF)
On a separate note, so after years of inactive development with IE6 after having slaughtered Netscape, Microsoft is suddenly active with browser development again? And of all things, it's fighting against an old foe with a twist! This makes it a good show to watch nonetheless. Firefox is hard to beat though, esp. with 3.0 on the verge of being released!!
Along comes Firefox and coincidently, Microsoft starts developing and innovating.
I guess the EU is right. Competition is good for the consumer. It's a no-brainer really.
And Microsoft is even embracing standards, well another reason why competition is good.
The EU can kiss my Yankee A** !
Opera got its a** whooped by both IE and FF. EU are such whiners.
[i]"One of the new features, WebSlices, allow users to break a Web site into parts and only get updates from the part they want."[/i]
Good job, Microsoft! Way to catch up to Safari there... well, eventually catch up to, anyway.
[i]"With IE8, Hachamovitch discussed Microsoft's commitment to compatibility."[/i]
I have an idea - next time, instead of launching a ton of hot air about it, how about showing it off? Allegedly IE8 is supposed to pass ACID2 (according to a grainy YouTube vid and rabid fanboys everywhere), so maybe they could show that off at the next demo?
...or would that be too much to ask of 'em?
(...of course, ACID3 just came out today, but one step at a time, one step at a time...)
/P
Wikipedia: "CSS level 3 is currently under development.[7] The W3C maintains a CSS3 progress report. As with the evolving XHTML specification, CSS3 is modularized and will consist of several separate Recommendations. An Introduction to CSS3 roadmap will be the starting point."
Progress Report> http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/current-work#table
adiness/Install.htm
download it and test it for yourself. You can even video yourself for
another grainy youtube video if you want. Either way, do
something and quit whining. That way you won't be a raving anti-
microsoft-fanboy.
It also fails on hiding empty table cells using css, as well as word spacing (which is CSS1 btw)
Will IE8 reverse that trend and work on my Win 2K just as Firefox does?
The same question and answer paradigm applies to MS.
IE8 will work fine,Firefox will remain hype like it's big brother Linux and all it's clones.
IE8 will be competing with older versions of Opera, Firefox, and Safari. Not with the new version that will be out and fairly old when IE8 is released.
- by SamsulArifin September 7, 2009 12:32 AM PDT
- m m m m,i don't
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