Will IE9 change the way we use the web?

Microsoft’s newest web browser, Internet Explorer 9, sees the technology giant wrest some of the initiative from its rivals

The internet of the future is likely to look very different from the distinct pages and sites we visit today – that was the message as Microsoft launched the latest version of their much-maligned Internet Explorer web browser. And while every major manufacturer always claims that theirs is a revolutionary product, the company that remains best known for Windows and Office might just be on the right track this time. Headlines around the world greeted IE9 as Microsoft’s most ambitious yet, while others called it revolutionary. Respected British website Techradar.com went so far as to call it “ie-mazing”.

Almost since it launched Internet Explorer in 1995, the browser has been troublesome for Microsoft. Even when it was in use by 95 percent of all web users in 2002, a tech-savvy audience maintained that it was not the best option available. Firefox, the now-defunct Netscape Navigator and more recently Google Chrome have set the pace for speed and ease of use. With usage now down to less than two-thirds of the online population Microsoft has staged a fightback that, for once, appears to be winning many experts round, even if browsers are all starting to look more similar anyway.

At the heart of IE9, however, are two key features: the first is a bid to make websites more like applications, which means that the depth of features of, say Microsoft Word, could also be available to any site where developers have sufficient resources. In practice a chunk of that is largely cosmetic, but it’s a visual change that makes a genuine difference to the way people use the web. In the words of Microsoft’s Leila Martine, head of Windows in the UK, “it’s making web pages first class citizens”. Given that users spend around half their time using a computer online, some might argue this is rather overdue.

Secondly, however, is the integration between hardware and software: with the advance of new web programming language HTML5, Microsoft is now able to offload much of the burden of processing graphics onto computer hardware that’s built for the job, the graphics processing unit (GPU). This means that web pages are rendered at significantly greater speed – in a demo, the company showed IE9 to be at least five times quicker than Google Chrome.

It’s the combination of these two features, primarily, that Microsoft hopes will have a transformative effect on the internet: the download site for IE9 is called “beautyoftheweb.com“, and in some of the company’s demos there clearly are new possibilities. Amazon, for instance, has built a site called Bookshelf, which combines the best bits of browsing in a bookshop – looking at covers, getting a sense of what else is around – with providing useful additional information about titles and genres. The effect is genuinely unlike anything else that other browsers can produce successfully.

All this is not to say, however, that the web will change instantly. And anyway, Google, Firefox and other browsers are all heading in the same direction. But what’s certain is that the development of applications, both for the web and for the iPhone and other mobile devices, has made many companies notice that the internet on a desktop or laptop PC was starting to feel strangely limited: Microsoft has tried to solve this by tightly integrating IE9 with Windows 7, as Google will when it launches its equivalent Chrome operating system. What that means is that, in future, the line between being online and simply using a computer may become indistinguishable – but broadband, mobile phone and wifi providers will have to sort out getting us all connected first.

Update kills code-execution threat in Samba

Samba developers have warned of a software flaw that allows attackers to remotely execute malicious code on systems running the widely used file-sharing package.

Version 3.5.5, which was released on Tuesday, fixes the underlying buffer overrun in functions used to generate a credential known as a Windows Security ID. It can be exploited by sending a booby-trapped ID that overflows the stack variable and injects malicious code into memory.

It remains unclear how easy it is to exploit the bug. H D Moore, CSO of Rapid7 and chief architect of the Metasploit project, said the only vector he’s been able to identify is an option known as quota support, which isn’t enabled by default. Even when turned on, he added, an attacker would need a root password.

Moore said other possible openings included the file find, the get/set user quota, and active directory, but so far, none of them has panned out so far.

Samba is used to share files across systems running Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. The vulnerability affects Samba versions going back to 3.0, which was released more than five years ago. It was discovered during an internal audit. Andrew Bartlett, the Cisco Systems employee who identified the bug, didn’t return an email seeking additional details.

Seagate launches 3 Terabyte(TB) external desktop drive

Seagate has once again proved its efficiency in producing external hard drives. Seagate has launched 3 Terabyte FreeAgent GoFlex Desk external hard drive.

Seagate says that it has released this huge hard drive to enable the users meet both the home and office requirements. This vast hard drive can store upto 120 HD movies, 1,500 video games, large amount of photos, videos, music etc.

The best part about this 3TB capacity hard drive is its compatibility with both Windows and Mac OS X. This comes with USB 2.0 adapter and users can buy eSATA or FireWire 800 separately. This huge device can be purchased for $249.99.

Mozilla Releases Firefox 4.0 Beta

Mozilla has released the first beta of its Firefox 4.0 web browser based on the Gecko 2.0 Web platform layout engine. Obviously, all the add-ons you’ve been using with the Firefox 3.7 version won’t work on with the new Firefox 4.0 beta. This new 4.0 beta version of the web browser mainly revamps the looks and brings a sizeable number of features that include WebM video format and HTML5 support.

The first noticeable feature of this new Firefox 4.0 beta is that all tabs would be visible on the tab. However, this is visible for Windows based OS users only. We believe that the visual delight would slowly appear for the Linux and Mac OS X versions of the web browser when the final build of Firefox 4.0 releases. The new significant features included in the Firefox 4.0 beta are:

• Add-ons Manager: More space to efficiently manage your favorite add-ons, plugins and themes.
• HD Video: The future WebM format is supported and promises HD-quality hardware accelerated HTML5 video on the web.
• HTML5 Support: Better HTML parsing, support for HTML5 form controls and also runs the latest web apps based on HTML5 such as Google’s Gmail and Yahoo’s Mail interface for the mobile phones.
• Full WebGL support for in-browser 3D rendering.

Apart from these features, the new Firefox 4.0 beta also promises performance improvement and the necessary security improvements to protect browser history.

Download the Firefox 4.0 beta for Windows, Linux or Mac OS X from here.

Microsoft support for Win2000, XP ends in July

Support for Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP will come to an end soon. Come July 13 and paid support, support assistance and security updates for these versions will be discontinued according to the company. July 13 will be the last day that extended support will be available.

However, self-help online support, which includes Microsoft online Knowledge Base articles, FAQs and troubleshooting tools, will be available for at least another year.

Microsoft offers support for its products for five years and extended support for another five years.

While, users of Windows 2000 will need to migrate to a more recent version of Windows. Windows XP SP2 or earlier version users can simply upgrade to Windows XP SP3.

This can be done via Internet Explorer’s Windows Update utility.