2 – 7 = ?

Hot on the heels of Internet Explorer 7 released, Mozilla launch a new version of their much acclaim internet browser, Firefox 2.  Firefox 2 with improved tab browsing, newly added features like spell checker, search suggestions, session restore, live titles, live bookmarks and with a new streamlined interface to boot will definitely re-ignite the battle between the 2 arch-rival.

So can 2 take on the 7?  You be the judge.

They hear us

Internet Explorer 7 RC1 has just been released.  Supposing to be leaner and meaner, but can it take on the all so popular FireFox?  I’ve been using the Beta 3 of IE7 ever since it came out, so far I can say it is definitely better than its predecessor, the IE6.  Since my company’s network is not that compatible with FireFox (I believe it might be the proxy server that dislike FireFox), I can’t really make a comparison on whether IE7 is better than FireFox.  However from the look of it, if IE7 can’t win FireFox, it also won’t be too far away.

“We heard you you wanted it easier and more secure

I really hope malware can really be decrease to a minimum, at least for some time, if not forever.  We shall see.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 is now available

Microsoft has just released the beta 3 for IE7.  You can surely download the good here.  For those who have been using the beta 2, please remember to uninstall beta 2 first before installing the beta 3.  You can follow the steps here as well.

The following are the changes made for beta 3, mainly there are improvements in reliability, compatibility, user features, and security:

• reliability has improved as several layout-rendering bugs have been fixed
• improve compatibility with websites and web applications
• contains all the security fixes addressed in the June Internet Explorer Security Bulletin MS06-021
• based on customers’ feedback made some additional changes to the look and feel of the browser
• allows users to add the e-mail button back to the toolbar
• enables users to reorder the tabs by dragging them to the left or right
• enables horizontal scrolling while zooming
• to improve the RSS experience, users can now update all their RSS feeds automatically
• the user now has more control in marking their RSS feeds as “READ”

Trying out web browser

After playing around with IE 7 Beta 2, got curious with what other browsers give that make users flock to them.  Since I have been using IE 6 and Netscape 8.0.4, I have decided to try other popular browser like Firefox and Opera.  Both FireFox 1.5.0.1 and Opera 8.5 are good, they even have features that are just introduced in IE 7.  Tabbed browsing seems to be the way to go, all modern browsers have this feature.  But there is one big problem for both browsers, loading of page is slow.  Way too slow.  Somehow my company network dislike other rendering engine.  Last I check BillG isn’t one of my company’s shareholder.

IE 7 Beta 2 is out

Currently, the new beta will only work with WinXP SP2.  I guess Windows Vista will get the IE 7 Beta 2 in their upcoming Feb CTP.  New to IE 7 is the new interface, which get rid of the old bulky toolbar, and let you see more of the web page. Next is the tabbed browsing (this should not be anything new to users of Firefox and Safari) which let you open several web sites in a single instance of IE 7 using tabs.  Then you have the new built-in search box on the top right corner, this search box even let you select your own favourite search engine like Google, Yahoo and so on.  Another new feature is the RSS Feeds which let you view the headlines and post from your favourite blogs or websites.  Last but not least, is the new phishing detection engine, which let you know whether a website is really just a phishing site.

You can get the beta here.