It shocks me as a devoted Firefox user to say this, but Internet Explorer 9 could very well leapfrog the competition in the race of next-generation of web browsers in 2010 thanks to a groundbreaking platform-wide implementation of a hardware-accelerated renderer that I think is quite literally “a free upgrade for the web”.

What makes IE9’s implementation of hardware-acceleration so compelling is that it has major real-world benefits and its completely transparent to both end-user and developers. Using the new capabilities in Direct2D instead of GDI, IE9 is able to rendering all the visual elements of websites much faster and smoother. One example of where this really shines is in the Bing Maps demo where continuously panning the map is just as smooth as navigating a map in a 3D strategy game.

During a meeting with IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch, he explained that this feature hasn’t already been implemented in other mainstream browsers today is because by no means this is an easy feat to accomplish. At least one issue he pointed out was the fact that there may be other components inside a frame that handles its own rendering, like Adobe Flash for example.

Having already overcame the major implementation issues, Dean was able to confirm this feature does not actually introduce any incompatibility issues besides a subtle difference in the layout of text as fonts are rendered by the more advanced DirectWrite engine.

Essentially, this feature coupled with an already improved and continued investment in web standards and overall browser performance until it is released, IE9 is in great shape to become the browser with the best browsing experience in 2010 when one might expect it to ship as a standalone download.

I may very well make the switch back.

It’s the the first day of Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference 2009 is just getting underway and to kick things off is a keynote by Ray Ozzie – Chief Software Architect & Bob Muglia – President of Server and Tools. The focus of this keynote is believed to be the best thing since sliced bread, cloud computing.

Join Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, Kip Kniskern, Paul Thurrott, Rafael Rivera, Tom Warren and I in our always-quirky liveblog commentary below. You can also tune in the live video stream and recording after the event at the PDC website.

Disclosure: I am attending PDC09 as a guest of Microsoft Australia.

As the public Microsoft Office 2010 beta approaches, the Office online companion website set to take center stage on Microsoft’s recently acquired Office.com has also undergone a radical redesign.

In my opinion, the Office online site has long been under-appreciated by both novice and power-users alike for its vast library of additional content including but not limited to a great selection of high-resolution stock photographs, most likely due to its complexity and corporate-centric feel.

Although still in beta, the new site is already addressing such problems by prominently featuring “images” and “templates” content in a much cleaner and contemporary design.

In particular, the previously cumbersome image library now also features a much more streamlined interface with a handy hover download button. Furthermore, a surprising “Share your images” link in the sidebar indicates it might even be possible for users to contribute to the library with their own content. User-generated content in a productivity tool? Who would have thought!

In the meantime, keep an eye on the site as it’s also where you’ll find download links to the beta when it is rumored to be officially available next week.

The event of Microsoft events, Professional Developers Conference is being held again next week in Los Angeles and you’re all invited to the virtual house of fun that is the keynote liveblog.

Following the overwhelming response and success of the last year’s (multi-site) group liveblog experiment, the cast and crew is signed up again for season two including Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, Kip Kniskern, Paul Thurrott, Rafael Rivera, Tom Warren and yours truly. In addition, we’re also taking aboard the feedback we heard from last year to make this even better.

The two keynotes we will be liveblogging are on Tuesday 17th of November and Wednesday 18th of November, both from 8.30am to 10.30am Pacific Standard Time. Please check back on this blog on the day to find the CoverItLive viewer.

Of course there is considerable doubt this year’s keynotes can match the caliber of last year’s announcements, but it is PDC after all and I don’t think Microsoft can afford to not impress.

Update: Outlook and other calendar application users can download a convenient ICAL schedule here.

Disclosure: I am attending PDC09 as a guest of Microsoft Australia.

It turns out 2019 is getting closer every day. At the moment, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie is doing the rounds at a number of prestigious colleges in the States showing off Microsoft’s vision for technology to solve the world’s biggest problems. Of course, one must use the latest in natural user interfaces for this task.

A feature of this year’s tour appears to be a next-generation computer – one that docks and undocks from a transparent glass display and allows for not only pen and voice input as you’d come to expect from natural user interfaces, but also incorporates touchless gestures and eye-tracking to interact with the information at hand.

Personally I’ve never seen eye-tracking used as an input before, but after seeing this demo, it makes so much sense to skim vasts amounts of information with your eye.

I’ll let these two videos do the rest of the talking.

No doubt with any fancy prototype it’s usually very difficult to distinguish just how much of the demo is real and how much of it is simulated – either by timers or remote-control, but knowing Microsoft Research and what they’re capable of, I’m willing to bet it’s all real.

On a related note, it appears now Microsoft’s new vision is a glass-display on every desk. Time to get in the window cleaning business perhaps?

If you have a reasonably new laptop with an Intel WiFi chipset then I have some good news. A set of new Intel WiFi drivers made available just a couple weeks ago, version 13.0.0.107 if you’re playing along, finally adds the necessary driver-level support for the new native Virtual WiFi technology in Windows 7.

After downloading and installing the drivers (32-bit here, 64-bit here), assuming your WiFi chipset supports the functionality (which I can verify the 5300 can but 3945 cannot), a new “Wireless Network Connection” with the adapter name “Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport” will automatically appear in your network connections.

Recently, the internet has been abuzz with a new software called Connectify which interacts with this Windows 7 Virtual WiFi technology, but it appears their intention is to sell this application once its finalized. Personally I find it ludicrous that someone would charge for what is essential a wrapper to some functionality already baked into Windows.

To set up and use Virtual WiFi in Windows 7, without paying a buck, just follow these three simple steps:

• Open an elevated command line with administrative privileges and type
  netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Test key=password
  replacing the name and password with your own preference.
• Start the adapter by
  netsh wlan start hostednetwork
• Share an existing connection to it by going to the “Properties” of a connection, selecting the “Sharing” tab and enabling ICS and choosing the corresponding Virtual WiFi adapter.

Of course this functionality isn’t that useful day-to-day, but a powerful usage scenario for this internet sharing functionality via Virtual WiFi will be when you’re at an airport or hotel which limits your connection to a single wireless adapter. Not only would this save you playing switcheroo with the hotspot, but it might also save you paying for multiple connections if you’re traveling with somebody else.