Event Coverage

Internet Explorer 9 Beta Launch - A New Accelerated Web Experience

By Vijay Anand - 16 Sep 2010

A New Accelerated Web Experience

A New Accelerated Web Experience

When we got wind that Microsoft was gathering their partners and amassing media around the world for today's Internet Explorer 9 Beta launch, we were quite baffled why there's such a big buzz on a beta product. While there have been several downloadable platform preview variants of Internet Explorer 9, it's not quite the same as using a more 'finalized' product, which culminates in today's kickoff where Microsoft is recommending netizens to give IE9 Beta a go. Below, we've captured in video the walkthrough highlights and a small showcase of what some of the partners had to show on the day of launch:-

With Internet Explorer 9 enabling a lot more performance and adhering to popular standards like CSS3, HTML5 and more to bring about the next wave of web experience, it's no wonder the theme selected was Beauty of the Web.

 

Having seen the launch and experienced the demos from developers firsthand today, we daresay that Internet Explorer 9 will pose a serious challenge to the existing browser contenders (finally). To be honest, after IE6, Firefox, Chrome and Opera have made such big advances in supporting what users needed and how they wanted to use the web that Internet Explorer in its seventh and eight incarnations weren't really convincing to those who've switched camps. Well, it might just change with Internet Explorer 9.

Internet Explorer 9 has spruced up the browsing experience a fair bit and delivers:-

  • Interoperability as the most standards-compliant browser shipped.
  • Speed with hardware accelerated HTML5 by leveraging the GPU and CPU, plus a new JavaScript engine that's multi-core friendly.
  • Clean interface and experience by being site-centric instead of browser-centric in usage and feel.
  • Trusted because of built-in security, privacy technologies with better reliability.

We share more details on the above aspects in the next few sub sections, but first, here's what you need to get Internet Explorer 9 running in its best form:-

  • Windows OS required at minimum is Vista. This is due to the APIs used and functions called are those of the DirectX 10 standard. As such, Vista has become the minimum entry level standard for IE9.
  • Works best on Windows 7 with added functionality and support.
  • Requires DirectX10 supported GPU to enable hardware accelerated graphics processing.
  • System requirements are equivalent to what's required to run Windows 7 or Vista.

Clearly, Microsoft is no longer catering for the lowest common denominator with Internet Explorer 9. With the new browser, Microsoft is ushering in a whole new user experience with the modern web. As such, the entry standard to the next generation of web experience is a lot steeper, but nothing that PCs and notebooks released in the last two years can't handle (if it has DX10 capable GPU to maximize all of what the browser has to offer). One thing's for certain though, and that it would be a long while before business systems roll Internet Explorer 9 into service because of its requirements. For those who are wondering how best to experience the new Internet Explorer 9 Beta, this showcase from the Microsoft Bing team shows off all the best aspects:-

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