Silverlight posts

Filed under: Windows, Microsoft, Freeware, Social Software

Fishbowl is a kick-ass Facebook client for Windows 7

by Lee Mathews Nov 20th 2009

When Microsoft introduced us to Silverlight 4 the other day, they also demoed a slick Facebook application. It's called Fishbowl, and it's now available for download. Not only does Fishbowl provide a nice, clean display of your stream (read: free of sidebar annoyances), but it's packed with excellent features, responsive, and extremely intuitive to use.

It's also ready to add some sizzle to your Windows 7 taskbar with jumplist and Aero Peek goodness. Read on after the break!

Tags: facebook, fishbowl, silverlight, windows 7, Windows7

Filed under: Microsoft, Beta

Hot on the heels of Flash 10.1, Microsoft unveils Silverlight 4 beta

by Lee Mathews Nov 18th 2009

Microsoft has been busy churning out news at PDC09, already having announced the arrival of Office 2010's public beta and Internet Explorer 9.

Not to be done by Adobe's recent unveiling of Flash 10.1, Microsoft has taken the wraps off Silverlight 4 beta. A few of the key changes in the new version include support for Google Chrome, performance gains up to 200% over Silverlight 3, and multi-touch support.

Silverlight's Deep Zoom has also been turbo-charged with hardware acceleration. v4 can also tap into your webcam and microphone, and local recording capabilities have been added. Microsoft hopes Silverlight 4 will allow developers to go beyond the browser and create rich desktop applications -- another salvo at the Adobe camp.

There are a slew of additions and enhancements aimed at developers, network administrators, and kiosk environments -- you can check a complete listing out in the offical release announcement.

Can't see the video embed in this post? You need to get your hands on the Silverlight plugin, I reckon. Runtimes are available for Windows and Mac here.

Tags: beta, browser, microsoft, plugin, silverlight

Filed under: Linux, Microsoft

Microsoft Silverlight comes to Linux, First stop: Moblin

by Brad Linder Sep 23rd 2009

Microsoft has announced plans to bring its Silverlight technology to Moblin Linux. This is the first time the company has mentioned anything about Silverlight running on any Linux distribution. Up until now the only way to access Silverlight content including web video and interactive web media on a Linux system was to use Moonlight, an open-source implementation of Silverlight developed by Novell and Microsoft.

Microsoft isn't making a big deal of the Linux portion of today's announcement. Rather, the company is demonstrating that Silverlight plays well with computers using the Intel Atom processor. During an event at the Intel Developer's Forum in San Francisco, officials from Microsoft and Intel showed a demo of Silverlight running on Intel Atom powered devices running both Windows 7 and Moblin Linux. Of course, Silverlight has been running perfectly well on Intel Atom powered netbooks running Windows for the past year and a half, so that's no big surprise.

The question is, if Silverlight is going to run on Moblin, does that mean other Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE will be supported in the future?

[via ZDNet]

Tags: linux, moblin, mobln-linux, silverlight

Filed under: Utilities, Video, Windows

SilverX converts Flash video to Silverlight

by Jay Hathaway Aug 14th 2009

SilverX is a Windows app that converts Flash (.SWF) videos to Microsoft's Silverlight format. It recognizes all the vectors, images, text and animations from the original Flash file, so you can extract all of those elements and edit them in a Silverlight app later. If you want to manipulate the individual elements, you can edit them like any other Silverlight solution, and even apply XAML. If you just want to play the movie back in your browser using Silverlight, you can do that too.

There's not a lot of fiddling necessary to use SilverX. Just pick a SWF file and an output directory, and everything happens under the hood. You can either output the file as a standalone app or a Silverlight solution. To work with solutions, you'll need Microsoft's Expression Blend 3 or Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

[via AddictiveTips]

Tags: convert, flash, silverlight, silverx, swf, vector, video, xaml

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Microsoft, Freeware

Silverlight 3 now available for your Flash-killing pleasure

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Jul 9th 2009

Way back in 2007 I scoffed at a little thing from Microsoft called Silverlight. Well, I'm not laughing any more. Now at 3.0, Silverlight's feature set is growing fast. Apparently MS released the new version a little early, so go here to download it and give it a test drive.

There are significant updates under the hood with major ramifications. First, Silverlight has always been adept at handling streaming video. But Smooth Streaming, which debuted at E3, allows you to watch HD video instantly. As Neowin points out, there's a terrific demo here. Silverlight also now supports H.264, AAC and MPEG-4 codecs, which is exceptionally handy for people encoding for a wide variety of platforms.

There's a lot of enhancements that Flash was late to the party on, including SEO improvements (long the bane of such dynamic plug-in media), and multi-touch support. Coupled with some server side enhancements (Ars has a good round up here), this makes Silverlight an easier sell for webheads concerned with search and data-centric sites.

Perhaps the most tantalizing bit are the "out of browser" experiences promised by the 3.0 update. This is a direct shot at Adobe's AIR efforts, and is lovingly detailed here.

Naturally Silverlight works on PC's running Windows and Macs (Intel and PPC, although version 2 and 3 only support Intel). Sorry Linux, still no love there.

Tags: browser, flash, microsoft, plugin, silverlight

Filed under: Video, Adobe, Commercial, Open Source

Flash isn't going open source, but it may already be more open than Moonlight

by Lee Mathews May 19th 2009

Computer World has published an article asking whether or not Adobe could be gearing up to open-source Flash. That's a question I discussed a while back with Adobe's Dave McAllister, and one that he's continually answered with "the Flash player is as open as I can get it right now."

While most of the inner workings of Flash are already open (The Flex SDK, Blaze DS, and ActionScript virtual machine) there continue to be cries for it to be fully open. Among the stumbling blocks preventing that are the proprietary codecs Adobe licenses (h.264 for video, HE-AAC for audio). "We will continue to open source the technologies that power Flash whenever we have the right to do it," McAllister told me.

Flash is by far the most dominant platform for delivering 80% of all web video and countless browser-based games. Computer World hypothesized that Microsoft's support of the OSS Moonlight project - which has brought Silverlight to Linux - may be putting the heat may be on Adobe to counter quickly.

Adobe sees things differently. Microsoft knows they can't close the gap without help, so getting behind a community effort like Moonlight "Open source can be used as a marketing tool and competitive weapon," McAllister explained. "Silverlight doesn't have the ecosystem that Flash does, so Microsoft is looking at different ways to compete," he continued.

Tags: flash, moonlight, silverlight

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Web

Microsoft launches web version of WorldWide Telescope

by Brad Linder Mar 18th 2009

Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope is a bit like Google Earth or (Virtual Earth) for the sky. The Windows program includes tons of data and visual astronomy that lets you explore the sky. Plus there are a number of guided tours of particular areas of interest with voice overs from expert astronomers.

Now you can access WorldWide Telescope from a web browser without downloading and installing the software. Well, sort of. The WorldWide Telescope web client runs on Microsoft's Silverlight, which isn't quite as ubiquitous as Adobe Flash. So you might need to download and install Silverlight before the web client will work. Versions of Silverlight are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, which means you can run the web client on most popular operating systems.

[via Bink.nu]

Tags: silverlight, worldwide-telescope

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware, Web

MS Web PI provides an easy way to roll IIS, SQL, .NET

by Lee Mathews Dec 12th 2008

WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) installers have been around for ages, and provide an easy way for anyone to quickly set up a platform for developing web apps on their Windows desktop. If, however, you're looking to play in the Microsoft sandbox, there's now a simple way to do that, too.

The Web Platform Installer aims to streamline the process of setting up a Microsoft-powered web server. Download and launch the 60kb executable and choose your install (complete, ASP .NET, or custom). The Web PI will then download and install all the required applications.

As you can see in the screenshot, the completed install features both Microsoft's take on a WAMP (IIS, SQL, ASP .NET) and some free development tools (Visual Web Developer Express, Silverlight Tools, ASP .NET MVC).

All the included products are (and have been) available for download individually from Micrsoft, but the Web PI greatly simplifies the process. If you decide to install it and you plan on allowing outside access to IIS, make sure you do some reading first and secure it as much as possible.

Tags: .net, iis, silverlight, web-server

Filed under: Video, Microsoft

How to (finally) stream Netflix movies on a Mac

by Jay Hathaway Nov 1st 2008

The rumors are true: Netflix is beta-testing a new a streaming movie player based on Microsoft Silverlight. As you may have read on Download Squad earlier this week, the new Silverlight-based player is compatible with Microsoft's DRM scheme, which means that, yes, you can finally watch Netflix instantly on your Mac. For Windows users, the player may be an upgrade, but for Mac users, it's a whole new feature.

To try the new player, you'll have to opt in. The first time you try to watch a movie, you'll be prompted to install Silverlight if you don't already have it. From there, you're good to go. Netflix warns that once you opt in, you can only use the Silverlight player, even on other machines. They also mention that the selection of movies for the new player is limited, but I didn't have trouble finding or playing any of the movies I tested.

Tags: microsoft, netflix, netflixplayer, silverlight, streaming video, StreamingVideo, video

Filed under: Windows, Microsoft, Browsers

It's no Download Day, but IE7 is trying to reduce carbon via download

by Jay Hathaway Jun 23rd 2008

A brief recap for those just emerging from their caves: Firefox 3 announced the goal of setting the one-day record for downloads of a single piece of software, and on June 17, the browser scored over 8 million downloads. Here's something even the tech-savvy may have missed, though: that OTHER browser, the one with the huge market share, has been running its own download campaign. It's called Carbongrove, and it's an Internet Explorer 7-compatible, Silverlight-based site that pushes reduced carbon usage and up-to-date web standards.

If you want to take the plunge and download IE7 or IE8 beta, you can then head to Carbongrove.com, take a quick quiz, and plant your own virtual tree. It might not be the cool, trendy thing to do (that would be downloading Firefox), but at least Microsoft is making an attempt to spread a little awareness about a cause that matters. This campaign launched two months ago, though, and we're just hearing about it now. Might be that world records and new releases trump carbon footprints and Acid Test results in the cutthroat world of browser downloads.

Tags: Carbongrove, IE7, IE8beta1, Internet Explorer 7, InternetExplorer7, microsoft, Silverlight

Filed under: Internet, Windows Mobile, Office, Google, Microsoft, Mobile Minute

Google Gears goes mobile, takes web apps with it

by Brad Linder Mar 4th 2008

Google has released a version of Google Gears that runs on Windows Mobile 5.0/6 devices. What does that mean? It means that you can access web applications like Zoho Writer or Buxfer on your mobile, even when you're offline. You'll need to go online at some point to synchronize your data, but once that's done you can open and view your documents while you're on the subway or on the ocean floor (the two places we're pretty sure there's on internet access available).

This is pretty big news for Windows Mobile uses who are tired of dealing with Office Mobile. Zoho's online office suite offers most of the features you'd want from a word processor. And it's free. Right now you can't edit Zoho Writer documents in offline mode, but Zoho plans to add that functionality soon.

In somewhat related news, Microsoft and Nokia have signed a deal to use Silverlight in some of its phone and internet tablets. Right now, Silverlight is primarily a platform for displaying rich media content on the web (like Adobe Flash), Microsoft eventually plans to add offline functionality to Silverlight (like Adobe AIR or Google Gears). That means we could see offline support for online applications coming to Nokia devices one day as well.

Tags: google-gears, nokia, offline, silverlight

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Web services, Microsoft

Microsoft Download Center Beta uses Silverlight

by Romeo Wahed Dec 30th 2007

Microsoft Download Center with Silverlight

Things are changing over at Microsoft Download Center, as the new beta introduces Microsoft's take on Flash, Silverlight. That means if you want to check out the beta for yourself, you'll have to download the Silverlight plug-in in order to actually see the site - which from a usability perspective is never much fun.

Then again, people didn't really mind downloading Flash. Nitpicks aside, the website, if you can still call it that ("rich interactive application" anyone?), does look a lot prettier from a cosmetic standpoint than its current counterpart. It is also a lot tidier - the width of the experience has been reduced as well as the feeling of claustrophobia you would get from the regular version has been alleviated. All the text and boxes have proper breathing room now, and are quite easy on the eyes.

It does make one wonder if all of this couldn't have been done with a little bit of CSS instead? Sure you might have to exchange some of the very smooth eyecandy with something slightly more utilitarian - but it could be done. But, of course, Microsoft needs to show off its baby. It's probably safe to assume that once the final version releases that Microsoft will use it as a staging platform to really push Silverlight and try to take a bite out of Flash market share.

Thanks, George!

Tags: download, downloadcenter, microsoft, silverlight

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft

Microsoft releases Silverlight 1.0 and Linux support

by Brad Linder Sep 5th 2007

Microsoft's Adobe Flash competitor leaves its beta status behind today. The software maker has announced the availability of Silverlight 1.0, multimedia web browser plug-in.

Microsoft is also working with Novell on Silverlight support for Linux. The Linux project will be known as Moonlight, and is based on the Mono Project.

With today's announcement, Silverlight will be available for Windows, Mac, and Linux machines running browsers including Firefox and Internet Explorer.

[Thanks Dennis!]

Tags: flash, silverlight, silverlight 1.0, Silverlight1.0

Filed under: Microsoft, Search, web 2.0

Microsoft Tafiti: Silverlight is pretty but doesn't really help you search

by Brad Linder Aug 22nd 2007

Microsoft's new Tafiti web site isn't exactly a new search engine. It's powered by Microsoft's search, so you'll get exactly the same results from Tafiti, MSN.com or Live.com. So what's the point of Tafiti? It's pretty.

When you first visit the site, you're prompted to install Silverlight if you haven't already. Then you're presented with a lot of empty space and a search box. When you enter your search term, you're subjected to a little flurry of activity. On the lower left side of the screen, a bunch of icons pop up. Click on them to see images representing your search results, RSS feeds that match your search terms, or a newspaper-like view.

You can also drag search results into slots on the right of the screen for saving, e-mailing, or blogging on Windows Live Spaces. If you're interested in all the bells and whistles, Tafiti is great. If you just want quick search results, you're probably better off with Live Search, Yahoo! or Google.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: live, live search, LiveSearch, msn, silverlight, tafiti

Filed under: Developer, Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft releases initial support for "IronRuby"

by Grant Robertson Jul 25th 2007

Microsoft, the captains of closed source, have officially taken the first steps to support Ruby within the .Net environment, a move seen as a way to cozy up to the upcoming generation of hardcore web developers who've cut their teeth on the Ruby language.

Released under the "Microsoft Permissive License", IronRuby uses the Dynamic Languages Runtime to get the job done. Support at this point is extremely preliminary, but Microsoft says it hopes to release IronRuby on RubyForge, and take submissions and additions from the wider community. Eventually, support for Ruby apps on Microsoft's Silverlight platform will be forthcoming; a bit of good news for a fair number of developers

Tags: Microsoft, Ruby, Silverlight

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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