Las Vegas — Software behemoth Microsoft on Wednesday took the wraps off the beta version of Silverlight 3, which reduces the gap between desktop and web environments at the MIX 09 conference for web developers in Las Vegas, and also unveiled a large number other technologies, all intended at luring Web developers to the Microsoft platform.
At the MIX 09 conference in Las Vegas for Web developers, Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Platform, gave a preview to developers through the advancements it has made in Silverlight 3, many of which will go a long way towards becoming the company’s would be Flash-killer.
Silverlight 3, the latest beta version of its rich Internet application platform includes 50 new features, including the ability to run applications outside of a browser and more high-def video, graphics and data related features. In addition to the added features, Silverlight 3 will in fact comes in a smaller download package than its predecessor.
Furthermore, other new products introduced on the first day of MIX were a preview of the company’s Expression Blend 3 web design and development tool, Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta, the Windows Web Application Gallery, and Microsoft Commerce Server 2009. Also announced were updates to Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform.
“In the shortest time since we launched Silverlight and Expression Blend, Microsoft has swiftly introduced new features and functionality that enable customers to deliver outstanding Web sites,” said Guthrie. “We are working closely with the community to bring-forth software that helps businesses provide customer experiences on the Web that go beyond ‘good enough’ and drive real business results.”
With the availability of external support for browser, developers can create Silverlight applications designed to run on the desktop, much like eBay Desktop, which was designed in Adobe AIR. Seattle radio station KEXP demonstrated a desktop Silverlight application that enables listeners play music, see additional details about songs being played, interact with a DJ and download content and play it inside the app when the user is offline. Silverlight desktop apps will run inside a secure sandbox environment, can detect whether the user is connected to the Internet, and have support for automatic updates.
With regards to the video support, Silverlight 3 gets hardware-based graphics acceleration, new codec support for formats like H.264, AAC audio and MPEG-4, APIs to allow developers to plug in their own codecs, and improved analytics. New graphics capabilities consists the ability to transform any image in three dimensions, pixel shader effects and upgrades to DeepZoom that integrate hardware acceleration to zoom far into a huge image. One app Microsoft demonstrated added effects like movement, shading, magnification, and embossing to a live video, images, and text controls.
Dave Meeker, user experience strategy lead at Roundarch, a Chicago-based Web development firm that works extensively with Silverlight and Flash, was amazed by the advancements Microsoft has made in the latest release.
“Silverlight has not only established ground on Flash, it is also moving into the world of Adobe AIR,” Meeker said. “Now that Microsoft is looking at building these kinds of applications, you do not need to be a hardcore programmer.”
During a keynote address lasting more than two hours, Guthrie displayed companies who have implemented Silverlight technology, most notably Netflix and NBC Universal. The latter used the technology to present the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and announced at MIX that they would stay with Silverlight for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver next year. Netflix’s vice president of corporate communications Steve Swasey noted that the movie rental company actually turned to Silverlight in order to support customers using Apple Macintoshes.
Silverlight 3 includes new graphics, animation and 3-D features, and over 60 controls to enable developers to create rich internet applications (RIAs).
Guthrie emphasized that the Silverlight plugin/runtime installs in just 8 seconds, and version 3 is actually 40K smaller in size than version 2.
Designers are not the only ones to enjoy the benefits of new features in Silverlight 3. Microsoft has also added support for deep linking so that users can send links to specific parts of a Silverlight app and to make the apps search-able by search engines. There is also enhanced text quality via ClearType support, multi-touch support, more than 100 new controls for things like charting and layout, and a number of new data-related features.
Microsoft also announced the next version of Expression Web and Expression Blend, tools for Web developers and designers.
Expression Web 3 consists of a number of new features, with the major one being Super Preview, which enables developers to view previews of how their site will appear in multiple browsers. It uses browsers installed on their machines and a cloud service to provide renderings of the site even if they don’t have certain browsers installed and even if the browser runs on a different operating system than the one they have.
Azure, the lofty name given to Microsoft’s cloud computing and services platform that is still in preview form, will also get several new capabilities. Newly added are a “full-trust” mode for .NET apps, FastCGI for supporting non-.NET language, and geolocation service. The latter will let developers host applications across two U.S.-based data-centers to reduce latency and increase reliability.
But the flashing news was Silverlight, which Guthrie said would ship in its final release form “later this year”: He did not give any specific time-frame than that. The Silverlight 3 beta is currently available to the general public for download in both Windows and Macintosh versions from Microsoft’s official Silverlight site. The Expression Blend 3 Preview is available from the Microsoft Expression site.
Also today, Microsoft is widely expected to introduce the final version of Internet Explorer 8.