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DT Daily: New Microsoft browser, Tesla/Lambo drag race, Navy’s shark drone

Today on DT Daily: Microsoft may be building a new browser that isn’t Internet Explorer, the new Tesla takes on a Lamborghini, and the U.S. Navy just made sharks even scarier.

With Internet Explorer now a distant second to Google’s Chrome web browser in world market share, word is Redmond is working on a new browser, and no, we don’t mean a “new version” of Internet Explorer.

According to a post on ZD-Net, Microsoft is working on a completely new browser code-named Spartan, and it will reportedly have the stripped-down look and faster performance of Chrome, or Apple’s Safari browser. The post said Spartan will likely be made available alongside IE, but the bigger question is whether it will be made available for Apple users.

Right now, you can’t run IE on a Mac unless you run Windows in Bootcamp, which is sort of a pain. We could learn more on January 21st, when more features of Windows 10 will be revealed.

Remember that video a couple of weeks ago where a new Tesla P85D handily dispatched a Ferrari F550? Well, it’s rematch time, and for this go-around, the new dual-motor Tesla is up against a Lamborghini Aventador.

Once again, the Tesla is hotter off the line, but after a few seconds, the sharky Lambo recovers and pulls away for the winBoth cars sport a stated 691 horsepower, but the Tesla is also packing 864 pound-feet of torque, which boosts initial acceleration. Ah, but the Aventador weighs 900 pounds less, so once underway, it has the power-to-weight advantage. Plus, it costs about three times as much as the Tesla, so it would really sting if it lost.

We’re always on the lookout for Tesla drag race videos, so if you’ve got a Pagani, Ferarri, Bugatti or some other exotic just sitting around, slap a GoPro on it and show us how you stacked up.

Flying drones are nothing new, and even drone submarines are nothing that special anymore, but drone sharks?

That what the ironically named Project Silent NEMO looks like – a shark. It’s part of the U.S. Navy’s “ghost swimmer” program, which apparently centers on building drones that look and move like living sea creatures. NEMO is about 5 feet long and weighs 100 pounds, and, of course, all the stuff it can do is pretty much classified, although Wired says it is able to swim around on its own and then surface to report in.

We don’t know if the Navy will make NEMO available to other nation states for sale, but if they do, we can think of one customer who will likely order about a dozen of them with the frikkin’ laser beam option.

Your host today is Nick Jaynes. Miss a day? Watch all the episodes of DT Daily right here. And be sure to catch our latest podcast.

Bill Roberson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I focus on producing Digital Trends' 'DT Daily' video news program along with photographing items we get in for review. I…
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