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Posts with tag ie8

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Browsers

Microsoft Drops IE8 Beta 2 - First Impression


As a longtime Firefox user, I didn't pay too much attention when Microsoft announced the impending release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. Still, after using the first beta and not running into the kind of horrible issues some of our readers reported, it warranted a download.

After a brief test drive, I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Installation was almost totally painless, though I wish Microsoft would figure out how to pull off a reboot-free install. Pages rendered quickly and accurately, the Firefox import worked very well, and my LastPass toolbar worked without asking for an upgrade. The Google toolbar, however, failed to work.

I also appreciate that IE prompted me to disable an addon - the Acrobat toolbar - when I closed it's toolbar. It's a small but useful feature. Slices and accelerators are showing a lot of promise, and the two I tried - Stumbleupon Buzz and send to GMail - worked nicely. You can see the Stumble slice at work in my screenshot.

I'm not sold on SmartScreen yet. I expected Web of Trust-like funcionality, but it's just not there. I ran around several keygen sites that make WOT cringe and didn't get a single alert from IE. That needs adressing. I like the idea of InPrivate as well, but would like to be able to mix tabs instead of running two separate instances of the browser.

If you do install the new version, be sure to check out the IE 8 Gallery, a new website that provides one-stop access to accelerators, slices, search addons, and toolbars. It's much, much less annoying than the IE7 addon site.

Let us know your thoughts if you've demoed the new beta!

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft

Wikipedia gets WebSlices, or at least one WebSlice

Wikipedia WebSlice

Want to see how that newfangled WebSlices in Internet Explorer 8 work? Just fire up IE8 beta and surf on over to Wikipedia, where you can find a WebSlice in an article on the Acid3 internet standards test. Blogger Long Zheng brought the new feature to our attention.

Here's how it works. When you visit a page with an embedded WebSlice, like the Acid3 Wikipedia page, a little purple symbol will pop up when you scroll your mouse over a portion of the page which is available as a WebSlice. Click the icon and a pop up menu will ask if you want to save the content to your favorites bar. Once you do, you'll be able to see that content by clicking the bookmark in your favorites bar, without clicking through to the actual web page.

What makes this different from a regular bookmark is that you'll only see a portion of the page. In this example, a chart showing how well different web browsers perform on the Acid3 test. As the Wikipedia article is updated, you'll always see the latest version in your browser without having to constantly revisit the Wikipedia page.

Now honestly, we're not convinced this is the best use of WebSlices. There's only so much room in the favorites bar, and do you really want to clutter it up with a chart showing Acid3 compliance results? But until more blogs and news sites that are updated more frequently start adopting WebSlices, we figured we'd point you toward Wikipedia just so you can see the technology in action.

[via istartedsomething]

Filed under: Weekend Review

Download Squad Week in Review

Download Squad logoThis week saw an odd migration of geeks in and out of Austin. Early this week the tech geeks all left the capital of Texas en mass, while music geeks all boarded trains, plains and autos headed for Austin. And if you're still suffering from jetlag and whiplash, here are a few stories you may have missed.

Download Squad SXSW2008 coverage continues

Southy by Southwest Interactive may be over, but we scored some amazing interviews with movers, shakers, and up and comers. Check out our interview with Guy Kawasaki where he discusses his new startup on a budget, Alltop. And keep checking back for more interviews and special coverage from SXSW.

Who needs IE8? Get WebSlices and Activities in Firefox

Last week Microsoft released the first public beta of Internet Explorer 8. And while it's still a pretty early release with serious compatibility issues with many web sites, IE8 does have a few pretty nifty features. And it only took a couple of days for Firefox extensions emulating those features to pop up.

Read more →

Filed under: Internet, OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Beta

Internet Explorer 8 blocks access to Windows Update

Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 and Windows Update
If you had any doubt that Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 was released as a developer preview and wasn't really meant for general consumption, consider this: You can't access Windows Update using Internet Explorer 8. If you try to visit the Windows Update page, you'll get a message telling you that you need to use Internet Explorer 5 or later.

Microsoft plans to add IE8 support to its software update page, but it's not available yet. In the meantime, you can get your updates by clicking the Emulate IE7 button in IE8 and restarting your browser.

[via ComputerWorld]

Filed under: Weekend Review

Download Squad Week in Review

Download Squad logoBeen spending the week gearing up for SXSW and then realized that you forgot to book tickets to Austin? Worry not, Download Squad will be bringing you blow by blow coverage from SXSW Interactive over the next few days. In the meantime, sit back, relax, and check out some of the top stories from the week that was.

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 beta

Microsoft released the first beta version of IE8 this week, and while it's explicitly for developers and not early adopters, we rushed out to test it, and were severely disappointed with its performance. Sure, it renders the Acid2 test properly -- sometimes, but it does a pretty poor job with many other sites, including Download Squad. And many of you told us you were having even bigger problems. Check out the IE8 reviews and comments left by Download Squad readers.

Microsoft launches Office Live Workspace beta


IE8 wasn't the only Microsoft beta to launch this week. The company also pushed the first public version of Office Live Workspace out the door. And while the service does provide users with a way to store and share Office documents online, we can't help but wonder whether people who have gotten used to actually being able to create and edit documents online with services like Zoho and Google Docs are going to care.

Read more →

Filed under: Microsoft, Social Software, Beta

Me.dium among early web apps optimized for IE8

Me.dium
The big announcement at this week's MIX08 conference was undoubtedly Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer, IE8. With all the questions flying around about standards support and what's under the hood of the new browser, we wanted to make sure you didn't miss the news about web apps that are getting a boost from IE8. One of the early entries showcased at MIX08 was the social browsing platform Me.dium.

Me.dium is a service that turns websurfing into a social experience, adding the ability to chat with other users and see what sites they're browsing. IE8's Activities feature, which finds microformats in web pages and lets you work with them, is a great fit for Me.dium. If you're going to share social data, why stop at webpages? Me.dium is also planning to include IE8's Web Slices in its recommendation features, so you'll be able to see the most popular pages and slices in your Me.dium network.

A lot of other services should be announcing integration with these new features soon, but Me.dium got an early jump because Microsoft specifically asked them to prepare something for MIX08. That can't be bad news for Me.dium's value as a company or the features it brings to the table for users.

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Microsoft, Beta

Why Internet Explorer 8 might not pass the Acid2 test

Acid2 failOne of the most exciting features we were expecting from Internet Explorer 8 was compliance with web standards. Months ago, Microsoft announced that IE8 would render the Acid2 test properly. So imagine our disappointment when we installed IE8 beta 1 today only to get an image that looks like the one to the right.

Unperturbed, we tried again later, and the second time was a charm. IE8 passed the Acid2 test with flying colors. So what was the difference between attempt 1 and attempt 2?

The second time, we went to the official Acid2 test page. The first time we had gone to another site that was hosting a copy of the original test. While you'd think that a web browser that's capable of rendering one page properly should be able to handle the same content on another page, the folks at Microsoft's IEBlog point out that IE8 performs a cross-domain security check for ActiveX controls which will prevent it from passing the Acid2 test on any page but the official one.


So there you go, Internet Explorer 8 is standards compliant. Under the right circumstances.

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Beta

Ask DLS: What do you think of Internet Explorer 8 beta 1?

Internet Explorer 8 beta 1
As expected, Microsoft has released the first public beta version of Internet Explorer 8. While IE8 superficially look a lot like Internet Explorer 7, it sports a bunch of new features including a redesigned favorites bar, automatic crash recovery, a new "WebSlices" feature that lets you subscribe to content within a web page much the way you would with an RSS feed, and some rendering engine changes.

But make no mistake, this is clearly beta software. IE8 beta 1 is not compatible with pre-release versions of Windows Vista SP1, doesn't work with a ton of IE7 add-ons like Skype, Google, and Yahoo! toolbars, and appears to enjoy making abstract paintings out of some web sites as you can see in the image above.

We know many Download Squad readers have been testing IE8 beta 1 out since the download links went live at about 3PM EST today, so what have your experiences been like? What works? What doesn't? What do you like? What needs improvement? And is Internet Explorer 8 likely to convince you to switch from Firefox, Opera, or whatever web browser you currently use?

Sound off in the comments.

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Microsoft, Beta

Internet Explorer 8 features uncovered, public beta coming today?

IE8 webslices
Update: Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 is available for downloading now. And please let us know what you think of Microsoft's latest web browser.

Microsoft has posted two new web pages related to Internet Explorer 8 beta 1. The first page outlines some of the new features you'll be able to find in the next generation web browser, while the other page offers download links. Unfortunately the download links don't seem to be live yet, but we wouldn't be surprised if they start working later today as the MIX08 conference gets underway.

In the meantime, here are some of those new features:
  • Automatic crash recovery works much like the crash recovery feature in Firefox. If IE8 crashes, the next time you load your browser it will attempt to restore your tabs and other data
  • Activities feature which makes it easy to send a link, web page, image, or snippet of text to Digg, Windows Live Maps, Facebook, Dictionary.com or other online services without copying and pasting. Users can install and manage their activities.
  • WebSlices allow users to subscribe to just a portion of a web site. Web publishers can add WebSlices to their web page and IE8 can automatically discover WebSlices and add them to your favorites bar. You can view them in a drop-down window like the one you see in the image to the right.
Internet Explorer 8 also has a redesigned favorites bar and improved phishing filtering.

[via Neowin]

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, web 2.0

Internet Explorer 8 will support web standards by default

Back in January, Microsoft caused quite a stir when they announced that the default behavior of Internet Explorer 8 would be to render web pages the same way as they are rendered in IE 7. The problem with this? One of IE 8's most touted features is its web standards compliance and its passing of the Acid2 test. However, web developers and standards advocates were miffed at the idea that rendering the "correct" way would require an additional line of code.

Well, it looks like Microsoft is listening. Yesterday they announced that the default browser behavior will be to render according to standards. If sites want to render in the "quirks" mode (thus, look the same as it would look in IE 7), the site maintainers will need to add in a line of code to reflect that.

The rationale from the original decision stems from the problems Microsoft had when migrating from IE 6 to IE 7. IE 7 had to sacrifice standards compliance in order to deal with rendering problems held over from IE 6. Thus, a web page that was built around IE 6's weirdness would look horrendous in IE 7, despite actually being displayed "properly." Thus, Microsoft made the decision to work out a way to render older sites without the appearance of breakage.

By changing course, Microsoft joins other browser makers like Safari, Firefox and Opera is operating with standards compliance out of the box. We have to give Microsoft credit for at least listening to the response from the community.

[via Webware]

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Beta

Microsoft launches private beta of Internet Explorer 8

IE7
Microsoft has sent out a letter to a select group of beta testers offering a chance to participate in a technical preview of Internet Explorer 8 beta 1.

There's not a whole heck of a lot of information about what IE8 will look like, what features it has, or anything else. A few months back we did get word that IE8 passes the Acid2 test, so that's something.

The letter also says that Microsoft is "nearing the launch" of IE8 and will be making it available to the general public. But it doesn't seem likely that you'll be able to install Microsoft's next generation browser before March without an invitation code. The company plans to show it off at MIX '08 in a few weeks, which would imply that they'll be showing off something the general public hasn't seen yet. Probably.

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial

Internet Explorer 8 renders Acid 2 successfully

Today Web developers everywhere breathed a sigh of relief when Microsoft's Internet Explorer team revealed their latest milestone: IE8 now renders the Acid2 face properly!

For those who aren't familiar with this test, Acid2 is designed to determine how compliant a given web browser is with published HTML. A fully compliant browser displays a smiling yellow face. However, non-compliant browsers show varying degrees of garbage.

While we appreciate Microsoft's effort to embrace open web standards (finally), there is something a bit suspicious about the wording of the announcement. Apparently, IE8 only passes the test when operating in something called "Standards Mode".

We can only wonder what Microsoft is up to with such an odd distinction. Will IE8 run in Standards Mode or another mode by default in the future? Only time will tell.

[Via OSNews]

Filed under: Business, Internet, Microsoft, Beta

Internet Explorer 8 is the name

Internet Explorer 8 is the nameLast year Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7, next year (or the year after) the company will launch Internet Explorer 8. Seriously, how do those creative folks in Redmond keep coming up with these clever names?

We can't tell you what IE8 will look like, or what improvements it will have over IE7. All we know is that it's got a name. Apparently the IE developer team has been referring to the next version of Internet Explorer as IE8 for a while, and when Bill Gates recently dropped that name, it kind of sealed the fate.

According to the Internet Explorer blog, some other possible names included IE VIII, IE1000 (eight in binary), IE Desktop Online Web Browser Live Professional Ultimate Edition for the Internet. Honestly, we were a bit surprised they didn't go with the last one, but then we realized that it might have been a joke.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

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