We just had an opportunity to sit and chat with Microsoft’s Marc Whitten, corporate vice president of Xbox Live, about the history and future of Microsoft’s SmartGlass. It’s one of the highlights of the show for us and so we were curious about its origin. Namely: was SmartGlass created to allow easy text entry into the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Internet Explorer?

It’s the opposite, says Marc. Microsoft has toyed with ways to bring IE to the Xbox for years now but always shelved the project due to control issues. It was only when they came up with the idea of SmartGlass 12 months ago — being able to connect your phone or tablet to your Xbox and use it as a controller, among other things — that a browser on an Xbox started to make sense. Great controls, he said, were the key to building the “great web experience” they were looking for.

Microsoft’s Marc Whitten: SmartGlass is the ‘enabling technology’ of IE on Xbox 360 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft just confessed that while other outfits have brought web browsers to televisions, “no one is using them,” because “keyboards don’t belong in the living room.” Aside from thoroughly slamming Google TV, MS just offered its own alternative: Internet Explorer on Xbox 360… with full-on Kinect / voice command integration. It’ll hit later this year, right alongside Smart Glass.

Follow our liveblog of Microsoft’s E3 keynote right here!

Internet Explorer coming to Xbox 360 this year, Kinect / voice integration and all originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft triggered some weeping and gnashing of teeth with its decision to keep Flash out of the Metro environment’s Internet Explorer 10 browser in favor of HTML5, and it looks like that outpouring of grief has produced a compromise — albeit with a catch. Leaks of the upcoming Windows 8 Release Preview purport to show Flash running on IE10 in the new interface, but only for certain popular sites (such as Disney’s) that can be trusted with Flash and don’t have an easy HTML5 fallback. The company hasn’t confirmed the change, but it’s thought that Microsoft has skipped the familiar plugin route in favor of just coding Flash support for a few sites at a low level. If that’s what we see when the Release Preview goes public in June, it could serve as a bridge for parents worried their kids will miss out on Where’s My Water? games while preserving a browser that’s overall leaner, meaner and safer. We wouldn’t hold out much hope for Windows 8 RT tablets running ARM chips, though, knowing that backwards compatibility doesn’t exist and that Adobe might not be keen to revive Flash-on-ARM support it’s trying to wind down.

Windows 8′s Metro version of IE 10 may keep Flash for edge cases originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 19:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mozilla is waving red flags about Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows RT (the variety designed to run on ARM processors). It’s claiming that only the Internet Explorer browser will run under the much more (in computing terms) privileged Windows Classic environment. It claims this effectively makes IE the only fully functioning browser on the platform, with everything else being denied access to key computing functions (running as a Metro app). Mozilla argues that if IE can run in Windows (rather than Metro) on ARM, then there’s no reason why the other browsers can’t. Mozilla then goes on to extend an invitation to Microsoft to “remain firm on its user choice principles”. Meanwhile it’s not just the Moz that has taken umbrage at the move, with CNET reporting that Google also isn’t happy with the situation, saying “We share the concerns Mozilla has raised regarding the Windows 8 environment restricting user choice and innovation.” We’ll have to wait and see what Microsoft’s take on the matter is, but for now it looks like the browser wars are back on.

Mozilla calls Windows RT a return to the ‘digital dark ages’ for limiting browser choice, Google nods in agreement originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 May 2012 08:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It may have been on a steady decline for years (albeit still the number one web browser all along), but it looks like Internet Explorer has now once again found itself on a bit of an upswing. According to the latest numbers from Net Applications, IE (all versions included) gained a full percentage point in the past month (following a similar gain in January) to sit at a market share of 53.83 percent, its highest level since September of 2011. That growth came largely at the expense of Firefox and Chrome, which each dropped less than a percentage point to 20.55 and 18.57 percent, respectively (Safari and Opera also saw slight declines). As others have noted, Net Applications did recently tweak its method for measuring browser usage, although it’s not clear if that alone accounts for the shift in IE’s favor — perhaps the new ad campaign is working? You can find the full breakdown at the source link below.

Internet Explorer claws back a bit of market share at the expense of Chrome and Firefox originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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