Microsoft IE8 explorer has some cool new features

Microsoft IE8 explorer has some cool new features

SEATTLE — Can Microsoft's (MSFT) Internet Explorer Web browser reclaim chunks of market share swiped by upstart Firefox?

The arrival last week of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), just two years after Microsoft's last major browser upgrade, IE7, should help answer that question.

IE8, which can be downloaded free, has cool new features: "Web slices" let you quickly call up selected content from a Web page — such as updates from an eBay auction page — via the IE8 favorites bar; "accelerators" make it easier to cut and paste text from one page and insert it on another.

Beyond that, IE8 has restored some of Microsoft's lost bravado. Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows product management, insists IE8 is uniformly faster at loading Web pages than Firefox 3, despite debate in tech circles about this claim.

"I feel very good that IE8 will be a reason to keep using IE," Nash said in an interview. "And for our previous customers, who may not be using IE today, IE8 will be a compelling reason to come back."

Web browsers were once so mundane that Microsoft took five years to upgrade IE6, introduced with Windows XP in 2001, to IE7. Millions still use IE6. Meanwhile, Firefox, introduced in late 2004, has racked up significant market share and popularized features, such as tab browsing, which lets you quickly click back to several open Web pages.

As of last month, Firefox commanded a 22% global market share vs. 68% for IE, according to Net Applications. Meanwhile, Opera, Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome are staking out potentially huge new turf for browsers on computing devices other than laptops and desktop PCs.

Web browsers have emerged as the doorway to an interactive Internet, which people are increasingly accessing on mobile devices, cars, TV recorders, even video gaming consoles. "We're really happy to see Microsoft isn't standing still anymore," says Mike Beltzner, Firefox director of development. "But we're not standing still, either."

Firefox 3.5, due this summer, will up the ante by supporting HTML 5, a new Web standard that makes it easier to embed videos on Web pages, and "canvas," which lets artists hand draw images on Web pages.

Apple and Google are moving aggressively in browsing on cellphones, while Opera is gaining a foothold with its Opera Mini, a free cellphone browser popular with BlackBerry and Windows Mobile users. And Opera is the browser that connects Nintendo's Wii gaming console to the Web. "Our browser runs on any platform or device," says Rod Hamlin, Opera senior vice president.

Microsoft supplies a version of IE for Windows Mobile devices, and a separate Web interface for Xbox 360.

IE8 could help the software giant regain ground in these browser wars. "So long as IE8 delivers as advertised, I believe it could help slow or even largely halt Windows users moving to alternative browsers," says Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "Whether that will be enough to draw back customers who have already migrated remains to be seen."

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Microsoft IE8 explorer has some cool new features

Apple's Safari will fall first at hacker contest, past winner predicts

Apple's Safari will fall first at hacker contest, past winner predicts

Apple Inc.'s Safari is the juiciest target in the upcoming PWN2OWN hacking contest, last year's winner predicted today.

"It's an easy target," said Charlie Miller, the vulnerability researcher who last year walked off with a $10,000 cash prize for breaking into an Apple laptop just a few minutes into the contest. PWN2OWN is slated for its third appearance at the CanSecWest security conference later this month in Vancouver, British Columbia.

"It might be because I'm biased about the things I'm good at, but it's the easiest browser [to hack]," Miller said.

PWN2OWN's sponsor, 3Com Inc.'s TippingPoint unit, will pay $5,000 for each new bug successfully exploited in Safari, Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox or Google Inc.'s Chrome. IE8, Firefox and Chrome will be running on a Sony notebook powered by Windows 7, Microsoft's still-under-construction operating system, while Safari and Firefox will be available on a MacBook.

"Apple's products are really friendly to users, and Safari is designed to handle anything, including all kinds of file formats," said Miller. "With a lot of functionality comes the increased chance of bugs. The more complex software is, the less secure it is."

Another factor making Safari easy pickings, said Miller, is Apple's Mac OS X, which lacks the workable defenses found in Windows Vista and Windows 7, including address space randomization -- which Microsoft calls "address space layout randomization," or ASLR.

Put Safari atop Mac OS X, and the target's too good to pass up, said Miller.

IE8 and Firefox will escape unscathed, Miller predicted, adding that a quick cost-benefit analysis tells him they'll be safe. "They make it so hard that, for me, $5,000 isn't motivation enough to try to break one of those guys," he said. As for Chrome, he pleaded ignorance, saying that he didn't know enough about the browser to even provide a prediction. His gut instinct, however, is that Google's browser will also survive.

Miller has also been sharpening his mobile device vulnerability and exploit skills -- he was the first researcher to uncover a security bug in Google's Android operating system -- and therefore will take a stab at the second PWN2OWN contest. That challenge will pit researchers against five smartphone operating systems, including Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, and the operating systems used by the iPhone and BlackBerry.
TippingPoint will pay double, or $10,000, for each bug exploited at the contest.

"I'll be trying to break Safari," said Miller. "If I say it's easy, I have to try, right? But I also want to show my stuff on mobile."

He declined to say which smartphone he will target. It's likely, however, that he'll be looking at the iPhone; Miller was one of three researchers who found the first iPhone vulnerability, just weeks after the device's mid-2007 debut.

Nor would Miller get specific about the vulnerabilities he has in mind or is investigating. "You pretty much have to show up [with a vulnerability and exploit] and be ready to go," said Miller. "The great thing about PWN2OWN is that it's not just about finding bugs, but about finding bugs that can be exploited, and then coming up with an exploit."

Miller works as a principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators LLC, a security consulting firm, and said he is looking forward to the contest, which kicks off March 18. "I have to defend my championship, don't I?"

(source)

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Apple's Safari will fall first at hacker contest, past winner predicts

Microsoft expected to wrap up IE8 within weeks

Microsoft expected to wrap up IE8 within weeks

Microsoft Corp. will finish Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) next month, according to a Web site that has accurately predicted other moves by the company.

TechARP.com, a Malaysian Web site that has reported on Microsoft's plans to offer free upgrades from Windows Vista to the newer Windows 7, said today that Microsoft will reach IE8's "release to manufacturing" milestone, also known as "RTM," in March.

"Microsoft will RTM Internet Explorer 8 in March 2009, most likely sometime during the last two weeks," the site said, citing unnamed sources. "This is because Microsoft plans to announce the final details of the IE8 RTM schedule and available language versions by March 5, 2009."

In development parlance, RTM means that the software has been finished and that the vendor is ready to ship it to partners, release it to the public, send it to duplicators for retail distribution, or all of the above.

Microsoft declined to confirm or deny the TechARP account. "Out timeline is driven by the quality of the product," said a spokeswoman today in an e-mail reply to a request for comment. "Microsoft is deliberate in our approach to releasing new products, and we feel a strong obligation to our customers to do so in a responsible manner that ensures they are getting the safest, most reliable product possible."

TechARP said that once Microsoft declares IE8 has reached RTM, it will offer it to computer makers, which can then add it to machines they ship with either Windows Vista or the older Windows XP operating systems. At the moment, the former comes with IE7, while the latter is bundled with IE6.

IE8 is also slated to be a cornerstone of Windows 7, the successor to Vista.

TechARP had no information on when Microsoft would post the final version of IE8 for public download. But the site's late-March RTM timetable meshes with past IE release schedules.

In 2006, there was a gap of eight weeks between IE7's first release candidate (RC1) and the public posting of the browser. A similar eight-week stretch from Microsoft's delivery of IE8 RC1 in late January 2009 would put the final build's availability at around March 23.

IE8 includes new Web standard compatibility features, performance improvements, a revamped address bar and private browsing tools.

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Microsoft expected to wrap up IE8 within weeks

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 RC1

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 RC1

Microsoft has unleashed its first release candidate (RC1) of Internet Explorer 8 – the software that it's hoping will dominate the internet browser food chain for years to come.

Although Internet Explorer remains the most used browser on the planet by some margin, Mozilla's Firefox has slowly eaten into IE's dominance and has now taken more than 20 per cent of the market.

With the use of Apple's Safari and Opera also up, and Google Chrome lurking menacingly, Microsoft is well aware that IE8 needs to deliver, so it's hoping that the browser's improved functionality and a number of key new features can help its cause.

All about the experience

"IE8 [is] focused on how people really use the web," said Microsoft's IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch on the IE8 blog.

"Consumers want a browser that makes the tasks they do every day faster and easier. The activities people spend their time on define real-world performance: navigating to websites, working with tabs, searching, keeping track of changing information (like traffic or an auction), and using the information from one site with another (as in getting a map).

"Everyone wants a trustworthy browser that keeps them in control and protects their safety. Developers want great developer tools, great interoperability and a powerful platform that enables them innovate.

"For some people, accessibility is crucial; for some organizations, policy, administration, and deployment are essential."

The changes from the beta version to this release candidate have been described as 'mostly polish at this point'.

Comparison

TechRadar compared the major players back in September and we were most impressed with the additional privacy features integrated into the then-beta version of IE8. These include the now de rigeur private browsing, anti-phishing and pop-up blockers, but its Adblock Pro also scored well.

Although concerns were raised ahead of RC1's release over IE8 being resource hungry and less quick to load pages than its rivals, Internet Explorer's place as Microsoft's Windows – the dominant OS by far – default browser means that it has an instant edge.

Internet Explorer 8 is available from http://www.microsoft.com/ie8, but it should be noted that it won't work with the Windows 7 beta, even though it will be the default browser for Vista's successor when it arrives.

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Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 RC1