LOS ANGELES--After spending much of Tuesday in the clouds, the second day of the Professional Developers Conference on Wednesday is expected to be far more grounded.
On tap is a discussion of the Office 2010 beta as well as the first details on Internet Explorer 9, although Microsoft is not providing code. Microsoft is also talking about Silverlight 4 and releasing a beta of that product.
8:30 a.m. PT: Windows unit president Steven Sinofsky takes the stage.
Sinofsky said that Microsoft approaches Windows 7 like building a movie theater. Microsoft's job is to provide "great seats, great sounds and maybe a concession stand" while developers make the actual movies.
Although developers were interested in hearing about IE 9, the most popular part of Steven Sinofsky's talk was when he announced that paid PDC attendees were getting a free Windows 7 laptop.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)8:35 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is talking about the Windows 7 development process from before the code was publicly released through beta testing and release.
He's hitting on familiar refrains--trying to be more predictable, talking about features only when they are fully baked, and all of the "telemetry" Microsoft uses to get automated feedback.
Sinofsky is talking about the different mechanisms Microsoft uses from Windows Error Reporting, or Watson, to its Software Quality Monitor. Sinofsky notes that the monitoring tools require the user's permission in the final versions of Windows.
During the beta process, though, "we opt you in automatically," he says. (Not to quibble, but technically that's known as opt-out.)
Semantics aside, the shift to automated feedback has had a major impact on the way Windows is developed. In the past, Sinofsky said, bugs got fixed, in large part, based on "whoever screamed the loudest."
Sinofsky said it was basically "testosterone-based bug fixing."
With automated mechanism, Microsoft can see which problems are affecting the most people most often.
8:40 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is sharing some numbers about the Windows 7 beta.
Microsoft got 1.7 million feedback reports, or one feedback report every 10 seconds in the first two weeks after beta. There were 8.1 million installations of the beta, including 4.3 million installations of the release candidate.
There were 10.4 million error reports, which resulted in 4,753 code changes. The start menu was clicked 514 million times in the past six months, while the new Aero Snap and Shake features were clicked 46.4 million times during the same period.
8:45 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is talking about usability studies Microsoft does to test new features, and showing some examples of user feedback on the User Account Control dialog box.
First up, is a mother of a 5 year old who said that when she finally gets time to sit at the computer she'd rather not be interrupted. Instead, she suggested it would be better if there was a place she could go to find all the messages (not too different from the action center eventually included in Windows 7).
Now he's showing some testing of the Aero Snap and Aero Shake features that help manage multiple open windows.
"Get on down... I like that," said one user.
8:50 a.m. PT: If you haven't already, check out CNET's Ray Ozzie interview that posted this morning.
8:53 a.m. PT: Sinofsky brings out Mike Angiulo, who heads up Microsoft's dialogue with the "ecosystem"--folks like PC makers, software, and hardware developers.
He shows off Sony's super-thin, super-light Vaio X. I'm playing around with a demo model of this machine. People are really amazed with this computer. It's so light, some of the people I've shown it to could barely believe it was real.
Microsoft thought it would be good to learn how a laptop is made. It worked with Acer to build a 3.79 pound laptop with multi-touch, preloaded Office, etc.
"It was great for us as members of the ecosystem," Sinofsky said. The best news for those at PDC-- they are making the laptop available to paid PDC attendees for free.
That got the crowd excited. "Not this one, this one is mine," Sinofsky said, clutching the one he is showing off.
The laptops won't be ready for pick-up until 12:30 though. I encourage you to stay here for the rest of the talk."
9:08 a.m. PT: Talk shifts to Internet Explorer.
"There's a balance between standards and real-world," Sinofsky said.
Sinofsky talks about where Microsoft is headed with Internet Explorer 9.
We're about three weeks into the Internet Explorer 9 development, he says.
Sinofsky acknowledges some areas Microsoft needs to do better. One is the Acid 3 benchmark, IE 8 got 20 out of 100 on that test, while IE 9 is at 32 out of 100.
Performance, particularly JavaScript performance, is another area. He shows WebKit.org's SunSpider benchmark which shows IE 9 in the same ballpark as test versions of other leading browsers. Earlier versions of IE performed much worse on SunSpider than other browsers.
"We're getting very close to basically being a wash," Sinofsky said.
9:14 a.m. PT: Sinofsky shows another feature of IE 9--the ability to easily do rounded corners.
More importantly, the IE 9 rendering engine will shift text and graphics rendering to the graphics chip. That allows smoother text and faster performance. Although some browsers shift a bit of 3D work to the graphics processing units in PCs, Microsoft says IE is the first to tap hardware acceleration for standard text and graphics.
Sinofsky shows a few examples, including Bing Maps, where unaccelerated graphics rendered 14 frames per second, while hardware acceleration in IE 9 allowed upwards of 60 frames per second.
Geek detail: The IE logo on the taskbar for IE 9 was gray, as opposed to the blue logo of IE 8.
9:26 a.m. PT: Developer Division head Scott Guthrie on stage talking about Silverlight and Silverlight 4.
Priorities for the next version include improved media features, such as access to Webcams and microphones on a PC and output protection for those with premium content.
Developer Division head Scott Guthrie followed Stephen Sinofsky on stage on Wednesday, showing off some of the features of Silverlight 4.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)Guthrie demos a photo booth application, including video and still capture as well as different pixel shader effects, such as a crayon filter. The technology probably allows a lot more, but Apple fanboys would be right to point to the photo booth application on the Mac (though this is a concept app and Silverlight 4 is browser-based technology, not a desktop application).
Another focus for Silverlight 4 is improving Silverlight outside the browser.
9:37 a.m. PT: Guthrie's having a little trouble with some of the Silverlight demos, showing IIS server's support for creating iPhone-capable video.
"If someone is backstage and wants to kick the browser, feel free to," Guthrie said. "We'll try one more time."
9:40 a.m. PT: Guthrie is talking some of the technical features of Silverlight 4, including a new text editor that supports Roman fonts, as well as Arabic, Hebrew, and Kanji, among other alphabets.
9:45 a.m. PT: Guthrie shows a Silverlight-based video jigsaw puzzle. Turns out it is a video of the infamous Rick Astley video. "You've all been rickrolled," Guthrie said.
Also, for those who want to see the IIS smooth streaming on iPhone demo that Guthrie struggled to get working, it is on the Web here.
9:50 a.m. PT: It's getting code-heavy now, as Microsoft demos how to create Silverlight stuff in Visual Studio 2010. Meanwhile, there's some more detail on Microsoft's IE 9 plans in this blog post.
9:55 a.m. PT: Microsoft hasn't started talking about the Office 2010 beta yet, but it looks like you can start getting it from Microsoft's Web site.
10:04 a.m. PT: Still no Office talk on stage, but the beta is live and Microsoft has posted an article noting that Office Mobile 2010 is also in beta and available for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones via the Windows Mobile Marketplace.
The beta also adds an Outlook Social Connector, which allows users to bring in Windows Live and other social networking feeds into Outlook. LinkedIn is the first that will take advantage of it--early next year--but there is a software development kit for others to do so.
10:15 a.m. PT: The beta of Silverlight 4 is now available for download, Guthrie says. The final release is due in the first half of next year.
10:17 a.m. PT: Office unit senior vice president Kurt DelBene is introduced to talk about Office 2010.
10:20 a.m. PT: DelBene talking about efforts to bring Office not just to the desktop, but also via hosted services.
By the way, while I've been live blogging, we've also posted a story and photo gallery looking at the Windows Azure data center container that is on display at the PDC show floor.
10:35 a.m. PT: DelBene notes that the Office 2010 beta is now available, as are betas of the Office Web Apps for businesses as well as office Mobile for Windows Mobile 6.5.
"I hope that you will all download (Office 2010)," DelBene said.
As I note in my story on the Office 2010 beta, though, the Web Apps remain in their current Tech Preview form on Windows Live. There's no time frame for when they will get updated to the beta versions, which include Word editing and the OneNote Web app.
10:45 a.m. PT: Lots of Sharepoint demos. Lot's of coding. I'll spare you the details.
Microsoft is bringing the DVD experience to downloadable movies--at least in the U.K.
Teaming up with U.K. retail giant Tesco, Microsoft announced Wednesday a new service to offer consumers downloadable videos with the same interactivity, special features, and high quality found on physical DVDs.
Based on Microsoft's Silverlight technology, the "virtual DVD" service will start sometime this fall. It will allow Tesco customers who buy certain movies to also download digital copies of the flicks for their Windows or Mac computers. Besides providing high-quality video, the digital versions will include bonus content, related MP3 files and ringtones, and networked games. Tesco said it is working with "broad range of major movie studios" as part of the deal.
"For the first time, consumers will be able to enjoy a DVD equivalent experience with digital movies, which paves the way for more advanced viewing experiences enabled through Silverlight, Rob Salter, category director for Entertainment at Tesco, said in a statement. "In the future we expect to offer our customers innovative digital solutions that far exceed the DVD experience and deliver exclusive content, Web events, and services wherever and whenever they want them."
Tesco, a grocery chain, has taken advantage of technology to create new business ventures. The company has expanded its reach in recent years to create software and offer a Skype-like VoIP service.
Though the virtual DVD service initially will be available only in the U.K., Microsoft said it expects to branch out to additional markets.
Ahead of a broadcasting conference that starts later this week in Amsterdam, Microsoft on Tuesday shared a few new details on the next version of Silverlight.
In particular, Microsoft said the next version of the Adobe Flash rival would support its PlayReady digital rights management technology for offline content. That feature should allow studios to offer extras commonly found on DVD and Blu-ray discs on movies that are distributed digitally, Microsoft said.
Microsoft has not said when the new version--Silverlight 4--will ship. Silverlight 3 was launched in July at an event in San Francisco.
At that time, Microsoft said it is aiming to have Silverlight on half of all Internet-connected devices by next year. That's still a far cry from Adobe's Flash, which is almost ubiquitous on PCs and on a growing number of cell phones as well.
Also on Tuesday, Microsoft said it would release in the next 30 days its Internet Information Services (IIS) Media Services 3.0, which allows so-called "Live Smooth Streaming" of content. The technology has already been used in beta form since May to offer coverage of events such as the French Open tennis tournament, the Tour de France cycling event, and the Michael Jackson memorial.
The developer of the Moonlight software that enables Silverlight applications to run on Linux computers said on Monday that he is ready to start publicly beta testing an update to the software.
In a blog posting, Miguel de Icaza said the beta of Moonlight 2.0 is available from the gomono.com Web site.
Moonlight 2.0 is aimed at achieving compatibility with sites written for Silverlight 2.0, but incorporates the media pipeline and a few other features of Silverlight 3.0, de Icaza said. Microsoft released Silverlight 3.0 last month.
The beta is available both as source code and as a plug in for the Mozilla browser.
Work on Moonlight first started in 2007, with a beta of the original version released late last year and the final version released in February.
SAN FRANCISCO--By next year, half of all devices connected to the Internet will have Silverlight, says Microsoft's Walid Abu-Hadba.
That will still be just a fraction of the number of phones and computers that have a version of Adobe's Flash, but Abu-Hadba said that it will be enough to really start changing the mindset of those who create content for the Web.
Abu-Hadba
(Credit: Microsoft)"It's a totally different game," said, Abu-Hadba, who leads Microsoft's developer and platform evangelism efforts. Abu-Hadba noted that Microsoft now has a set of features that can appeal to both those streaming large-scale Web video content, as well as software developers aiming to create programs that run inside of businesses.
His comments came following Microsoft's launch Friday of Silverlight 3, the latest version of its technology for rich media applications. The new version allows for programs that work in and out of the browser, supports up to 1080p streaming, and lets users pause and rewind a live video stream.
One of the areas where Microsoft still has work to do is on the phone side. Microsoft has long talked about offering Silverlight on phones, even hoping to bring it to Apple's iPhone, but today it is not commercially available for any phone.
"It's taken a little bit longer than we would have wanted, absolutely," said Abu-Hadba.
However, Abu-Hadba and fellow developer unit executive Scott Guthrie say that Microsoft has also taken the approach that it wants the Silverlight experience on the phone to match that offered on the PC, as opposed to having different versions as Adobe does with Flash. Also, Guthrie said, the landscape for the phone has changed dramatically, with more phones adding the kind of graphics chips necessary to do hardware-based acceleration.
"We want to make sure people have a 'wow' experience," Guthrie said.
Microsoft is beta testing its phone software for both Android and Windows Mobile and announcements are expected at this fall's Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles.
"You are going to hear a lot more details about it later this year," Guthrie said. (For more on Guthrie's take on Silverlight 3, check out the video embedded below.)
For his part, Abu-Hadba said he doesn't wonder if Silverlight will be around 10 years from now, but rather whether his rival will. He said that Adobe has committed itself to moving from a design-oriented company to one that aims to offer a general purpose Web platform, something he said the company doesn't have the resources or experiences to make happen.
"I don't believe they have the assets or the organizational structure," he said. "That's what we do for a living at Microsoft."
Abu-Hadba said Adobe would be better off picking a specialty and sticking to it.
"I don't think they will exist in 10 years in the form they are today," he said. It's a bold statement, he agreed, but added how unthinkable it would have been to predict in 2000 that Sun Microsystems would go away.
I'm checking in with Adobe. I'm thinking it might have a somewhat different take on the subject.
Microsoft Senior VP S. Somasegar notes that the early posting of Silverlight 3 to the Web was an accident and not a "clever marketing ploy."
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft kicked off its latest effort to challenge Adobe's Flash by launching Silverlight 3 at an event Friday.
The code actually made its debut a little early, hitting the Web on Thursday.
In his opening remarks on Friday, Microsoft Senior Vice President S. Somasegar made reference to Silverlight's premature release.
"I can tell you it wasn't a clever marketing ploy," Somegar said. "It was sort of a small mistake that somebody made and we decided to let it go."
Silverlight still has a long way to go to match Flash's ubiquity, with Adobe's technology found on nearly all PCs and a growing number of cell phones. Microsoft says Silverlight 2 is now on one in three Internet devices. That version launched nine months ago.
Silverlight has had a mixed record in its initial efforts to take streaming business from Adobe's Flash. It has scored key deals to power NBC's 2008 Summer and 2010 Winter Olympics sites.
It also won a deal to power Major League Baseball's Web site, but the league went back to Flash for the 2009 season, blaming stability and other issues, according to sources.
Among the new features in Silverlight 3 are the ability to create Silverlight applications that run outside the browser as well as support for a "smooth streaming" technology that allows video to be streamed at up to 1080p HDTV quality.
Microsoft announced a couple new customers for Silverlight on Friday including MGM which is using it to produce SGU: Stargate Universe site and Continental Airlines, which is remaking its reservation call-center application as a Silverlight application running via a Web browser. NBC also said it will use Silverlight for its high-quality video streaming across its sporting events.
As part of Friday's event, Microsoft also said version 3 of its Expression design tools will be available within the next 30 days. A release candidate version of one component, Expression Blend 3, was posted on Thursday to Microsoft's Web site.
The final version of Silverlight 3 has been released to the Web, a day ahead of the product's launch event in San Francisco.
The release, noted by enthusiast site Neowin, marks Microsoft's latest effort to take on Adobe's Flash.
Microsoft detailed Silverlight 3 at the Mix09 event in March, releasing a beta version of the software.
Among the product's new features is technology that allows the software to utilize a PC's hardware to accelerate graphics processing. It also allows for programs that run outside a browser on both the PC and Mac.
NBC has said it will use Silverlight to broadcast the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver. The technology will allow the Games to be broadcast in 720p HD quality as well as provide a TiVo-like ability to pause and rewind a live stream.
Despite the fact that Microsoft has competing products of its own, some influential folks within the company have seen some merits of "Open Web" technology that's a standard part of browsers.
The interesting case in point is Microsoft Office 14, the upcoming version of one of the company's core products and profit engines. The software, due in beta form in 2009, is of Microsoft's highest-profile efforts to bring its desktop software power to the Web.
Chris Capossela
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)Specifically, when it comes to the best tools for building rich Web applications, Microsoft has promoted its own Silverlight plug-in as superior to the lowly JavaScript that's built into browsers.
"I would use Silverlight any place starting new," Brad Becker, who as group product manager for rich client platforms at Microsoft helps oversee Silverlight, said in a 2008 interview. The online Google Docs applications are built using JavaScript-based technology called Ajax, but, he asked, "How many shops out there have the Ajax chops that Google does?"
However, Silverlight might well be easier to program and offer slicker results, but JavaScript has the advantage when it comes to ubiquity. Thus, Office 14 will be built on JavaScript, with optional Silverlight-based features for those who have the plug-in installed, said Chris Capossela, the senior vice president who oversees product management for Microsoft group that builds Office.
"The fundamental premise for Web apps is you want to be able to get at your Web apps no matter where you are," Capossela said in an interview.
Silverlight optional
Though Microsoft has expressed confidence Silverlight will spread broadly--by luring people to install Silverlight to watch the Olympics online for example--it's far from ubiquitous today. And Microsoft wants people to be able to use Office 14 online not just from their own computers, but also from friends' machines or airport kiosks where people don't have administrative privileges to install software, Capossela said.
Microsoft's demonstration of Web-based Excel. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Microsoft)Silverlight will improve the online Office 14 interface when installed, though Capossela wouldn't share details of how beyond an earlier demonstration of zooming a document to high magnification. But, he argued, Microsoft doesn't have to reproduce all the features of ordinary Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote in its online incarnations.
"You're probably not going to work for three hours straight in a browser, but you're going to want to do some lightweight work no matter what machine you have," he said. And if you're editing documents on your own computer, "We already have something on your machine. It's called Office. It defeats the purpose of doing productivity in the browser."
Balancing act
The view sheds some light on the balance Microsoft hopes to strike between the regular and Web versions of Office. Although the Web version of Office will be available for free in ad-supported form and in a licensed or hosted form for companies willing to pay, the company obviously still considers the PC-based version of Office the cornerstone of the business.
Google, on the other hand, which has no desktop software cash cow either to protect or benefit from, has every incentive to make Google Docs as powerful as possible.
That means Google has a stronger incentive to support JavaScript advances.
JavaScript speed has become a horse race among most browser makers, with Google loudly trumpeting performance of its V8 JavaScript engine built into Chrome. Internet Explorer trails Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Mozilla's Firefox in JavaScript execution speed, though the new IE 8 does better than its predecessor.
JavaScript runs a lot more than just Google Docs on the Web, so Microsoft doesn't have an incentive to retard IE progress just to spite its rival. But the fact that the company does have a version of Office that runs natively on the PC means the company isn't as reliant on JavaScript advances.
Microsoft's demonstration of Web-based PowerPoint. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Microsoft)"We can make a very good experience in the browser and we don't have to compete with the rich-client experience we have today," Capossela said.
Ultraparanoia
What will be most intriguing to see as Office 14 arrives is whether Microsoft's attitudes shift. After all, Office is widely used, and the company certainly doesn't want people to have a negative experience with online Office overall or online Office in IE when there are competitors. So there are incentives for the company to improve JavaScript in IE, even though they aren't as strong as Google's.
Done right, online Office could help cement Microsoft's power as cloud computing arrives, bringing advantages such as the ability to let multiple people simultaneously edit the same document. Done wrong, it could yield power to Google as it seeks to expand its search power into other domains.
But though Microsoft may not be the first to the cloud with online productivity tools, don't expect it to be complacent. The Office business successfully navigated the transition from software running on isolated PCs to software that relies on a server for e-mail access or collaboration, Capossela said, and the company is paying close attention to the cloud transition.
"The use of these Web apps today is incredibly small," Capossela said. However, "we always feel ultraparanoid about missing out on something."
roundup A new browser and would-be Flash rival Silverlight have starring roles at Microsoft's annual conference in Las Vegas for Web designers.
Hands-on with IE 8: A giant step for Microsoft
Internet Explorer 8 takes another large leap forward for the world's most-used browser, but is it enough to make devoted Firefox, Chrome, and Safari fans switch?• Browser war centers on once-obscure JavaScript
(Posted in The Download Blog by Seth Rosenblatt)
March 19, 2009 5:55 PM PDT
Are catalogs the killer app for Silverlight?
Silverlight's Deep Zoom offers a way to view magazines and catalogs in a way that's much more akin to physical media than traditional Web sites.(Posted in The Pervasive Datacenter by Gordon Haff)
March 19, 2009 1:02 PM PDT
Microsoft launches IE 8 with a smile
At its Mix 09 event, Microsoft begins its campaign to persuade Web surfers to give its browser another chance.• Images: Installing Internet Explorer 8
• Download IE 8
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
March 19, 2009 9:34 AM PDT
Netflix: Silverlight 3 could help with glitches
Online video rental giant says the next version of Silverlight should work better on slower machines that have had some trouble streaming videos.(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
March 18, 2009 12:23 PM PDT
Mix 09: Silverlight 3 takes center stage
After a touchy-feely start, Microsoft gets geeky as the talk shifts to new versions of its Web tools, most notably Silverlight 3.(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
March 18, 2009 10:22 AM PDT
Mix kicks off with Buxton touting design
Microsoft begins its Web design conference in un-Microsoft fashion, with researcher Bill Buxton talking about design.(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
March 18, 2009 9:30 AM PDT
Silverlight 3 rears its head at Mix
Pieces of the new software have started to pop up on Microsoft's developer sites. A beta version of the would-be Flash rival is expected to be shown later Wednesday.(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
March 18, 2009 8:33 AM PDT
Microsoft releases Web translating widget
Developers can now tap Microsoft to translate their Web page in such a way that users don't have to leave the Web site.(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
March 18, 2009 11:30 AM PDT
IE 8, Silverlight 3 on tap for Microsoft's Mix
The software maker's conference for Web designers kicks off on Wednesday in Las Vegas. A new browser and update to its would-be Flash rival will take center stage.(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
March 17, 2009 1:12 PM PDT
Netflix said on Wednesday that the next version of Silverlight shows some promise in helping ease recent issues that some users have had while trying to stream videos on lower-end computers.
"There are test configurations in our lab where we are seeing an improvement," said Kevin McEntee, vice president of Web development for Netflix. McEntee told CNET News that the company went out and bought computers such as an Asus Netbook that users had said were causing problems. In some cases, the low-end machines weren't able to keep up with the video and were dropping frames, McEntee said.
The next version of Silverlight holds promise, McEntee said, by allowing the load to be shared by the graphics and main processors, whereas the current version puts all the strain on the CPU.
"There was a significant improvement using Silverlight 3," McEntee said. "We think we can run on a wide range of lower-end machines that we don't run (well) on today."
However, those experiencing problems will have to wait a bit. Silverlight 3 just entered beta, with a final release not expected until sometime before the end of the year. A Silverlight 3-based Netflix player would come sometime after that, he said.
"I don't anticipate we would do it until Silverlight 3 is released as a final (version)," he said.
McEntee said that Netflix originally planned to use Silverlight only to create a Mac version of its streaming player, but decided to shift entirely to Silverlight because it lets them offer a single player that works on multiple platforms and on multiple browsers.
The biggest downside, he said, is that many people still don't have Silverlight, meaning customers have to download the program before they can watch their first movie.
"We're waiting for Silverlight to have more and more penetration," McEntee said. "We would love to be able to have (customers) push the blue play button and it just plays."
For now, Netflix is focused on offering streaming video for the PC and television rather than actively working on an option that would also get the content onto cell phones and iPods.
"We don't have any imminent plans for phones or iPods or anything with a smaller screen," said company spokesman Steve Swasey. "At some point--and we haven't said when--we would be interested in getting into other devices."
Microsoft has had a mixed track record with big-name customers for Silverlight. NBC used Silverlight to offer on-demand and live video from the Beijing Olympics. On Wednesday, NBC's Perkins Miller announced at Mix that the network would also be using Microsoft's technology for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver.
Major League Baseball, meanwhile, recently said it was dropping Silverlight for its video service and going with Adobe's Flash.
