Silverlight 2 Beta 1 debuts with the hope of dynamic language support
FROM MIX 08 - While Silverlight was first sprung upon the public as a distributed graphics program for the Web, Microsoft is now expanding it as many thought it might, into an all-purpose, Web-based, cross-platform extension of the .NET Framework.
At one level, it's the dream of distributed software developers of decades ago: a rich programming environment with too many controls to list all in one page, the capacity to deploy applications cross-platform, and the flexibility for the logic to use the programming language of the developer's choice. We knew things were headed this way; we were just never certain of when.
In-Stat: Average downstream connection is 3.8 Mbps
Market research firm In-Stat published a study covering the US residential broadband market entitled asking the question "How Fast is 'High Speed?'"
In-Stat surveyed over 700 homes with broadband connectivity in the US, and included homes with: cable modems, satellite broadband, DSL, fixed wireless, and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). To determine the speeds, each home visited an online "speed test" site, taking bandwidth measurements.
Expression Studio 2 beta adds PHP, Silverlight 1.0 support
FROM MIX 08 - While Silverlight and Internet Explorer 8 are getting the most attention at MIX this year, Microsoft's Expression Studio also received an update. Version 2.0 of the suite is now in beta.
Expression Studio was first announced at MIX 06 and version 1.0 began shipping at last year's MIX 07. The tools were largely created to help companies build applications that take advantage of the new Windows Presentation Foundation found in Windows Vista.
Sony says $200 Blu-ray players are still a year away
Despite discussion that the company needs to reduce prices in order to advance the format, Sony still seems to be mostly ignoring those calls.
Price continues to be the biggest argument against Blu-ray, even though it is no longer facing serious competition from HD DVD. It is no surprise that analysts and press have begun pressing for answers from the company on this issue.
Doubleclick, a potential Google property, launches Web publisher 'solution'
The problem for the Web's major ad services is extracting value from the tons of "remnant inventory" and out-of-the way pages that constitute the bulk of the Web. This morning, DoubleClick said it may have its own unique solution.
DoubleClick this week rolled out a new team and a new technology aimed at improving its ability -- and probably, that of prospective parent Google as well -- to pool together ad inventory for Web publishers, some of which are now banding together to form their own ad networks.
Nero Linux moves ahead with HD DVD, Blu-ray support
During the CeBIT computer show in Hannover, Germany, Nero announced plans to launch Nero Linux 3.5, which now promises to run on Linux subnotebooks with smaller screen resolutions.
Although there are several different options for Linux users wanting to create CDs or DVDs, Nero Linux is different because it offers users the ability to back up Blu-ray and HD DVD content easily. Further, the GUI in the Linux version is very similar to the one used in Windows.
MySQL surprises even Sun with a monetization idea
On Tuesday, Sun Microsystems hosted a "Community Townhall" event in which executives from Sun and its latest acquisition, pinnacle open source applications provider MySQL, discussed how they intend to move forward.
In January, Sun announced plans to purchase MySQL for $1 billion - $800 million in cash and $200 million in assumed options -- to try to bolster its growing database offerings. The Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 markets help drive the growing demand for the lucrative database market, where Sun will compete with Microsoft, IBM and Oracle.
Bank of America, AT&T top identity theft study
UC Berkeley's Center for Law & Technology has released a study revealing the need for corporations, especially Bank of America and AT&T, to accurately represent the threat posed to their customers.
Chris Hoofnagle, Senior Fellow at University of California, Berkeley's Center for Law & Technology (BCLT), co-authored the study which took complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission in January, March, and September of 2006. In that year alone, the FTC recorded 246,035 identity theft-related incidents. For the three months in the study, there were 88,560 among 44,262 institutions.
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 goes live
FROM MIX 08 - At last, we'll all be able to see "Standards mode" for itself, and whether the new default operating mode for Internet Explorer truly adheres to written W3C standards as Microsoft now says it has bound its browser to do.
There's a lot of activity surrounding the public release of Beta 1 of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8...and we mean that quite literally. While its general appearance is not in as stark a contrast with its predecessor as IE7 was from IE6, there is one prominent feature about it that developers such as Scott Guthrie were proud to show off this morning in Las Vegas: It's called "activities."
Warner Blu-ray disc manufacturer ramps up production
Acknowledging an expected increase in Blu-ray releases, Global Digital Media Xchange said Wednesday that it had tapped Sonic's Scenarist technology to help it increase production capacity. GDMX is the authoring facility for Warner, who was the first studio to go Blu-ray exclusive after a stint of dual-format support. That switch is widely regarded as the turning point which helped Sony defeat competing format HD DVD.
With this switch by a major Hollywood disc authoring company, it can be expected that studios using GDMX's facilities -- like Warner -- will be able to increase the number of releases on the format.
Facebook poaches Google exec for new COO
Google global sales chief Sheryl Sandberg will leave the company to become second in command at Facebook.
Sandberg will be the one of the highest ranking executives to leave Mountain View following its high-flying IPO four years ago. The change wasn't taken well on Wall Street -- who pushed the stock to 52-week lows.
Richer AOL Mail demoed with Silverlight 2 Beta 1
FROM MIX 08 - In a sign that major Web services, after studying their options, are moving into the Silverlight camp, an AOL development team appeared in Las Vegas today to show off its latest take on online services using Microsoft's rich development environment.
During the opening session of Microsoft's MIX '08 convention in Las Vegas, AOL's vice president for e-mail, Roy Ben-Yoseph, led a team demonstrating a new version of its Web-based e-mail client, with significantly enhanced functionality by virtue of using Silverlight 2, the latest test version of Microsoft's graphical runtime platform. The Beta 1 runtime was posted just this afternoon, along with the Beta 1 toolkit, which requires Visual Studio 2008.
New platform protects open source customers from infringement
Open source software is often available free of charge, but it can also come with tricky and potentially costly licensing, trademark, and patent restrictions. Today, one company announced a platform for protecting themselves from these open source pitfalls.
There are two types of IP violations that open source software customers might unintentionally commit. They can infringe upon the software vendor's patents or trademarks, which are still enforceable even if the software has an open source license, and even if it's distributed for free. Or, they can disobey the terms of their licenses, often in redistributing altered programs without also supplying customers with the source code.
Prospects for Flash on iPhone dim with Jobs comment
Neither the desktop nor mobile versions of Adobe Flash are apparently good enough for the iPhone in Steve Jobs' eyes, as stated in his first public comments on the matter.
Some had hoped that Thursday's expected announcement of the iPhone SDK would bring Adobe Flash support as well. However, with Jobs' comments to shareholders Tuesday, the chances of that now look unlikely, if not impossible.
Live from the MIX 08 keynote with Ray Ozzie, IE8, Silverlight 2
FROM MIX 08 We're in Las Vegas for Microsoft's third annual MIX 08 conference, where the Redmond company is expected to provide the first look at Internet Explorer 8. Read on as we cover the opening keynote with Ray Ozzie as it happens.
9:30am PT - The keynote is set to begin momentarily. Ray Ozzie takes the stage, makes a joke about Yahoo.
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