To put an underscore on the Silverlight vs. Flash battle, last night there were several Web video startups that presented at the SF New Tech! Live shindig. I think all of them are using Flash. Will Silverlight start to show up? You can watch last night’s proceedings too on Veodia. Funny enough, they aren’t using Flash.
But what caught my eye last night? Kyte.tv. That rocks as a way to interact with other people via your video camera (particularly cool with cell phones). There’s a chat capability — you can email any video into the system and it’s shown immediately. Plus you can talk smack with the community that’s hanging out on your channel. I gotta try this out, but Maryam and I are headed off to Cancun tomorrow.
Right now I’m driving to Zoho in Pleasanton to get a good look at their suite of “Work 2.0” services.
Adobe and Microsoft are going full force after developers now. It’ll be interesting to see what other services like Kyte.tv come along because of Flash and Silverlight. Those who are arguing for using plain old HTML are missing the point. Kyte.tv is cool and is cool because it’s using Flex 2.0. I don’t see developers building Kyte.tv style sites in plain old HTML.
Scobleizer 
Supposedly, almost all the apps demoed on stage at Mix was developed in a week. So we have 4 more days to go before the onslaught of silverlight apps.
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Supposedly, almost all the apps demoed on stage at Mix was developed in a week. So we have 4 more days to go before the onslaught of silverlight apps.
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I do think that Microsoft should try to cater to web devs/designers that use Macs in some way, whether it means forming a group within MacBU to create Mac-specific tools, or contracting some group to do it.
I’ve read that the Expression tools are WPF apps, so they couldn’t be ported directly, and maybe they shouldn’t, since Mac users prefer Mac-native look and feel apps. But Microsoft should still provide Mac versions of their tools.
I do think statements such as, “All web developers use Macs” is vastly overstated, because there are plenty of web design tools for Windows, and those tools are being sold to somebody. There are plenty of Windows-using web designers. But just to fill that hole in their story, Microsoft should address the Mac tools issue.
(Of course, if Silverlight takes off regardless, then a third party commercial or open source effort will make Mac Silverlight tools.)
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I do think that Microsoft should try to cater to web devs/designers that use Macs in some way, whether it means forming a group within MacBU to create Mac-specific tools, or contracting some group to do it.
I’ve read that the Expression tools are WPF apps, so they couldn’t be ported directly, and maybe they shouldn’t, since Mac users prefer Mac-native look and feel apps. But Microsoft should still provide Mac versions of their tools.
I do think statements such as, “All web developers use Macs” is vastly overstated, because there are plenty of web design tools for Windows, and those tools are being sold to somebody. There are plenty of Windows-using web designers. But just to fill that hole in their story, Microsoft should address the Mac tools issue.
(Of course, if Silverlight takes off regardless, then a third party commercial or open source effort will make Mac Silverlight tools.)
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LOL@met
met, you exaggerate the 1-week thing. :p
Anyway, Silverlight 1.0 is still in beta, and the .NET enables 1.1 is still in alpha. There won’t be an onslaught of apps for awhile yet. Maybe in the summer.
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LOL@met
met, you exaggerate the 1-week thing. :p
Anyway, Silverlight 1.0 is still in beta, and the .NET enables 1.1 is still in alpha. There won’t be an onslaught of apps for awhile yet. Maybe in the summer.
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Java Applets. Flash. And now Silverlight and Flex 2.0.
All of them are multiple OS, virtual machine based applications that promised at sometime or the other (or now) to revolutionize the web.
My main concern about all these competing platforms is accessibility. How are the visually impaired able to interact with applications based off these platforms? Whats being done to ensure that the visually impaired have the same level of user experience as people with normal sight?
Until these issues are 100% addressed, there will always be a need for plain old HTML. Particularly in the government sector, where apps have to meet Section 508 guidelines.
So before we charge ahead into this brave new world of Silverlight/Flex powered RIA’s, lets not forget that the internet is for everybody, and that at the end of the day, accessibility is king.
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Java Applets. Flash. And now Silverlight and Flex 2.0.
All of them are multiple OS, virtual machine based applications that promised at sometime or the other (or now) to revolutionize the web.
My main concern about all these competing platforms is accessibility. How are the visually impaired able to interact with applications based off these platforms? Whats being done to ensure that the visually impaired have the same level of user experience as people with normal sight?
Until these issues are 100% addressed, there will always be a need for plain old HTML. Particularly in the government sector, where apps have to meet Section 508 guidelines.
So before we charge ahead into this brave new world of Silverlight/Flex powered RIA’s, lets not forget that the internet is for everybody, and that at the end of the day, accessibility is king.
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Actually saw Kyte.tv yesterday at AlwaysOnHollywood. So cool to email video from your phone. All the mobile video apps are going to be incredible.
Enjoy Cancun
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Actually saw Kyte.tv yesterday at AlwaysOnHollywood. So cool to email video from your phone. All the mobile video apps are going to be incredible.
Enjoy Cancun
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Hmm. kyte.tv doesn’t work on my machine (Firefox 2 / WinXP / whatever Flash that was installed many moons ago, but works fine for Google Video & Youtube / Flashblock) – just a blank screen after I click past the Flashblock initial blocking window.
Not a good experience. I have my own views of Silverlight on my blog.
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Hmm. kyte.tv doesn’t work on my machine (Firefox 2 / WinXP / whatever Flash that was installed many moons ago, but works fine for Google Video & Youtube / Flashblock) – just a blank screen after I click past the Flashblock initial blocking window.
Not a good experience. I have my own views of Silverlight on my blog.
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hey robert –
thanks for coming down to demo last night at sf new tech! it was a blast!
see you soon!
cheers, myles
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hey robert –
thanks for coming down to demo last night at sf new tech! it was a blast!
see you soon!
cheers, myles
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You are horrible at public speaking! Listen how many times you say “uh” or “umm” in that speech. You seem so nervous!
Join your local toastmasters.
http://www.toastmasters.org/
I say this only because I expect more after reading your blog entries. Very well spoken/written on this blog.
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You are horrible at public speaking! Listen how many times you say “uh” or “umm” in that speech. You seem so nervous!
Join your local toastmasters.
http://www.toastmasters.org/
I say this only because I expect more after reading your blog entries. Very well spoken/written on this blog.
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“How are the visually impaired able to interact with applications based off these platforms? Whats being done to ensure that the visually impaired have the same level of user experience as people with normal sight?”
Good question. A book is a linear stream of words, and we can turn this to speech. But how do you turn a visual/kinesthetic experience into speech? How can a video actually be accessible to a wide range of people? We’ve got a lot to learn here.
Macromedia Flash Player 5 and above can send customized text streams to standard screenreaders, via the Microsoft Active Accessibility API:
http://www.adobe.com/resources/accessibility/flash8/
Not everyone attends to their text presentation, though… it’s a decentralized, designer-level choice. As webpage experiences get more non-linear and interactive, the problem of a spoken-word equivalent becomes more challenging.
(For Barry, I’ve seen some sites resize the SWF on startup, and conflict with Firefox’s Flashblocker extension… setting Flashblock to “never block” for that site removes the problem. Not sure if it’s the same with kyte.tv’s pages.)
jd/adobe
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“How are the visually impaired able to interact with applications based off these platforms? Whats being done to ensure that the visually impaired have the same level of user experience as people with normal sight?”
Good question. A book is a linear stream of words, and we can turn this to speech. But how do you turn a visual/kinesthetic experience into speech? How can a video actually be accessible to a wide range of people? We’ve got a lot to learn here.
Macromedia Flash Player 5 and above can send customized text streams to standard screenreaders, via the Microsoft Active Accessibility API:
http://www.adobe.com/resources/accessibility/flash8/
Not everyone attends to their text presentation, though… it’s a decentralized, designer-level choice. As webpage experiences get more non-linear and interactive, the problem of a spoken-word equivalent becomes more challenging.
(For Barry, I’ve seen some sites resize the SWF on startup, and conflict with Firefox’s Flashblocker extension… setting Flashblock to “never block” for that site removes the problem. Not sure if it’s the same with kyte.tv’s pages.)
jd/adobe
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There are a number of other cool Flex applications at the Flex showcase on Flex.org. There’s also an RSS feed to let you know when applications have been added. http://www.flex.org/showcase/
Mike
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There are a number of other cool Flex applications at the Flex showcase on Flex.org. There’s also an RSS feed to let you know when applications have been added. http://www.flex.org/showcase/
Mike
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