Microsoft had some time back announced the Mango update for its Windows Phone which is also set to bring the Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) mobile version. So what is it that IE9 Mobile brings to the tablet? Here’s a look.
Microsoft has tried to take advantage of the available hardware on the phone to improve performance, they have also used their brand-new “Chakra” JavaScript engine, to give performance boost to web applications.
This bump in performance means web developers can create great sites for the mobile that perform like native applications and give users a rich, immersive experience. The platform is now optimised for mobile HTML5 applications and is expected to deliver game-like interactivity and movie-quality graphical richness to the user experience.
Microsoft has built in full support for HTML5 audio, images, and video. Just like native applications, audio stream will continue to play in the background when the Browser is not the front-most app. The company has even integrated support for HTML5 audio with the phone’s volume and playback controls, giving the user a nice integrated experience that they expect on Windows Phone 7.
Developing web apps is easier for IE9 as it uses the principle of “same markup” that is developer shouldn’t have to write a whole bunch of custom code to get mobile websites to look and work well on IE9 on WP7. This will mean more and more web sites will be supported well on IE9.
Support for Key Mobile Features
Microsoft has included full support for CSS3 Media Queries, GPS when working with Geolocation, some mobile enhancements for layout (like controlling text scaling) and the Viewport. Microsoft has changed the way form elements are rendered to look more like native “Metro”-styled controls to ensure that users have a consistent experience across native applications and Web sites.
The browser user interface has changed too, in order to devote more of the available screen real estate websites sites, with lesser and simpler tabs and buttons. URL edit field and refresh button have been collapsed down into the Application Bar, which allowed to get rid of the top status bar and allow more space for the actual web sites.