Microsoft is reportedly gearing up to launch the Release Candidate of Internet Explorer 9 on February 10, 2011.
The Redmond company has yet to confirm this officially, but members of the press (via
Ed Bott) were already sent invites to an event in San Francisco, which conspicuously points to the imminent availability of IE9 RC.
According to the invites, the event will involve members of the Internet Explorer team, special guests as well as “some important news.”
The last time that the software giant held an Internet Explorer event in San Francisco it was September 15th, 2010, and they launched IE9 Beta.
Internet Explorer 9 has had quite some time to cook since September 2010, and Microsoft did promise that the next major development milestone for the browser will be the Release Candidate, on track for availability in early 2011.
I highly doubt that the February 10 event will be about anything else than the introduction of IE9 RC.
Just a few days ago I was telling you that leaked screenshots of an IE9 RC-Escrow build had made their way into the wild.
It now appears that the actual bits for
Build 9.00.8073.6010 (WIN7_IE9_Partner.110113-2300) were also leaked in the wild, illustrating some of the progress made by Microsoft since the release of the Beta last year.
The Redmond company confirmed only a single major new feature for IE9 RC, namely Tracking Protection, enabling users to control what websites are able to track on their online activities.
In addition to the privacy enhancements, IE9 RC is also bound to feature a range of smaller changes, including new options and bug fixes.
It’s also expected of Microsoft to tweak the graphical user interface, with some UI touch-ups already visible in the IE9 RC-Escrow build.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Beta is available for download here.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 7 (PP7) is available for download here.
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