The Warp - Silverlight

Ted Patrick touts the future of flash...

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:59:00 -0700

In a post over on Ted Patrick's blog he says: "At Adobe MAX 2007 in Chicago we are going showing off the next full release of Flash Player code named "Astro". The features are mind blowing and add capabilities far beyond anything the market today. The future of Adobe Flash Player looks very bright indeed." This is in response to the news about the release of Microsoft's challenge to Flash, SilverLight 1.0 released this week. source: http://www.onflex.org/ted/2007/09/silverlight-10-finally-release.php

Do Rich Internet Applications Matter to You?

Wed, 23 May 2007 14:29:00 -0700

At the beginning of this month, Microsoft made noise at MIX '07 about their Silverlight platform designed to bring .NET to the browser at the same time it knocks Adobe's Flash out of it. Both Silverlight and Flash aim at the rich internet application space -- a perceived gap in what users want and what they are getting from their overly light web apps. The idea is that we need more rich interactivity from our browser apps than they give us. But is this just developer fantasy, or does it represent a real end user need? source: http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/05/23/open-thread-do-rich-internet-applications-matter-to-you/

TechCrunch says Flash is just a toy compared to Silverlight...

Tue, 08 May 2007 06:59:00 -0700

In what has to be the biggest load of crap I have ever read online, TechCruch's Michael Arrington says that Silverlight makes Flash and Flex look like a toy. I think that Michael is jumping the gun a little bit here by saying this about Silverlight. Silverlight has yet to be released as a full product and it has yet to be adopted by any web users. That being said Flash enjoys a 98% penetration rate. A penetration rate that has seen competing technologies go down in flames. For one I remember all the hype over "Microsoft's Sparkle" and it being a Flash killer. Where is that product now exactly?? Now in with Flash and FP9 the features are growing more and more. The acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe has made the product grow by leaps and bounds. All of this combined with the penetration rate will see Flash stay around for many many more years. As soon as Silverlight hits a 97% penetration rate, give me a call. Till then Flash is King. But what happens when Silverlight fails? Will Microsoft start looking at buying Adobe? souce: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/01/take-time-to-understand-silverlight-its-important/

Silverlight Toolset in Testing Phase

Wed, 02 May 2007 13:23:00 -0700

"The tools extend the functionality of the basic Silverlight platform -- a necessary step for Microsoft to take a bite out of Adobe's ubiquitous Flash multimedia authoring and playback program for Web browsers. Silverlight is currently in a 1.1 alpha release. The Blendables CTP contains the following tools for Silverlight developers, according to an IdentityMine press release:

Zoombox -- Allows content to be panned in any direction or zoomed in or out using a multitude of user inputs.
Carousel3D -- A 3D elliptical layout control with full ItemsControl-like functionality.
ChromelessWindow -- Enables applications to stand out by creating a custom-branded window experience while still keeping the default window chrome functionality.
TimelinePanel -- Creates compelling visualizations that emphasize the chronological nature of a data set.
EvalBinding/SimpleBinding -- Data binding that adjusts in real-time based not only on application properties, but also on actual code evaluation -- all with XAML mark-up.
DragAndDrop -- Enables drag and drop functionality on a number of built-in windows elements such as ListBox, ListView and TreeView.
OSChecker -- Allows a designer to create a custom application experience contingent with the OS version.
Pie -- Creates any type of elliptical visual such as pie charts, speedometers and gauges.
ElementSnapshot -- Enables greater designer creativity by alleviating performance degradation when exploiting advanced visual effects.
NumericRangeToObjectConverter -- Triggers application behaviors not only on a single value, but also on a specific range of values.

The preview represents the first mix of tools offered under the Blendables moniker, according to IdentityMine, implying that more will be forthcoming. " source: http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=8515