As we wind down to the general availability of Windows 8.1 on October 18th, Microsoft has been offering highlights of all the cool new apps in Windows 8.1. Today, Microsoft is showcasing all the new features that come with Internet Explorer 11, which comes with Windows 8.1.
“We have talked about Bing apps, Xbox, Reading List, the Mail app and today we are sharing all of the great advancements that come with IE11 and Windows 8.1. We are proud of the new Internet Explorer and how far the browser has come and we know that users will be impressed, too!” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.
Microsoft has added a feature to IE11, giving users the option to always show your tabs and touch-optimized address bar. Users can even have 100 tabs open without eating up resources or causing a slowdown of the browser. In fact, you can even access your open tabs across devices. Pinned sites in IE11 are now made as Live Tiles on your Start Screen, pulling data from a websites RSS feed so you can constantly be updated.
“Microsoft set out to build the world’s best touch browser with IE11.”
Another cool feature in IE11 is the ability to have IE11 automatically Snapped to the side when clicking a link in the Mail app or Reading List app. IE11 also automatically detects and highlights phone numbers on a page, allowing you to use Skype or Lync to make a call easily.
Microsoft has added a new feature in IE11 on Windows 8.1, allowing improved highlights for fast visual response to a user’s touch. In other words, IE11 offers feedback which helps users “build confidence in touch” by confirming the element you have touched on the web page, making the experience similar to that on Windows Phone 8.
Swiping your finger to the left or right of the page offers a better experience in IE11, making it faster and more fluid on all devices. Microsoft has also made it to where memory efficiency and battery life is preserved. Internet Explorer 11 is also the first browser to support HTML5 Drag and Drop using touch by default.
“IE11 also brings Reading View, which displays text from the Web in a beautiful, full-screen view within the browser. Making sitting back with your Windows 8.1 tablet and reading easy and enjoyable,” Microsoft adds.
Microsoft set out to build the world’s best touch browser with IE11. Microsoft optimized the browsing engine to be both fast and highly responsive to touch when browsing your favorite websites.
“IE11 produces “stick to your finger” touch responsiveness by using the whole PC to process gestures such as panning, zooming, and swiping. Also using the entire PC – and specifically the GPU – allows us to offload intensive tasks like image decoding so we can improve battery life and keep your CPU free to render page elements,” Microsoft explains.
The browser also supports plugin-free HTML5 video with the latest standards for closed captioning, streaming that adapts to available network bandwidth, and rights management.
Microsoft is set to roll out Windows 8.1, which comes with Internet Explorer 11, on October 18th.