On
Monday at the Mix "06 conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft will issue a
refreshed version of Internet Explorer (IE) 7 beta, which the company
is describing as feature complete. The company will also discuss the
next version of IE at the show, which will likely include features that
didn"t make it into IE 7, including a true download manager and more
seamless inline Web page searching.
A Microsoft representative
told me last week that the company would issue an update to IE 7 at the
Mix "06 show, a conference aimed at Web developers. Also, IE developers
discussed the release during a recent online chat. "The important thing
about this release is that no further layout changes will be made for
IE 7.0," Microsoft"s Cyra Richardson noted. "[Mix "06] attendees will
receive several items at the show that will allow them to better test
IE compatibility. We will be striving to allow attendees to start
testing with the layout complete version of IE 7."
Looking
forward, Microsoft expects to ship subsequent IE versions far more
quickly than before, with nothing like the gap between IE 6 and IE 7,
according to the company. Microsoft will solicit feedback for future IE
versions at Mix "06.