NewsMicrosoft, Akamai Join Forces to Provide HD Streaming Video Service for PCs
Posted 10/29/08 at 08:15:17 PM by Pulkit Chandna
Microsoft has joined forces with Akamai to provide a consummate high-definition video streaming experience for PCs. The two companies announced that Akamai will launch a beta version of its HD video streaming service christened AdaptiveEdge Streaming for Microsoft Silverlight in early 2009. The beta release will only be accessible to a few of Akamai’s own customers (content providers).
Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Silverlight will form the skeletal base of the service. Akamai’s service will exploit Microsoft’s new Web server technology, called Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7.0) Smooth Streaming, which is aimed at delivering uninterrupted streaming videos – sans any buffering. “Smooth Streaming is an evolution of proven Silverlight technology that has powered global online events,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft, in a press release.
Microsoft clearly hopes that high-definition streaming video can help its Silverlight platform turn the tide and gain more traction. Of course, if Akamai’s service finds favor among providers, it will automatically endear Silverlight to all such content providers. The camaraderie between Microsoft and Akamai dates back to 1999, when the two first strung together a similar partnership.
NewsNBC Dumps Silverlight After the Olympics, Runs Back to Flash
Posted 09/08/08 at 12:46:01 PM by Paul Lilly
NBC's fling with Microsoft's Silverlight platform appears to be over, at least for the time being. NBC had previously agreed to stream the Beijing Olympics to viewers using Silverlight instead of Flash to deliver the content, but now that the Olympics have wrapped up, NBC has turned back to Flash for this week's NFL season opener.
Even still, the short-term relationship can be viewed as a success for Microsoft, who managed to increase its install-base through the apparently time limited partnership. Overall download specifics were never disclosed, but we do know that at one point 1.5 million downloads were being registered per day, and according to a spokeswoman for Microsoft, at one point "more than 50 percent of the visitors to NBCOlympics.com on MSN already [had] Silverlight 2 installed." Having a large install base is important because it makes it easier for Microsoft to convince developers to use its platform.
And for Adobe, it means getting back a major partner, but not without a downside. While viewers were able to watch NFL games with Flash installed, reports have surfaced complaining of unwatchable video quality saddled with freeze frames, blurry action, and skipping back and forth while as the feeds tried to buffer.
NewsThe Big Loser in This Year's Olympics: Adobe
Posted 08/15/08 at 11:33:11 AM by Paul Lilly
It might not be well publicized, but there's a major war brewing between Microsoft and Adobe, and they're fighting for you. Each one of them wants to be your provider for rich media content, a task that has traditionally been served by Adobe with its Flash player, but one Olympic sized loss could change the game in Microsoft's favor.
It was Microsoft who won the deal to supply NBC with video-viewing technology via Silverlight for the Olympics in Beijing, and while Microsoft and NBC have ties that go back to their collaboration building MSNBC, Adobe could have been considered a favorite to the win the account based the mature nature of Flash technology. So how did Microsoft secure the gold?
"We talked about features like adaptive streaming, the ability to automatically keep checking how much bandwidth you have and deliver the appropriate quality stream and how to be smart about knowing what's coming up in the stream," said Rob Bennett, the general manager of sports for MSN.
In other words, Microsoft won the account on a combination of Silverlight's feature-set, and convincing NBC that Flash's scalability had never been put to an Olympic-size test, unlike Silverlight's underlying technology which is based on Windows Media technologies.
Of course, it's only one account, but it's not so much what Adobe lost, but what Microsoft gained. While download specifics have not been disclosed, we do know that it's registering 1.5 million downloads a day, and according to a spokeswoman for Microsoft, "in the last several days, more than 50 percent of the visitors to NBCOlympics.com on MSN already have Silverlight 2 installed."
NewsNBC Breaks Records, Develops New Methods for Beijing Olympics Coverage
Posted 07/17/08 at 12:41:14 PM by Mark Edward Soper
eWeek reports that NBC will provide 2,900 hours of live TV coverage, shattering the 2,562 hours of combined US TV coverage for all previous summer Olympics games. According to NBCOlympics.com, though, the number is even higher (3,600 hours) when all NBC Universal networks and NBCOlympics.com are taken into account.
To learn how NBC's doing it, and how you can watch it on your PC or mobile device, catch us after the jump.
NewsBuild a 10,000 x 10,000 Mosaic of Images with Deep Zoom
Posted 07/08/08 at 12:39:30 PM by Paul Lilly
One of the coolest features to find its way into Microsoft's Silverlight 2's beta build is the Deep Zoom Composer. Deep Zoom gives website developers the ability to display multiple high resolution thumbnail images, which visitors can then quickly zoom in for a detailed closeup and then pan back out without ever skipping a beat. If you haven't already, install the latest beta build, then head over to the Hard Rock Cafe and browse the memorabilia section to what the fuss is all about.
Taking the technology a giant leap forward, Donavon West, a Microsoft MVP for Live Development, has created a 10,000 x 10,000 mosaic of Barrack Obama. Removing political affiliations from the equation, West's DeepZoomObama mosaic shows Silverlight strutting its stuff as you zoom in on any of the many images ranging from Time Magazine covers to cats wearing hats. Best of all, West details exactly how he built it using a handful of readily available free tools.
While a mosaic of Barrack Obama might be well timed with an upcoming presidential election, the door has been left wide open for Maximum PC readers to serve up more scintillating mosaics. Imagine zooming in on an Asus Striker II Extreme and uncovering a wealth of hardware images. Have something even better in mind? Show us what you got!
NewsPatent Suit Shone on Microsoft's Silverlight
Posted 07/05/08 at 01:55:26 PM by Paul Lilly
The battle between Adobe's Flash format and Microsoft's competing Silverlight software to deliver rich internet applications (RIAs, not to be confused with the RIAA, an entirely different beast in every sense of the word) to your browser may come down to which technology search engines are better able to index. Adobe recently announced a new initiative with Google and Yahoo towards making the Flash file format (SWF) more easily visible to each site's respective spiders, leaving Microsoft noticeably missing from the group pow-wow.
But one company is taking notice of Microsoft. Find out who it is and what they want after the jump.
FROM THE ARCHIVEOnline and Security News Roundup, Memorial Day Edition
Posted 05/26/08 at 10:01:06 PM by Mark 'Marcus_Soperus' Soper
Discover how to make IE8 act like IE7, discover which platform renders rich internet frameworks faster, find out what Vista's User Account Control is good for, and how GPS technology is helping make smarter-than-laser-guided weapons possible.
FROM THE ARCHIVEGet Your Windows Vista Updates Here! Late January Edition
Posted 01/24/08 at 08:08:51 PM by Mark 'Marcus Soperus' Soper
Microsoft rolls out solutions for users who can't install Vista SP1 RC or other updates, makes it easier to fix multi-GPU performance, and solves performance problems with WPF-based websites.
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