Archive for June, 2010

And the winners are…

Jun 30

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Announcements | 1 Comment

After an exciting two months, we are today ready to announce the winners of Internet Explorer 8 Life Academy.

On Friday our 12 finalists battled it out live in front of a high profile judging panel comprising of Professor Robert Winston, entrepreneur and lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, Countdown mathematician Rachel Riley, Channel 4 technology journalist Benjamin Cohen and Microsoft Director Leila Martine to win one of three £10,000 grants.

The winning ideas are:

Adventurer Explorer Grant

Luke, 22, a medical graduate at Bristol University won the Adventurer Explorer Grant for his charitable idea to build a Vocational Centre in Bweyale, Uganda.  The young entrepreneur will use the funds to help bring the internet and services to Bweyale which will significantly improve their personal and educational needs in the community.  You can see Luke’s live pitch here

http://www.lifeacademy.uk.com/entries/view/a0c3161f51ef4b9a900681a7b85270ea

Online Venture Explorer Grant

Rowenna Davis, 25, a graduate and freelance journalist from London won the Online Venture Grant for her concept Young People: Local Government.  Rowenna entered the competition with an idea to target young people who are disillusioned and disengaged with mainstream politics. The prize money will go towards building a website that will link young people to local governments around the country who are struggling to find new councilors You can see Rowenna’s live pitch here http://www.lifeacademy.uk.com/entries/view/13bf5e648274446bac2bc6d97bda4f91

Creativity Explorer Grant

Nick Palfrey, 23, from Plymouth won the Creativity Explorer Grant for Moofu Education, an e-learning system aimed at maximizing students’ potential by using multi-media tools and new technology to make learning spaces better.   Using cutting edge games technology, and an understanding of students’ needs, it encourages students to design, create and develop their own learning spaces – and interact with the elements within.

You can see Nick’s live pitch here http://www.lifeacademy.uk.com/entries/view/b7d0df6568334198b22d89b7f8780c93

Internet Explorer 8 Life Academy is a national competition launched to give 18-25 year olds a chance to explore their future potential and win a £10,000 grant to make their socially responsible ideas a reality. All entrants had to pitch for a grant in one of three categories.

For more information on Internet Explorer 8 Life Academy including the original 12 finalists checkout our website http://www.lifeacademy.uk.com/

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Internet Explorer conducts first Twinterview with Neowin

Jun 28

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Announcements | No Comments

It’s been a busy few days at IE HQ. On Friday we welcomed into the office Professor Robert Winston, entrepreneur and lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, Countdown mathematician Rachel Riley, Channel 4 technology journalist Benjamin Cohen along with our very own Microsoft director Leila Martine to judge the Internet Explorer 8 Life Academy. The competition saw us whittle down 268 entries to a final 12 but who were the lucky three winners? Well,you will have to wait until Wednesday to find out!

This week shows no signs of slowing down as Julia Owen, Internet Explorer Product Manager, will be conducting our first interview across Twitter with leading technology news website Neowin.

Taking place live at 5pm tomorrow, the Twinterview will be hosted on both Neowin’s and our own Twitter feeds.  If you have a question regarding Internet Explorer 9 that you would like Julia to answer then send us a tweet but remember to include the hashtag #IE9Q&A

Update, 29th June: Our Twinterview with Neowin will now be taking place at a later date – make sure you check back for updates.

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Internet Explorer Goes Touchscreen

Jun 25

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Announcements | No Comments

This week we’ve looked at how interfaces will evolve, so no doubt in not too long you’ll be able to surf around IE without touching anything at all. Did you know, however, that it’s already possible to do away with the mouse and move over to a beautifully vibrant Touchscreen already?

I’m currently writing this post on an HP Touchsmart. This is really amazing technology when coupled with Windows 7, IE and surfing Bing & MSN. We built Windows 7 and IE8 & IE9 really thinking about touch as part of the heart of your browsing interface. From the Windows 7 dock you can fire up IE 8 and surf around, clicking hyperlinks to take you to wherever you want to go.

Take a look at our Microsoft Partner websites to learn more about the amazing PCs out there that run touchscreen IE.

http://www.hp.com/touchsmart

Dell also have a great touchscreen laptop – the Latitude XT2

http://www.dell.com/tablet?s=biz&cs=555

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Internet Explorer 9 – Platform Preview 3

Jun 24

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Uncategorized | No Comments

Today Microsoft released the third Platform Preview for Internet Explorer 9.  This new instalment in a series of releases showcases some of the cutting edge features including improved HTML5 video and audio performance and hardware acceleration through the GPU. IE9 is the first browser to use this technology.

By using the full power of the PC, IE9 will enable developers to do more with HTML5. The new browser will also support canvas graphics technology and other audio-visual tags laid out in the HTML 5 standard.

Other key improvements include faster handling of typefaces, JavaScript performance and formatting.

This video reveals the capability of IE9 and demonstrates what’s in store for web developers thanks to Microsoft’s latest hardware acceleration technology.

To find out more check out Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer general manager’s  blog IE9 preview touts enhanced HTML5 | News | PC Pro http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/358948/ie9-preview-touts-enhanced-html5#ixzz0rn6L4dzV

Why not test drive IE9 Platform Preview 3 today http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

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Microsoft Future Gazing Film

Jun 23

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Uncategorized | No Comments

Charles Arthur and Jemima Kiss point out that there is a ‘Star Trek’ effect in the technology world. Because a generation grows up watching futuristic gadgets in awe these actually shape the product design of the future. Motorola had a big hit with the Moto Razr (it was the biggest selling phone in its year of launch) but perhaps its design features were ‘inspired’ from somewhere else?

Microsoft have put together a great future gazing film looking at the future of interfaces. It’s really worth taking in. Thanks to Libin Pan for the mention

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The Future of Interfaces

Jun 21

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Whenever Microsoft launches something really cool it’s great for us here at Internet Explorer. We’ve been inundated with e-mails and buzz this past week following the spectacular launch of Xbox Kinect at E3 last week. No expense was spared – the show started with a 45 minute display from Cirque de Soleil to really communicate the freedom of movement you have with Kinect. Take a look below to see what everyone is getting so excited about.

Whenever a revolutionary new system comes into play – be it in consoles, mobile phones or even kitchen appliances the question is raised – when will I see this built into my computer? Kinect points to the future of interfaces and suggests that the vision in Minority Report is less far away than we ever imagined. Take a look at this fascinating presentation at TED from John Underkoffler (it really gets going about 7 mins in).

His prediction is that this style of interface will come as standard in your computer within 5 years. This week on the IE blog we’re going to do a bit more future gazing, showing Microsoft’s predictions for the future office and cool computers running IE that will amaze you even now.

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Web Slices to keep you safe online

Jun 18

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Completing our week on security the team at IE HQ have created a list of Web Slices to keep you safe and secure whilst surfing the Internet.

WOT For Internet Explorer

WOT offers Internet users preventive protection against online scams, identify theft, unreliable shopping sites and Web-based attacks. WOT’s color-coded icons appear beside search results in Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Digg and other popular sites – green for go, yellow for proceed with caution and red for stop. Website rating information for over 22 million websites is updated every 30 minutes by the WOT community and trusted sources such as listings of malware and phishing sites. Surf safer and add WOT to your browser now.

http://www.ieaddons.com/gb/details/searchhelpers/WOT_For_Internet_Explorer/

JH-Security Firewall Toolbar

Protect your pc from Internet bugs and filter your pc from those nasty bugs. Surf the Web safer and feel more secure. The program gives you latest streaming virus news and details including vulnerabilities and much more out on the Web. Allowing you to be aware of the viruses and their potential threat to your pc. Program also allows you to Clean your cookies, cache and history. Firewall software also has a Virus scanner, security scanner and Spyware Online scanners. Including Popup blocker. With special subscriptions at affordable prices with savings you can afford to stay protected. Has multiple feeds and is updated automatically everyday anytime you startup your pc and connect/open your web-browser. Providing you with the most latest updates and security protection you need. Firewall Toolbar has many features and is recommended for the average and or Advanced pc user.

http://www.ieaddons.com/gb/details/Security/JHSecurity_Firewall_Toolbar/

Web Security Guard

Web Security Guard alerts helps you to prevent entering potentially dangerous Web sites that may cause adware, viruses, spyware, or spam. Free for home and office, it uses growing database of Web site ratings. Crawler Toolbar comes with Web Security Guard keeping it up to date and providing combined search results from major Internet search engines.

http://www.ieaddons.com/gb/details/toolbars/Web_Security_Guard/

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INTERNET EXPLORER 8 LIFE ACADEMY FINALISTS REVEALED

Jun 17

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

In April we launched Internet Explorer 8 Life Academy, a national competition to give 18-25 year olds a chance to explore their future potential and win a £10,000 grant to make their socially responsible idea a reality.

The Internet Explorer team was amazed with the response and has spent the last month going through the fantastic entries to reveal the finalists. These 12 lucky entrants will now battle it out live on Friday 25th June in front of a high profile judging panel comprising of Professor Robert Winston, entrepreneur and lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, Countdown mathematician Rachel Riley, Channel 4 technology journalist Benjamin Cohen and Microsoft Director Leila Martine to win one of three £10,000 grants.

Shortlisted ideas include building schools in Kenya; flying old hospital equipment to Uganda; providing careers information for young people; creating green energy from footsteps or providing a politics platform for aspiring councillors.

But who made the cut? Check out the 12 finalsits below, including their initial pitch video or alternatively click here www.lifeacademy.uk.com

Adventurer Explorer Grant

Charles Coldman Video Entry

African Promise: a UK registered charity which over the last couple of years has been helping to construct classrooms, libraries and other facilities in five village schools

Luke Duggleby Video Entry

Finishing a vocational centre in Uganda, bringing the internet and services that will significantly improve their educational communication

Abbie Hinton Video Entry

Travel to different countries to train football coaches and bring communities together.

Kate Hollingshead Video Entry

Use a website to help link a hospital in Uganda to medical/midwifery students for their electives.

Online Venture Explorer Grant

Eve Bugler Video Entry

Space@Mine will connect Space Searchers and Space Sellers. From sheds and gardens to parking spaces and garages, from meeting rooms to sports fields there’s space out there that’s just waiting to be used. The unloved garden becomes an allotment; the spare shed a useful bike-store, the empty meeting room a vital meeting place for a charity.

Rowenna Davis Video Entry

Many young people are disillusioned and disengaged with mainstream politics. Meanwhile, local governments around the country are struggling to find new councillors. This idea solves two problems at once by encouraging young people to stand for local government.

Rajeeb Dey Video Entry

Given the unprecedented level of graduate unemployment Rajeeb wants to highlight entrepreneurship as a viable and rewarding career path. Start-ups do not have the time or resources to market themselves on campus, neither do they have the ‘brand’ to automatically attract candidates. Therefore Enternships.com provides a way for start-ups to connect to talent on campus.

Laurence Kembell-Cook Video Entry

Pavegen is a way for people to generate green energy from their footsteps whilst walking down the street.

Creativity Explorer Grant

Tom Dodds Video Entry

Exposure Live is a not for profit project to provide an online platform for local musicians and artisits of any genre.  It also trains the community in studio engineering, mixing, recording and outside broadcasting.

Dale O’Keefe Video Entry

Follow My Leader wants to create a careers information website aimed at 16-30 years olds to help them with their career choices.

Nick Palfrey Video Entry

Build learning spaces using a simulator or video game so that 3D models of proposed schools can be explored by students, teachers and parents with amendments made and sent back to the architects.

James Trendell Video Entry

Crowd Magazine is a free, advertising subsidised, lifestyle magazine for creative and innovative 16 to 24 year olds where the content is entirely produced and edited by its own readers. It will provide young people with a platform on which to publish their work.

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Protect yourself against ‘Tabnabbing’

Jun 17

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Uncategorized | No Comments

Yesterday we discussed some simple tips to keep you safe while shopping online. Today, following our week on security, we are discussing ‘tabnabbing’.

Tabnabbing is a phishing scam that creates a copy of a familiar website. If you are browsing the Internet, accidently open a malicious website and then open another tab but leave the malicious site open in its own tab, a cybercriminal could refresh the page so that it now looks like your web email or other sensitive website.

If you enter your password on this refreshed page that mimics the original site, you could be handing it over to a cybercriminal.

Despite tabnabbing’s clever name, this technique isn’t that different from a standard phishing attack. And the way Internet Explorer can protect us against this kind of attack isn’t that different either.

3 tips to avoid tabnabbing when you use Internet Explorer

1.       Update your browser. The most recent version of Internet Explorer is Internet Explorer 8 and it helps protect against phishing scams, including tabnabbing.

2.       Check that the lock icon appears on the address bar and that the web address of the page is correct (“https” rather than “http,” for example) before you enter personal information on any website.

3.       Turn on SmartScreen Filter. SmartScreen blocks millions of malicious or potentially malicious pages and can help protect you from tabnapping.

For more information, see Reduce the risk of online fraud.

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Stay safe with Internet Explorer

Jun 15

Posted by Blue E Blogger in Tips & Tricks | 1 Comment

Here at IE HQ we are always looking to improve your internet experience. We understand that alongside speed, security is one of the most important factors to a great Internet experience and we are continually developing our products so that viruses such as Malware do not affect your PC.

This week the blog will look at security and offer a few more tips on how to keep your PC safe.

  1. Keep your computer software up to date. Keep all software (including your web browser) current with automatic updates. If you are not already running Internet Explorer 8, the latest version of our web browser, click the button to the right to get it.
  2. Defend your computer. Use firewall, antivirus, antispam, and antispyware software. For an added layer of protection on your PC, you can download Microsoft Security Essentials for free or find other antivirus solutions.
  3. Avoid phishing scams and malware.By default Internet Explorer 8 runs SmartScreen Filter to help block and warn you of malicious software or phishing threats. SmartScreen Filter alerts you if a site you are trying to open has been reported as unsafe and allows you to report any unsafe sites you find.
  4. Never respond to unsolicited requests to update your account information. These e-mail messages might be scams for stealing your identity. Most legitimate companies never send unsolicited e-mail or instant message requests for your passwords or other personal information. And remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
  5. Browse more privately. When you’re using a public computer to check e-mail or you’re shopping for a “surprise” gift on a family PC, it’s a good idea to use InPrivate Browsing—a feature that helps prevent your browsing history, cookies, and other information from being retained on your computer.

If you’d like more top tips on staying safe online click here

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/tips-and-tricks/safer-online-shopping.aspx

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