14 DAY TRIAL // With Christmas just around the corner, the IE team made sure Santa packed some Internet Explorer 9 goodies in his bag this year. A couple of new experiences built to highlight IE9’s full hardware acceleration are now available through the IE Test Drive center.
Just make sure you have the IE9 Beta installed, or grab the last Platform Preview and head over to the site to check out Santa’s Workshop and HTML5 Blizzard.
Both samples have been provided along with a “Happy Hardware Accelerated Holidays!” greeting from Microsoft, and offer users a chance to test the result of mixing a tad of holiday spirit with HTML5 and other modern web standards in the context of a browser that harnesses the power of the GPU like no other.
In Santa’s Workshop “the speed of your browser on your PC determines how many elves help pack Santa’s bag for the big night, and how fast they work. We built this experience using HTML5 technologies like integrated SVG graphics and HTML5 audio,” revealed Rob Mauceri, Group Program Manager, IE.
In addition, HTML5 Blizzard is designed to allow IE9 users to stir up quite a storm in their browser.
“Your snowflake score shows you how many falling snowflakes can be animated in real time (60FPS). The more snowflakes you see, the faster your browser and PC. This experience combines HTML5 canvas, SVG, audio, CSS3 and WOFF fonts together to create a winter wonderland,” Mauceri explained.
And by all means, users should check Santa’s Workshop and HTML5 Blizzard in other browsers as well, and see the difference between IE9 and competitors.
It’s important to note that as with many other HTML5 experiences produced by the software giant or by third-party designers, such as Pirates Love Daisies, neither Santa’s Workshop nor HTML5 Blizzard are optimized for Internet Explorer 9.
IE9 is simply leading the pack when it comes down to hardware accelerated HTML5.
“Just over a year ago we presented the earliest look at IE9 and how browsing experiences are better through the power of underlying hardware and operating system,” Mauceri added.
“Starting in March at MIX 2010, and throughout the year, we demonstrated our approach to bringing full hardware acceleration to the web in IE9. We showed continuing progress with the release of seven platform previews, the IE9 beta, and through samples on the IE test drive site.
“We showed how web applications built on the next generation of hardware accelerated HTML5 approach the level of interactivity and performance found in native apps, and we had some fun along the way (as did many partners) – we hope you did as well.”
Microsoft is currently working on the next major development milestone of IE9. The plan is to have Internet Explorer 9 graduate from Beta to Release Candidate (RC) in early 2011. A specific availability deadline for IE9 RC wasn’t provided.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Beta is available for download here.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 7 (PP7) is available for download here.
