In recent months, the Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9) became a hot topic for discussion on the internet. Some popular tech blogs have begun downloading the early version of IE9 to try out the new features and to my surprise, IE9 impresses! This shows that Microsoft Internet Explorer is still the browser to beat eventhough it has lost market share to worthy competitors over the last few years. To those who have yet to take the preview version of IE9 for a spin, download it here.

HTML5

IE9 is supporting a number of new HTML5 elements such as

1. h.264 video  and embedded audio
   HTML 5 core objective is to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Apache Pivot, and Sun JavaFX. Hence new elements like <video> and <audio> are introduced.
-
2. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
   Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a new graphics file format which can used to create dynamic and interactive graphics without the need of plugins.
-
3. CSS3 support
   IE9 supports many components of CSS3 including CSS3 selectors, opacity property, fonts, colors, borders and rounded corners. More will be supported by the official launch.

Performance

According to IEBlog, IE9 has a new JavaScript engine named “Chakra”. Here’s a chart of IE9′s performance on a particular industry benchmark for JavaScript performance, the Webkit Sunspider test:

Javascript Performance Benchmark (lower is better)

As you can see,  IE9 shown great improvement in rendering speed. Though it could not outpace Safari4.0, Chrome and Opera 10.7, well , at least it is getting closer. Check out how bad IE8 performs.

Goodbye XP!

Unfortunately, it is now official that IE9 will not support XP and requires Vista Service Pack 2 or later. To millions of XP loyalists out there (including me), it is time to upgrade

Incoming search terms:

Over a month ago, I wrote “Dawn of a New Era – Story of a Leopard and its Spots“, reviewing the then newly released Mac OS X Leopard, raving about its superb new features and brand new interface.

Now, with over a month passed, has the verdict changed? Are the 300-plus new features really worth RM500 (USD 129)?

Frankly, I love Leopard. Apart from major upgrades like Time Machine, Boot Camp and Stacks, amongst others, vast improvements have been made to existing programs such as Preview, iCal, Mail and Finder.

Image 1

Let’s begin with Mail. Unlike previous versions, Mail 3.0 now supports to-do lists and notes, in which you can leave messages or reminders to yourself. Though I personally prefer to set reminders in iCal or even on stickies stashed on the dashboard, having an alternative doesn’t hurt either. Another addition is the support for RSS feeds. Although initially surprised with this addition in Mail, I eventually found it quite enjoyable reading the feeds while waiting for incoming mail. (image 1). Also new in Mail are the stationery templates. Easy to customise, these templates use standard HTML that can be read by both Mac and PC.

Image2

Then there’s the newly improved Preview. It now uses Spotlight to perform relevancy ranked searches on PDF documents (image 2), offers support for PDF annotations and provides built-in tools to reorder and combine PDF pages. You can now also enhance image files easily in Preview. (image 3).

Image 3

But perhaps the best addition to Preview is the ‘Instant Alpha’ background removal tool which was first introduced in iWork ’08. Select ‘Instant Alpha’ from the menu on the toolbar and click and drag in the area of the background you wish to remove. A very handy tool for removing backgrounds without having to open Photoshop. (images 4&5)

Image 4

Image 5

Safari. Apart from being the fastest browser on the web, the new Safari offers a newly improved Find command, highlighting search results while dimming the rest of the page. Another notable improvement to Safari are resizable text fields for Web forms, where contents of the web page will reflow to make room for the resized text field. Indeed clever. Safari also offers a web clip, where you can turn any page into a Dashboard widget. (image 6)

Image 6

Though this is not a feature I’d use myself, it’s still a very cool addition to Leopard. What I do like, however, is the fact that I can now watch movie trailers right in Dashboard. A very dangerous feature that can whisk you away from your work for hours!

Image 7

I LOVE the newly improved Dictionary utility, which now supports Wikipedia as an additional information source, and it’s nicely integrated into the application’s interface. Truly a time-saver! (image 7)

For movie lovers, here’s the best part – Leopard’s upgrade to the DVD player. Though the player’s dramatic new full-screen interface is impressive, the player’s most amazing feature is its ability to playback even scratched DVDs. Yes, tested and proven. Leopard boasts new technology which can locate and avoid scratched areas of the disc. Is that impressive or what? Reason enough to get a Mac this Christmas.

The addition of the Parental Controls feature provides even greater reason for families to switch from PC to Mac. Parents can now monitor their kids’ online activities – websites visited, applications used, and online chats. An absolutely called-for prevention method to keep cyber-crimes at bay.

I could go on endlessly about Leopard, considering that it comes with over 300 new features. However, I am also equally certain no Mac user will ever be able to fully utilise or will ever utilise all 300 features unless that person uses every single application that comes with Leopard. Some of the other upgrades from Tiger to Leopard include Text edit, screensavers, font book and more… all of which I will not go into detail. Besides, don’t you think it would be a lot easier to SEE and explore for yourself?

So, for Mac users who have yet to make the upgrade from Tiger to Leopard, do it now. Come on, 300+ features at only RM500 (USD 129)? What are you waiting for? And if you don’t have a Mac, go on, splurge a little and get one this festive season. By the way, no, I’m not getting paid by Apple for raving on about them (though I certainly wouldn’t mind), nor do I work for them (much as I’d love to), but am simply sharing my experiences on should I say, how ‘wonderful’ Macs are? And if you’re not convinced, you might want to head on to the nearest Apple store to try it out for yourselves.