Congrats to the Safari/WebKit team on achieving this milestone!

The latest WebKit nightly successfully passes the Acid3 test with a score of 100/100. I was truly impressed by the series of progress updates on the WebKit blog as the developers feverishly worked on squashing the last handful of bugs.

So what’s the landscape looking like in the rest of browser-land?

• An internal build of Opera also passed the test today, but it’s not yet available to the public. Kudos to the Opera devs on a job well done!
• Firefox (Gecko) should be next in line, but don’t expect to see the changes in the upcoming 3.0 release. Too bad.
• And Internet Explorer 8? I wouldn’t keep my hopes up…

Tags: apple, browsers, firefox, ie, microsoft, opera, safari

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At the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, Sony Ericsson unveiled the XPERIA X1, a Windows Mobile Professional phone that it plans to launch later this year.

The X1 is an impressive device, featuring a big, clear WVGA (480×800) display, a speedy 520MHz ARM11 processor, a 3.2MP camera, GPS, WiFi, a rather slick-looking “arc” slider keyboard, and what appears to be a custom, touch-friendly UI on top of WM 6.1. A big step up from my HTC Wizard (T-Mobile MDA), to say the least!

But what really caught my eye is the fact that the X1 will support UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA data on the 850/1700/1900/2100MHz bands. That’s right - the 1700MHz band is on the list, which means the X1 should blaze through on T-Mobile’s upcoming U.S. 3G network when it’s enabled this year.

No word on pricing yet, but I’m hoping that carrier subsidies will make this thing reasonably affordable, and that T-Mobile will grab this as soon as it lands. This could very well be my long-awaited step up from the Wizard. :)

Tags: microsoft, mobile, sony ericsson, t-mobile, windows-mobile, xperia

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There’s been a lot of chatter recently about the “BSoD” icon that Apple uses to represent networked Windows machines in Mac OS X Leopard. The whole situation becomes all the more amusing when you stumble upon this article within Apple’s support pages, describing Leopard’s 301st new feature - a BSoD of its own.

When it really comes down to it, can any OS vendor claim to have a product that’s 100% stable and reliable? Of course not. The bottom line is…

Tags: apple, humor, linux, mac, microsoft, windows

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In case you missed the news a few days ago - Microsoft is offering full, legitimate copies of Office 2007 Ultimate to students for $60 from now until April 2008 through a promotion called “The Ultimate Steal.”

A number of universities offer free MSDNAA subscriptions to students, which include licensed copies of several Microsoft apps, but Office is not part of the package, so this is a good way to get the missing piece on a student budget.

A retail copy of the full suite costs over $600 on Amazon, and even the discounted “Home and Student” edition (which only includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote, but surprisingly not Outlook!) would set you back ~$120. This is a fantastic deal if you’re eligible.

Tags: deals, microsoft, office, students

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This has to be one of the coolest hardware mods I’ve seen in a long time.

An enterprising “Wii60″ owner, OBsIV, has put together an elaborate system that allows him to use a Wiimote and nunchuck with an Xbox 360. He has a detailed post on his blog describing how it was done, and even includes a video of him playing Halo 2 on the 360 with the Wii controllers, which you just have to watch.

If someone were to package this up and sell it, I would definitely be interested. Very cool.

Tags: gaming, microsoft, nintendo, wii, wii60, xbox360

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In yesterday’s post, I mentioned Firefox as an example of an application that auto-updates itself in a simple and elegant manner, and highlighted some of the things that other software vendors could learn from Mozilla’s example.

Today, let’s look at one of my favorite aspects of modern Linux/BSD distributions - full system updates - and consider how Microsoft could potentially work with ISVs to build a similar mechanism for Windows in the future.

The screenshot on the right shows the Update Manager window from my Ubuntu setup. Notice how it offers to update Firefox and Gimp, both of which are “third-party” applications in the sense that they are not strictly parts of the operating system. In fact, any application that’s installed from Ubuntu’s vast software repository can be automatically updated in the same way. It’s a wonderfully convenient system that ensures that everything on your computer stays up-to-date, down from the OS kernel all the way up to high-level applications like web browsers and image editors.

Windows Marketplace - Evolved:

So how could something like this work on the Windows side? Here’s my idea. Many of you have probably heard of the Windows Marketplace, a Microsoft site that showcases thousands of third-party Windows applications from big and small ISVs. Microsoft could launch a campaign to revamp the Marketplace into a true software repository with the help of prominent software partners. Incentive programs could be set up to encourage smaller ISVs to also get onboard.

Consumers would be able to install third-party software quickly and easily from this repository via a companion utility. Commercial applications would be available for purchase through the Digital Locker and would be installed using the same system. An update utility similar to Windows Update (with BITS support) would then ensure that all these applications are always kept up-to-date.

There’s no doubt that implementing something like this would be a huge undertaking, and there are bound to be roadblocks along the way, but wouldn’t the end-result be great?

Tags: linux, microsoft, programming, software-updates, ubuntu, windows

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Last December, I wrote about the initial release of Live Search for Mobile, Microsoft’s mapping and local search application for mobile phones. As noted in the post, Google only had a slow Java-based client for Windows Mobile devices at the time. Earlier this year, however, a native Windows Mobile version of Google Maps was released, which was a huge improvement over its rather unimpressive predecessor.

Last week, Microsoft improved its offering with the second version of Live Search for Mobile. The update improves performance with better caching, includes user reviews for local search results, and improves upon the GPS navigation features. The most noticeable change, however, is the addition of movie showtimes, powered by data from AMG.

Just like other local search results, movie theater listings can be viewed as a simple, text-only list, or as overlays on a map. Users are given a choice to select either a specific movie to see which theaters are showing it, or a specific local theater to see which movies are playing there. As shown in the screenshot above, the application displays movie showtimes, as well as the address and phone number of the theater so that you can call or get directions in just a couple of clicks. Also included is the option to SMS this information to your friends (with full phonebook integration), which is very convenient.

All in all, a welcome update to a great mobile application.

Tags: maps, microsoft, mobile, windows-mobile

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I’m still primarily a Firefox user myself, but I do fire up IE 7 from time to time. That’s when IE7Pro, a free power-packed browser add-on, comes in really handy. I forgot to mention it here back when I first installed it, but Ed Bott’s post reminded me again today.

IE7Pro brings some of the most popular features from Firefox to IE 7, including inline search (aka find-as-you-type), spell checking, mouse gestures, ad blocking, crash recovery, and even a Greasemonkey-like user-scripts manager with its own repository.

Installing the add-on causes no noticeable performance hit from my experience with it, and it brings a wealth of useful functionality to an otherwise barebones browser. So give it a try, especially if IE 7 is your primary browser.

Tags: browsers, firefox, ie7, microsoft

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The Outlook team at Microsoft has just launched a new official blog.

Outlook 2007 is undoubtedly one of the most used applications on my computers - the central hub for all my email, contacts, appointments, and todo lists - so I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this one. Subscribed!

Tags: microsoft, office, outlook, productivity

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Joel Spolsky has an interesting post today about the differences in the way Microsoft and Apple choose to render on-screen fonts, and some of the possible reasons why these differences might exist.

Clearly, it seems like there’s no “right way” and what we tend to prefer is just that - a preference.

Tags: apple, cleartype, fonts, microsoft, typography

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