IE9 UI leaked ? What do you think ?
While Microsoft have been very quiet about the UI for IE9, it appears it may have been leaked online. While only online for a while, that snappy Microsoft blogger Mary J Foley over at ZDnet, managed to capture a screen shot of what appears to be a new UI for IE9.
The UI itself looks a little strange with the address and Bing search bar not reaching the full width of the window. It’s possible the Bing section is the Bing bar that is installed as an IE add-on as part of Windows Live Essentials and could in fact be disabled or removed. If this is the case the address bar may in fact be Chrome-esk with one location to search and directly input URL’s.. Awesome! Other than that, there’s really not a lot to go on here, smaller, cleaner metro-style icons on the top right, as well as a more prominent Back button shown in blue in the top-left.
Image credit: ZDnet
As a multi-monitor user or Chrome, its killer feature is the ability to drag tabs into their own window and view 2 sites, side-by-side. If this doesn’t make it into IE9, there’ll be a lot of upset developers who’ll likely stick with Chrome even if IE9 wins the speed race. That feature is that important. Even on single screen setups running Windows 7, it works great with aero-snap and with more of our lives being online, this will become an increasingly common use-case.
This week at Tech.Ed 2010 presenters are still using platform preview 4 of IE9 despite the beta release only being a little over 2 weeks away. It seems even Microsoft developers have to wait for September 15th to get the bits.
Performance benchmarks show IE9 performing very well in comparison to other browsers and in some case leaping ahead. The problem is that without a UI wrapped around the shell, the question remains as to wether speed gains will be reduced by the final build.
More @ All about Microsoft
IE9 Platform Preview #4
The latest version of the IE9 preview is now available. Every previous version has been better than the last with improved scores on popular speed and compliance tests. This version scores 95/100 in the ACID3 test, the best of any version of IE so far.
Changes in IE9 Preview 4 are:
- JavaScript performance gains;
- Increased support for standards resulting in an improved Acid 3 score;
- Additional tests submitted to the working groups at the W3C;
- New developer samples the Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive site;
- New samples across performance, graphics and HTML5;
Microsoft say “Browsing is the #1 thing people do on their PCs, but today’s browsers can only tap into less than 10% of a PC’s computational power. IE9 uses the power of the whole PC to unlock the next class of experiences for the Web, delivering a powerful, rich, responsive, fast and interactive browsing experience.”
This is also the last preview for developers prior to the IE9 public beta. Unfortunately there’s still no UI, so we’ll have to wait for the beta to see that.
Hotfixes
I did have an issue installing this latest preview, it required some hotfixes to be installed first. After I took care of that, the install worked fine.
Available @ http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/
Download caps hurting VOD, unmetered partnerships needed!
In today’s hyper-connected world, the idea of having to drive to a video store the rent a movie and back the next day to return it seems pretty ridiculous, but in reality it’s often still the best way.
Video-on-demand movies rental services are everywhere these days, but how many people actually use them ? While the promise of having movies streamed instantly, no late fees and no car trips to deal with minimum wage video-store clerks sounds great, it’s often hamstrung by internet download usage caps.
Microsoft has the Zune Video Marketplace on Xbox 360, the Sony have Playstation Movie Store and TiVo has CASPA. Whilst there’s differences of price, resolutions, catalogue and instant-start vs download first, ultimately the only one that’s actually practical to use is CAPSA. Despite being a much smaller company, Hybrid Television Services, licencees of TiVo in Australia, have been able to successfully negotiate deals with key Australian ISPs to allow video downloads to go unmetered.
Sure CASPA only offer SD quality movies (at the moment), but wether its 2-3GB or 6-7GB your downloading, if it counts towards your monthly download cap, it will restrict your ability to use the service. By having an unmetered solution, the real cost of renting a movie is the rental price.
I’m a big fan of the 1080p instant-on streaming (when it works) that Zune offers, but realistically it means I have to then spend $5-$10 for additional data blocks. This means the real price for renting a movie wasn’t $5 or $6 but rather closer to $15. So the inconvenience of going to the video store may be a pain, but its still more economical that paying the real cost of convenience, plus you can rent the highest quality blu-ray version.
Given broadband data caps are a fact of live for most consumers, the real question here is how two of the largest tech companies, Microsoft and Sony, have been unable to achieve the same unmetered deals for all customers. Even ISPs like Westnet that have been able to negotiate unmetered Xbox demo’s, trailers, arcade games and updates have an exception that excludes Zune video.
If your hoping this madness will end with the introduction of the NBN, you’ll be sadly mistaken. The deals announced for the first rollout areas like Tasmania still maintain data caps. So the dream of instant on high definition video from the the comfort of your couch is still about as close as that magical unicorn with a money tree strapped to its back.
Leave a comment and let us know about your experience with VOD services and if you use them or still visit the video store.
Conroy’s filter delayed or dead ?
Image source: techworld
This week Senator Stephen Conroy held a press conference to announce his internet filter is being delayed for a year, sighting the need for further consultation on exactly what is refused classification content.
It appears the new PM Julia Gillard is attempting to clear any unpopular issues from the election runway. Asylum seekers aside, the internet filter has been one of the most contentious issues facing the government, attracting widespread criticism and international attention. By delaying the legislations introduction to parliament until well into 2011, means the election will be a distant memory for most. More importantly it’ll be too late for the general public (or those the legislation effects most) to have their opportunity to protest the issue by voting against Labor.
Many voters, including myself, feel torn between voting for labor to support the NBN, while wanting to vote for the opposition to oppose the internet filter. This highlights our fundamentally flawed political system where voting happens once every 3 years, rather than on each specific issue.
Opponents to the filter claim the 12 month delay as a win, claiming the online and nation-wide protests have been successful. While some are quick to suggest this is the first step in the policy being killed off completely, Conroy’s relentlessness to proceed despite seemingly no support for the compulsory ISP-level filter, means its unfortunately still likely. At least while he’s still has that portfolio. While it is possible the filter will still be implemented it’s likely that the final legislation will be a watered down offering than what Conroy has proposed so far. If the filter is introduced, it won’t be before 2012.
As part of Conroy’s announcement, it was revealed that Telstra, Optus and iPrimus will implement an ISP-level block on a list of sites that serve illegal content. “I welcome the socially responsible approach taken by some of Australia’s largest ISPs.” says Conroy. Are we to deduce from this statement that all other ISPs are socially irresponsible ?
For those customers using other ISPs or ISPs that wholesale off the big guys, your internets remain untouched.
More info @ Delimiter
Bing Travel already works in Australia
While Bing in the US is getting all kind of fancy features, Bing internationally has been slow to get the same feature set. One of the most useful features we miss out on in Australia is Bing Travel. While it hasn’t officially launched here, there’s some great news down under – it already works !
With a few events coming up shortly, booking flights is on the agenda, on the off chance that it’d work, I tried Bing Travel. With all it’s ajaxy goodness, searching for flights allows for real-time filtering to find the best deal. Sorting is available for a number of criteria, including Price, Airline, Leave/Arrive times, number of stops and duration.
To try it for yourself, head on over to http://travel.bing.com
Kogan protects you from Conroy’s SPAMS & SCAMS
Most days my inbox is full of press releases from companies, a lot of which are me too products which are uninteresting and easily forgettable. One that stands out from the crowd is from Kogan, Australia’s discount direct-to-public electronics manufacturer.
In response to Senator Stephen Conroy’s ridiculous Spams and Scams comments, they’ve Con & Roy have a great solution to protect you online.
More @ Kogan
Read more for the full press release.
Flumotion first to implement Google’s WebM video
Last week, one of Google’s big announcements at the Google I/O conference, was the new VP8 codec as part of the WebM Project. In an effort to show just how agile they are, video streaming software company Flumotion turned around a demo site using exactly that codec in just 48 hours. Flumotion say is the worlds first live HTTP streaming in the WebM media file format based on the VP8 video codec.
A WebM/VP8 live stream is now available via the Flumotion Demo Site. You need to install a browser that already supports the WebM format, such as a Nightly Build of Mozilla to view the WebM stream in the Demo Site.
I tested the WebM stream with the Mozilla developer preview with varying results. Sometimes the stream would play fine, while other times it suffered from choppy playback. Whilst the demo site doesn’t specifically list it, I tried the latest build of Chromium which is supposed to support the new format. The video image appeared, but did not playback.
It’s very, very early days, so it’s important to remember that this is more proof of concept rather than an actual service you’d visit each day. That said it’s a good start, something keep an eye on.
You can try it yourself at Flumotion’s demo site. For more info check out Flumotion’s blog.
