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Microsoft just released Silverlight in September, a cross-browser, cross-platform plugin for delivering media experiences and interactive applications for the Web. A direct competitor to Adobe’s market dominant Flash application, Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports JavaScript, Visual C#, Visual Basic, and other languages. Developers are lining up to get started with Silverlight and take advantage of the powerful WPF graphics platform. Wrox Press is releasing SILVERLIGHT 1.0 (Wrox Press, an imprint of Wiley; $39.99; October 2007), a one-of-a-kind reference with full-color illustrations shows developers how to create rich interactive applications with Silverlight. (more…)

Microsoft has released to the Web (RTW) Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering a richer user experiences on the Web.

“Silverlight is a popular new way to build and deliver cross-browser, cross-platform experiences on the Web,” said Miguel de Icaza, vice president of Developer Platforms and leader of the Mono project at Novell. “Novell is excited to work with Microsoft to extend

Silverlight beyond Windows and Macintosh to Linux with Moonlight, so Linux users everywhere can enhance their rich media and interactive experiences on the Web.” As of now more than 35 companies have already signed up to support Silverlight.
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VIA various news Sources

Microsoft Corp. will soon let users of its Hotmail service store 5 gigabytes of photos and other e-mail messages, more than double the previous limit. In todays scenario where big giants are providing Mail space upto 2 GB’s Hotmail has just doubled the capacity. Of course, only a small number of Hotmail users will ever approach that threshold, a reality the software maker acknowledged in a blog post this week outlining the storage boost and other upgrades to the free, Web-based service. (more…)

Microsoft on Tuesday announced that they had submitted their specs to Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) and they are  considering standardization of the company’s HD Photo file format. Tentatively titled “JPEG XR,” HD Photo was introduced with the release of Windows Vista.
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Microsoft announced the availability Thursday of the second beta version of its upcoming Visual Studio 2008 developer tools and the last version of its Silverlight rich media software code before the final version ships.
The second version of VS 2008, which is still scheduled to ship before the end of the year, includes a Silverlight add-in that allows developers to start building Silverlight rich Internet applications in Visual Studio 2008 and work with designer colleagues using the new Expression Web design tool, Microsoft said. With this beta release, VS 2008, is 99 percent complete, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman. (more…)

Windows Live Folders - The service was code-named Live Drive.

Files can only be uploaded to Windows Live Folders via a web browser (IE or Firefox). You can create personal, shared, and public folders.

Chris has more more details and screenshots of Windows Live Folders on LiveSide.

It may be a bit premature to say if AOL XDrive will feel any heat from Windows Live Folders because the former offers 10x more space and there’s even a desktop software to upload files from Windows Explorer.

Microsoft has neither released any desktop based file uploading client nor any tool to sync the online and offline file folders.

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Windows Live has expanded its offerings to include the ability for both Vista and XP users to share photos online through its Photo Gallery app. It’s also added Live Folders, which gives users half a GB of online storage space, access to which can be shared. Both offerings bolster Live’s usefulness; however, they appear similar to those already offered by competitors like Google. (more…)

Microsoft on Wednesday added photo gallery and file sharing components to its Windows Live application suite.

The programs – both of which were released in beta – provide a downloadable photo gallery application and a Web-based file sharing service.

Microsoft was focused on providing a “simple and flexible sharing solution that really brings the social experience to the front,” said Brian Hall, general manager for Windows Live. (more…)