Microsoft takes the wraps off Silverlight 3
Scores of new features have been packed into Silverlight 3, including native support for h.264 and 720p HD (including full-screen) video, improved streaming performance, new 3D and animation effects, hardware acceleration support, pixel shaders, improved font rendering, and multi-touch support. Silverlight applications can also now be run outside of the browser like normal desktop applications.
Silverlight 3 has also been designed to facilitate rapid development, with dozens of new controls being added (with source code available), SEO enhancements, deep linking support, and better data support. Microsoft's Tim Heuer has broken things down for developers, and the there's a detailed "Get Started" guide from Microsoft that has been added to the official Silverlight site.
Microsoft scored some major streaming video wins with Silverlight this year, so it will be interesting to see what kind of gains on Adobe they can make with version 3. It certainly looks promising and, at the very least, it should help drive innovation on the Flash/Silverlight front.
Beta runtime downloads are available for both Windows and Mac.
