[www.keralites.net] Microsoft's IE9 interface leaked

Microsoft's IE9 interface leaked

 

Thanks to Microsoft's Russian subsidiary, the world now has a pretty good idea of what Internet Explorer 9 will look like.

The Russian folks were kind enough to briefly post an image and some details that had yet to be shared about the browser. And although they pulled it down, ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley captured the information and screenshot.

More than anything else, the screenshot shows a browser that attempts to offer a minimalistic user interface and leave as much room as possible for the Web sites. When combined with the browser's hardware acceleration, the hope is to pave the way for Web sites that are as application-like as possible.

Microsoft declined to confirm the details Wednesday of what had been posted to its Russian site.

However, the look is consistent with what IE team member Ryan Gavin told CNET earlier this month about the planned appearance of IE9.

"The browser is the theater," Gavin said in the interview. "We're not the play."

The browser appears to go as far as to allow people to pin certain sites to the desktop and open them in their own windows without any clear indication that they are using IE at all. According to Foley's Bing translation of the Russian site, there will be certain sites that are "recognized" or "protected" and can be pinned to the taskbar and launched with their own icons.

Microsoft plans to release a beta of the browser at a September 15 event in San Francisco, although this latest leak clearly steals some of the thunder. Up to now, Microsoft had offered several technical previews of the underlying engine, but had yet to show or talk in detail about how the browser would look.

The invitations for the event do mention "the beauty of the Web" and "unlocking the native Web."

Until now, though, the focus had been on several key features of the browser's engine, including the hardware acceleration capabilities, improved JavaScript engine, and broader support for HTML5 and other standards. Microsoft first showed those features at the Mix10 event in March in Las Vegas, though it had talked about hardware acceleration as far back as last November's Professional Developer Conference.

The details on the Russian site reveal a browser that borrows much from Windows 7, including the ability to tear off browser tabs and have them "snap" to a particular part of the screen, similar to the way documents and applications already do in the latest version of Windows.

There is also a unified search and address bar, something already seen in Google's Chrome. However, having learned from criticism of Google--as well as its own considerable issues with regulators--I'm hearing that Microsoft will make the choice of whether to let the bar suggest sites as you type a completely opt-in affair.

Fourth-gen Apple iPod touch gets even better

 

 

As a portable media player/gaming device/mini-tablet computer, Apple's iPod touch has been blowing us away since 2007. The only thing really to say about the fourth-generation model unveiled Wednesday is that it is predictably more awesome, yet still not quite a match for the capabilities of the iPhone 4.

The pricing is the same at the high end, with a 32GB model going for US$299, and a 64GB version for US$399. The 8GB entry model is US$229, which is pricier than the US$199 8GB version they kept around last year, but has the advantage of sharing all the same specs as its more expensive siblings. Curiously, a 16GB version isn't in the cards.

As far as design goes, the fourth-generation model is noticeably lighter and thinner than previous generations but still maintains a sturdy feel with curved, chromed steel backing. The curve is a little less pronounced than the second- and third-generation models, allowing it to lay flat without wobbling, but it still maintains a slimmer taper at the edges than the first-generation version.

The volume rocker is now split into two separate buttons, however, the profile of the buttons is the same as before. The screen lock button is still at the top, though located on the right as opposed to the left side (a win for lefties, maybe?). The black antenna window on the back is gone. Headphone and dock connections are on the bottom where they've always been, only now they're joined by small speaker grille slit on the left side of the dock connection.

The big news about the new touch is the addition of two video cameras--one facing the user and one facing out. The front-facing camera is meant for use with Apple's Facetime video chat app (first unveiled with iPhone 4), as well as any supported third-party apps. With Facetime on the touch, users can place or receive video calls to both iPhones or other iPod touch, using an email address, as opposed to a phone number.

In my brief demo using Facetime on the touch, all of the features I've come to expect from the iPhone 4 were present, including the ability to call in portrait of landscape, switch camera views, and pause video transmission while maintaining a voice connection. The feature can be used with a plug-in headset (not included) or simply with the integrated speaker and microphone. For a device that isn't a phone and can be had for as little as US$229, I feel that Facetime on the iPod touch is a unique and noteworthy feature.

The rear-facing camera on touch is capable of capturing still images and video up to 720p. It is not, however, identical to the camera on the iPhone 4. It uses a different sensor and there's no flash. It's also incapable of working with the new HDR camera feature being rolled out for the iPhone. Still, it's a welcome addition and opens the door to many more apps and uses.

Under the hood, you have a ton of features carried over from iPhone 4. The processor is the same A4 chip as the iPhone. There's an integrated gyroscope now for more fine-grain gaming control. The Wi-Fi antenna now supports 802.11n at 2.4GHz. And last, but not least, the LCD is the same 3.5-inch "retina" display used on the iPhone 4, sporting a 960 x 640 resolution.

All that screen resolution comes in handy with Apple's new US$0.99 HD TV rentals, which are compatible with the touch.

Samsung Wave (S8500)

Samsung has dabbled in Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian and LiMo before, and Bada (which means ocean in Korean) was added to the mix earlier this year on the Wave. Just to be clear, Samsung doesn't refer to Bada as an operating system; instead the Korean phone maker simply calls it a mobile platform. It is neither meant to compete with the existing OSes, nor with the open source camp.

For developers, Bada offers the tools to tinker with the user interface and certain functions of the phone such as the motion-sensing capabilities. For end-users, Bada wouldn't even come to mind when using the handset because the platform is middleware and not on the top layer of the interface, which most people see. And it's to Samsung's advantage that this proposition is highly scalable because it would mean a consistent user experience and interface across multiple operating systems and platforms.

The Wave, which is the company's first Bada device, is also an anomaly with advanced features and specifications since Bada is meant to run on midrange and low-end devices. It would seem then that the Wave is a demonstration of what's capable with the platform instead of what's to come.

Design

The Wave, which conjures up images of the ocean, is nothing like what its name suggests. Its aluminum shell looks and feels every part of a well-machined, solid and high-quality handset. The edges are marginally curved so the Wave doesn't come across as boxy, and the top and bottom are capped with glossy plastic, which adds contrast to the metal that wraps from around the screen to the back.

 

Just as elegant is the carrying pouch that comes in the package. The inside is made of velvet material, while the exterior is textured with fine vertical lines akin to the brushed metal on the handset. The pouch is fitting for the phone it carries, but we wished it could be better. When fully inserted, the top edge of the device is still slightly exposed, so the paintwork here could chip if you drop the phone on a rough surface.

There's a dedicated lock button as well as camera shutter on the right edge. On the opposite side are the two-key volume controls. The built-in speakers are at the top, together with the 3.5mm audio jack encircled with a silver rim and micro-USB port with sliding lid for when the connector is not in use.

 

The 3.3-inch WVGA touch Super AMOLED display, which supports 16 million colors, takes up most of the front estate. It's scratch-resistant, has vivid contrast, and deep blacks, and colors literally jump off the screen. We won't hesitate to say that the panel is remarkable when viewing indoors and outdoors under bright sunlight. The only catch is that it makes pictures taken with the 5-megapixel shooter look more vibrant than it really is. You can find some sample pictures we took under Features in the camera section.

Nestled below the touchscreen are the Menu, Call and End keys. These have good, distinct tactility, but we were thrown off a few times as to when we should use the Menu or End buttons. Pressing End brings you back to the home screen, while Menu reverts you to the programs panels. The Menu, camera and LED flash are shaped like a diamond, which, other than being purely a design element, serves no other function. There's also a microSD card slot under the battery cover. This is a little inconvenient if you switch memory cards often, but otherwise shouldn't bother most people.

Features

User Interface
As mentioned earlier, it doesn't matter to the average user whether a phone runs on the Bada platform or not as the user interface is still TouchWiz, which is what you'd get on most of the recent Samsung handsets. This effectively locks users into a consistent interface and makes it easier to switch between Samsung devices.

You can have up to 10 home screens and scroll by swiping horizontally or tapping the tiny circles lined in a row near the top of the display. The navigational bar nestled at the bottom is contextual, but you can get to the keypad, contacts and messages onset. This can be mildly confusing as you'll have to know where and what each tab does when you go deeper into the applications and menus. The interface also supports swipe gestures and pinch zooming. In the phonebook, you swipe left to create a new message and right to make a call. For row menus, a highlighted edge indicates that there are more options at the side. You can also zoom in on Web pages and images by dragging two fingers on the screen.

Unlike the earlier TouchWiz versions, the widgets are now placed on two rows of four at the bottom when you tap on the Widget icon at the top left corner. There are not many to choose from and the ones we find more useful are Daily briefing (for weather, stocks and news updates), Feeds and Updates (for Facebook and Twitter), Buddies Now (to quickly message or call a favorite contact) and Exchange ActiveSync (to let you know how many emails you have, as well as synchronize and compose new email) widgets. We can't add applications as shortcuts, though. That said, there aren't many programs for the Wave in the first place.

The top notification bar lets you know the signal strength, whether a memory card is inserted, phone profile, current time and battery status. Tapping it brings down the onscreen options to toggle between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity and silent profile.

General
The Wave handles most basic tasks well. Multitasking, smart dial and video calling are supported. We also managed to set up our office email on Microsoft Exchange and Gmail without any hiccups. Sadly, the Wave doesn't support HTML email, so we ended up getting a bunch of URLs instead. Also, because the screen is narrow, the keys on the QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode are a bit tiny and accidental presses more common. Switching to landscape makes typing a lot more comfortable. Pressing and holding the text area brings up options to select text for copying, cutting and pasting.

The accelerometer switches the display between portrait and landscape modes accordingly when you rotate the handset. The motion sensor also automatically activates the speaker when it detects that the phone has been placed on a table and silent mode when the device is flipped face down. These functions can be turned off in the settings.

The Wave supports the full range of connectivity features. These include quad-band GSM, dual-band (900 and 1200MHz) UMTS, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 3.0 (with A2DP profile), Wi-Fi b/g/n, TV-out and file streaming over Wi-Fi. You can also share your Wi-Fi connection (up to three devices) via the Mobile AP app. There's 2GB of internal memory, which you can increase up to 32GB with a microSD card via the expansion slot under the battery.

Applications
When we reviewed the Galaxy S last month, the Samsung Apps program hosted only one miserable application. Fortunately, there are a lot more choices today for the Wave. The apps are sorted into Featured (Hot and New), Top (Free and Paid) and Category tabs. There's a selection of free and paid apps. Payment for the latter is via a Visa or MasterCard credit card and you'll need to register for a Samsung account, which can be done on the phone itself. According to Samsung, telco billing is also available in certain markets, so check with your local service provider for more information.

At the time of this review, there were a total of 486 applications in Entertainment (99), E-Book (24), Games (118), Health/Life (78), Music/Video (10), News (15), Navigation (11), Productivity (2), Reference (46), Social Networking (2) and Utilities (81). These numbers give you a rough idea of the range of applications you can find on Samsung Apps, but don't assume that everything is usable as quite a number of these apps are not in English. We didn't try every single app, but we estimate only a quarter of them apply to English-speaking users.

The Samsung LBS navigational app based on Route 66 requires a microSD card to be inserted into the phone. The app works fine except that the graphics look outdated and the free license is valid for only 30 days. The upgrade to lifetime navigation costs US$30 for Singapore and Malaysia. You can find more help information here. On average, it took about 30 seconds for the handset to get a lock on our position during our review which was rather slow.

The Webkit-based Dolfin 2.0 browser supports Flash, pinch and double-tap zooming. Text rendering was fine and the CNET Asia home and video pages loaded without any issues. We did find the panning of Web pages a rather jerky experience, though.

Facebook and Twitter clients are also preinstalled on the Wave. These are used as standalone apps and also on the Feeds and Updates widget on the home screen. There are also options to synchronize Facebook contacts and calendar as well as Twitter contacts onto the Wave, though we couldn't seem to get the contacts on both social networks to sync properly. Facebook calendar was imported, though.

Other applications available out-of-the-box include the Palringo instant messaging client, file manager, calculator (scientific options in landscape mode), memo pad, diary, voice recorder, video player (support for DivX/XviD), FM radio and YouTube player. These are pretty much self-explanatory so we won't go into each of them.

Camera
The 5-megapixel camera is outfitted with the usual array of features such as face detection, panorama shot, scene modes, etc. What we like are the options to toggle the Outdoor visibility option, which brightens up the shadow regions in the viewfinder. Add a screen that's remarkably viewable even under bright sunlight and framing pictures is a breeze. The only "disappointment" in our tests was that the pictures weren't as vibrant when viewed on the PC. The phone display gives the impression that the snaps look better than they really are. The Wave also records 720p videos at 30fps. Note that NTT Docomo has already launched camera-phones which are capable of capturing videos at full-HD 1080p resolution. See our test images and video here.

Performance

The Wave is powered by an ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor, which chugged along smoothly throughout our review when browsing images and videos. The only time the chip choked was when we were panning Web pages as mentioned earlier.

The 1,500mAh lithium-ion battery is rated for 15.8 hours of talktime and up to 27 days on standby. With push-email from our Exchange server, Gmail, Twitter and Facebook updates, as well as calls and messaging, we easily got at least two days of use.

Audio was decent and probably one of the better ones we tested. We took the Wave to a shopping mall with music and ambient sound from a nearby fountain to test the in-call quality. The other party reported hearing the background noise, but we could still hold a conversation comfortably.
 

Conclusion

We like the Wave for several reasons. It has a solid build, a slim chassis that fits well in the hands, a gorgeous screen, multimedia-handling capabilities and a range of connectivity features. But we found the TouchWiz 3.0 interface still rough on the edges, while the lack of applications made the user experience incomplete. Hopefully with time, the latter will be addressed.

The Samsung Wave retails at S$698 (US$518.80).

Olympus Mju Tough-8010

 

Olympus rugged cameras certainly have a heritage of being the meanest cameras out there when it comes to roughing it out. Whether that's being thrashed about in the slobbery jaws of a belligerent puppy or knocked around in the hands of clumsy individuals, these cameras are marketed as the toughest on the market.

The Mju Tough-8010 is the successor to the Tough-8000, a camera we have no quibbles with regard to how hardy it is, but image quality unfortunately takes a beating.

Editors' note:

This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com.au. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia.

Design And Features

First impressions of the 8010 relate to its weight and heft: At 215g, it's significantly heavier than most compacts. Inside sits a 14-megapixel sensor and a number of upgrades from its predecessor, which include HD video recording and a longer 5x optical zoom. However, the biggest improvement is that the 8010 now uses SD/SDHC cards exclusively rather than the slower xD-Picture Card format.
The back control panel of the Tough-8010.
The 8010's lens is widest at 28mm and is equipped with an image stabilizer. The screen size remains unchanged at 2.7 inches, although the whole back panel has been given a bit of a facelift.

In terms of strength, this Olympus is rated crushproof up to 100kg and waterproof to 10m. Dropping it at heights of up to 2m shouldn't damage the camera and it's also freezeproof to minus 10 degrees Celsius. Given how heavy this compact feels in hand, we're glad it is resistant to lots of bumps and scratches. The metal rivets and industrial finish further raise the tough credentials of this point-and-shoot. In this field, this Mju really has only one direct competitor, the Lumix DMC-FT2, which matches the 8010 in most areas apart from crushproofing.


The HDMI port, battery, memory card slot, USB interface port and cable are all hidden beneath the double-lockable flap. (Credit: CBSi)
The 8010 comes supplied with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, but the charging configuration is a little tricky. As it's a rugged camera, most critical components are protected in some way from the elements. The lens is covered with a retracting metal flap and the memory card and battery door can be locked. So, to get to the battery it's necessary to open the door and stick the charging cable into the side of the snapper. But there's also the option for USB charging from a computer. Also, beneath the battery flap is an HDMI-out port.

The shooter has 2GB of internal memory, of which 200MB is used for the iB image browsing software and user manual. The iB application is supposed to automatically run when the camera is connected to a computer, but if you can't get it to work, the program can be re-downloaded from the Olympus Web site when you provide the camera's serial number.

Another new addition we're happy to see is the streamlined menu system and graphics. As for scene modes, expect the standard program and automatic modes, Beauty Mode to smoothen skin tones, panorama and Magic Filter that put different effects (pop art, pinhole, fish-eye and drawing) on the final image.

As with all waterproof cameras, there are stringent guidelines that need to be followed in order to maintain its rugged features. These are documented in a booklet provided in the box.

Performance And Image Quality

Tough cameras are slow by nature, and the 8010 definitely confirms this. It takes 4.5 seconds for the shooter to start up and take its first shot. Shutter lag is a leisurely 0.9 second in adequate light, which makes this Olympus less than ideal for critical action-based shots.

Shot-to-shot time is also very tardy, averaging at 4 seconds when the snapper is set on continuous shooting mode. Olympus rates the battery to last up to 240 shots without video.


100 percent crop from an ISO 160 picture. (Credit: CBSi)
As with the other Mju tough compacts, image quality is only just acceptable for a compact. It's difficult to be too critical of its image quality though, given that the main purpose for buying this camera is to be tough and to withstand the elements.

Photos at low ISO levels appear overprocessed at full magnification. At high ISO levels everything looks crunchy and smeared. ISO 1,600 is unusable except at reduced magnification for the Web. Colors are reasonably accurate if a little washed-out. Underwater images are tinged with a fair amount of blue cast on automatic settings. Images taken indoors with flash on are usually washed-out or blown-out. The Magic Filters (of which there are only four, noticeably missing out on the black-and-white filter) make for interesting shots.