Windows Phone 7 Series won't have copy and paste

Ready for another long, drawn-out copy and paste controversy to overtake your every waking moment for a year or two? Good: Microsoft just mentioned in a Q&A session here at MIX10 in no uncertain terms that clipboard operations won't be supported on Windows Phone 7 Series... so that's that. Kind of ironic considering that the WinMo of old has been enjoying the functionality since time immemorial, isn't it? Of course, anything is possible going forward -- they've said on several occasions in different talks and sessions this week that they're already looking at a number of enhancements that were scoped out of the initial release of the platform -- but for the phones you buy this holiday season, don't expect to be copying anything between apps.

Update: We just super-double-ultra-plus-confirmed this with Microsoft -- Windows Phone 7 Series will not have copy and paste functionality. There is a data-detection service built into the text-handling API that will recognize phone numbers and addresses, but Microsoft says most users, including Office users, don't really need clipboard functionality. We... respectfully disagree? Sure, let's leave it at that.

Via: Engagdet

Internet Explorer 9 Is Looking Positively Sexy

Microsoft browser—we'd have beaten you with a stack of TPS reports. This week, well, it's a different story. The actual IE9 browser isn't available for download yet, but Microsoft has made what it calls the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview available for download. Internet Explorer 9 offers a bevy of new features compared to IE8 (or anything else), but the most exciting feature is the browser's built-in GPU hardware acceleration.

As it turns out, there's quite a bit Microsoft can do, even with a modest integrated GPU. AMD's Robin Maffeo has put together a blog post that summarizes several key differences between IE9 and its predecessors.

• The MSHTML rendering layer has been enhanced to use Direct2D and DirectWrite instead of GDI. Direct2D enables GPU accelerated 2D graphics and text, and allows sub-pixel positioning. In addition, the GPU is used for scaling (bitmaps are mapped to textures), which is ideal for zooming and moving images around the screen. This GPU support translates directly into improved readability of pages, more precise placement of text and images, and smooth scrolling and zooming.
• JavaScript performance is greatly improved from older versions of Internet Explorer, and should be competitive if not better than competing browsers. In the past, JavaScript in IE was interpreted and not compiled into native processor instructions. The JavaScript engine now includes a JIT compiler which emits x86 instructions and compiles the code before it runs, resulting in a dramatic performance uplift. Instruction generation can also be tailored to the underlying processor to take full advantage of the underlying platform.
• IE9 is more standards compliant than previous versions, with new support for HTML5 elements such as
• The Javascript performance improvement is still a bit murky; let's unpack it with some help from the official IE9 blog. "To improve JavaScript performance even more, Chakra [IE9's Javascript engine] does something quite different from other script engines today. It has a separate background thread for compiling JavaScript. Windows runs that thread in parallel on a separate core when one is available. Compiling in the background enables users to keep interacting with webpages while IE generates even faster code. By running separately in the background, this process can take advantage of today’s multi-core machines – so, users with a Core2Duo or QuadCore or i7 can apply that power to making webpages faster without any additional effort. "
  
  
  
  Still shots don't do the rendering engine justice. Picture 256 icons spinning at 60 frames a second, without slowing anything else down.
  
  IE9 isn't expected to drop until 2011 and its GPU-accelerated rendering engine isn't compatible with Windows XP due to fundamental differences between Windows XP's software rendering style and the Desktop Window Manager that ships with both Windows 7 and Windows Vista; it's not clear if Microsoft will release IE9 for XP or simply continue to maintain IE8's security patches. It's hard to capture some of the coolest things the IE9 Platform can do in a static screenshot; head over to Microsoft's website and take a look yourself if you're curious. When you consider how much of our time is spent within a browser, this is the sort of innovation that could genuinely be called a game-changer. We'll undoubtedly see announcements and demonstrations from Chrome, Firefox, and Opera in the days ahead—the sooner this tech hits the desktop (without being buggy) the better.

Via:IE Blog

Google partners call for clarity on China plans

(Reuters) - Chinese firms selling advertising space on Google's search pages have demanded clarity about the search giant's plans in China, as speculation increases over Google's future in the world's largest Internet market.

Their demand comes amid signs that Google Inc may soon move to close Google.cn, more than two months after it hit back against sophisticated hacking attacks from inside China and said it was no longer willing to offer a censored search engine.
Google and China have been tight-lipped since then about any talks to reconcile their differences.
A letter purportedly from 27 Google-authorized sales representative companies says the wait has gone on for too long, eroding their business, scaring off employees and putting big investments in jeopardy.
"We see a constant stream of information but cannot predict the future, we see business sliding, but there is nothing we can do," says the letter, which was also posted on a website affiliated with China's central television. "We are waiting now in incomparable pain and disquiet."
Google has received the letter and is reviewing it, spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said.
Many of the signatories, contacted by Reuters, would not comment on the letter, or said they were unaware of it.
Some said that neither their affiliation with Google.cn nor the fight between Google and the government had hurt their business, although others acknowledged hesitancy by customers unsure of Google's future in China.
"We don't want Google to pull out. We believe Google will give us a proper explanation," said a customer service manager, surnamed Sheng, at Suzhou Universal Internet Media, adding she was not familiar with the contents of the letter.
The Wall Street Journal quoted one anonymous source who confirmed the contents of the letter, but added that not all the signatories had been involved in drafting the letter.
The companies sell advertising spots on Google search-result pages tied to certain searches.
COMPENSATION
The letter spells out demands for redress -- for investors, employees and clients -- that could add to the economic and political pressures on Google if it shuts down Google.cn and perhaps withdraws other operations from China.
The letter demands that Google develop a plan spelling out when customers' pre-payments for advertising will be returned to them, how employees of the advertising agents thrown out of work will be compensated, and how the companies themselves will be compensated for investments.
Addressed to Google's top executive for China, John Liu, it demands negotiations with the company.
A commerce ministry spokesman on Tuesday warned Google to obey Chinese laws and rules, including alerting the ministry to any exit plans.
Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said last week he hoped to have an outcome soon from talks with Chinese officials on offering an uncensored search engine in the country of 384 million Internet users.
Many experts doubt China's ruling Communist Party would compromise on censorship. The Financial Times reported at the weekend the talks had reached an impasse and Google was "99.9 percent" certain to shut Google.cn.
A Google spokesperson said on Monday that talks with Chinese authorities had not ended, but added that the company was adamant about not accepting self-censorship.
China requires Internet operators to block words and images the ruling Communist Party deems unacceptable. Google.cn has not yet lifted that filter.
Internationally popular websites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are entirely blocked in China, which uses a filtering "firewall" to block Internet users from overseas content banned by authorities.
Via: Reuters