Microsoft issues new test build of Internet Explorer 9

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft kicked off its developer conference on Thursday, releasing an updated test version of Internet Explorer 9, the company's effort to reassert itself in the Web browser market.
"We've tried to make the Web feel more like native applications," CEO Steve Ballmer said as part of a keynote speech Thursday morning.
The update is a new platform preview that developers can use to test Web sites, but is not an update to the more full-featured beta version that Microsoft released earlier this year. Microsoft had said it would continue to update the platform preview versions for developers even after releasing the beta. Unlike the beta, the platform preview can be used alongside earlier versions of the browser. Ballmer also talked about coming improvements to Windows Azure and noted that it expects to have more than 1,000 apps for Windows Phone when the devices go on sale Nov. 8.
"We're driving hard," Ballmer told a crowd at the Microsoft conference center here. Although he talked about Windows 7, phones and the browser, Ballmer stressed the role the cloud is playing in all manners of computing. "The cloud is a backplane on which to program and rapidly deploy applications. These are powerful new platforms."
Ballmer said that HTML 5 is the glue that will allow all kinds of new programs and devices to emerge.
Microsoft changed the format of its conference this year, having fewer people at the conference itself, but broadcasting it on the Web and having 30,000 people at local events worldwide.
Ballmer also took a moment to tout Microsoft's consumer efforts, touting Windows 7 PC sales, the release of Windows Phone as well as the gesture-recognizing Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360.
"It is really remarkable," he said.
As for the phone, Ballmer said "I think we really kind of nailed it," noting that it is more personal, offering more options than a one-size-fits-all approach (i.e. Apple) while offering more coherence (clearly a knock on Android).
Ballmer also excited the crowd by telling the developers in attendance that each of them would be getting a free Windows Phone.
On the PC front, Ballmer said, as he has frequently, that Windows 7 machines will take new shapes and forms in the coming year, but didn't announce any new efforts on that front. The company has been under pressure to offer up a competitive response to Apple's iPad.
"You'll see people push," he said, noting ink and touch is built into Windows 7.

Posted in: Technology