The "Weekly WassUp" is a brief weekly overview of what has been showing up in "the feeds" in the last week.
In this issue:
- Oct. 13 : Microsoft names Vista successor
- Oct. 13 : Silverlight 2 launches
- Oct. 14 : Firefox 3.1 beta 1 released
- Oct. 15 : Flash 10 goes live
- Oct. 16 : the new iGoogle
- Oct. 16 : Yahoo's Open Strategy
Oct. 13 : Microsoft names Vista successor
On October 13, Mike Nash, corporate vice president for Windows product management, announced that Microsoft's upcoming operating system is to be officially named after its codename, Windows 7.
"The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new "aspirational" name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows. Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore "Windows 7" just makes sense."
I'm not quite sure just how this release would count up to 7, but what's more important, the new operating system would be 'less annoying': The User Account Control (UAC), responsible for the continuous dialogs popping up, reportedly will be revised and scaled back.
Windows 7 will be put on the market end of 2009 (or beginning 2010).
Oct. 13 : Silverlight 2 launches
Also from Microsoft came the news of the release of the second version of its Silverlight browser-plugin. Often compared to Adobe's Flash, Silverlight is a plugin allowing for rich media content in a web browser: video, animations, ... but also fully-fletched Rich Internet Applications (RIA's) which -in my opinion- kind of makes it more like Adobe's Flex than Flash. Apart from some new user interface controls and media extentions, Silverlight 2 comes with two cool new features : support for the .NET framework and 'deep zoom'.
Being able to access the .NET framework from within Silverlight opens up the world for solid Rich Internet Applications. Where previously, Silverlight developers were basically limited to the use of javascript, they can now use all the features of high-end programming languages (C#, Python, Ruby, ...) to build online applications. In addition, Microsoft plans to expand the platform beyond Windows by making Silverlight technologies available to the Eclipse Foundation, the multi-party platform for Java developers. This is also part of a more 'open' approach Microsoft wants to take to distribute Silverlight. Silverlight will be available on Windows (of course 
), but also on Mac and Linux. And they may have lost the battle for the iPhone to Flash lite, but they're aiming already on Google's mobile operating system 'Android'.
As for the second cool new feature 'deep zoom': check out the memorability website for Hard Rock Café and you'll see just how deep that zoom can get .
Oct. 14 : Firefox 3.1 beta 1 released
Last week, Mozilla released a new (beta) version of its popular Firefox browser. And the new version (already) has a number of slick new features:
- Geolocation : right after the launch of 'Geode', Mozilla adds support for the Geolocation API allowing websites to pinpoint your location. The new geolocation features is however far more powerful than 'Geode'.
- CSS 3.0 : although Firefox 3.1 beta 1 doesn't fully support CSS 3.0, it already supports the @font-face property allowing developers to use any true-type font in a web page.
- HTML 5.0 : also no full implementation of HTML 5.0 yet, but Firefox 3.1 does support the <video> and <audio> tags to embed video and audio in web pages
- extended XHR object : developers have now better progress notifications while a user uploads a file and can easier get access to content on other servers.
- faster JavaScript rendering : Firefox 3.1 comes with a new, and far faster JavaScript engine ('TraceMonkey').
A word of caution: If you want to try out the beta and you are using some add-ons for Firefox (like eg the delicious add-on, Firebug, ...), know that they will not work in 3.1 beta 1 yet...
Oct. 15 : Flash 10 goes live
Two days after Microsoft launched Silverlight 2, Adobe releases its Flash 10 plugin. The release goes together with the release of Flash CS4, the new Flash authoring tool. So what's new?
- native 3D support : developers will now have the ability to very easily take 2D objects and transform and animate them in three dimensions
- new text rendering engine : support for more advanced text layouts like inline images, flowable text etc.
- integration of the new Pixel Bender image processing technology : this allows for advanced image effects like sharpened, blurred and deformed images
Oct. 16 : the new iGoogle
Google launched a redesign of its iGoogle application. Tabs were put on the left hand sidebar enabling more pages and a number of new widgets (or 'gadgets' as Google still prefers to call them) are launched. More important however is the fact that new widgets can be 'maximized' to fill almost the entire screen. This makes iGoogle far more suitable as a dashboard application to access your favorite Google (or other) applications. A nice 'side-effect' is that it's easier to find room for advertising in a bigger window 
. According to Google policy, the small iGoogle widgets must not contain ads .... but the big versions may.
Oct. 16 : Yahoo's Open Strategy
Yahoo! is 'rewiring'. It has to become more 'open' and more 'social'. And the way they do it is defined in the "Yahoo Open Strategy" (short : Y!OS). It's mainly a tech thing however. They're not trying to build a new Facebook (luckily), but their focus lies mainly on giving developers a way of reaching out to the large number of Yahoo! users. Through a number of API's (Application Programming Interfaces), developers will be able to hook up their applications to the Yahoo! user base, letting them communicate with their Yahoo! buddies, access contact details etc. Part of phase 1 is a new profile page for all Yahoo! users where they can manage their identity, activities, interests, and connections and of course can update their status...
