Forget Flash! Microsoft is building Silverlight for iPhone
This one from BetaNews certainly caught us off guard. If Apple is hesitant to let Flash come aboard the iPhone platform, they'd be insane to let Microsoft's Silverlight aboard, right?
Interestingly, Apple and Microsoft have been working together, or at least communicating on a iPhone port of Silverlight.
"We did all the work...We just made sure Apple was comfortable with it."
From the description of the concept, it doesn't seem like Apple is actually changing much about the iPhone, nor the way it interacts with Web servers. However, Microsoft, on their IIS servers is building a mechanism by which Silverlight video content, stored serverside, can be streamed along to the iPhone in a format that the iPhone can use.
In essence, they are just building a server-side workaround for video playback. Much like Youtube videos, which show a link on the webpage then stream MP4 files to the iPhones video player.app Microsoft User Experience Platform Manager Brian Goldfarb stated:
"We're translating the content to support the MPEG2 v8 [decoder] format that the iPhone format; we're moving it to their adaptive streaming format. So it's the same IIS smooth streaming content, the same server, the same point of origin, but now I can get that content to play without any code changes, without any real work, on the iPhone. That's the critical thing for our customers."
While it might be easy just to blow this one off, we'd note that NetFlix is based on Silverlight and if what this Goldfarb character is saying is true, we could be mere months away from having a iPhone Netflix Mobile service.
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Comments (17)
Very impressive. Way to go Microsoft!!
You people are morons. Apple tries to play itself off as a moralistic, socialist company that loves its employees and not profits. Yet we pay top dollar for a good product made in countries were the workers are for all intent and purpose slaves. Apple manufactures no product in a democracy.
If any of you think that Apple has been ignoring Adobe for any other reason then to aid Microsoft's Silverlight you need help.
Apple needs MSFT to keep producing Office for Mac. In all business deals we have winners and losers. Adobe lost and Microsoft won.
Apple can keep throwing a few dollars toward Al gore to keep him mute about what happens in countries where Apple produces its products. Yet, Apple is just another company out for profit. As they should be. But, they get away with fooling most into thinking they are different.
Yeah yeah yeah
Apple is kissing MS ass
911 was a hoax
Obama is a giant Lizard
Blah Blah Blah
Seriously dude your barking up the wrong tree if you want people to take your comment seriously around here.
He is right ON ! I think ur just fanboy who has had Steve's peepeee up his bumhole for too long ? ! Why do u fanboys always defend APPLE even if they are wrong ?
He is right OFF ! I think ur just fanboy who has had Steve's [Ballmer] peepeee up his bumhole for too long ? ! Why do u fanboys always attack APPLE even if they are right ?
>You people are morons.
So i herd u liek mudkipz ?
>Apple tries to play itself off as a moralistic,
All power to Companies that at least try to behave better to the environment. Even a small step in the right direction is a good step.
Elemination of some of the most toxic stuff, recyable materials like glas & aluminium, are truely good steps. Yet, it is of course a mass product with it's impact on mother earth. Only solution : let's move back to the pre-industrial age. I for one wouldn't mind it. Honestly.
>socialist company
WTF? That's an oxymoron, you moron.
>that loves its employees
Steve might whip his employees from time to time (not literally), but I guess working conditions in Cupertino a better than in most other companies.
I for one would love to work in Cupertino for Apple. (would need a green card, though) Retail is a different story. Hey, it's just retail. For the chinese people who work for Foxconn, not Apple, there is a code of conduct, controlled every year. Of course does Foxconn, and others, violate these rules. Nontheless, the rules are there.
>and not profits.
Steve nor anyone else have ever said such a thing.
>If any of you think that Apple has been ignoring Adobe for any other reason then to aid Microsoft's Silverlight you need help.
Flash sucks big time. That's just a matter of fact. It's broken by design. In particular on all non-windows systems.
I for one do NOT want to have Flash on my mobile bitten fruit gadget. Thanks, but no thanks.
>Apple needs MSFT to keep producing Office for Mac.
Ah, the urban myth strikes again. Just like the myth that MSFT saved Apple with 150 million bucks.
> Yet, Apple is just another company out for profit.
O rly? Srsly? OMFG!!! No. Honestly? Not kidding? Breaking news : company discovered that is not following the ideas of Karl Marx. Stay tuned for more on Fox after the commercial break.
While I love my iPhone, I definitely hate the limited options we have for app sources. And, while I understand trying to protect their investments, I see the restrictions as completely contrary to Apple's philosophy.
I have purposely avoided buying Apple products all these years due to the hypocrisy the company has shown. I have never owned an iPod, and do not plan to buy an Apple computer. For a designer, many people would see this as a shame - but I refuse to work with Macs for this sole reason.
I did finally break down and get the iPhone 3GS, which was the best bang for my buck with AT&T... and I am impressed with the ingenuity, but disappointed with the limitations Apple imposes.
Apple needs to either fess up to their true nature (and stop maliciously advertising otherwise) or open up and make a step in the right direction - toward their professed mission. Once they do, I may consider buying more Apple products.
That would bring Netflix to the iPhone, and Netflix is the highest profile mainstream user of Silverlight (only reason I have it on my mac).
Not really. Netflix needs DRM and this "hack" that MS is doing can't support content protection.
In general the title of this new item is quite misleading. MS is just enabling people to export video content initially meant for Silverlight applications to iPhone too.
Bringing Silverlight support (.NET runtime and UI libraries etc.) to iPhone whould be very different story.
So, that can be translate to : "we are moving away from our proprietary platform and formats to open and standardized ones".
I'm a Flash developer and Mac user. Flash player on mac is a slow hungry turd. That's why Apple doesn't want it on the iPhone. Steve Jobs said it himself that if Adobe can code a version that doesn't need so much power they would take it more seriously.
To this point in time Adobe are unable to do it, just look at the latest beta for mac. Where is our gpu acceleration support?
If Microsoft have found a way to do it with Silverlight then hopefully this will give Adobe a kick up the arse. Nice one MS (and i don't say that very often!)
Seth, your grammar sucks.
If Silverlight is coming to the iPhone OS, I would like to see Adobe Flash for Silverlight ;-)
UMMMM . . . . . to whomever wrote, "You people are morons. Apple tries to play itself off as a moralistic, socialist company that loves its employees and not profits."
Excuse me, but if you are older than about 12 years old, well . . . . . . I am sorry for you.
Adobe has always tried to bag OSX as a platform since they kidney punched Apple by pulling Premiere & Apple dared to respond by delivering the upper-cut that is FCP thus flooring Adobe's attempts to get into video production. Adobe finally tried to proprietarise H.264 by putting a Flash skin on it - they almost had us too if Google hadn't bought YouTube and kept H.264 instances separate for Apple & the free world. Adobe have demonstrated they're not prepared to produce a power-efficient version of Flash for OSX so tough! MS gets the deal & when Adobe grows up maybe they'll get a look in on iPhone & the next thing. Until then I'm quite happy to have no data-hogging ads on my iPhone because that's all Flash is really good for.
McD
Adobe is adding support to its Flash Professional CS5 developer kit to convert software written in Flash into standalone iPhone applications.
Watch the demo video: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/
Applications for iPhone built using flash application tooling and delivered as NATIVE applications directly on the iPhone that are available TODAY! and Silverlight can only what?
The reason why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash player on iPhone safari browser is that allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store.
Adobe is adding support to its Flash Professional CS5 developer kit to convert software written in Flash into standalone iPhone applications.
Watch the demo video: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/
Applications for iPhone built using flash application tooling and delivered as NATIVE applications directly on the iPhone that are available TODAY! and Silverlight can only what?
The reason why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash player on iPhone safari browser is that allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store.