NYC

Ballmer didn't get specific when he said the Windows Phone Mango update would bring 500 new features, but we'd bet our blue screens that a handful of those additions are wrapped up in IE9. In addition to the long awaited landscape mode address bar, IE9 for Windows Phone promises to bolster performance through GPU acceleration and an improved rendering experience. The browser update boasts a litany of support features: the aforementioned GPU-accelerated browsing, full-screen video through HTML5 (though not embedded, sorry!), GPS-based geolocation, ECMAScript 5, 2D CSS3, etc. We should know a whole heap of a lot more come tomorrow morning, so be sure to follow along during our liveblog. Techradar

Windows Phone's latest iteration (codename Mango) is all about keeping it in the hood. We had a chance to sit down with a Windows Phone rep before today's big reveal, and they let us in on a couple of new features that will most definitely set the OS apart -- at least when it comes to navigating the tangled web that is the internet. We did get a quick glimpse at IE9, but the new browser isn't much of a game changer -- it supports HTML5, but still won't deliver Flash or Silverlight compatibility. The real news here is in theBing-powered search function, which lets users surf the vast expanses of the web four different ways, with a focus on the local. Clicking the dedicated search button from the Windows Phone home screen takes you to a familiar Bing page, offering the visual, audio, and voice options we heard rumored earlier this month, along with a city scape icon. That skyline represents Local Scout, a function that focuses your queries on the neighbor...

If you're part of the dwindling group still using Windows Vista, you'll have to wait until your next upgrade to take IE10 for a spin -- Microsoft has confirmed that the latest version of its browser won't run on its last-gen operating system, either in developer preview form or when the final software ships. While it's tempting to interpret that as an attempt on Microsoft's part to put the widely loathed Vista in its past, there's actually a precedent for this -- remember that Microsoft cut off XP support when it unveiled IE9. As a Microsoft rep told  Computerworld , the company would rather not have to develop software for a lowest-common denominator. At least, if you do have to stick with the newly minted IE9, you can be sure you'll be in good company. Computerworld