Technology Guides

Microsoft’s new browser, Internet Explorer 8, or IE8, is being released to web developers for testing purposes, but basically anyone can get it. The first public beta aims to introduce consumers to 5 new features available on the new browser from Microsoft. Activities, WebSlices, Favourites Bar, Improved Phishing Filter, and Automatic Crash Recovery are the five main improvements on the new browser. It maintains though the same core from Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft was just planning on building on top of a fairly successful browser, so don’t expect any major overhauls. For this article I will go over the five major adjustments on the new browser.

Activities

Probably one of the biggest features on IE8, Activities aims to provide easy access to performing tasks such as mapping addresses, putting things on blog, or doing any sort of activity you can think of. When first setting it up, they had a list of default providers for certain activities. For example, if you right clicked an address and chose to map it, it would directly go to Live Maps. If you don’t like Live Maps you can always change the provider. At first there were only Microsoft programs, but now they have expanded slightly with Google, Facebook, Stumbleupon, MSNBC, and others. My only beef is that you can’t add your own providor with just the URL, such as blogging with Wordpress.

Improved Phishing Filter

As the sub-title states, Microsoft has finally got some sort of decent phishing filter to combat today’s evil enemies on the web. It not only blocks sites known to be phishing ones, but it also blocks sites known to be malicious with harmful downloads. It takes McAfee SiteAdvisor a step further from just listing the danger level.

Internet Explorer 8

Automatic Crash Recovery

While a key feature on Firefox, Explorer has yet to include this feature until this release. I myself have many times found myself in a position in Firefox when I’ve had multiple tabs open and then all of a sudden the browser crashes. I find it not a big deal though because I can just restart as my tabs are saved. On Internet Explorer it takes that a step forward by automatically restarting your browser as if nothing happened. One benefit of Firefox not restarting by itself, is it gives me a wake up call to maybe consider getting off the computer.

Favourites Bar

The Favourites Bar in IE8 replaces the Links Bar. It’s basically what the name says, all your favourites that you want monitored go here. On top of that though, you can also place feeds, WebSlices and documents all on there for quick, one-click access. When the WebSlices or feeds are updated, it will appear in a bold formatting to let you know of the update content. Like the old Links Bar, you can drag links from the web page and insert it directly onto the bar. Now you can do that, plus insert it from the address bar.

WebSlices

WebSlices is the second most hyped about feature on IE8 after Activities.  The bad part about it is, is that it only works with certain websites such as Facebook or eBay. It’s much like an RSS feed but works with different things. RSS feeds look at posts whereas WebSlices focuses on more interactive things such as auctions and weather. It works with the Favourites Bar as when you see the content you want to be constantly updated on you click the icon and it will appear there. Whenever it’s updated, the icon will appear bold. The cool thing is, when you click it, it doesn’t open a new page just yet, it just gives you a preview, giving you the option to either open the full page or delete the WebSlice, all from the comfort of your current page.

Conclusion

Internet Explorer 8 is definitly an improvement over the previous version even though it’s in beta 1. There are still some quirks to work out like the speed of it and maybe introduce some new websites to WebSlices because it’s something they can take advantage of. I’ll still stick to Firefox 3.0 because of it’s simplicity yet raw power with all the add-ons. But it’s now nice to know if I want a change of pace, I can open up IE8. To download the beta 1 go to Internet Explorer 8 Home Page (opens in a new window).

Popularity: 3% [?]

Update: As of today or sometime slightly before, you can now be exclusive guests to Cairo’s alpha software. If you go to their homepage, you will see a sign up sheet for potential testers who preferably have previous testing experience.
Cairo is a new type of Windows Shell alternative that will be released as a free standing application. There is no word yet on when it will be released but we can all hope it will be sooner than later. Many, including me at first, don’t have a clue what a Windows Shell Alternative is; but let me dumb it down for you. When you install a WSA, it replaces explorer.exe. Explorer.exe displays the icons, folders, start menu, and taskbar but Windows has made it possible to change it in numerous ways only if you are good at computers or if you’ve downloaded something like Cairo.

I was told about this revolutionary piece of “software” by a friend and I decided to do some of my own research. So far though, Cairo’s official website is the only place with reliable information.
Even with an official website it isn’t sufficient enough to write a full article so this is just an article in development. There are 9 features on Cairo that are either new or improvements on Windows’ version. Some of them are:

• A start bar with easy access to all your files and applications.
• Slick and Stable, you never hear those words together
• Multi-Desktop lets you easily organize your workload by desktop
• Dynamic Desktop enables you to browse files and folders right there
• Make virtual file stacks to easily locate files with File & Application Grouping
• Launch applications that are more frequently used and hide the ones you don’t with LaunchCairo
• Preview files and folders such as documents, music, and images with File Explorer
• Configure Cairo just the way you like it by adding and removing features with Cairo’s unique plugin system

Popularity: 13% [?]

Don’t have a laptop but still want the option to carry around multiple applications and Operating Systems? That’s where MojoPac comes in. It’s a free application that you can download onto your PC and then onto a USB, iPod, or mp3 player. It’s a remarkable application as you can then put applications such as Word, MSN, Firefox, and Photoshop and then move them along where you go and insert it into a new computer or laptop and launch those applications on the new computer.

Not only can you put applications, but you can put Operating Systems such as XP, Mac, or Linux plus you can put games such as Halo 2 and still run it on a new computer at the same performance. The drawback though is Vista is not available for transferring or being a host PC which limits my possibility for transferring but RingCube Technologies, the maker of MojoPac, is working on producing a Vista MojoPac.

Popularity: 4% [?]