Microsoft releases its new Silverlight 5
Add to 
del.icio.us
 Digg this
Get a great Ubuntu Linux dedicated server for less than $3 a day!
Share on Twitter
Dec. 13, 2011
Late yesterday, Microsoft released its new Silverlight 5 and made it available for download, all of this without
making too much noise about it.
But rumors also suggest that this may be the last major upgrade for the source code. Silverlight is a development
tool for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for internet and mobile applications.
Silverlight is a free plug-in, powered by Microsoft's .Net framework and compatible with multiple
browsers, devices and operating systems, bringing a new level of interactivity wherever the Web works.
Among the full list of improvements are hardware decoding of H.264 unprotected content using the GPU (graphical
processor unit), support for 64-bit browsers and a rewritten graphics stack using built-in XNA Games Studio 4.0 graphics
libraries for vertex shading and basic 3D. New sound effects have also been added, and a variable video replay rate have
also been designed.
And postscript Vector printing is now supported, which should improve the finished product and help reduce file
sizes. Text handling has seen several additions, including the character spacing and support for RichTextBlock and
OpenType.
Silverlight 5 is also using a new Trusted Application model from Redmond, which uses “a group policy registry key
and an application certificate, meaning users won’t need to leave the browser to perform complex tasks such as multiple
window support, full trust support in browser including COM and file system access, in browser HTML hosting within
Silverlight, and P/Invoke support for existing native code to be run directly from Silverlight,” the Silverlight team
said on its blog.
There has been some speculation that this could be the last version of Silverlight Microsoft ships, after redundancies
on the team and questions raised over the company’s commitment to cross-browser support and developer relations. Redmond
is saying it will support this build until 2021, and is still winning new customers, so it will be interesting to see
how this all pans out in the new year and in 2013.
In other hi tek news
Microsoft and General Electric said that they have formed a health care company with a 50-50
ownership split. GE already has a similar joint venture with Intel, and General Electric has a vast experience
in the medical technology, thanks to its well-known X-ray division. Specifically, the Microsoft-GE healthcare
joint venture is focused mainly on patient outcomes as well as real-time data.
The two companies are planning to develop an open platform as well as clinical applications. Microsoft also
finds a home for a bevy of technologies acquired when the software giant bought Sentillion in 2009. With the new
partnership, GE has formed ventures with both sides of Wintel (Windows-Intel).
GE and Intel already have a partnership focused on telehealth. The Intel and Microsoft ventures with GE both have
50-50 ownership splits.
Overall, health care costs are a really big focus for technology companies, and they should be, since they keep
going up all the time. GE, a major provider of medical equipment and information systems used in the health care
industry, is partnering with leading technology companies.
Meanwhile, IBM is taking mid-size minicomputers into hospitals for diagnosis and analytics support. With healthcare
costs skyrocketing, a lot of money will be spent on medical technology in an attempt to make systems more efficient,
while keeping overall costs down.
The new joint venture combines Microsoft's ecosystem with GE's clinical workflow tools. In a statement, GE CEO
Jeff Immelt said that his company and Microsoft are complementary and that the joint venture will further advance the
two companies' shared vision of a connected, patient-centric health care system.
According to the two companies, the joint venture will launch in the first half of next year, and Michael Simpson,
general manager at GE Healthcare IT, will be CEO. The venture hasn't been named yet, but will be based near Microsoft's
campus in Redmond, Wash.
Source: Microsoft.
Add to
del.icio.us
Digg this
Get a great Ubuntu Linux dedicated server for less than $3 a day!
Share on Twitter
| 
