The 1.0 version of Silverlight, which is being released to the Web, is geared to providing video. Accessible at the Silverlight Web page, it has been available in a beta release. A more potent successor, Silverlight 1.1, will provide for more interactive content, including support for .Net development and transactional capabilities. It remains only available in an early alpha release format.

While Silverlight currently works with Windows and Macintosh, Microsoft is endorsing Novell’s plan to make Silverlight run on Linux clients via the Moonlight project.

[...]

Microsoft cites several differentiators between Silverlight and Flash. Silverlight, Deshpande said, offers high-definition video at a lower cost and functions with Microsoft’s developer tools. The company also is offering a SaaS-based component, Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live.

Read more at article source.

Whether or not Silverlight will pose a threat to Macromedia’s ubiquitous Flash player remains to be seen, although Microsoft could have the advantage of being able to push Silverlight to Windows users through Microsoft Update (assuming such a move wouldn’t cause antitrust concerns).

Microsoft may have finally seen the light, and is killing the Live name in many products, and also jettisoning the honchos who oversee the brand.

Windows Live WiFi, for example, has been renamed MSN WiFi, and Windows Live Shopping, which was once called MSN Shopping, is back to being called MSN Shopping again. Then there’s the MSN Soapbox product, which used to be called Windows Live Video until it was renamed in September.

[Read more at source]

I agree, Windows and Office Live really are a mess. What Microsoft needs is some organization.

Microsoft is running a promotion whereby upon purchase of an OEM version of Windows Vista Ultimate you get the following hardware items for free:

• Kingston 2GB Flash Drive
• Artec HDTV Tuner
• D-Link WiFi Pocket Router
• Epson PictureMate Pal

NewEgg.com also has a promotion page for this deal.

The value of the items wasn’t advertised, but I found the model numbers for 3 of the 4 products and did some searching. Here’s what I found:

• Kingston 2GB Flash Drive – $76.99
• Artec HDTV Tuner – $59.99
• D-Link WiFi Pocket Router – $46.99
• Epson PictureMate Pal – Couldn’t find the model number; an Epson PictureMate Pal printer on NewEgg (don’t know if it’s the same one) cost $133.99, so I think that’s a safe guess

The total price for these four items adds up to $317.96. And what how much is Vista Ultimate OEM from NewEgg? Yep, only $199.99.

Assuming you were able to resell these hardware items at the above prices, you would get Vista Ultimate for free and get $117.97 extra. Or you could keep one or two of the items and sell the rest to recoup the cost of Vista. Or you could just keep all of them. All the same, totally cool.

Office 14 is the next version of Office 2007 (or what Microsoft calls the 2007 Microsoft Office System). [...] 14 is the version number. Office 2007 was called Office 12 internally at Microsoft. The company skipped 13 for superstitious reasons.

Superstitious silliness if you ask me. I did wonder though how they were going to handle this, but I didn’t think they’d actually skip the version number!

With Vista just out the door, Microsoft Corp. is now drawing up plans to deliver its follow-up client operating system by the end of 2009, according to the executive in charge of building the product’s core components.

It looks like they also have a name for it besides “Vienna”:

Last year, Microsoft said that the code name for this Vista follow-up is Vienna, but Fathi said he could not disclose the current name. “We’ve been told not to use it publicly,” he said.

[Read More]

It includes links to, among other things, download the .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package (which is for running .NET Framework 3.0 applications), the Windows SDK (which is for developing them), and the Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (which is for integrating .NET Framework 3.0 with Visual Studio 2005).

This .NET Framework 3.0 stuff is very exciting, especially the XAML stuff.

By the way, considering that this post contains 7 instances of “.NET Framework 3.0″, anyone know if there’s some sort of acronym that I can be using?

A new game development platform from Microsoft allows anyone to create games for its Xbox 360 console, the company said today [August 14].

Typically, console games are designed by large studios that must pay high prices to buy development kits in order to write games for consoles. Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express is a new development kit that will be released in beta form in August. It will be available for free to anyone using a Windows XP PC. The kit is designed for game developer novices as well as studios, Microsoft said.

[...]

The XNA Game Studio Express development environment is based on Visual Studio Express and .NET, and allows developers to create games simultaneously for Xbox 360 and Windows XP.

Microsoft expects the final non-beta version of the development platform to become available by the end of the year. Another version of XNA Game Studio Express designed for professional game developers will become available in early 2007, the company said.

The part about simultaneous Xbox/Windows development sounds pretty cool. It’ll be interesting to see whether this platform takes off with game developers.

Microsoft says that it will begin charging $1.50 for users to download a copy of the Office 2007 beta 2.

“In just the past two months since its launch, more than 3 million people have downloaded the 2007 Microsoft Office system beta 2,” the company said in a statement sent via e-mail.

“Given how dramatically the beta 2 downloads have exceeded our goals, we have made the business decision to implement a cost-recovery measure for downloading the beta.”

Microsoft will begin charging users starting Wednesday, it said. The company released beta 2 of Office 2007 in May.