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Would you expect to develop a MacOS application using a platform from Microsoft? With Silverlight 3 developers are able to create applications that run outside the browser on the MacOS. While the idea might sound crazy, and certainly is landscape changing - it's smart for Microsoft. As more applications move to the Cloud, and applications consume Cloud services, Microsoft can continue its role as a big player in the emerging Cloud computing space, in developer tools, and in the platforms used for delivering content.

I saw a great example of this with KEXP developing a media player that works on-line and off-line, with auto-detection of network capabilities. The player is stand-alone (works outside the browser) and I saw it running on MacOS and WIndows. If you are a MacOS developer you can get the Eclipse Tools for Silverlight at www.eclipse4sl.org/mac.

Sometimes you see uses of technology that you've never considered - from vendors you would never expect. That happened today with a totally unconventional use of Silverlight for use with document management and repurposing content - print content.

I thought that Adobe had document management and cross-platform sharing wrapped-up with Acrobat and PDF. After all, PDF is an ISO standard, and Acrobat is on its 9th version. I've written a number of books on Acrobat and managed the largest PDF user's conference for some time - so I'm partial to it... but a short while ago I saw something that is potentially game-changing for publications looking to monetize legacy content. And with magazines and newspapers under pressure - who doesn't want to monetize their digital assets? So I nearly fell out of my chair today when I saw covertocover.com showing past issues of Rolling Stone that include full text search and easy navigation between issues and pages - and it was all leveraging Silverlight. This is a great, unconventional use of the Deep Zoom technology that Silverlight supports - and it solves an immediate business need that publishers are facing - how to monetize legacy content.

 

Microsoft has made some pretty significant announcement here in Las Vegas today that will impact the way you communicate on-line, develop Web and interactive content - and event how you think about what is on-line and what is a desktop application...

 

Silverlight 3 was announced here and has some technical features that are useful for developers -things like GPU acceleration and support for additional CODECs such as H.264, MPG 4, and AAC but the real mind-blowing things revolutionize the user experience:

 

·         Live streaming with full DVR-like controls - pause / slow motion / rewind for live streams. This puts Silverlight live streaming miles ahead of anything else. NBC announced they are renewing their use of Silverlight for all streaming of the next Olympics (Vancouver) using Silverlight.

·         HD streaming - you'll see this at the next Olympics as they'll be streaming all content in HD.

·         Out-of-browser experiences on Mac and Windows - not just a browser plug-in

·         Off-line support: Silverlight 3.0 applications can run as stand-alone applications. So they can consume services while connected, and then switch to an "off-line" mode when not connected.

·         Support for multi-touch - like the "pinch" - think Minority Report or iPhone

 

I'll have more updates throughout the event... as I'm at a Microsoft-focused event, most of my posts will focus on their technology this week...

 

A small pack of my colleagues gathered around a computer monitor in our office on Tuesday to watch the inauguration ceremony. To make certain we didn't miss a beat, we had a Silverlight stream in one window and a Flash stream in another. We weren't alone, as video delivery provider Akamai reported 7 million live simultaneous streams on the sites they serve - which appears small when compared to the 21.3 million live streams CNN indicates they streamed. While this shows this huge increase in demand for on-line streaming video, the bandwidth and infrastructure aren't quite there for a flawless performance with live streaming video. While the Silverlight stream looked better, both streams stopped from time to time - and neither stream could be viewed on an iPhone, where neither Silverlight nor Flash video have a player.
Because we provide Flash Training and Silverlight Training, we were pretty excited to be able to watch such an important event on-line using technology that we help organizations adopt. published by: Christopher Smith

My iPhone wasn't in its charger this morning. Like many people getting ready to head out the door for work, I grabbed my keys, wallet, and had a moment of panic that my phone was missing. After checking the usual spots around the house, I asked my wife, then my second-grade son who told me it was in his bedroom. After a quick scolding ("Don't take Dad's phone") I located it and turned it on to check the battery level and get my email fix. As soon as I turned it on, I found that my son had located some Godzilla clips on YouTube - and later in the day when using Safari - the web browser on the iPhone - I learned that he had Googled "Godzilla" which is what led him to YouTube.

While Kudos are probably  in order for Apple creating the iPhone so that a seven year old can navigate it with no training, and to YouTube for making it so easy to use, we can all learn something from this Godzilla moment. We should all want our Web sites to have such clear ways to request information, learn more, or take the next step. Can the seven year old locate what he needs on your site?

From an even bigger perspective, there's a message here for those involved with marketing and promoting businesses and products - we can actually learn something from the seven year old kid sitting in his bunk bed with Dad's iPhone. The first place he went on his quest for content is Google. "How did you find a Godzilla movie?" I asked, in real disbelief. "I Googled it, Dad" came the much too matter-of-fact answer from the seven year old. He might not be much of a consumer yet, but his behavior is indicitive of how current and future consumers are looking for what they want. Can the seven year old even find your site 

While you might not be selling Godzilla movies, you need to make sure that what you're selling is as easy to find at that Godzilla movie.