News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 17, 2007

rivals

Microsoft shines Silverlight right in your eyes

Posted Apr. 17, ’07, 5:18 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Apple » Rivals

Silverlight Sometimes I really think that Microsoft just pages through software retailer catalogs to get ideas for new products. The latest development is Silverlight, a Flash and Quicktime competitor. In all fairness, it’s much more a Flash competitor than Quicktime. Silverlight was originally known as WPF/E. Unbelievable that they would change it. WPF/E rolls off the tongue like a metal pipe on a freezing winter day.

It has all those neat features that Flash media creators are already familiar with, particularly video, but has (I really don’t doubt this) better video quality and can even support high def video. They’re even supporting a Mac version of the plugin necessary for playback (available for download). The catch, you knew one was coming, is that the creation of the media must be done on Windows using tools only available for that platform. It’s quite clearly a move to try to pull more creative workers into the Microsoft fold.

Akamai Technologies, Brightcove, Eyeblaster, Major League Baseball and Netflix have all already signed over their souls up to distribute the content. The last company is of particular interest. One of Silverlight’s strengths is baked in DRM. Netflix’s streaming service is currently Windows only. However, should they decide to move the service to this new media (which seems like the only obvious use), it could mean that Mac users could take advantage of that aspect of the service. That’s good news to at least me because I’m getting really tired of starting Parallels just to get the most out of my account.


4 Comments

DBL said:

So how soon do you think this Silverblight is likely to infect my Mac?

April 17, 2007 8:22 AM
Scott said:

While it's cross-platform and relies on WMV, it doesn't do WMV v10 only the earlier v9 (so no DRM'ed files). And, while it includes some ActiveX controls, it only includes a small sub-set with a promise that "if there is strong enough demand from their customers" they might add more at a later date. So it won't solve the "Win IE6/7 only" web site problem.

In short, in you're not using Vista and Win IE7, you're a second class citizen.

April 17, 2007 11:19 AM
Joe S. said:

DOA.

April 17, 2007 6:51 PM
DBL said:

Is there some kind of vaccine or softicide I can get that will nip the Silverblight in the bud?

April 17, 2007 9:36 PM

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