HTWWO: Microsoft Silverlight

On Sunday at the NAB2007, Microsoft made public the release of Silverlight (formerly known as WPF/E) a new cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIA's) for the Web.

Silverlight is a lightweight subset of XAML, made to build rich media experiences on the web. It supports playback of WMV natively in Windows and Mac, supporting up to 720p on full screen and with options of interactivity during playback.

Another cool feature is that Silverlight introduces a new video brush, allowing you to use video as a texture for any 2D object.

The release have been widely covered across the web, and I have gathered some interesting ones following, so bare with me and enjoy!

• Microsoft Silverlight Official Site here.
• Tina Wood has a video on Channel 10 hosting a demo from the NAB, showing up HD Video delivery both in Mac and PC, go check it out here.
• Tim Sneath has got a post where he goes around his top ten reasons on why you should use Silverlight, I encourage you to go read it here.
• Microsoft's Official Press Pass here. and official press material here.

Looking forward to the weeks to come, during MIX07 there will be wide coverage of Silverlight and some other surprises Microsoft have under its sleeve: Expression Media will be enhanced with Expression Media Encoder later this year, and Tim Sneath recently posted an entry on his blog about it, here; also there will be announcements of a new breed of applications that will be shown across the event's week in May. Lucky you, Mixers!.

Cheers!

P.S. One more thing, bullet # 8 from Tim Sneath's post states: Silverlight is both client- and server-agnostic. There's no difference between the Macintosh and PC runtimes; you don't need any Microsoft software on the server if you don't want to - you can deliver a great Silverlight experience from an Apache / Linux server to a Mac OS 10.4 client. Kind of cool, eh?

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Technorati tags: HTWWO, WPF/E, Silverlight, HD, Microsoft, Products, Web2.0, User Experience, RIA, RIE, Rich Interactive Experiences, WPF

How the World was One!

Over the past few months the Digital World have seen a revamp of a really complex suite of applications and technology models.

The world of media services is no longer what it used to be, and plain HTML, or its Dynamic sibling, no longer fits the bill for RIA. Even more we need to coined some new term that is even more wider and encompasses the real phenomenon we are living, and is what I think to be the rise of Rich Interactive Experiences (RIE).

Software for the desktop or a rich experience on the web should not be that hard to write nor to deliver and we should enforce the way the user interacts with it. User Experiences have gained lots of spaces with this saying and the iPod / iPhone fever has proved it.

People around the world is starting to see how this is the right way to go... give people the power... empower your people... maximize people's productivity... do not make them feel stupid!

A few years ago while in college, it came to my hands a book written by Arthur C. Clark called How the world was one; the book tells the history of modern communication, starting from the invention of the Telegraph, in 1858, to the years when Satellites were put in orbit during the World War II... he tells how during that time, 1957, he saw a world that was solely interconnected. Anywhere. Anyhow and... sighs, One.

Years have passed ever since, and nowadays the world is living a similar revolution. The world is being reconquered, the difference is that today you and I are part of the equation, and not only the military is not running the show, but rather every single human-being with access to a computer is doing it, by accessing a cellphone, a laptop, a kiosk on an airport, a UPMC on the go, a TV, a game console, a refri, or just by posting a photo thru your regular desktop set with an Internet connection... we are just been a small but critical part of that big network of information. That cell goes by the name of the Web 2.0.

Although, there is a second difference to this awakening. Differing from decades ago, the user community nowadays expects great experiences, starting from the first community released version they want to feel empowered. They want to feel they are smart... they want to start a wow!

Today the user community is more knowledgeable, they have realized that they own the power. They are the ones that ultimately will end up giving money away in exchange for those services, so why should one allow for crappy applications?!

With this post I am starting a new section of this blog. This section will be called How The World Was One (HTWWO), in reference to that notion that years ago Dr. Clarke had, that: The World Was One.

I will start introducing tools and interconnect them with our day to day life, our digital way of life... I will cover services and thoughts that will day by day help us realize of how different our world gets; and how it redefines the statement of being ONE.

Hope you will enjoy this as much as I do while I write it.

Cheers!

Update: Seems like I am not alone in this battle, here, Ethan Eismann ends with a similar resolution of were the world is moving to, and funny enough it is RIE were he thinks we are moving to.

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Technorati tags: HTWWO, Web2.0, User Experience, RIE, Rich Interactive Experiences, Arthur C. Clarke, Products, How-to

Updates from Mars

Ok, so it's April 16th 2007 and today it marks my 5th week in my new endeavors as Solutions Architect @ Schematic; which somehow has become the reason why I haven't been around these bits lately.

Schematic was just recently selected within the top 10 Independent Interactive Agencies in the United States by ADWEEK, based on the the interactive agency's 2006 revenue and premiere roster of clients.

This new change crosses a line over my goals of working for an interactive shop, where User Experience and High Tech meets to deliver the most to its users; matching what I've been looking for during the last year or so.

Now, the following are three questions I asked myself and wanted to make them public. This is somehow my statement for what is up to come.

So, what does this change means for the site and my ongoing research?

Well, it means that I will be mixing up more technologies that I have so far. I also will be paying more attention to new ways of media advertising and media management, its delivery platforms and cross-platform operability; not that I've not been doing that in the past already, thought I will be doing with more passion and conscious.

How does all this changes my future in technology and usability?

For Good! I have to be honest here, I've been with this company for over a month already, I have got the chance to meet both the Costa Rica office as well as the NY one - at in a few days the LA one; and the environment and the culture presented to me while living it has been just great.

The quality of the resources available to you for your projects and research is just amazing. You have really gurus at the reach of your Jabber or walking by their desks. This guys are gurus in technologies such as Flash, Flex and the new born Apollo; Microsoft's C#, MCML, WPF and with technologies that have not even seen the light of day.

The commitment to measure your project's success in equal terms of how successfully it is to your client, their objectives and its overall productivity, make you own that success and strive to present your client with the best fit solution. That is what makes a great technology company!

What plans do u foresee in your personal time now that this great opportunity walked in your door?

Ok, the first one is that I will be getting more involved in User Experience and Design. I'm currently looking at starting to go to Design School here in Costa Rica. I love graphic media, both creative as photography; so I think now is a good time to enhance this opportunity.

I also will be looking at a chance to teach again. For those of you who know me, will remember during early 2006 I teach a couple classes at the Universidad Interamericana. Well I'd like to go back that path and look for the chance to teach @ my old school, the Costa Rica Institute of Technology, from where I got my CS degree.

And the last and of course not least, I will continue my involvement with the community thru my blog and presentations. I'll keep letting people know about technologies I'll be working on and things that catch my attention daily... so I solely won't forget you, rather will enhance you!

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Technorati tags: Personal, Schematic, Q&A, Blog, Technology, Media, Future

Ping from a Mac in 5th Ave

What's up guys? It's been a while I haven't been around... since I started with Schematic a lot of exiting things have happened, which have let me to step aside from bloggin' for a bit of the time.

For the moment let's say I am in New York City. I had to fly here from Costa Rica last friday to meet with my team in the NY office and will be staying here for a bit more than a week.

During this ongoing weekend I've been doing some photowalking around the east side and as part of the tour I wanted to check out the Apple Store on 5th Ave.

Got to confess that as part for my visit to the Big Apple's Apple Store, I couldn't resist playing around with one of its jewels and well this is the result of it:

This was done in like the past 5 minutes with Photo Booth: it really makes you happy... I have to say it feels like been a kid on a candy store and you don't know what to choose, such is life eh?... ok I got to go now, I need to keep going with my tour down the 5th Ave!

Take care guys, peace!

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Technorati tags: Apple, New York, Photo Booth, Mac OS X, Mac, MacBook, Apple Store