The web is beautiful now that IE9 beta is out.
Suddenly, Microsoft seems to be understanding the web (Bing’s growth and now, IE) and the much written-off (and hated) browser seems to have made a comeback (read our IE9 Preview).
First things first – its like Chrome. Lean and fast.
– The Windows ‘glass’ feature adds the beauty to the product.
– Opera like homepage tabs are a necessity these days and Microsoft has done a great job with the look and feel.
– Fast. I am letting go of Firefox (my earlier crib: Firefox is the new IE, Chrome is the new Firefox and Opera is still Opera).
Traditionally, IE has been the slowest browser, but IE9 changes all of that. The browser uses hardware accelerators, standard compliance and Chakra, the JS engine [go compare the test with SunSpider test.).
In browsers, Microsoft’s IE has a muscle similar to what Google has in search space. And releasing a version which is closer to prescribed standards would mean more love from the developers community. A business bomb, that Microsoft will definitely drop in browser battlefield. Look at the use of ‘-moz-box-shadow‘ CSS3 selector property on beautyofweb.com on your Firefox. I would have half expected the shadow to be made of image earlier. Microsoft is actually ready for a beautiful web, it seems if not anyone else. The challenge for them however, would be of convincing their enterprise clients into re-deploying internal infrastructures and group policies again on the new version. But their salesmen are good at it.
In short, Microsoft hasn’t let us down.
Download the new new IE9 Beta.
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Ovi Store Announce Operator Revenue Share Partnership
Nokia has announced Ovi Store’s New Worldwide Fixed-rate Operator Revenue Share with 91 operators worldwide. Beginning with publisher payments made after Oct 1, Nokia will offer a worldwide fixed rate operator revenue share, guaranteeing the payout to developers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How much more money can I make with the new policy?
A: Publisher revenues will on average increase by 50% if comparing sales of the same content at the same price under the previous and new calculations.
Q. How long before I see payments at the new rate?
A. All payments due after Oct 1 will take into account the new operator fixed rate. Payments will be made after the end of each calendar month when the total balance due the publisher exceeds 100 Euros.
Q. Will this be retroactive to July or August of 2010 payments?
A. No, this will not apply to payments already made, but for payments starting Oct 1., all payments will be made at the new rate regardless of when the underlying operator billing transaction occurred.
Q. If the split was 70/30 before, how is this better for me as a developer/publisher? What is the benefit to me as a developer or publisher?
A. The benefit of the new rate will make the publisher more money. Publisher revenues will on average increase by 50%. [more]
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More News:
IBM Acquires Openpages
IBM has acquired OpenPages, a company that provides software that helps companies more easily identify and manage risk and compliance activities across the enterprise through a single management system [more].
HTC Launches HTCSense.com
HTC has launched HTCSense.com, a cloud-based rival to Apple’s MobileMe.
With the new HTCSense.com service, people can simply manage their mobile phone experience from their HTC phone or personal computer. For example, people can easily locate a missing phone by triggering the handset to ring loudly, even if it is set to silent, or to flag its location on a map. If the phone’s been lost or stolen, users can remotely lock the phone, forward calls and texts to another phone, send a message to the phone to arrange its return or even remotely wipe all personal data from it. HTCSense.com makes it easy to setup a new HTC phone or access archived mobile content such as contacts, text messages and call history from a PC browser. People can also customize their phones with exclusive HTC content like wallpapers, HTC scenes, sounds or plug-ins. [PR].
