Microsoft Reveals Additional Details About Metro IE10

By now you know that Windows 8 will ship with two different versions of the Internet Explorer web browser. First the classic desktop version which is a direct upgrade of Internet Explorer 9 that is currently out and available, and then a modified Metro version that sports a minimalistic user interface and does away with plugins and browser add-ons.

We already mentioned that Mozilla and Google are working on Metro versions of their browsers, and that other companies like Opera are considering it. Microsoft recently revealed additional details about the Metro version of Internet Explorer 10 on the Building Windows 8 blog.

Metro IE10 comes with a chrome-less interface that displays interface elements only when they are needed. The browser will displays an address bar and a handful of interface elements at the bottom when you start typing.These icons include going back, reloading the page, using find on page, and opening a site in Internet Explorer for the desktop.

The most likely result is then auto-filled in the address bar, and all remaining sites in navigational tiles on the screen.

These tiles are divided into frequently visited sites, and pinned sites.

You can pin sites easily with a click on the pin icon when the address bar element is visible on the screen. Pinning is the equivalent to adding the site to the favorites of the browser. There is however one core difference between the two. Pinned sites are automatically added to your Metro start page. While this may  not be a problem for users who use the feature sparingly, it may be a problem for users with hundreds of favorites.

With site pinning, you can personalize your Windows Start screen with the sites you use all the time. You can pin any website to the Start screen from IE10, so you have one place to access all the things you care about or need.

The tiles for pinned sites reflect the site’s color and icon. With IE10, sites can provide background notifications for new messages and other account activity on the website. The site can also program additional commands that appear in IE’s navigation bar in a touch-friendly way, the same way that sites can program jumplists for IE on the desktop.

Pinned sites use the dominating color of the website for the tile’s background color, and the favicon in the middle. Favicons look a bit small compared to the tab size though.

The Metro version of Internet Explorer supports tabs, but hides them away on the screen as well. The tab switcher appears when you right-click the mouse, use the windows-z shortcut or swipe from the bottom or top of the screen with touch.

With the address bar hidden, it becomes difficulty to identify secure sites. Microsoft displays badges when the address bar is displayed that indicate the type of connection a site uses.

Microsoft has posted a list of changes from the Developer Preview, which you find below.

• Full, independent composition enables responsive, fast and fluid behavior on real websites (including pages with fixed elements, nested scrolling regions, animations, and video)
• Back and forward swipe navigation with preview
• Double-tap to zoom in on content
• Fast back and forward navigation controls for mouse
• Mouse (CTRL+scroll wheel) and keyboard methods for quickly zooming in and out to mirror touch interactions
• Automatic domain suggestions for faster navigation and less typing
• Share charm support for URLs, snippets, images and selection with Mail and other apps
• Search charm with visual search suggestions
• Devices charm for printing, projecting, and playing video to external devices like TVs
• Plug-in free support: notifications for sites requiring activeX
• Background notifications for pinned sites and other tile improvements
• Jumplists for pinned sites
• InPrivate tabs that are easier to open
• Clean up tabs command, which quickly closes all but current tab

Have you had the time to work with the Metro version of Internet Explorer 10? If so, what is your impression of the browser?

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It’s the Apps, It’s All About the Apps

After installing Windows 8 onto a tablet, laptop or desktop PC for the first time, new users will be greeted with a jarring change to what they are normally used to seeing on a Microsoft OS. For tech people, like ourselves, who follow this stuff all year round, Windows 8 is simply an evolution from the original developer preview we saw last September, but for those who have never seen the new Start screen, this is going to be a major change for them. What I believe people will come to find is that Microsoft differentiates itself in their new metro-style UI and people, I believe, will love it once they get used to its nuances.

But for all of the Start screens great functionality, customization and fluidity, the thing that I believe will separate Windows 8 from iOS on the iPad and every other iOS copycat out there, is the apps. Metro apps are just so much better than whats offered on any other platform, and yes, I am including iOS. Don’t believe me? Try out the USA Today app for Windows 8 or even the MSNBC.com app that changes the background wallpaper depending on which panorama screen you are currently viewing. These apps are beautiful, people, and will only get that much better as Microsoft continues to flesh out the OS and developers continue to learn to take advantage of the SDK and its tools.

As we’ve learned from Apple’s iOS and the Android mobile platforms, the success of these things lies mostly in the availability of quality applications. Every operating system worth anything browses the web, has wallpaper, email access and a settings panel, but where each one stands out is in their app store. Is it a coincidence that while Android on the phone has taken off, Android on the tablet is as stagnate as WebOS? I believe this is because Google has mostly ignored their tablet app selection, choosing in many cases to run blown-up versions of the phone apps on tablets instead.

And it’s not all about the number of apps either, although that does have some weight. Quality apps are what people crave. Users want to know that their favorite service has an app on their platform of choice and that it’s usable and makes sense to them. I think the simplicity of the metro-style and the ease and ability for dev’s to make powerful, full-featured apps will be the game-changer for Microsoft’s new version of Windows, both on tablets and on normal PCs. As we head deeper into 2012, most people will be following how Microsoft molds and shapes their new OS and I’ll certainly be watching too, but the first thing that I do everyday when I boot up Windows 8 on my desktop is check the app store for new apps and I think many other users do too.

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