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Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 features revealed
Update: The download links are now live on Microsoft website, so you can grab Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Windows Vista, Server 2008, Server 2003 SP2, or XP SP2.
Update #2: It appears to be that the Microsoft installer doesn't like the (supposedly unreleased) Service Pack 1 for Vista as it refuses to install in that platform. One of our readers has also suggested it won't want to install on XP SP3 either. We assume there are ways to circumvent this, just don't be alarmed if you get an error message.
In preparation for the impending launch of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, Microsoft has set up a website detailing some of the improvements, changes and new features users can expect to see in the next version of its web browser including two new technologies dubbed WebSlices and Activities.
Activities give users ready access to third-party online services from any page they visit through a right-click contextual menu, allowing them to easily do things like retrieving an address map, submitting a story to Digg, sharing a page on Facebook, and so on. As for WebSlices, this new feature will enable users to crop a specific area on a website and bookmark it for future reference.
Other new features coming in IE8 Beta 1 include a new favorites bar, an improved phishing filter, and a new automatic crash recovery feature which brings back your tabs in case of a browser crash. The beta is widely expected to launch at this year’s Mix 08 which begins today. In fact, a download page is already up – though the links are not working as of this writing.
Update #2: It appears to be that the Microsoft installer doesn't like the (supposedly unreleased) Service Pack 1 for Vista as it refuses to install in that platform. One of our readers has also suggested it won't want to install on XP SP3 either. We assume there are ways to circumvent this, just don't be alarmed if you get an error message.
In preparation for the impending launch of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, Microsoft has set up a website detailing some of the improvements, changes and new features users can expect to see in the next version of its web browser including two new technologies dubbed WebSlices and Activities.
Activities give users ready access to third-party online services from any page they visit through a right-click contextual menu, allowing them to easily do things like retrieving an address map, submitting a story to Digg, sharing a page on Facebook, and so on. As for WebSlices, this new feature will enable users to crop a specific area on a website and bookmark it for future reference.
Other new features coming in IE8 Beta 1 include a new favorites bar, an improved phishing filter, and a new automatic crash recovery feature which brings back your tabs in case of a browser crash. The beta is widely expected to launch at this year’s Mix 08 which begins today. In fact, a download page is already up – though the links are not working as of this writing.
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User Comments (9)
Post a comment| Nirkon on March 5, 2008 1:48 PM | Finally something a little better from Microsoft! Thought IE still feels heavy and unorganized so unless they fixed that they are out of luck :P
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| kitty500cat on March 5, 2008 2:23 PM | Just started the download.
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| kitty500cat on March 5, 2008 3:20 PM | Doesn't want to install. Apparently it doesn't like XP SP3.
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| icye on March 5, 2008 3:41 PM | Maybe you downloaded the wrong version of IE8?
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| canadian on March 5, 2008 7:05 PM | I am running Vista SP1 and its working great for me. Honestly, its amazing how much faster it is. I almost want to ditch firefox for it. Almost...
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| Spytalk on March 5, 2008 8:09 PM | I am a senior software engineer. I've written almost a million lines of code over the past 25 years and what I have to say is: Stop changing your software every 1.5 years Microsoft. We, the users, are busy doing important tasks and we do not have time to re-learn your software every 15 months. Design it right the *first* time please. Thank you.
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| canadian on March 6, 2008 10:37 AM | Originally posted by Spytalk: I am a senior software engineer. I've written almost a million lines of code over the past 25 years and what I have to say is: Stop changing your software every 1.5 years Microsoft. We, the users, are busy doing important tasks and we do not have time to re-learn your software every 15 months. Design it right the *first* time please. Thank you. If you have been in it 25 years, you should know that they cant do everything the "first" time. Over time, the hardware changes allowing new things, and how people use the software changes. New versions are a way of basically saying "Look, we have a new version coming out, hopefully it will have some new features we have never had before and run smoothly"
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| icye on March 6, 2008 11:14 AM | There is no way to verify Spytalk's credentials over the internet but that is not the point to my comment. Even casual programmers know that software needs to change over time to add new features, optimization of the code to run better on today's hardware, and smooth out bugs in the code.
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| kitty500cat on March 6, 2008 5:38 PM | Maybe you downloaded the wrong version of IE8? Actually, when I went back and looked at it, the version I downloaded was for SP2. There's currently no link for SP3.
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