Microsoft unveiled their new Internet Explorer today, in beta form and it’s a definite leap above their prior 3 iterations of their browser easily. With HTML5 support, built-in integration with Windows 7 and 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Microsoft Vista and Windows 7 as well as support for hardware acceleration and a real clean interface, Internet Explorer 9 is nothing like the versions before it – it actually works well and lacks that sluggishness in the UI.

The improvements to Internet Explorer are as much about what you don’t see as what you do see. Internet Explorer 9 has a streamlined design, fewer dialog boxes to click through, more intuitive navigation, and many new features that speed up your web browsing experience. Features like Pinned Sites let you pin your favorite website directly to the taskbar for one-click access. Other features, like hardware acceleration, deliver an all-around faster browsing experience. With Internet Explorer 9, websites perform and feel more like the programs you use every day on your PC.

The bad part? If you’re still running Microsoft Windows XP, don’t even attempt it. And to be honest, the integration in Windows 7 is a tad bit more in-depth and seamless than with Windows Vista – but the experience is close enough between the two operating systems that I think it’s merely reflective on my like of Windows 7 and my intense dislike for Vista.

Seriously though? I’m impressed. It’s fast – I mean like Opera 10.6 fast – and the UI is not in the way at all. Combined with Adobe’s release today of their 64-bit Native Flash 10.1 Player nicknamed “Square” (download here), it seems like Internet Explorer might become an option once again for developers and people who have long abandoned Internet Explorer since the very early Mozilla/Opera days… like me.

Bravo Microsoft. You’ve all but shut up my typical hatred for all things Internet Explorer. Besides speed and support for new technologies though, let’s hope you’ve worked on the security of this browser just as well. That’s the other reason I disliked Internet Explorer.

[ Links: Beauty of the Web, Download IE9 Beta ]

I used to use Opera almost exclusively until Mozilla really got their stuff together – yes, Mozilla, not Firefox. I’ve watched Opera continue to grow, add features that people would usually copy but I didn’t really go back to it – it’s on my Nintendo Wii already and I occasionally test sites with it on the laptop. But Google Chrome had essentially what Opera was… the faster, sometimes better, yet quirky browser in my assortment of apps that could view content on the web.

Well, Opera 10.5 might just change all of that. Sporting an even newer look, functionality of the 10.x builds have been sorted out for better usability and there’s a speed increase due to a new JavaScript engine and an optimized rendering engine. Definitely worth checking out, but remember one thing… it’s still considered a pre-alpha software so it might do some wonky things.

[ Links: Opera 10.5 Windows Pre-Alpha Download, Opera 10.5 Mac OS X Pre-Alpha Download ]

Equal parts Sydney Australia Opera House and Airstream [ site here ] the Opera Mobile Holiday Home Caravan/Trailer unfolds to show two beds, hot and cold water and an all-important toilet as well as LED lighting.

It is not a tent, not a caravan and not a motor home. The new mobile holiday home designed by Axel Enthoven has been christened Opera for its striking shape, reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House. The subtitle chosen is Your Suite in Nature to suggest the best of hotel rooms, but in the heart of nature in this case. The Opera allows you to stay in the most beautiful places, but with the luxury of a wine cabinet, warm-air heating, espresso bar and an enclosed teak veranda. This nomadic, contemporary living tent offers the quality of a luxury yacht combined with the outdoor feeling of camping under canvas.

For all of that, I’m willing the price will be quite expensive. The Opera will be presented for the first time at the Design at Work trade fair in Kortrijk from 8 to 10 December.

[ Dezeen ] [ Axel Enthoven ]