Guess the previous tip we received about the launch date for IE9 RC on January 28 did not eventuate, despite Microsoft had been hyping up the launch a few days earlier saying that "an announcement will be made soon". Just today Microsoft sent out invitations to media outlets for an Internet Explorer 9 event to be held on February 10 in San Francisco, here the details:
IE in San Francisco (2/10)
Members from the Internet Explorer team (and some special guests) will be visiting San Francisco in two weeks to share some important news. I know it’s an extremely busy news week already, but we’re hoping you can join us.
It is widely assumed that it will be an announcement for the availability of the IE9 Release Candidate build. Just earlier today, an earlier build of IE9 RC escrow build was leaked to file sharing websites, carrying the build number 9.0.8073.6003 (which we understand will not be the official RC build). The Release Candidate will feature a number of improvements from the beta released last September, including Tracking Protection, an ActiveX filter, location privacy feature, stability improvements, and various subtle UI changes such as the ability to move the browser tabs below the address bar.
The final version of Internet Explorer 9 is expected to be released around the MIX 11 timeframe in April.