Microsoft proto-being stirs into Live
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Primeval sludge is wriggling Microsoft's Live isn't, well, live - at least not in a "here it is with a full set of bells and whistles" sense. But it is here, as a proto-being, and the company wants developers to go and try it out, find out what it can do and, from there, get some ideas on what they might want to do with it.â¦
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This morning, Microsoft formally announced it's distributing consumer-ready, working prototypes of its table-top "Surface" computing system for selected partners in the hotel, casino, and retail industries.  But an earlier demonstration of Surface at WinHEC 2007 two weeks ago revealed the company has had other, stranger plans for the platform.
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Microsoft Corp. is using the same tactic for its online services that made its Internet Explorer browser ubiquitous among Internet users. With new beta technology it's releasing Wednesday, Microsoft is tying its Windows Live services directly to its Windows OS.
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Mike Potter (from Adobe) has issued an invitation for all PHP and Ruby developers attending the MAX Conference to track each other down, as well as him.   I think this would be a perfect time for these groups of people to get together, showcase what you're working on, and talk about the problems that you're facing.  We're working out the details of MAXUP, but if you're going to MAX, plan on arriving on the Sunday so that on Monday we can get together and showcase and talk about the work that's going on with Flex and languages other than Java and ColdFusion.   He suggests using the entry's comments to help coordinate the meetings. The Early Bird pricing is still in effect for the conference, so there's no time like the present to reserve your spot.
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On his blog, Ben Ramsey comments on the Microsoft Web Development Summit currently happening in Redmond, WA.  Microsoft has invited us to their main campus in an effort to reach out to the PHP community to solicit opinions and feedback on various technologies, including IIS, Silverlight, their Ajax library, Expression Web, etc.  For anyone interested, he's been posting his own notes from the summit on his Wiki.
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ON THE SCENE - During an invitation-only demonstration here at TechEd, small device developer EmbeddedFusion demonstrated a prototype programmable small device - actually a circuit board with a 2x3 color LCD display - that is capable of being programmed using Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework.  It's a managed code system with which developers can rapidly build programs for embedded devices, and embedded device drivers.
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A startup claims it has created software that lets programs run on any operating system--and any processor--without slowing down. Is the hype for real this time?
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Smoke and mirrors Comment [ Microsoft calls its multitouch user interface Surface Computing "a new paradigm". We asked a British pioneer in the field to examine the claim. - ed.]â¦
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Will Microsoft feel the heat from a tiny monster?
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Companies to create real-time, rich-media collaboration for Windows Messenger users and later for Office Live Meeting users.
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Reinforcing its positioning of Office as not just an applications suite, but a development platform, Microsoft on Wednesday kicked off its first Office System Developer Conference.
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New .mobi and .jobs, a shift in the ownership of .net
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Microsoft's Live search engine enjoyed a recent jump in queries, although Google still reigns.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft held another dog-and-pony show Friday to tout its prized Silverlight rich media technology, which will take on Adobe's ubiquitous Flash Player for the hearts and minds of developers. The company's ReMix07 event, held at company offices in Mountain View, Calif, was a slimmed-down replay of the larger Mix07 conference held in Las Vegas in April. Featured were demonstrations of Silverlight benefits for Internet browsers, leveraged with Microsoft's Expression and the Visual Studio tools. "The core [function] that Siliverlight delivers is rich media capabilities," including video and graphics, said Scott Guthrie, general manager of the developer division at Microsoft. Silverlight, which is still in a pre-release stage, is deployable on Windows and Macintosh via a lightweight download. Net and AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) programming models can be used with it. "Our goal is to have [Silverlight] run on as many systems as possible," Guthrie said. Microsoft wants to see it installed on hundreds of millions of clients. Microsoft officials are bullish on Silverlight, viewing it as having higher quality than Adobe Flash and of great use to venture capital-funded companies looking to provide a differentiated Web experience. "I think Silverlight gives you the richest possible way to watch video on the Web," said Dan'l Lewin, corporate vice president for strategic and emerging business development at Microsoft. "I think that's something that most people in the industry have acknowledged and are pretty excited about." Flash, however, already is installed on more than 700 million Internet-connected desktops, Adobe said. Silverlight technologies currently accessible include the beta release of Silverlight 1.0, which is focused on adding media like graphics to existing Web sites. It is due to be generally available later this summer with a release candidate due soon, Guthrie said. An alpha release of Silverlight 1.1 is also available, geared to rich Internet applications and leveraging .Net programming. Silverlight tools also are planned for the Visual Studio 2008 platform due later this year. Silverlight will be supported on mobile devices and other OSes in the future, Guthrie said. A Linux client version is possible at some point, but Microsoft is focusing on Windows and Macintosh now because they have the largest installed base, Microsoft officials said.Â Â  Featured during this morning's presentation was a demonstration of a Silverlight-based video-editing application developed by Metaliq. With this application, videos could be dragged and dropped onto a palette and edited together. A ReMix attendee saw promise in Silverlight. "It seems like Microsoft is doing what they usually do, [which is] coming out with a tool that really goes over the top and does as much as if not more than what the other competitors do," said Craig Benson, vice president of engineering at InnerAthlete, which is an online athletic training site. InnerAthlete could use Silverlight to show video demonstrations, Benson said.Â  Also at ReMix, Guthrie stressed Windows Presentation Foundation. "It really enables you to build much richer desktop applications and push the boundaries of what the desktop can do," he said. He noted that another item on Microsoft's agenda is the planned Internet Information Services 7 with a rich hosting infrastructure. "This is a major update of our Web server stack," Guthrie said. In a separate, Windows-related development this week, Microsoft offered a "Windows Vista Momentum pack to its OEM partners to promote deployments of Windows Vista. The pack features information on what Microsoft calls "the great momentum and readiness" in the market from the Vista ecosystem.
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Microsoft is on the move again. As it has in the past, the software giant is trying to elbow aside rivals who have pioneered new markets.
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The Seattle P-I has an interesting look at Redmond's program that has 'Softies taking home the latest in home gear in an effort to better understand how the company's digital living room products perform in actual living rooms.
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New beta of blogging tool Windows Live Writer joins updates to Microsoft's Windows Live instant messaging and e-mail apps.