I’m a sucker for a catchy song even when the subject matter is a little morose. It explains why I still can’t get Dumb Ways To Die out of my head, and it will probably explain why I’ll start humming the song in this Internet Explorer ad three weeks from now.
The song in the video was written and performed by the incredibly talented Laura Gibson. That alone can explain why it’s so damn catchy. It doesn’t hurt that the song also taps into my love of misconceptions and false truths. Here are some of the highlights:
So, what does all of this have to do with Internet Explorer again? It’s all part of Microsoft’s “Browser you loved to hate” campaign. In short, it’s asking you to reconsider the assumption that Internet Explorer is a bad Web browser, and try it out for yourself. By most accounts, IE10 is pretty good, but you have to be the ultimate judge of that.
In the meantime, just enjoy the super catchy folk stylings of Ms. Gibson.
Microsoft has been one of the strongest proponents of Do Not Track since it announced that Internet Explorer 10 would turn it on by default. Advertisers didn’t exactly like this, and even threatened to ignore all signals from Internet Explorer if Microsoft didn’t back down. Despite the threat, the Redmond giant didn’t back down, and is now even marketing Do Not Track as a key feature of Internet Explorer.
Microsoft released a new ad for Internet Explorer today that talks about the differences between information you want to share with others and information you want to keep private. It never explicitly states browsing history as the kind of information you want to keep private, but it does say that it keeps your data private with Do Not Track.
The Do Not Track debate is far more complicated than what Microsoft has presented in its latest ad. Microsoft may have implemented Do Not Track into Internet Explorer, but that doesn’t mean that advertising companies will suddenly stop tracking your online movements. In fact, these companies have even threatened to ignore all Do Not Track signals from Internet Explorer until Microsoft backs down.
Still, it’s strange to see Microsoft advertising a feature that’s not only very divisive, but also possibly ineffective. There’s no legal mandate stopping advertising firms from ignoring Do Not Track signals, and Microsoft’s insistence that it be the turned on by default may actually do more harm than good until there’s a consensus on what Do Not Track actually means.
For all of its talk of supporting open Web standards, Internet Explorer 10 still lacked one important part of the open Web ecosystem – WebGL. Sure, you could add it with a plugin, but Microsoft refused to add native support while Mozilla and Google do amazing things with it. That all may change, however, with Windows Blue.
Fremycompany reports that Internet Explorer 11, as seen in the recent leak of Windows Blue, contains hints in its code that Microsoft will finally be adding native support for WebGL. The only problem is that it’s not entirely functional yet:
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.
As CNET points out, Microsoft did have a good reason to keep WebGL out of Internet Explorer until now. The company called it out as a security risk, and was concerned that malicious actors could hijack browsers using the technology. Still, this latest hint of incoming support may mean that Microsoft has patched up all the security holes it was concerned about.
There’s not much more to go on at this time beyond the initial hints, but it would be incredibly advantageous for the Web if Internet Explorer finally added native WebGL support. It’s quickly becoming one of the more important open Web standards as more people use it to make games and other graphic intensive content on the Web without plugins.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft to see if the Internet Explorer team is working on native WebGL support. We’ll update this story if they get back to us.
Unfortunately, the latest ads for Internet Explorer drop this trend of humor in favor of targeting the ever important 18 to 34 male demographic with ads about sports and video games. Sure, it’s an important demographic, but are they really going to care that they can pin ESPN’s Web site to the Start menu?
Likewise, will they care about playing the only touch-optimized HTML5 game on Internet Explorer 10?
Much like its previous ad campaign, Microsoft has also launched a Web site with the ad campaign called “Beauty of the Web.” I can appreciate the sentiment as the Web is quite beautiful, but it’s somewhat misleading as Internet Explorer still doesn’t natively support WebGL. Until it does, Internet Explorer won’t be able to display someof the more beautifulthings on the Web.
After launching with Windows 8 in October of last year, Internet Explorer 10 has only been available as a release preview on Windows 7. That all changes as Microsoft pushes out the final release to all Windows 7 users starting today.
Just like Windows 8, IE10 will reportedly speed up your browsing experience on Windows 7. Microsoft says that internal benchmarks put it about 20 percent faster than IE9. To test it out for yourself, you can try out Microsoft’s Minesweeper benchmark test. It’s built entirely in HTML5 and will measure your browser’s performance.
IE10 is also a marked improvement over its predecessors by finally adding a number of HTML5 and related Web technologies to its repertoire. Developers and consumers now have access to the following features in IE10:
Create rich visual effects with CSS Text Shadow, CSS 3D Transforms, CSS3 Transitions and Animations, CSS3 Gradient, and SVG Filter Effects
More sophisticated and responsive page layouts with CSS3 for publication quality page layouts and responsive application UI (CSS3 grid, flexbox, multi-column, positioned floats, regions, and hyphenation), HTML5 Forms, input controls, and validation
Enhanced Web programming model for better offline applications through local storage with IndexedDB and the HTML5 Application Cache; Web Sockets, HTML5 History, Async scripts, HTML5 File APIs, HTML5 Drag-drop, HTML5 Sandboxing, Web workers, ES5 Strict mode support.
Beautiful and interactive Web applications with support for several new technologies like CSS3 Positioned Floats, HTML5 Drag-drop, File Reader API, Media Query Listeners, Pointer Events, and HTML5 Forms.
Improved Web application security with the same markup and support for HTML5 Sandbox for iframe isolation.
You can grab IE10 for Windows 7 right now. If you want Microsoft to do the work for you, you’ll be upgraded to IE10 automatically in the coming weeks. Those who took part in the IE10 Release Preview will get first dibs, with everybody still on IE9 coming later.
In a perfect world, everybody who uses Internet Explorer would be on the latest version so all the problems affecting IE8 wouldn’t be happening. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you ask, IE10 is only available on Windows 8. That means Microsoft’s latest browser isn’t doing super well in its second month on the market since Windows 8 isn’t doing that well either.
Despite having sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses since launching at the end of October, the latest browser marketshare numbers from Net Applications shows that Internet Explorer 10 hasn’t even cracked one percent yet. Being exclusive to Windows 8 isn’t doing the browser any favors. There’s a beta for IE10 on Windows 7, but it has received little to no publicity from Microsoft. It probably didn’t add much to these numbers.
That being said, Internet Explorer is still king. Overall, the browser still has a majority of the browser marketshare at 54.77 percent. When broken down, the constantly hacked Internet Explorer 8 is used the most with 23 percent of the marketshare and the much safer Internet Explorer 9 coming in 21 percent.
As for the other browsers, Firefox and Chrome are still battling it out for second place. Firefox was in the lead in December with 19.82 percent of the market while Chrome lagged closely behind with 18.04 percent. Safari and Opera came in at 5.24 percent and 1.71 percent respectively.
In mobile browsers, Apple Safari for iOS is still by and large the dominant force with 60.56 percent of the marketshare. The generic Android browser and Opera Mini are the only other mobile browsers with percentages in the double digits with 22.10 percent and 10.71 percent respectively. Chrome is picking up pace, however, as it has increased from 0 percent to 1.48 percent in only a year. Not bad for a relative newcomer to the mobile browser scene.
I was born in 1989, and I grew up through the decade that we collectively call the 90s. I think we can all agree it was a weird decade populated by weird fashion, weird music and even weirder cartoons. Alongside all of this, Microsoft is hoping you fondly remember something else.
A new ad going out today as part of Microsoft’s “Browser You Loved To Hate” campaign appeals directly to the 90s kid in all the 20-somethings in the world today. I remember using Internet Explorer on my Windows 98 machine, but do I look back on those memories fondly? Microsoft isn’t betting on it, but it is betting that you’ll get a kick out of Internet Explorer 10.
Will this latest ad, unlike allthe others, get people to start using Internet Explorer again? Probably not, but at least the ad let me live in my nostalgia-ridden brain for a few minutes. If anything, I thank Microsoft for reminding me that Pump shoes never worked and that Pogs were a waste of money.
Internet Explorer 10 is an interesting beast. It was built with Windows 8, and touch, in mind. It launched with Microsoft’s new operating system last month, but now it’s available on the decidedly less-touch friendly Windows 7.
Microsoft announced today that the release preview of Internet Explorer 10 is now available on Windows 7. It features a number of HTML5 and CSS enhancements that any IE stalwarts will want to upgrade for. It also should make it easier for developers to make apps work across all the different browsers now that IE10 is catching up to the strides made by Mozilla and Google with Firefox and Chrome respectively.
Those interested in trying out Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 will also be happy to know that Microsoft will turn the controversial “Do Not Track” signal on by default when you first install it. It might not do you any good, however, as advertisers have already made it a point to ignore any DNT signals sent by IE10.
Microsoft attributes IE10’s performance enhancements to its “powerful HTML5 engine.” Users and developers can now take advantage of the following enhancements:
Rich Visual Effects: CSS Text Shadow, CSS 3D Transforms, CSS3 Transitions and Animations, CSS3 Gradient, SVG Filter Effects
Sophisticated Page Layouts: CSS3 for publication quality page layouts and application UI (CSS3 grid, flexbox, multi-column, positioned floats, regions, and hyphenation), HTML5 Forms, input controls, and validation
Enhanced Web Programming Model: Better offline applications through local storage with IndexedDB and the HTML5 Application Cache; Web Sockets, HTML5 History, Async scripts, HTML5 File APIs, HTML5 Drag-drop, HTML5 Sandboxing, Web workers, ES5 Strict mode support.
Windows 7 users can download the IE10 release preview today. IE9 was already pretty good, so users of that particular browser may want to upgrade to IE10 when they get the chance. The performance and security improvements are probably worth the few minutes it takes to install.
Windows 8 launched at midnight and is now making its way into the hands of early adopters everywhere. Those early adopters, if they’re using Windows RT, are also being exposed to Internet Explorer 10. They don’t have a choice as it’s the only browser available on Windows RT. Even if you’re forced into using it, Microsoft thinks you’re going to like it.
The Internet Explorer 10 team came out today to proclaim that “IE10 is the Windows 8 browser.” Once again, it’s not like consumers have a choice at the moment, but it does seem pretty cool. IE10 was built with touch specifically in mind and Microsoft argues that it’s “the first browser that is perfect for Touch.”
To show off this new emphasis on touch, Microsoft created a browser-based game that’s best played with touch controls:
Beyond playing simple games, the new IE10 features a number of touch controls designed to make browsing the Web easier. One such feature is called “Flip Ahead” that allows users to “advance to the next page, or article, or image on sites.”
IE10 also features a unique take on bookmarks that lets users pin their favorite sites directly to the start menu. Hitting these pins will take you directly to the site without having to open the Internet Explorer 10 app first.
Microsoft is so confident that IE10 changes everything that they made it the exclusive browser in Windows RT. They would prefer you to use it in Windows 8 Pro, but that’s a little more open. In fact, Google has already set up Windows 8 users with “GetYourGoogleBack,” a site that provides links to both Google Web Search and Google Chrome for Windows 8 users.
Online advertisers really hate Microsoft and their stance on “Do Not Track.” The conflict between the two came to a head last week when the advertisers said they were just going to simply ignore the DNT signal in Internet Explorer 10. Now they want you, the regular consumer, to know that DNT is bad for you or the economy.
The Direct Marketing Association announced the creation of the Data-Driven Marketing Institute this week. It’s goal is to combat the negative image that data-driven marketing now has thanks to privacy proponents. Here’s the official statement from the DMA’s Acting CEO and President, Linda A. Woolley:
DMA has launched the Data-Driven Marketing Institute (DDMI) to set the record straight about the countless ways that data-driven marketing creates value for consumers — and is an engine of economic growth. Through education, research, and outreach, DDMI will redouble our efforts to advance and protect responsible data-driven marketing…on behalf of marketers, fund-raisers – and consumers — everywhere.
So how will the DMA “set the record straight?” There are three main components to their plan – advocacy, consumer education and engagement, and research. In essence, the DMA has created a lobbying group that will go to Congress to tell them that consumer tracking is perfectly fine as long as it serves businesses. They will also use propaganda to convince consumers that data collection can only be beneficial.
Look, both sides are right in their own ways. Microsoft is right in making DNT the default option in Internet Explorer 10. It’s a pro-consumer move that nets the tech giant a lot of points with consumers and privacy advocates. On the other hand, the advertising industry is also right in saying that their ads help support a lot of free online services like Hulu and Spotify.
This is all going to come down to the consumer sooner or later. Do you value your privacy enough to start paying premiums on all your online services? Do you think selling your personal information for free stuff is worth it? Both sides can lobby all they want, but the consumer is going to have the final say in this. The popularity of free services like Spotify seems to indicate that consumers have already picked their side.
Congress has proven time and time again that they don’t care whatsoever about your privacy. These are the same guys that tried to shove CIPSA and CSA through the system without any kind of debate. They claim to have good intentions, but their basic understanding of the Internet is flawed, and at times dangerous. That’s why it’s such a surprise when some members of Congress actually seem to know what they’re talking about.
You may recall from earlier this week when the Digital Advertising Alliance basically told Microsoft to shove it. They weren’t going to honor the “Do Not Track” button that’s turned on by default in Internet Explorer 10. They even said that such blatant disregard for their tracking and data collection practices is actually bad for consumers in ways that they conveniently failed to mention.
Well, the Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus is having none of it. They issued a statement saying that they’re disappointed in the DAA. Here’s the full statement:
Privacy is an issue that affects everyone, and the Digital Advertising Alliance’s announcement made clear that it puts profits over privacy. If consumers want to be tracked online, they should have to opt-in to be tracked, instead of the other way around. This is why we are disappointed to hear the Digital Advertising Alliance insist that it will not honor Microsoft’s “Do Not Track” default and will not penalize companies that ignore it.
While we appreciate the efforts industry has taken to develop a ‘Do Not Track’ signal, we have long endorsed a standard that allows consumers to affirmatively choose whether to permit collection of their personal information and targeting of advertisements. Until we have stronger privacy laws in place that mandate a company adhere to a consumer’s preference, especially for children and teens, consumers and their personal information will remain at risk.
Of course, this is just a statement. There’s not really any laws in place that protect privacy from online tracking from advertisers or anybody else. The two co-chairs of the Privacy Caucus, Reps. Joe Barton and Edward Markey, introduced the Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011 last May, but it’s been in legislative limbo since it was referred to committee.
So, does this change anything? Not at all. The DAA can continue ignoring your privacy while Congress wags their finger at them. Until we get some solid legislation passed that protects privacy, nothing is going to change. When you consider how blatantly anti-privacy CISPA and CSA were, the chances of such a bill seem slim.
Microsoft has made some decent commercials for its Internet Explorer 9 browser. The latest was an artsy tour-de-force that featured rave reviews from multiple publications praising the browser’s ease of use and beautiful simplicity. What if all that praise was just hyperbole, or worse, paid off? What if the commercial was actually honest about the product it was selling?
The fine folks at WorldWideInterweb have answered this exact question by producing an honest version of the Internet Explorer 9 ad that Microsoft runs on television these days. As the random RedTube user says, “It’s surprisingly bad for porn.”
The funny thing is that Microsoft actually acknowledges the stigma towards Internet Explorer. The company even created a self-deprecating Web site that mocks Internet Explorer while also trying to convince people that it’s really not all that bad.
Truth be told, Internet Explorer 9 isn’t that bad from a user perspective. It’s actually kind of neat, but it still isn’t quite as good as Mozilla’s Firefox or Google’s Chrome browsers. Microsoft may have a hit on its hands with Internet Explorer 10, however, as the Windows 8 preview has shown it to be responsive and even, dare I say, fun to use.
I know it may seem unreal, but Internet Explorer is actually a decent browser these days. The latest iteration – IE10 – is already available in preview form on Windows 8. Once it launches, it will be expose millions of Internet users to the power of HTML5. To show off that power, Microsoft has partnered with a legend in gaming.
Microsoft announced today that they have entered into a partnership with Atari to bring the Atari Arcade to Internet Explorer 10. All the games will be built using HTML5 and feature Windows 8-specific features. The games can be played on any modern browser, but players on Internet Explorer will be granted an ad-free experience.
“Atari and Microsoft have had a long and successful history on Xbox LIVE and in the digital space,” said Jim Wilson, CEO of Atari. “The reimagined Atari Arcade expands this partnership in a new direction, in keeping with our current digital strategy, making it easier than ever for gamers around the world to access our renowned franchises, through the power and flexibility of an HTML5 based platform.”
The initial batch of games available in Atari Arcade include Centipede, Yars’ Revenge, Tempest, Millipede, Missile Command, Adventure, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Haunted House and Lunar Lander. The games have been updated with new graphics and gameplay including real-time multiplayer.
“We were excited to work with a gaming legend, Atari, to bring their classic arcade games to life on the web with Internet Explorer,” adds Ryan Gavin, general manager, Internet Explorer. “Atari Arcade demonstrates what’s possible when you couple HTML5 along with a fast and fluid browser that is perfect for touch, which is precisely what you get with Internet Explorer 10. Now together with Internet Explorer and HTML5, we get to see some of our favorite games jump into the next generation of gaming on the web – which is pretty fantastic.”
The Atari Arcade is not exclusive to the old classics of yesteryear. Atari is offering developers access to their Create.js tools so developers can create HTML5 cross browser titles. One game from a third party developer is already available on the service – Heroes of Neverwinter.
The popularity of arcade games on mobile and Web make this partnership seem like a no brainer. I’m not sure if kids would play Atari games, but I’m sure adults will jump on the chance to relive their childhood. The only thing standing in its way is its reliance on HTML5.
You can start playing games on Atari Arcade right now. You may have your favorite, but let me recommend Tempest. It’s still one of the best games ever made and nobody has ever really topped its unique barrel shmup design.
Microsoft is really pushing Internet Explorer 10 as we near the launch of Windows 8. The newest version of the infamous browser promises to be faster, more secure and just all around more awesome than any of its predecessors. Whether that is the case or not remains to be seen, but the recent announcements definitely make it sound more enticing.
Microsoft announced today that popular news app, Pulse, is now available on the Web. If you’re unfamiliar with Pulse, it’s essentially a news aggregator or RSS feed that pulls news from the Web into a format that’s more visually appealing.
Bringing Pulse to the Web is a great move for Microsoft since it allows them to flex IE10’s HTML5 muscle. It’s part of a movement, according to Microsoft, that sees popular apps moving to the Web without sacrificing what made the app great in the first place. They claim that Pulse is the same app as before, just on a larger scale.
The Pulse site is also a chance for Microsoft to show off the improvements they’ve made to the HTML5 touch API. Since Windows 8 is heavily based on touch input, it only makes sense that IE10 would be the same. They achieved this through the creation of a new JavaScript Engine that allows the browser to act like a native part of the touch experience.
Pulse CEO Akshay Kothari has only praise for IE10 and the experience it gives to users. He says that they were initially concerned over a drop in quality, but those concerns quickly vanished. He has nothing but praise now for IE10 and says that it allows some aspects of Pulse to be “more intuitive and beautiful” than other apps they have created.
If you want to check out the new touch-friendly Pulse site, just hit up www.Pulse.me. It’s available on all major browsers, but they obviously want you to try it out on Internet Explorer 10.
As a long time follower of Microsoft, it’s still surprising to see the company embracing open Web standards. The company is so enamored with the open Web that they are building Windows 8 Metro apps and Internet Explorer 10 with HTML5 and JavaScript in mind. With the launch of the Windows 8 Release Preview behind them, Microsoft took some time out to explain their advancements in JavaScript.
The catalyst that forced Microsoft’s hand into moving towards open Web standards is the idea that the Web is alive. The arrival of HTML5 and the evolution of CSS and JavaScript has forced Microsoft to rethink how we think of the Web. To that end, they have started to evolve their own proprietary JavaScript engine to address the ever growing Web.
Microsoft’s JavaScript engine is called Chakra. If you’re familiar with Buddhist philosophy, you’ll know that Chakra is the driving force that circulates energy throughout the body. Microsoft’s engine does just that but the body is a Web page. It’s an engine that circulates the execution of different processes of JavaScript through the use of a computer’s hardware including multiple cores. It achieves this through the use of parallel architecture that processes and executes the code on one core while offloading garbage collection and the JIT compiler to the other cores.
Chakra has been around since IE9, but Microsoft is really kicking things up a notch with IE10. Since all Web sites use JavaScript in one way or another, Chakra has dramatically reduced load times by simplifying the process at which code is executed.
These performance boosts have also been passed on to heavy users of JavaScript – Web applications. To help games and other HTML5 powered applications load faster, Microsoft has introduced four advancements that greatly improve performance.
The first is a change to Chakra’s JIT compiler that adds support for x64 and ARM architectures. This allows it to execute directly on the CPU granting it more flexibility and speed. This is used to reduce the amount of machine instructions for code thus reducing memory footprint.
The second is an improvement to JavaScript’s floating point arithmetic that’s used in games, video, etc. They have simplified the instructions directed at this particular code in IE10 that has it executing code 50 percent faster than in IE9. Since IE10 is only available on Windows 8, you can expect HTML5 applications to perform admirably on the operating system.
The third has Microsoft improved property access. In IE9, Microsoft utilized inline caches that could remember shapes of objects and the corresponding location in the object’s memory where a property can be found. The only problem was that it could only remember one object shape at at time. With IE10, Microsoft has introduced a secondary caching mechanism that will allow the operation of code on objects of different shapes.
The final improvement sees Chakra’s garbage collection system getting some enhancements. It was found that HTML5 games discard objects a high rate and JavaScript doesn’t just destroy these objects. It would rather collect these discarded objects and store them in a garbage collection. This creates a problem as the browser will occasionally become bogged down as it’s trying to collect the garbage and become unresponsive. To combat this, IE10 not only reduces the amount of memory that’s consumed, but it also delays garbage collection until after the script has been inactive for some time. This way, the user won’t perceive browser lock ups during the middle of an application.
If you’re confused after all of that, just know that Internet Explorer 10 is a beast. Microsoft is being really aggressive about making their latest browser one of the best on the market. If you use Windows 8, IE10 isn’t a bad choice at all. If you still don’t trust IE after all the years of betrayal, you can now download Chrome for Windows 8.
When Microsoft’s Windows 8 arrives to a computer near you it will have Internet Explorer 10 in tow, and with that browser will come a “Do Not Track” feature that will automatically be turned on. The privacy tool, which was backed by the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year, enables internet users to indicate to websites that they don’t wish to have their browsing habits tracked. Mozilla’s Firefox browser and Yahoo have been early endorsers of the feature, and Twitter recently welcomed the feature as well.
The anti-tracking repellent might be welcome news to privacy advocates, but it’s more than likely to stick in the craw of one certain online company that relies on its capability to track users: Google. The search engine colossus’ bread and butter is personal information culled from internet users’ browsing habits. The cookies that Google uses on its sites and stores in browsers allow it to target people with personalized ads based on what the person’s browsing history is like. The Do Not Track feature, however, would block Google’s cookies and effectively diminish the quality of the company’s advertising strategy.
The issue is larger than a Microsoft v. Google showdown, but the split between the two companies does summarize the debate about how the ‘Do Not Track’ feature should best be implemented. Brendon Lynch, Microsoft’s Chief Privacy Officer, explained the rationale behind equipping IE10 with ‘Do Not Track’ by default in an announcement yesterday, stating that Microsoft’s first interest is its customers’ privacy. While he doesn’t outright disdain the tracking of personal information by websites for the purpose of personalized ads, Lynch frames the argument for ‘Do Not Track’ as a way to give people the right to decide for themselves.
We believe that consumers should have more control over how information about their online behavior is tracked, shared and used. Online advertising is an important part of the economy supporting publishers and content owners and helping businesses of all shapes and sizes to go to market. There is also value for consumers in personalized experiences and receiving advertising that is relevant to them.
Google has publicly welcomed the ‘Do Not Track’ feature but the company was reluctant to accept the terms of the feature. This is unsurprising, really, considering a major impetus for ‘Do Not Track’ was Google’s relentless pursuit of user information in spite of browser security settings that clearly indicated that people didn’t want to be tracked.
While Microsoft might have won some favor among privacy advocates, Google and the legion of advertisers who have grown accustomed to having their ads targeted to consumers in a personalized manner might not be so easy to accept IE10’s default ‘Do Not Track’ feature. But then again, if Google and advertisers believe it’s their manifest destiny to hound internet users and leech away their personal information and really want to quibble about consumers’ desire to opt out of their services, Microsoft’s decision to make ‘Do Not Track’ as a default function will only gain legitimacy.
An apparent roadmap showing Microsoft’s plans for future products has been leaked. The images show Microsoft’s release plans for numerous products, including Internet Explorer, Windows Phone, and Office 15.
The images were posted to Twitter last week by Maarten Visser, who apparently got them from Microsoft’s Partner Network. The first shows information about upcoming versions of Microsoft Office and related software. According to the chart, Office 15 will be available in beta sometime in the middle of this year, with public availability coming in early 2013.
The second image shows some data about Windows-related products, including Internet Explorer. It looks like Internet Explorer 10 is set for a summer release, coinciding loosely with the beta release of Office 15.
Interestingly, though the Windows 8 developer preview and the end of service for Windows XP are noted, the release date for Windows 8 is absent. The developer preview of Windows 8 was released late last year, while the consumer preview launched in February. There is no official word on a release date, though speculation has centered on the late third quarter.
If you’ve been taking part in the Windows 8 consumer preview, you’ve most likely noticed pinned sites on the Metro interface. It’s essentially the bookmark of the Metro interface by allowing users to pin their favorite sites to the Metro start screen for easy access. Developers can utilize these pins to announce updates to their users without them having to open a browser.
The Windows 8 team posted on the IEBlog some of the interesting things developers can do with pinned sites. The most obvious is of course the update notifications. At the moment, the main example they show is pretty simple, but it gets the point across. As you can see, the Microsoft icon shows the number of updates since a user last visited.
Web developers can use these site pins as a way to make themselves stand out as well. The icon they use for their site takes up only a small portion of the entire tile, but it has a massive influence on the tile itself. The dominant color in your Web icon will make up the color of the tile itself. Choose a unique color for your icon and you get a unique attention grabbing tile.
If you want to start creating icons right away to get a pinned site up, just know that you will also want to work with badge notifications. This allows Windows 8 to automatically update the pinned site tile with the newest updates in the background. Microsoft has the example code on the blog post that details how developers can start enacting this now.
The IE10 team also points out that a popular feature from IE9 is back in IE10 in a whole new way. They are of course talking about jump lists which allows users to get to a specific part of a site. In IE10, the jump list is now a part of the navigation bar.
Check out the blog post for the code to fully implement these features into your Web site for Windows 8 and IE10. The newest version of Windows may only be in the consumer preview for now, but it’s only a few more months before it goes it starts popping up everywhere. It’s better to get your Web sites ready before it launches.
We live in strange times, my friends. The world is said to end on December 21 (spoiler: it’s not), UK is playing UofL in the Final Four and, perhaps strangest of them all, Microsoft is turning Internet Explorer into a competent, user-friendly product that really takes advantage of their new Windows 8 OS.
Today on the IEBlog, Microsoft gives users a tour of the newly expanded launch options for IE10 on Windows 8. It turns out that the developer preview of Windows 8 last year didn’t let users customize their launch options for IE10. The consumer preview fixes this and then some.
First, if you’re confused by what launch options mean, it’s pretty simple. When you click on a link in an application, say a chat box, the program opens your Web browser of choice and it takes you to that Web page. Windows 8 adds another layer of complexity to this formula by having two operating environments – desktop and Metro. This leaves the question of which environment IE10 would open links in under Windows 8.
By default, IE10 is going to open that link in whatever environment you’re currently operating in. To be more precise, open a link in Metro and IE10 for Metro will open. Open a link in the desktop environment and the more traditional desktop IE10 will take care of it. You can change it to always open in one or the other though.
Strangely enough, you can’t operate IE in Metro mode if it is not your default browser. I’m sure Microsoft will change this later on as more people use Windows 8 and find that to be annoying. Of course, with Mozilla already making a Metro style Firefox Web browser, we may not need to care. We can just toss IE into the annals of program files to never be used again.
Microsoft is on top of the world right now–well, at the top of the tech section of Google News, anyway–after it unveiled its Metro user interface design. While reaction has been generally positive, there’s another side of the coin that doesn’t understand why Microsoft is turning Windows 8, especially the desktop version, into a mobile phone interface.
It should be noted, Microsoft’s strategy of trying attracting those who do their computer business on mobile devices makes sense, but does the operating system have to sell its soul, especially after the success of Windows 7, to do so? Not everyone agrees with Microsoft’s rosy outlook. As indicated, the new user interface, called “Metro,” was debuted this week, and for an example of how it works, watch the following video, which also supports the changing the desktop interface look and feel into a mobile device environment:
My first impression after seeing that is the start menu is entirely too bulky and convoluted, but, it appears as if that was the strategy all along, especially once you consider Microsoft has already admitted tablet computing had a direct influence on the Windows 8 design. With that in mind, to this writer, the Metro interface does not look, nor does it feel like a Windows environment, regardless of Metro’s social networking power. Over at PC Magazine, John Dvorak was much more direct with his reaction:
First of all, the interface should be renamed Microsoft “Kiosk,” because that seems to be the source of its inspiration. Then again, it reminds me of the Nintendo Wii, only with higher resolution. It also looks like it wants to blast ads at you.
That’s not the most glowing reaction. Maybe Dvorak’s impression improves as he continues:
I can only reason that the company jumped to put the Phone 7 interface on the desktop because Steve Jobs hinted that he was going to put the iOS interface on the Mac—a bluff to confuse Microsoft. Ford once did this when it pre-announced a six-door SUV that it never produced, hoping to catch GM off guard. At some point it’s a suckers game.
And that would be a big “no.” Are Dvorak’s criticisms warranted? Is Microsoft risking it’s position of desktop dominance with such a departure from the norm? Will the new Metro interface make Windows 8 dead on arrival, regardless of how well it shares images? Let us know what you think.
