Ready for Internet Explorer 9?

Internet Explorer (IE) 9 is coming, are you ready? IE in website developer camps is the most hated browser because it's challenging to make website a display properly in it. However, in 2010 over 50% of consumers are still using IE as their browser. If you are an IE user, the long awaited, new and improved browser is here! Watch videos of the new features.

What's new in IE 9?

• Streamlined design – compact user interface
• Pinned Sites – access regularly visited sites on desktop taskbar
• Download Manager – running list of the files you download
• Enhanced tabs – color codeded and allows to move side-by-side (tear-off)
• New Tab page – redesigned, how often you visit sites displayed
• Search in the address bar – search directly from the address bar
• Notification Bar – at bottom, gives you important status information
• Add-on Performance Advisor – tells you if an add-on is slowing down your browser
• Hardware acceleration – uses the power of your computer's graphics processor

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/ie-9/home

Bing Visual Search

Looking for a visual way to search online? You need to try Bing visual search. Search entertainment, famous people, online media, reference, shopping, sports and travel visually. The top five searches are movies in theaters, digital cameras, travel destinations,top songs and top albums.

The only drawback is that it requires you download the plug-in SilverLight. This plug-in was created by Microsoft to essentially compete with Flash as an interactive way to display content online.

http://www.bing.com/visualsearch

Windows 7

Windows always has a sky background as their default wallpaper in every edition of windows as far as I can remember. Is cloud wallpaper to remind us that it’d be wishful thinking if the operating system worked? This time around Microsoft has done it right with their latest version of Windows, but the question is it too late? Microsoft is keeping an eye on the Google Chrome operating system which is coming soon and will be free.

Windows 7 in a nutshell:

• Launched Oct 22
• Broad hardware compatibility
• Increased security
• Increased overall speed and stability
• Improvements on usability over deep functionality
• Start Menu improvements
• New Taskbar
• Aero Peek- side by side widows
• Quick Display Switching
• Compatibility with past systems is a big issue

http://www.microsoft.com

Sync MS Office & Google Docs

As your day begins to grind, you realize that you’re more than likely going to bring home that document you’ve been working on all day. Traditionally, if you are like me, you’ll email yourself the document or use an online collaboration tool like PBWiki to get the job done. Now you have another choice to just do it, and it comes in the form of Offisync. This free program is an add-on to your Microsoft Office applications so you can save, open, collaborate and email all your documents to a web-based Google Docs account.

Here are the specifications from the Offisync site:

• Save and access Microsoft docs online in Google Docs from any computer
• Access files from any computer with or without MS Office.
• Manage, create and delete Google docs folders in Office apps.
• Add collaborators as you save your file in Google Docs.
• Open any Google Docs file direc from MS Office apps.
• Move or copy files between Google Docs folders.
• Manage your Google Docs file library
• Add collaborators and manage their permissions.
• Changes applied instantly to each version of Google Docs
• Search any document based on its content
• Switch between multiple accounts

http://offisync.com/


Thanks to Mike Kimmel for the lead.

2007 Microsoft Office Compatibility

Have you received a word document that you couldn’t open lately? Most likely you have an older version of Microsoft Office and you can’t read the new 2007 Microsoft Office edition.

As a recipient of the file, you really have two options. Either upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Word or download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. It’s free! Once you install this patch, you will be able to read the last version.

If you are sending a Word Document from the 2007 Office, you have the option of saving it as a different version. Most people don’t know that you can save it as a prior version.

Download the free upgrade
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/

Ready for IE 7?

Right now about 80% of the world uses Internet Explorer (IE) as there web browser of choice, however since the last release of IE many surfers have switched over to the Mozilla browser. “What’s Mozilla,” you say? If you haven’t tried the free Firefox family of browsers, we highly recommend that you do. This is not only because it is easy to use, it also has higher security standards than IE. WC3 schools reports that over 11% of internet users are using Mozilla. However Microsoft wants to change all that browser noise with the release of IE7; Bill Gates is playing catch-up hoping to diminish those numbers and bring more surfers back to their brand.

Changes to IE:
1) Tabbed browsing
2) RSS feed browsing
3) Anti-phishing capabilities – identify suspect sites
This SSL security report feature will flag ostensibly secure websites that have suspect security levels.
4) Limited rights mode
5) Changed interface – Stop/Refresh button is now at right of address bar

Open Issues:
1) Lacks ability to save a group of tabs as a favorite
2) Doesn’t comply with many Web Standards

With this new release, which at this time is to be announced, will bring IE use right back up to where it was in the past. You will be using this edition of the infamous Microsoft browser and “lovin it”!

IE7 Beta is now available for download.