“Netflix finally brings ‘Watch Instantly’ to Macs via Silverlight” and other links…
Joshua Topolsky: “Netflix claims that the new implementation in Silverlight provides ‘breakthrough navigation for fast-forward and rewind,’ though fails to indicate exactly when this is all being rolled out (we assume immediately). Unfortunately for super-duper late adopters, the software will only work with Intel-based Macs, so if you’ve been holding onto a G3 for dear life, here’s one more reason to finally can it, along with your Xbox 360 HD DVD player, Von Dutch trucker cap, and gas-guzzling Escalade. Full PR after the break.”
“Steve Jobs explains why FireWire is dead”
Charles Arthur: “There’s been plenty of outrage and despondency from would-be Apple MacBook buyers over the fact that the latest versions of the low-end laptops don’t have FireWire, the high-speed data transfer system invented by Apple and Sony that basically kicks USB’s bum (even USB2.0). It’s being taken out the back and getting an icepick in the neck.” USB comes from the Intel camp so it appears that Steve Jobs is responding to ‘pressure’ from the Intel-based gift horse rolling out his new line of products.
“Silverlight 2 Released”
Scott Guthrie: “Silverlight 2 is small in size (4.6MB) and takes only 4–10 seconds to install on a machine that doesn’t already have it. It does not require the .NET Framework to be installed on a computer to run—the Silverlight setup download includes everything necessary to play video or run applications.” Yes, great Scott, but has the install experience improved?
“Mono 2.0 is out!”
Miguel de Icaza: “As the project matured, developers started taking advantage of Mono’s open source nature: essentially .NET on their own terms. A platform that could be adapted, morphed, ported and modified to suit many different uses. Today Mono is embedded in portable mp3 players and powers Unity3D’s game engine on the Apple iPhone, the Nintendo Wii, MacOS X and Windows (Some folks at Novell are working with Unity on bringing Unity3d to Linux!).”