IE 10 on Windows8 - A few Windows tips
With Windows 8 now out, the final release of IE 10, both Desktop and Modern UI(formally Metro) browsers. They are the same, but have very different user interfaces, one touch based, the other a conventional Desktop browser. The RT verions, this is not Windows 8 RT, rather a seperate OS callled Windows RT, has an ARM implementation of the browser to.
The best devices to get in order to test IE 10 on are probably the Samsung Ativ or the Microsoft Surface. Both available now.
In testing out the browser, there are a few things to help you in terms of gestures and shortcut keys.
Read More
Keep up to date!
Over the last week or so, Nokia have been pushing updates to lots of phones, these are running the latest versions of Symbian, S60 V10 or Symbian Belle. Although the support list for this version of the OS for devices is small, the main ones are covered. These phones now have access to the latest version of the Symbian browser, Nokia Belle Refresh for Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7, Nokia C6….
What this means for us is that the new version has enough support to cut the mustard, in this case the N8 loads the smartphone version of the website. This change of browser is something we dont see often, but when it happens, it opens up a lot of possibilities for users, but also exposes some issues. As you can see in the image, the font embedding support is spotty, so worth testing all aspects of your site for other issues.
Ultimately, this is a good example of why you should be checking phones for updates all the time, ensuring you are testing the latest releases.
Colours in Android
The interesting thing about Android is it can sometimes behave differently, even on the same hardware. Here is a video playing on 2 Galaxy Nexus phones, the top is using Android 4.1(Jellybean), the bottom is using Android 4.0(ICS). When both phones are using the same auto brightness option, the phone will give a slightly different colour, note the individuals jacket. Nothing you can do here as many different phones have very different brightness options, but something to keep an eye on when testing. Hopefully the user will never notice….
How long do mobile browsers last?
There have been a lot of articles recently that are talking about when to stop/drop support for IE, specifically IE8. This is a big deal for those who are stuck on Windows XP or Vista, but don’t have the option to update. So i started looking at what people will do with mobile browsers.
Read More
