Microsoft Mix Keynote One, Live From Las Vegas

11:56: That’s a rap. the rumors were wrong, yet still some very impressive demonstrations and info provided. To be fair I’m not sure it needed 2 1/2 hours, but still, some interesting tech.

11:54: Weatherbug says that they tried doing this on Flash Lite and it was too expensive and hard, where as it took them only 3 weeks on Silverlight

11:53: Weatherbug demo on a Nokia phone.

11:47: Scott Guthrie confirms Nokia deal, presentation from Nokia.

11:46: more mobile demos on a HTC phone.

11:40: finally at mobile, Silverlight + .Net going to mobile devices

11:39: demonstrations of WPF developments, uses hardware acceleration for low CPU pull

11:32: they’re using custom front end to a DB

11:30: Krista Monson from Cirque Du Soleil on stage to talk about what they’re doing with it all.

10:27: Scott Guthrie making some wrap up comments on Microsoft’s web development suite…but wait, there’s more, we’re now going to get business application demos

11:20: zoom into the stiching level on the inner door panels…which can also be customized. Super quick on Silverlight using their zoom tech

11:19: Demonstration of Aston site includes car customization such as color choice. zoom around etc….

11:18: Marek Reichman from Aston Martin on stage to demo the site. To quote Jeremy Clarkson: Pornography on wheels

11:15: Where’s Scoble, this is nearly worth crying over. Zoom into a thumb print on a huge picture, quick in and out. Live on hardrock.com later this week

11:12. Struth. 2billion pixel image zooming in and out. A pile of images on button. Text doesn’t do it justice

11:09 Sean Dee, Scott Stanfield from Hard Rock International on stage to demo their implementation of Silverlight.

11:08: Scott Guthrie back on stage. New feature called “deep zoom” image handling, more efficent and seemless experience

10:05: cool theming with Silverlight, explains that it’s the same code, Silverlight built in theming makes it easy for them.

11:03 Roy Ben-Yoseph, Eric Hoffman from AOL on stage to talk about AOL Mail with Silverlight

11:00 Silverlight 2 tool support for Expression Studio and Visual Studio available today

10:58: Silverlight 2 comes with additional controls, such as slider controls. More functionality out of the box that Silverlight 1. All shipped with open source license.

10:55: Silverlight 2 ships with Multi-language support (C#, Iron Python and others), WPF UI Framework, Robust Networking (W Star + others, support for sockets), Integrated Data Support, “high performance, Small download, fast install. Silverlight 2 Beta 1 is a 4.3mb download

10:54: got to say, the NBC Olympics site is kickass. Biggest round of applause for the event so far

10:53: you can view up to 4 live streams at once. Sort of like Yahoo Live, but with live sports

10:52: picture-in-picture support. Just like a decent TV, this is good, practical tech

10:51: live updates in the video, for example live events notices, all via Silverlight.

10:50: users will be able to rewind live video on the olympics sites, manually via a running sheet….note that this is live video, impressive.

10:46: Perkins Miller, NBC Sports on stage to demo the NBC 2008 Olympics site

10:40: Scott Guthrie back. Silverlight can be integrated with other ad platforms, hints at Google but doesn’t name them. Ari Paparo from DoubleClick takes the stage. Announces that DoubleClick supports Silverlight 2

10:37: still demoing silverlight dveloper tools. Gives ad publisher “total control over how their ads are displayed”

10:32: into Microsoft Expression Blend demonstration with Silverlight. Is it just me or is Microsoft software starting to look like Apple sotfware?

10:31: demoing Silverlight with advertising. Nice, easy to use interface within Visual Studio. Integration etc…

10:30: John Harris comes on stage to demo business uses of Silverlight

10:28: Silverlight and IIS7 bit rate throtling allows specfied streaming, for example an initial burst then only staying say 10sec ahead of where the user is watching. Saves on bandwidth because you’re not streaming/ downloading the whole video unless the viewer watches it

10:27: claims that Silverlight scales 3 times better than other options. Progressive downlaods include bit-rate throttling, web playlist

10:26: Strategic partnership with Move Networks and Microsoft for Silverlight. 30m people on sites including ABC, Fox etc….

10:23: Silverlight 2 has “adaptive streaming” that will automatically pick the appropriate bitrate and encoding for streaming video. It can also adjust the bitrate on the fly up or down as appropriate, all without user input.

10:22: “Silverlight 2 will allow the creation of rich applications.”

10:22: Silverlight 2 Beta 1 available for download today

10:20: Downloads of Silverlight: 1.5 million a day

10:18: Scott Guthrie back on stage. Talking Silverlight complete with site demos

10:17: IE8 Beta 1 for developers is available now. http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie8 (Update: apparently available after keynote; link currently broken)

10:16: code on pages for web slices, MS releasing as open standard. I’m not sure if it works only with sites with the code, or any sites (ala OS X web clips)

10:14: “web slices” allows users to subscribe to parts of a page. Using eBay lists and Facebook statuses as examples.

10:13: Open service format specification now available, links into the right click, can be embeded on pages

(Below: JavaScript speeds in various browsers)

10:11: rich right click options in IE8, highlight an address, right click, option to take you to a map. Links in with Stumbleupon + eBay as well

10:09: debugger/ developer tool “isn’t like any you’ve seen before”, immediately narrows down where relevant code is, displays related info etc, nice tool

(Below: a webpage rendered in Internet Explorer 8 )

10:08: IE8 saves data if internet access lost, complete with message etc, more applause.

10:07: the back button works with Ajax, first applause from the audience.

10:05: claiming 2.5x JS handling in IE8, 40%+ increase in gmail speed

10:03: legacy support in IE8: “there is content on the web that works with IE7 in mind that doesn’t work well with standards based products,” shows how some sites dont work on Safari and FF

10:01: MS has submitted 702 CSS test cases to the CSS working group to make sure that they are interpreting the CSS standards the same way developers are

10:00: demos how IE7 is screwed, laughs from the audience. First demo of IE8 with a page that didn’t work in IE7.

9:59: CSS 2.1 support, “standards and interopability” started with CSS 2.1 as standard

9:59: that was the starting point for IE8: interopability

9:58: Developers want to create amazing experiences, but spend too much time trying to get pages to work across multiple platforms

9:56: Dean Hachamovitc takes the stage to talk about Internet Explorer 8

9:55: new updates shipping: ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET Dynamic Data

9:54: Scott Guthrie now on stage talking net

9:51: “connected development” is the last part of the strategy. Pics of devices again. Scott Guthrie will explain later.

9:50: Beta of SQL Server Data Server released today.

9:49: Microsoft System Center, picture looks like a mainframe, part of Microsoft’s desire to provide connected business services

9:46: talking about Office Live Workspace, saying that its part of Microsoft’s central hub of online services

9:45: Didn’t name the package, so only half an announcement. Talking about media and productivity, all parts of the broader package

9:43: at last, an announcement: “seemless mesh” with the web as a hub. But hasn’t named the software yet…..

9:42: Connected devices: unified centralized hub for all devices

9:41: more talk about the utility computing model and the cloud. Now a question: how will Microsoft’s products be effected by this fundamental change?

9:40 “standards, transparency, interopability” are key. (this really is the new Microsoft)

9:39: the third priniple is small pieces loosly joined, developers - applications…

9:38: All Microsoft software will be reconfigured to interact with this new model, to interact with the cloud.

9:38: second driving principle is business. Microsoft wants to be on the cloud. Talking about “virtualization power computing utility model”…..more talk on the utlity model

9:37: multi-connected devices will connect to the web, Microsoft’s role is to be involved in that

9:35: “linking, sharing tagging” will become as well known as “File, save and edit”

9:34: Microsoft heavily investing in search to improve position.

9:33: Ozzie talks about the innovation and change in the DNA of the web. Lots of buzz words: user engagement is changing advertising

9:32: first part of the strategy: advertising, the core driver of the web. “The innovation and experience” of advertising….

9:31: Ray Ozzie says that Microsoft’s strategy may appear to be somewhat random. He’s going to explain

9:30: Ray Ozzie talking about the year past, and investments over the year. Screantonic and Aquantive. Then he says “and then there’s Yahoo” to laughter

9:30: Ray Ozie takes the stage

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Join us here from 9:30am PST for a live blog of Ray Ozzie, Scott Guthrie and Dean Hachamovitch delivering the first of two keynotes from Microsoft’s Mix conference in Las Vegas.

There’s plenty of rumors swirling around what will be announced today. A group of Microsofties told me last night that there was a reason the Nokia/ Silverlight announcement was made pre-Mix, as today’s announcement is that much bigger. The strong rumors are saying offline Silverlight, but there was one rumor yesterday that struck me as just too unreal to believe, and yet this morning I read Steve Jobs bagging Adobe Flash. That rumor is that we’ll see Silverlight on Apple’s iPhone.

More from 9:30am. Please note as this is a live blog, updates may include typos etc, we’ll clean it up post show.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 9:23 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.