Android update to UAMobileWeb

If you are an Android user, you should now notice a visual upgrade when visiting UAMobileWeb.  Because the Android browser was built with WebKit, you will get the same high-quality browsing experience as iPhone users who visit UAMobileWeb.

WebKit is an open source browser engine that is the basis for Apple’s Safari web browser as well as the iPhone, Android, and a few other devices.

If you experience any problems on the Android platform, please let me know.

IE9 Details Begin to Emerge

Since there is beginning to be a fair amount of buzz surrounding some of the upcoming browser releases, I thought I would take a moment to share some of the recent news that has begun spilling out on the Internet Explorer front since PDC.

IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch reports Microsoft is “…focusing on three very specific areas: performance, interoperability standards, and hardware acceleration.”

What does this mean?

Well, on the performance front at least some of the slated rendering-speed increases will be due to new technology which allows IE’s browser engine, Trident, to pipe text and graphics rendering through DirectX (older IE versions have used GDI). This means IE will be able to make use of the hardware acceleration in a computer’s GPU to ramp up things like streaming video performance and flash-based interfaces. Of course there is also javascript-parsing-speed increases, but all of the cool kids on Browser Street have been working on this front for quite some time – so this news hardly warrants dwelling on.

Regarding interoperability, there will reportedly be increased support for CSS3 selectors (yay!) as well as pledged support for the evolving technologies outlined in the HTML5 preliminary spec (audio/video/canvas support?).

More detailed information can be found at the following links:

Update: And now a word straight from the horse’s mouth – IE Blog: An Early Look At IE9 for Developers

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2

For any of those who may have missed it from the more traditional channels, IE 8 Beta2 was released for public consumption this week. With many new features, it looks to be a sizable release. More info is available through the following resources:

IE 8 Public Beta Page: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/

IE 8 Features Overview: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/features/

IE Blog (more information than you can shake a keyboard at): http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/

Opera 9.5 Released

Over the weekend, Opera Software released the newest milestone of its browser, Opera 9.5. This is a completely new branch of the browser (Kestrel) and runs much more quickly than 9.2x (Merlin).

New features include:

  • Opera Link: synchronizes your bookmarks, Speed Dial, and Notes between Opera installations on different computers, including Opera Mini on your phone. (View demo.)
  • Enhanced address bar searches your entire browsing history, including the contents of each page.
  • Security enhancements: malware protection, improved fraud protection, and support for Extended Validation SSL Certificates. (Read more about EV certificates here.)
  • New rendering engine with improved site compatibility and performance.
  • Opera Dragonfly, the long-awaited developer tools that allows for debugging JavaScript, inspecting CSS and the DOM, and more.
  • Slick new default skin

Opera 9.5 Changelog (Windows) (The UI changes are really worth a read, especially the part about “Open with” command, spatial navigation highlighting, and Firefox style tab switching behavior, which I wrote about here.)

Opera 9.5 Features

Download Opera 9.5

For the record, Opera 9.5 scores an 83 on the Acid3 test.

WebKit achieves 100/100 on Acid3

WebKit, the rendering engine behind Apple’s Safari web browser, has achieved a 100/100 on the rigorous Acid3 web standards test.

This makes WebKit the first open-source rendering engine to pass the test, with Opera the first browser to pass the test in a private development version. WebKit has more work to do on the test, however: rendering glitches and animation problems still exist, and the Acid3 test, while official released, has made some minor changes in the past.

A nightly build of WebKit which passes the test is available to Mac users here, with a Windows build to follow. The Safari web browser, which currently scores a 75/100 on the test, is available to both major platforms from Apple.

IE on Acid

Several bits of news today on the web-standards front. Firstly, the IE team has released some commentary regarding the status of their IE8 compatibility with Acid2:
 

Although we said that IE8 Beta 1 passes the ACID2 test, some of you may be seeing results like the image above; we thought we should explain what’s going on. IE8 passes the official ACID2 test hosted on http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html. (Note, this seems to be a popular destination at the moment. You may have trouble reaching the site.) There are also a number of copies of this test around the net.  One popular copy that I’ve seen of late is http://acid2.acidtests.org/ IE8 fails the copies of ACID2 due to the cross domain security checks IE performs for ActiveX controls.  Since IE does not natively handle HTML content in the OBJECT tag, but rather uses IE’s rendering engine as an ActiveX to display this HTML content, the same cross domain security checks also apply…

 
 
In other news, the Web Standards Project has just released Acid3:
 

The Web Standards Project (WaSP) today announced the release of Acid3, the latest in a line of tests designed to expose flaws in the implementation of mature Web standards in Web browsers. By making sure their software adheres to the test, the creators of these products can be more confident that their software will display and function with Web pages correctly both now and with Web pages of the future…

 

 
And now for Acid3’s effects on the peanut gallery, as produced by DrunkenFist.com:

Reference Rendering:

reference-rendering.png

And now the Fail parade:

Camino 1.51 Mac OS 10.5

camino-151-mac.png

Firefox 2 Mac OS 10.5

firefox-2-mac-105.png

Firefox 3 Mac OS 10.5

firefox-3-mac.png

Internet Explorer 6 Windows XP

ie-6-xp.png

Internet Explorer 7 Windows Vista

ie-7-vista.png

Internet Explorer 7 Windows XP

ie-7-xp.png

Firefox 2 Windows XP

firefox-2-xp.png

Firefox 3 Windows XP

firefox-3-xp.png

Safari 3 Mac OS 10.5

safari-3-105.png

Opera 9.24 Windows Vista

opera-924-vista.png

 

Edit: Since it’s not included in the screenshots above I tested the WinXP IE8 beta, and it appears it gets a score of (16/100).

Edit2: Charlie Reinehr points out that the new development build of Opera (build 9770) scores an admirable (64/100). Thanks to Charlie for pointing this out, and nice job Opera team!

As an additional aside, WebKit (the engine behind Safari) has a development build that is reported to score (90/100). 

Microsoft changes IE8′s default behavior

Today, Microsoft has officially stated that they are changing IE8′s default behavior for rendering standards mode. Instead of making web developers opt in to use IE8′s standards mode, IE8 will now automatically render in this standards mode.

I’m glad that the IE Team listened to the community and decided to do the right thing. The fact that Microsoft heard our complaints and acted appropriately upon them speaks volumes to improving their credibility in the web community.

Microsoft to launch beta of Internet Explorer 8

CNet reports today that Microsoft will soon be making a beta of IE8 available. From CNet:

Microsoft will shortly make available the test version of Internet Explorer 8, which is set for final release in the first half of this year.

The Web site ActiveWin on Monday published the contents of a beta invitation, which said Microsoft is nearing a launch date for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, which will be available for download and testing.

View Entire CNet Article…