Silverlight Turns on Times Reader

The announcement came in a self-promoting Times "First Look" blog post that I missed yesterday.

New York Times reader was one of Microsoft's showcase applications for Windows Presentation Foundation, which is built into Windows Vista. The derivative, more portable technology is Silverlight, or what was once called Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere. The newspaper will release a Mac version of New York Times Reader as a Silverlight application.

The Windows version is a slick application that displays stories in more traditional newspaper fashion. The motif is highly familiar, but modern. The New York Times print edition can't refresh content. Reader can.

Microsoft released Silverlight for Windows and Macs in April 2007. A Linux port is being developed, too. Many Office 2008 users will find Silverlight was included in the installation process; they already have the software on their Macs.

Few things were noting:

• The New York Times sees the Mac market as significant enough to create a speciality product—even as the Web nips away its subscriber base.
• Silverlight, like Adobe AIR, opens the Mac up to fresh development outside the Apple ecosystem (e.g., competition is a good thing).
• Microsoft is coming back to the Mac, and in a much bigger way than Office. Windows developers will create Mac applications using Silverlight.
• Windows Media Video is coming back to Mac. WMV is the default video format for Silverlight.
• Microsoft's Live Mesh also is coming to the Mac. Within 18 months, Microsoft has made two of its major, cutting-edge developer projects available for the Mac.

Microsoft cut its teeth developing Macintosh applications and later for Windows. Apple and Microsoft may be platform competitors, but the Mac appeals to both companies.

Posted by Joe Wilcox on May 13, 2008 7:15 PM