ebaY sidebar for Internet Explorer 8

eBay has just launched a new sidebar offering in beta. I have been collaborating with eBay on this wonderful Internet Explorer 8 sidebar. What is unique is that they are the first Internet Explorer sidebar that utilizes Silverlight™ as part of the presentation layer opening up specific UI features to make the application standard out.

Here is a screen capture of the sidebar on the left running in Internet Explorer 8 on my laptop:

The sidebar utilizes eBay’s Services to obtain real-time information about the customer’s transactions, using an internet connection. Even when the user is not running Internet Explorer, a separate notification service (located visually in the tray) informs the user about important events.

Here is a short  video  on the eBay sidebar with Jonathan Gabbai Global Innovation Manager on the functionality and technical advantages of using Silverlight and IE8 features.

The eBay sidebar is a great example of “Software-Plus-Services” strategy as there is software that runs on a computer you control in this case it is IE8 and Silverlight, plus services delivered over the internet as eBay services, working together to enable cool new rich engaging experience for the eBay user and making both software and services better than either by themselves.

For more information on the eBay IE8 Silverlight sidebard, please see the following related articles:

Case Study: Coming Soon

Channel9 Video: eBay on IE8

Roadmap for Major Technology announced at TechEd

Thanks to Network World for their article, Microsoft’s software pipeline set to burst. The product roadmaps for the coming year were announced at TechEd this past week.

• Windows 7 offers key features for developers: Windows Touch, Taskbar, Scenic Ribbon, Scenic Animation, Sensor and Location Platform, Windows Installer 5.0, Internet Explorer 8, PowerShell 2.0. The release candidate is currently available publicly.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 offers new group policy features that will help with power management and cost cutting, Hyper-V improvements, File Classification Infrastructure, Server Core, APIs and tools to help your tune your parallel applications using NUMA, PowerShell 2.0, Windows Web Services, background services and tasks, Background Intelligence Transfer. The release candidate is currently available publicly..
• Exchange 2010 designed and developed to work on-premises and as an online service, and introduces a new integrated e-mail archive and features to reduce costs and improve the user experience. The public beta is currently available publicly.
• Microsoft Code-named ‘Geneva’ is an identity federation platform that simplifies user access and secure collaboration across organizational boundaries. The beta 2 version is currently available publicly.
• Microsoft Code-named ‘Dublin’ will be an Application extend Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide a standard host for applications that use workflow or communications. For more information, see Overview of WF 4.0, WCF 4.0, and Windows Server “Dublin”.
• Microsoft Code-named ‘Stirling’ is an integrated security suite that coordinates protection and visibility across desktops, servers, applications and the network edge a client console for Forefront security software. The beta 2 version is publicly available.
• Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity” is a distributed in-memory application cache platform for developing scalable, high-performance applications. Community technology preview 3 (CTP3) is currently available publicly.
• Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 is being designed inside and out to give developers and development teams every advantage in getting groundbreaking applications to market—faster and easier than ever. The beta 1 release will be available soon.
• Windows Mobile 6.5 with Windows Mobile Marketplace, Windows Phone
• Windows Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers. Commercial availability for Windows Azure will likely be at the end of calendar year 2009. Currently available as community preview publicly.
• Microsoft Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 is addition of new features such as live migration and expanded processor and memory support for host systems, it allows organizations to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server. Publicly available as a release candidate.Will continue to be free.

• Office 2010 — including Office Web applications, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 — will enter a technical preview in July 2009 and will release to manufacturing in the first half of 2010. Nominate yourself for the preview at Office The Movie.

• SQL Server 2008 R2 will empower end users to make better decisions through self services analysis (‘Gemini’) and self-service business intelligence code-named “Kilimanjaro.” It will help IT drive greater efficiency and reduce costs through new capabilities such as multi-server management and Master Data Services. The community preview is due by the end of 2009.
• Microsoft Code-Name ‘Madison’ is an appliance version of the database for massively parallel processing. It will be able to handle the most demanding data warehousing workloads spanning hundreds of terabytes of data and thousands of concurrent users at the low total cost of ownership (TCO) businesses have come to expect from SQL Server.

• Silverlight 3. introducing more than 50 new features, including support for running Silverlight applications out of the browser, dramatic video performance and quality improvements, and features that radically improve developer productivity. Currently in publicly available beta. Also includes Microsoft Expression Blend 3 Preview, Silverlight Toolkit, and .NET RIA Services.

For more details on the roadmaps, see

• Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 Anticipated for Holiday Release
• Simplify User Access, Secure Collaboration Across Organizational Boundaries with ‘Geneva’ Beta 2
• How to Get Started Leveraging Windows Server 2008 R2 Features
• ‘Velocity’ Preview Updates In-Memory Caching Platform
• Top 10 Scenarios; ISVs Add Customer Value with Windows 7 Features
• First Look of Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4.0 Available On Demand During May, June
• Walkthrough to Get Your Applications Ready for Windows 7
• Opportunities for ISVs to Step-up, Subscribe, Upgrade, Switch to Visual Studio, MSDN
• Exchange 2010 Beta Highlights S+S
• Alpha Version of Windows Logo Testing Kit Ready April 14

Students can get current Microsoft technologies at Dreamspark.

Startup businesses can get current Microsoft technologies at BizSpark.

Internet Explore 8 Optimized for eBay

Following the launch of Internet Explorer 8 at MIX09 eBay has their Accelerator, Visual Search and Web Slice available at eBay. If you haven’t yet given it a try, as Tim Sneath Director Windows and Silverlight technical evangelism team has very nicely captured the eight good reasons that might persuade you to check out IE8.

Here is a nice Channel9 video  with Jonathan Gabbai Global Innovation Manager, talking about how eBay is using the different features of IE8. In the first part of the interview Jonathan talks about the  eBay Web Slices, Accelerator and Visual Search Provider. In the second part of the interview he talks about the upcoming eBay IE8 Silverlight Sidebar which is currently in pre-beta.

IE8 isn’t a good browser, it is much faster than leading browsers such as IE7, Fire Fox and Chrome. Here is a nice video on the performance tests of real-world sites with leading browsers. A great web performance is about more than the speed of the scripting engine – in the real-world, it’s an end-to-end test of all the browser components.

The IE8 add-on gallery has roughly over 1,200 Web Slices, Accelerators, and add-ons available from companies like Digg, Facebook, eBay, Yahoo, Amazon and more.

So don’t wait download Internet Explorer 8 and start enjoying some of the cool features like Accelerator, Web Slice , Visual Search and many…many more rich features!

MIX09 Big Announcements!

I just got back from the MIX09 event that happened at Las Vegas earlier this week and here are some of things that was announced at Mix09:

Announcing the Microsoft Web Platform: Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta and Windows Web Application Gallery!

The Microsoft Web Platform has a goal to deliver the best platform to developers for building their Web applications. Microsoft is delivering the platform, tools, and applications that development organizations, communities, and developers need.  The Microsoft Web Platform offers a complete ecosystem for building and hosting web sites, services, and applications.  It is designed to interoperate with both ASP.NET and PHP, and integrate easily with community applications and products in the market today.

The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 (Web PI) is a free tool that makes it simple to download, install and keep up-to-date with the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server Express, .NET Framework and Visual Web Developer.  In addition, install popular open source ASP.NET and PHP web apps with the Web PI.

Windows Web App Gallery is a community hub of free and popular .NET and PHP applications for you to use as building blocks for creating dynamic web solutions.

Silverlight 3 Beta (Developer release).   This is a very exciting release.  Some of the interesting new features that the platform provides include:

• Support for Higher Quality Video & Audio. With support for native H.264/Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Audio, live and on-demand IIS7 Smooth Streaming, full HD (720p+) playback, and an extensible decoder pipeline, Silverlight 3 brings rich, full-screen, stutter-free media experiences to the desktop.
• Silverlight 3 contains new 3D graphics, animation features, hardware accelerated effects and text improvements that enable designers and developers to create next generation Web visuals.
• Improved RIA Productivity. New features include:
  • Silverlight 3 is packed with over 60 high-quality, fully skinnable and customizable out-of-the-box controls
  • Deep Linking. Silverlight 3 includes support for deep linking, which enables bookmarking a page within a RIA.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
  • Enhanced Data Support: Element to Element binding, Data Forms, New features for data validation, Support for business objects
  • Improved performance through Application library caching, Enhanced Deep Zoom, Binary XML, Local Connection.
• Out of Browser Capabilities. The new out of browser experience in Silverlight 3 enables users to place their favorite Silverlight applications directly onto their PC and Mac, with links on the desktop and start menu—all without the need to download an additional runtime or browser plug-in. Also, the new offline features enables Silverlight applications to work whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not.

· Also the other major announcement at MIX was the launch of Internet Explorer (IE8). This latest version is faster than IE7 by 80% in common micro-benchmarks. In side-by-side measures of speed in opening the top 25 websites worldwide, IE8 was as fast or faster than Firefox and Chrome.

· Some of the major features of IE8 are its better tab handling, a niftier search bar, a more useful address bar, and new tools that deliver information directly from other Web pages and services. Some of the security features include the anti-malware protection, and better ways to protect your privacy and most noticeable new features are Accelerators and Web Slices.

· Additional information on the release is available at Internet Explorer 8. In addition some of the IE8 Add-ons from some of our partners is available at here. You also can see some of my previous posts on IE8 here

Architect Council | The Importance of the Client March 25-26, 2009, Mountain View & San Francisco

 

Over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of innovation around of technologies that make it easier for the end user of an application to interact with systems.  This innovation has been a boon for the end user because it has provided them a more natural interface with systems that span the web, computer, and phone.  However, this has caused the complexity of systems architecture and development to increase.  The focus of this session will be on how to prepare and manage this complexity within your organization.

Facilitated by Microsoft, the premise of this event is to provide an open forum where architects can meet to discuss technologies with their peers.  This forum will provide first-hand experience and best practices that will enable its members to learn from each other and transfer knowledge.

Please join us for this *FREE* event which will provide great opportunity to learn, share and network with your peers and other company leaders. Also don’t forget there will be free give aways (hint..hint..Zune)

EVENT SUMMARY

The Value of the Client – In the past, the choice of how an end user interacts with an application has been dictated by IT and often without regards to the usage.  Recently, as the population has become more tech savvy and are experiencing interactions on the web, computer, and the phone their expectations have increased tremendously.  Many organizations now have to support multiple standards and technologies to accommodate their user base.  We will discuss the opportunities and challenges this presents.

The Changing Face of the Web – The web has changed from a static collection of data to an application platform.  In many cases, JavaScript and AJAX have enhanced the experience to enable more advance application scenarios.  In other cases, the Rich Internet Application using technologies such as Silverlight and Flash can bring the experience to a new level.  In this session we will discuss the web and in particular the investments Microsoft is making in this technology.

Creating Powerful Applications on Computers and Devices – The web has been a boon to application development and deployment, but it doesn’t always fit every scenario.  There are certain classes of applications which provide a better experience when running on a device and utilizing local hardware.  The ubiquity of the mobile device has also extended the expectations of users with anytime/anywhere access. 

The Future of the Client – The pace of change in client technologies over the past few years has been tremendous and is expected to continue to evolve.  From support of new device types such as tables and walls, to continued improvements in interactions on the web, client, and the phone the client will become more and more important from a technology perspective and more strategic to the organization.

AGENDA

12:15 PM  Arrival

12:30 PM  Lunch and announcements

01:00 PM  The Value of the Client

01:45 PM  The Changing Face of the Web

02:45 PM  Creating Powerful Applications on Computers and Devices

03:45 PM  The Future of the Client

04:15 PM  Raffle and close

REGISTER

To register, please click on the link below or call 1.877.MSEVENT (1.877.673.8368).

March 25, 2009 | Mountain View, CA

Microsoft Corporation

1065 La Avenida St.
Building 1 Mountain View California 94043

Registration Link:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032399662&Culture=en-US

Event ID: 1032399662

March 26, 2009 |San Francisco, CA

Microsoft Corporation

835 Market Street #700
San Francisco California 94103-1901

Registration Link:

 http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032399663&Culture=en-US

 

Event ID: 1032399663

*Referral code not required to register.*

MSDN Developer Conference coming to San Francisco (Only $99.00)

The nature of software development is radically changing are you ready ?

We’re bringing the PDC to you! For just $99 you’ll get the best of the PDC in your own backyard and hear all of the exciting announcements around the Azure Services Platform and Windows 7.

Other sessions include the latest developments in .NET, Silverlight, Surface, Parallel Programming, Live Mesh, and more.
Register today so you can stay current in an ever-competitive job market, enhance your engineering skills and gain access to the next generation of tools and technology. The cost to attend is just $99. And, did we mention that attendees will get some cool giveaways? 
If you are a developer who missed the PDC but enjoys diving deep into the Microsoft platform or you are responsible for the technical strategy of your organization, then the MSDN Developer Conference is for you.
Don’t miss this premier developer event. Click the Register Now button or visit www.MSDNDevCon.com to learn more and register today!
Hope to see you at the MDC!!

SeaDragon on iPhone

 

Back in July’08 I had written a post about Deep Zoom as part of the Silverlight 2 cool features that originated from SeaDragon which is a Live labs project which provide users a new way for people to interact with content.  It allows users to explore collections of super high resolution imagery, from a 2 or 3 megapixel shot from a digital camera to gigapixel scans of museum pieces, all without waiting for huge file downloads.

The Seadragon capabilities is already made its way into TouchWall, Microsoft Surface and also available in Silverlight as can be seen at the Hardrock site.

Today Livelab brings “Seadragon Mobile” to iPhone for viewing giga-pixel images. You can browse Deep Zoom Images that you can create from your own pictures or your Photosynth collection or anybody else’s.

There is a excellent video by developer Ben Vanik about this new experience that SeaDragon Mobile can provide on mobile devices.

Seadragon Mobile is available for free at the iTunes App Store.

is really cool !

XamlFest- Free Training/Tools on Silverlight, WPF, XAML Dec 17-18, 2008

Developers, Designer come and  take advantage of a free interactive hands-on training at  “XamlFest” offered at the Microsoft, Mountain View campus from 12/17-12/18 where you’ll learn about how to build Silverlight, WPF application using Visual Studios, Expression Blend etc.

It’s a perfect opportunity to mingle with UX minded Microsoft folks as well as industry leading design integrators.  It’s also an opportunity to pick up a free copy of Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Studio 2 for you attendance.

Each XamlFest day will start with interactive sessions by Microsoft and our design partners, followed by a free lunch and a chance to network, have some fun and win prizes. Each afternoon will be geared toward assisted development with instructor-led walk throughs, or, better yet, come with your own project in mind and we’ll help kick start your very own proof of concept!

Registration

To register, please send an e-mail with the names and e-mail addresses of your attendees to xamlfest-siliconvalley@live.com.

 

Dates

Wednesday & Thursday December 17^th and 18^th

Attendees

We’re only allowing 50 attendees to this event. First come, first served.

Venue

Microsoft Technology Center: Silicon Valley

1065 La Avenida—Building One

Mountain View, CA 94043

(650) 693-1001

Agenda

Please note that each attendee will need a laptop to take part in the assisted development sessions.

Date

Time

Topic

Wednesday, December 17^th

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Introduction to WPF, Xaml, Expression Blend

10:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Break

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM

Building Visually Rich Applications: The role of the Integrator in building designable applications

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Lunch, Mingle, Prizes

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Instructor-led WPF walkthrough and assisted development

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Assisted development

Thursday, December 18^th

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Introduction to Silverlight, Data Binding, LINQ

10:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Break

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM

Platform Centric Design Best Practices:

Creating WPF and Silverlight XAML for Web and Local Client Solutions

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Lunch, Mingle, Prizes

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Instructor-led Silverlight walkthrough and assisted development

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Assisted development

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What if I don’t have Visual Studio?

A. No problem, every attendee leaves with Visual Studio 2008 Pro!

Q. What if I don’t have Expression Blend?

A. Again, no problem! Everyone leaves with Expression Studio 2.

Q. What if I don’t have an idea for a starter project?

A. We’d like you to leave with something personal, but if nothing comes to mind that’s OK too. It’s the main reason we’re planning a few guided sessions where you can fallow along with us. These sessions should take no more than two hours, so if something sparks your interest you’ll still have time left for assisted development.

Q. What if I don’t have a laptop?

A. You can still participate in the training in the mornings and lunch, but assisted development in the afternoon is a harder problem to solve. We have no problem with people pairing up, so you might want to check with friends or co-workers to see if they’re interested.

Q. Can I just come for the training and skip assisted development?

A. XamlFest is about empowering designers and developers to deliver great user experiences and we believe a key component is hands-on assisted development. If you are unable to participate in the afternoon sessions please wait until the day before the event to register. This will give others the opportunity to sign up first, and if there’s still space available you’re welcome to join us.

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