Although it was a year later in coming than its PC cousin, Microsoft Corp.
Monday finally released a Macintosh version of its Internet Explorer 5 Web browser.
The PC version of IE 5 was released in March 1999, but until now Mac
users have only had access to version 4. News of Mac version 5 was announced
at the Macworld trade show in January, but
Monday marks the wide release of the full version. The company said it
wanted to make sure the Mac version was free of bugs before it was released
to the general public.
New features include the option to change the browser’s color to match
current Macintosh computers and complement Apple Computer Inc.’s (APPL)
future Mac OS X Aqua interface. A new rendering engine, named Tasman, is
also included in version 5.
Also part of version 5 is Auction Manager, which helps users track and
complete multiple Internet auctions simultaneously. The Internet Scrapbook
captures, stores and organizes any Web page, including e-commerce receipts
and other temporary Web pages for future reference, directly within the
browser. A Media Toolbar that would provide playback of MP3, QuickTime and
other media formats, is not included in Monday’s release.
Microsoft (MSFT)
also released a version 5.02 of its Outlook mail utility for Mac users
Monday. Users can download the two programs simultaneously or individually
here.
