More Information On Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3

Those crazy old internets are a changin’ rapidly. I posted some info the other day about the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 . I want to highlight on the main page a comment from the renowned Kelly Ford. He has some tips for those of us who leap before we look. Or in other words, we use betas for fun. I believe the term bandied about is “Enthusiast”. Sounds better than “Masochist” eh? Anyway here is Kelly’s comment..

Kelly
Ford [MSFT] said... Hello Everyone,This is Kelly Ford from the IE team at
Microsoft. IE8 beta 1 is definitely out. If you do opt to take it for a test
spin, please take note of the assistive technology section of the release notes.
They talk about two reg keys you will likely need to set to avoid some
compatibility issues we are working on with various assistive technology
vendors. The release notes can be found at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949787. There's a heading titled Assistive
technology that goes into more detail.You can read the blog post talking about
IE8 from the IE team blog at
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/internet-explorer-8-beta-1-for-developers-now-available.aspx
and a post talking about various feedback options at
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/ie8-beta-feedback.aspx.On the
technical side you can read about some of the accessibility changes at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc304059(VS.85).aspx. Perhaps most
notably is that IE8 beta 1 contains our initial support for Web ARIA. This is a
way to make web applications more accessible. You can learn more about ARIA at
http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-wai-aria-20080204/.Finally, if you are interested
in an exciting career opportunity to join the IE team and help with our
accessibility testing, you can read about an open position we have at http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=EDC85083-8FD9-4E16-BE2B-1B736C30E3AC.

f you do decide to take the plunge then you can expect an install shield very much like those found in IE7. I like that there are a few more options with checkboxes offered to customize IE8 during the install. One of the things I wasn’t thrilled about with IE7 was that you had to go to that opening page to make selections on some particular browser options. With IE8, so far, this isn’t as big deal for me. Low vision users may not be totally thrilled with the default layout of the toolbars. You have your standard File menu, the address bar, the Tabs and now a Favorites bar. If you have ever met someone who has 5 million add ons or gadgets for Firefox in the menu areas then you already know what a nightmare it can be to make a precise and accurate mouse clic on a small unrecognizable icon for a sea of small unrecognizable icons. Speech users won’t notice this much unless you tab a lot out of the address bar during web navigation. Not to worry though as all of the bars can be customized. Just a heads up on the current defaults in case anyone is interested.

Speaking of Firefox.. Here is a link to the latest version, Beta 4, of Firefox 3.0. This is also another “Downloader Beware” kind of thing. But I bet you already knew that before I said it right? http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html