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Microsoft has officially released IE9 to the public, making IE6 even older! Microsoft has improved leaps and bounds since those days however, and the new IE9 is a testament to that.
GPU Rendering
Benchmarks abound; you can actually see the difference. Even on older hardware having the GPU render the canvas helps immensely. Now instead of everything loading at roughly the same speed, you can actually witness IE9 rendering the entire page, and waiting for Flash to finish! This really helps with the responsiveness and smoothness while you are browsing around, notably scrolling under low-end hardware.
CSS3 and HTML5 Support
Although it doesn’t support everything, Microsoft has really stepped up supporting a large number of these new standards. Let’s hope this continues, and help remove some of the negativity around Internet Explorer. If you’re interested in what exactly IE9 supports, head on over to Microsoft’s MSDN page.
Integrated Tracking Protection
In the world of spam, tracking, and targeted advertisement, this is a great new addtion. IE9 Includes the ability to add pre-made, managed, and custom tracking lists. This helps protect you from people attempting to track your behavior, including your searching, surfing, and buying habits. However, it cannot protect you until you set it up. It is very straight forward: just click on the Cog in the upper right, safety, tracking protection. From here click “Get a Tracking Protection List Online…” and select one (or more) lists you want to use to help protect your privacy.
Media Query Support
One of the more interesting aspects of CCS3 is Media Queries. It really adds a new layer of creativeness to the designers and how they can create a flowing, unique, and engaging website at various levels of screen size and hardware. You can read more about an actual use of these in a previous post from J.
Our third post on Smashing Magazine was published on Monday, December 14th. Part two of Advanced Power Tips for WordPress Template Developers offers techniques for customizing content administration. On the day of publication, it made it up to #2 on the Delicious hot list.
On Wednesday, December 16th, WordPress Tavern published their interview with Jake Goldman, Director of Client Services at C. Murray Consulting Oomph. You can listen to the latest episode on their website, or download the podcast directly from iTunes. The 90 minute interview covered a lot of ground, including WordPress value perception, site design philosophy, the upcoming 2.9 update, and the future of WordPress.
Jake is also one of the lead organizers of WordPress Boston. Jake is managing the new Applied Track where he will be moderating a panel, and is also presenting “Themes 101″ in the beginner track. The entire C. Murray Consulting Oomph team will be in attendance… look for us there!