IE8 was briefly publically previewed (mostly in relation to standards – see earlier post) at the Mix 08 keynote, including Activities and WebSlices standards that are published under Create Commons license by Microsoft, as well as the main preview of CSS 2.1 support and in-browser debugging.
But the good news is that you can download beta1 – http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie8
Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1 (formerly known as 1.1) is now available.
http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/ (bottom of the page).
See the features matrix for overview of new features.
You can also get there:
There is a Go-Live license for Silverlight 2 Beta 1
Sillvelight will be available on Windows Mobile and Nokia devices (S60/S40/Mobile Internet Tablet) – no availability given.
Silverlight uses a sub-set of WPF/XAML so you can easily create a full WPF desktop app from the same assets/code.
Silverlight going mobile
Going to support Windows Mobile and non-Windows Mobile.
Demo of Mixer social app:
Announcement of partnership with Nokia to put Silverlight on S60/S40 and mobile internet tablet product lines!!!
Finally something cool!
Shame about the boring SVP at Nokia reading his pre-recorded announcement.
Seems like Symbian 60 is the priority.
Demo of WeatherBug app:
Nothing about availability for any mobile platform 😦
WPF Apps
Casting line of business application for Cirque Du Soleil
1000 artists nightly in 15 shows (6 resident and 9 touring).
22000 artists in database.
Field-based WPF-based casting system on tablet with camera strapped on. Scott juggles for an in-the-field-based casting session. Offline cached database. Visual form entry and comparisons.
Upcoming WPF improvements in the summer
Demo of image or HD video with effects:
Silverlight continuum
Silverlight extensions for SharePoint
Can re-use full Silverlight XAML in full WPF application on desktop
Silverlight Demo for Astin Martin website
The demo is about the experiences online, in the dealership and during ownership.
Website:
3D model of DBS car (fixed camera moves) – so 3D rendered into 2D factors – can change colours/parts. Remember Silverlight 2.0 doesn’t do 3D polygons.
Deep zoom into 18GB photo of car interior.
Lots of video on ‘back of’ detail cards in carousel UI.
Dealership:
Samsung UMPC with full WPF application using XNA-based 3D-model with true 3D rendering. UI on device and output on 2nd monitor.
Silverlight+Image Zoom/Pan Demo with Hard Rock (I hated the frozen crappy rip-off processed food I had there).
Seem-less image zoom in/out on 2 billion pixels of image.
So no need to look at memorabilia at Hard Rock now that I’ve seen it in detail 🙂 It will also be live at hardrock.com.
Zoom, zoom, yes… we get it.
There’s a toolkit for it.
Silverlight 2 Details and Demo
Adds to Silverlight 1.0:
Open source license for included controls.
Shipping testing framework with 2000 open source unit tests.
Shipping today:
See Scott’s blog for more info.
Demo of building new AOL mail client in Silverlight:
Shows lots of control templating to show Halo skin – not much audience reaction, but good data performance (retrieval and sorting) – uses isolated storage for performance (e.g. contacts list).
Anyone else tired of seeing demos by huge corporations that build products with advertising revenue deals that only they can get?
Big Silverlight demo
Beijing 2008 Olympics on NBC – goes live in 150 days
2200 hours of 34 sports live and on-demand afterwards.
Lots of supporting surrounding and in-frame contextual information and commentary.
User-driven rewind of live play!
Olympic event notifications and sharing.
Picture-in-picture from 4 streams for an event.
Done with Silverlight 1.0 apparently.
Silveright
Currently 1.5+ millions download installations of Silverlight 1.0 per day
Silverlight 2 Beta 1 available for download
Silverlight 2 stuff
1 Improving video experience
Adaptive streaming (to computer capabilities and bandwidth) – using appropriate bitrate – at initial video start and continuously (without buffering).
Plugable adaptive streaming algorithm.
2 TCO
HD Video is expensive – streaming and progressive download.
Windows Media Services 2008 released with Windows Server 2008.
Bit-rate throttling (with IIS 7.0/W2K8 for progressive download) – initial burst and then controlled stay-ahead (by x seconds) of playback throttling
Web Playlist.
3 Monetisation
VS 2008 project for silverlight advertising template – roll-down banner to playing video with tracking.
Demo of video.show for hosting video.
AdManager for tracking stats including interactions.
Demo of ad+video with skip control on web play list.
Overlay ads using Expression Media Encoder Two using XAML – add markers for ads (‘burned in’ or dynamic).
SDK for integration with Doubleclick Instream advertising. Demo on NBA site with handling of user events like pause, mute, etc.
Colinizer 