Microsoft Releases Silverlight 2.0 Beta, Developer ToolsMicrosoft Releases Silverlight 2.0 Beta, Developer Tools

Microsoft today released the first beta version of Silverlight 2.0, its cross-browser, cross-operating system Web browser plug-in, as well as a series of related developer tools and controls.

The first version of Silverlight was designed mostly as a video app, but Silverlight 2.0 includes a chunk of the .Net Framework, allowing developers to create a much wider range of applications.

Silverlight 2.0 apps can be built with a variety of programming languages, including JavaScript, C#, VB.Net, IronPython, and IronRuby. The plug-in uses a user interface framework based on Windows Presentation Foundation. It also includes support for LINQ, local data cache, and a number of networking protocols.

The actual Silverlight application, in its current form, is a 4.3-MB download that takes between 6 and 10 seconds to install once downloaded, according to Microsoft.

Silverlight 2.0 includes a feature known as "adaptive streaming" for video and media that allows applications to automatically pick the appropriate bit rate and coding based on the capabilities of a user's computer and network speeds and dynamically adjust that as network speeds change.

Microsoft announced a number of controls and tools to embed advertising in Silverlight 2.0 apps. The Silverlight Advertising Template for Visual Studio, for example, automatically creates animation or integrated video in the form of a Silverlight app.

The company is wrapping a technology known as DeepZoom into Silverlight that will allow users to zoom into massive images. For example, Hard Rock, which operates nightclubs and cafes, showed off an application that zooms into a massive composite image of hundreds of items of rock memorabilia without having to download the entire image.

In addition to Hard Rock, several other companies showed off early Silverlight 2.0 applications. Among the most notable was NBC, whose Olympics Web site will be Silverlight-based. The Olympics site will contain more than 2,200 hours of interactive video. For example, someone could view a basketball game in full-screen high-definition video or a lower-bandwidth video, rewind to see specific plays, see alerts to other coverage and switch to, say, gymnastics on the fly, view information on specific athletes, and see events from different camera angles.

AOL announced it's building the next version of its mail client, which will have greatly improved performance and customizability, in Silverlight. Aston Martin has a site to show off vehicle options in a three-dimensional model, and Cirque du Soleil has a human resources application for talent scouting.