Download Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and Firefox 5.0 Preview

iTechWhiz (April 14, 2011) - Microsoft and Mozilla rivalry is back in headlines after the announcement Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and Firefox 5.0 Beta Previews.
The new IE 10 will feature more HTML5 compatibility, which means that Microsoft is joining Apple in promoting the new web language promising a bright future for HTML5.

Mozilla is already set to unveil Firefox 5.0 this quarter, beside the news that Google is preparing upcoming new version of the Chrome.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 10, Perhaps taking a page from Google and Mozilla, Microsoft surprised attendees at the Mix 11 conference Tuesday with the introduction of Internet Explorer 10 platform preview.

The release comes just four weeks after Microsoft unveiled IE9. Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1, taking the first step along the path towards the next version of the browser. The announcement came at MIX11, Microsoft's annual Web and phone developer conference. Microsoft’s Dean Hachamovitch said during a keynote at Mix 11 that IE10 builds on the performance breakthroughs and native HTML5 support developed for IE9, which will lead to the adoption of HTML5 with a long-term commitment to the standards process.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) Features

Microsoft, IE10 built on the hardware-accelerated graphics tools which Microsoft touted with the release of IE9. IE10 will also continue the improved HTML5 and CSS3 support in IE9. Web developers will be pleased to note that two popular requests for CSS3 in IE9 Gradients and Flexible Box Layout are both already part of IE10.

IE10 Platform Preview 1 is available for download to test drive now on Microsoft Website

Hachamovitch, corporate vice president for IE, wrote in a blog post:

We built IE9 from the ground up for HTML5 and for Windows to deliver the most native HTML5 experience and the best Web experience on Windows. IE10 continues on IE9′s path, directly using what Windows provides and avoiding abstractions, layers, and libraries that slow down your site and your experience.

Hachamovitch said Microsoft is about three weeks into the development of IE10, but wanted to start engaging the community now. Platform previews will be released every 8 to 12 weeks.

At Mix, Microsoft also released several new browser test drives at www.ietestdrive.com for those who want to see emerging standards like CSS3 Multi-column Layout, CSS3 Grid Layout and CSS3 Flexible Box Layout, CSS3 Gradients, and ES5 Strict Mode. The company also demoed additional standards support like CSS3 Transitions and CSS3 3D Transforms, which will be available in subsequent platform previews of IE10.

Microsoft also released test drive samples for today’s production browsers, including Fishbowl (an update to FishIE Tank) and Paintball, which Microsoft said is another great demonstration of what fully hardware accelerated HTML5 Canvas delivers. Hachamovitch further said:

IE’s approach to emerging standards results in less churn and more progress for developers. IE10 builds on full hardware acceleration and continues our focus on site-ready Web-standards. This combination enables developers to deliver the best performance for their customers on Windows while using the same, Web-standard markup across browsers.

Mozilla Firefox 5.0 and 6.0 (FF5, FF6) Features

On the other hand, Firefox 5.0 is already in the works by Mozilla and can actually be downloaded as a preview.

According to the release plan, Firefox 5 final is scheduled in the June, while the first stable preview would be available in the April. The expected interface changes, which will include the web application tabs, will not land until early may, however.

Firefox 5 will sport integrated social sharing, taskbar web apps, identity management, and a slew of features already found in Google’s Chrome browser, according to Mozilla’s Firefox User Experience priorities page.

None of the Firefox 5 features name so far sounds revolutionary, but it’s good to see Mozilla innovating. The version 5 browser will let you share any web page directly from the location bar, so you won’t have to hunt for Twitter buttons or extensions to share a site with friends.
There will also be an integrated Accounts and Identity Manager to keep you signed into websites and allow you to login to websites with multiple accounts.

Firefox 5 will also allow web apps to take advantage of its task bar. For example, Facebook will be able to implement a drop down menu with links to your news feed, messages, events and friends right next to the Firefox menu in the task bar.

Other Firefox 5 features aren’t too different from what Chrome already offers: Mozilla plans to implement in-browser previews of PDFs (and potentially other file formats like MP3 in the future), a dedicated new tab page, and the ability to select and move multiple tabs at once.