IE9 Developer Preview 2 released

Microsoft has released the Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 2, keeping to its promise of delivering new IE9 functionality every eight weeks, reports eWeek.

Microsoft originally introduced the IE9 Platform Preview in mid-March at the MIX 2010 show in Las Vegas, and just seven weeks later the software giant has released version 2, which features advances in compliance to industry-standard tests, improvements in performance and a lot more.

Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 2 is available for developer download at the IE Test Drive site: www.ietestdrive.com.

In one of the clearest examples so far of just how much Flash is threatened by next-generation Web technologies, Scribd, a service for hosting and sharing documents online, is moving to a future that doesn't require Adobe Systems' plug-in, states CNET News.

"After three years of building on Flash, Scribd is starting over and moving everything to HTML5," says Scribd co-founder and CTO Jared Friedman, in prepared remarks for a speech at the Web 2.0 Expo.

"I think it's the largest deployment of HTML5 to date, and it's a bet-the-company decision for us," he adds.

The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, will be based in London, according to Computing.co.uk.

WAC is an attempt by the world's network operators to compete with search giant Google and iPhone vendor Apple in the mobile applications market.

WAC members include big carriers such as AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, O2, Telefonica, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, as well as hardware vendors LG and Samsung.