Em primeira mão, aqui vão as novidades do novo IE8 RC1!

Confirmado: Internet Explorer 8 RC1 em PT-pt

Conteúdo em Inglês:

•    CSS 2.1.* Upon final release, Internet Explorer 8 will have full support for the CSS 2.1 specification. With support for CSS 2.1, Web developers and designers can write their pages once and have them more easily render properly across different browsers. Microsoft expects very few changes between RC1 and the final release but will include necessary adjustments as identified by the developing community.
•    Document Object Model (DOM) and HTML 4.01 improvements. Internet Explorer 8 fixes many cross-browser inconsistencies; for example, get/set/remove Attribute implementation is now interoperable with other browsers, and developers will experience significant performance gains in asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) design patterns.
•    Emerging standards.* Internet Explorer 8 incorporates advancements for what will become the standards of tomorrow, such as W3C’s HTML 5 Draft DOM Storage standard, the Web Applications Working Group’s Selectors API and ECMAScript 3.1 endorsed syntax.
•    New navigation features for AJAX applications. Developers can now update the browser back and forward navigation stack and Address Bar from their AJAX application so those browser features work correctly in an AJAX application.
•    Acid2. Internet Explorer 8 renders the Acid2 browser test correctly.
•    Compatibility. Internet Explorer 8 ships with a more standards-compatible layout engine that allows developers to build a single standards-based site for multiple browsers. To provide developers with the choice for when they migrate their sites to the new standards-compliant layout engine, Internet Explorer 8 enables Web developers to ask for the Windows Internet Explorer 7 layout engine by inserting a simple meta tag into their code or by adding a single http header on their servers.
•    Developer tools.* The tools formerly available via the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar are built directly into Internet Explorer 8 with expanded functionality. These tools enable developers to quickly debug HTML, CSS and JScript in a visual environment. Developers can quickly identify and resolve issues because of the deep insight the tool provides into the DOM, and now RC1 adds a helpful menu option for choosing which application to use when viewing a Web page’s source.

Reach Beyond the Page With New Features
Internet Explorer 8 allows users to reach beyond the page and bring the variety of online services to life. Several ways that Internet Explorer can bring online services to life include these:

•    Accelerators. Accelerators give users ready access to the online services they care about most from any page they visit, and developers gain an easy way to extend the reach of their online services. They allow users to browse faster by allowing them to launch online services without having to leave the current Web page.
•    Web Slices. Developers can mark parts of Web pages as Web Slices and enable users to monitor information they rely on as they move about the Web. Users can identify Web Slices with updates, and with a click in the Favorites bar, users see rich Web Slice visuals with access back to the Web page.
•    Enhanced Instant Search Box.* The enhanced Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 is more helpful, making it easier for users to find content of interest and increasing the odds that search results will be relevant. As users type a search term, they can see real-time search suggestions, including images, from their chosen search provider. In addition, the enhanced Instant Search Box presents results from the user’s own Favorites and browsing history. In RC1, it now includes a quick pick menu at the bottom of the Search Suggestions, enabling users to toggle back and forth between their favorite search providers’ Search Suggestions with a simple mouse click.

The Most Secure, Reliable Version of Internet Explorer to Date
As today’s online threats evolve, people still need to trust that they can browse safely. Internet Explorer 8 enhances customers’ online confidence by providing an increased ability to control and protect their data. Internet Explorer 8 is delivering an end-to-end approach to security and privacy that is focused on social engineering, new defenses against Web server attacks and additional improvements to defend browser-based exploits. Several security and privacy investments found in Internet Explorer 8 include these:

•    InPrivate.* InPrivate helps to protect users’ data and privacy from being retained locally on the PC they are using and by third parties that might be in a position to track their online activities. New in RC1 is the ability to use either of the features (InPrivate Blocking or InPrivate Filtering) independently.
–    InPrivate Browsing.* When activated, InPrivate Browsing helps ensure that history, temporary Internet files and cookies are not recorded on a user’s PC after browsing. In RC1, toolbars and extensions are now automatically disabled when in InPrivate Browsing. In addition, users are able to automatically delete browsing history when closing the browser.
–    InPrivate Filtering.* InPrivate Filtering, which was called InPrivate Blocking in Beta 2, helps protect privacy by enabling the user to block content coming from third parties that are in a position to track and aggregate their online behavior. Users are provided with notice, choice and control of which third parties to allow and which ones to block. New in RC1 is the ability to manually adjust the threshold between 3 and 30 in InPrivate Filtering settings.
•    Compatibility View. Some Web sites that are designed for older browsers may not display correctly in Internet Explorer 8, which by default renders content in the most standards-compliant way possible. Internet Explorer 8 has a Compatibility View button that displays those pages as they were designed to be viewed, providing people with an easy way to fix display problems such as out-of-place menus, images and text.
•   Compatibility View list.* Users of Internet Explorer 8 can choose to receive a list of major sites that are best viewed in Compatibility View. When navigating to a site on the list, Internet Explorer 8 will automatically display the site in Compatibility View without requiring the user to press the Compatibility View button.
•    Crash recovery. In Internet Explorer 8, if a tab does crash, it is automatically restored and reloaded, and any information the user may have already entered on the page (such as when writing an e-mail or filling out a form) is restored.
•    Delete Browsing History. Internet Explorer 8 enhances the Delete Browsing History feature by providing users with the ability to delete some cookies, history and other data while preserving cookies, history and other data for their favorite sites.
•    SmartScreen Filter.* Built upon the Microsoft Phishing Filter, the SmartScreen Filter helps protect against a broader set of phishing threats and helps protect from sites that attempt to download malicious software. The SmartScreen Filter is now easier to use with enhanced user interface and warning messages to reduce users’ click-through to confirmed sites.
•    ClickJacking prevention.* New in Internet Explorer 8 is a feature that allows Web site content owners to put a tag in a page header that will help detect and prevent ClickJacking, a malicious exploit that tricks Web users into clicking on seemingly harmless Web pages which can result in the compromise of confidential information, such as user names and passwords.  Internet Explorer 8 will detect sites that insert the tag and give users a new error screen indicating that the content host has chosen not to allow their content to be framed, while giving users the option to open the content in a new window.
•    Cross-site scripting (XSS) filter. XSS attacks have emerged as a leading exploit against Web servers and Web applications. Internet Explorer 8 has an XSS filter that is able to dynamically detect type-1 XSS (reflection) attacks. This helps protect users and systems from attacks that can lead to information disclosure, cookie stealing, account/identity theft or otherwise attempts to masquerade as the user without permission.
•    Data Execution Prevention (DEP). DEP, on by default in Internet Explorer 8 in Windows Vista Service Pack 1, is a security feature that can help prevent damage to the user’s computer from viruses and other security threats by preventing certain types of code from writing to executable memory space.
•    Cross-Document Messaging (XDM). XDM provides a highly secure method that allows different documents to communicate with each other given mutual consent. XDM is a simple, standards-based, high-performance mechanism for bidirectional cross-document communication. Internet Explorer 8 also provides a toStaticHtml method and native JavaScript Object Notation support to safely sanitize data without sacrificing performance.
•    Cross-Domain Requests (XDR).* Cross-domain communication is an integral part of AJAX development and mashup applications. Internet Explorer 8 includes support for XDomainRequest objects, which can be used to more securely request public resources from another domain’s server. XDR now checks Access-Control-Allow-Origin for specific URLs as well as wildcards. Cross-domain data is available only when the server signals its explicit intent to share data across domains, helping protect legacy servers from attack.
•    Domain Highlighting. Internet Explorer 8 highlights the domain name of the URL string in the Address Bar in bold text, making it easier for users to tell which site they are on and aid them in identifying phishing sites and other deceptive sites. The domain name is in black, standing out from other characters in the URL, which are gray.
•    Per-site ActiveX. Per-site ActiveX reduces attack surface by providing an implicit SiteLock (a tool for restricting access to a specific domain) so that controls may only run from their point of installation by default. This enables users and administrators to manage where a given ActiveX Control is allowed to run.
•    Per-user ActiveX. Per-user ActiveX allows developers to write their ActiveX Controls so that when a user installs them, they are only installed for that user and not for all users on the system, providing a level of protection for other users against malicious or badly written controls.

Mais detalhes:

Users should visit www.microsoft.com/ie8 .

IT Professionals should visit http://technet.microsoft.com/ie and Developers should visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie.