3d

You can now write 3d hardware accelerated applications in Silverlight.  This includes hardware accelerated shaders.  Are in-browser 3d shooters finally coming?  We’ll see

Media

Hardware accelerated video decoding.  Watching videos now uses less CPU power and more GPU power.

WPF parity

WPF people are great, but they’re always complaining about missing features:)    Silverlight 5 is now closer to WPF than any previous version (including custom markup extensions and Ancestor Relative Source).

Text/Printing

People who really care about fonts aren’t crazy about Silverlight 4 font rendering.  Silverlight 5 adds support for clearer fonts and other features (full OpenType font support, etc.).

Timeline

Silverlight 5 will be available in beta in early 2011.  It will be released in late 2011.

Scott Stanfield of Vertigo talks about HTML5. It’s a great primer.

Scott Stanfield on HTML5 from Portland Silverlight User Group on Vimeo.

If you’re interested in more talks like this, swing by the Portland Silverlight User Group.

Ever wanted to see Scott Guthrie announce a new version of Silverlight… live?  If you’re in Portland, we’ve scored some transportation.  Primo transportation.  There’s talk of food, drink and wifi.  December 2nd, we go to Redmond.

Go here to register for the bus: Firestarter Bus

Then go here to register for the event: Silverlight Firestarter

The Gu is back.  Register now.

All Silverlight.  All day.

Silverlight 4 In Action is Available!!!

If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting for this book for a while.  It doesn’t disappoint.  Do these things:

• Buy the book
• Rate it on Amazon

It’s that good. 

What’s in the book?

Chapters on:

1. Introducing Silverlight
2. Core XAML
3. The application model and the plug-in
4. Integrating with the browser
5. Integrating with the desktop
6. Rendering, layout, and transforming
7. Panels
8. Human input
9. Text
10. Controls and UserControls
11. Binding
12. Data controls: DataGrid and DataForm
13. Input validation
14. Networking and communications
15. Navigation and dialogs
16. Structuring and testing with the MVVM/ViewModel pattern
17. WCF RIA Services
18. Graphics and effects
19. Printing
20. Displaying and capturing media (including webcam/mic)
21. Working with bitmap images
22. Animation and behaviors
23. Resoures, styles, and control templates
24. Creating panels and controls
25. The install experience and preloaders

What’s good about it?

• It’s really clear.  Rare is the technical book that reads this well.
• It’s really complete.  Rare is the technical book that covers this much material in style.
• It has tidbits.  If you know of Pete Brown, you know he knows Silverlight inside and out.  This books surfaces that knowledge in a really interesting and compelling way.

What’s bad about it?

• It’s not really a cookbook.  If that’s what you need, look elsewhere.
• Buying this book kills trees. (I’m trying here…)

Who should buy it?

*Anyone* who is interested in Silverlight.  You want it on your bookshelf.

We only have one more event that isn’t sold out – Boise on October 25th.  See: http://wp7-boise.eventbrite.com/

Contest

 The contest was the most exciting part of the day, and we had some great entries.

1st place - I’m loving WP7.  A pandering name perhaps, but what a game.  It looked super hard.  And super fun.  And used the accelerometers!

2nd place – Powerpoint Remote.  Pretty much exactly what it says.  Imagine controller powerpoint from Windows Phone 7.  A favorite in the Apple store and will be in the Windows Phone Marketplace (we hope).

3rd Place – Lockdown. Run this app.  Put the phone in your glove box.  Bam.  Lojack.

Honorable Mentions

 Apartment Finder – Bring in all kinds of nifty info to help find an apartment

Bosstinator – Estimates projects for your boss.

Druminator – Super great looking drum machine.  If only it didn’t have a fatal flaw at demo time

Episode Finder – What’s that episode where Jane is a hero on that mud planet?  Oh, it’s called Jane’s World!!!

Megamillions – Ever want to win a million bucks?  This app will tell you the right number to play in the lottery.  Well worth any price they decide to charge for it.

Nimby – Search Zillow for home price index.  Get out of bad neighborhoods fast!

Thanks to everyone who came! I think everyone had a great time.

sponsors

Special thanks to our amazing sponsors!

• Agilitrain
• Silver Bay Labs
• Silvertail Software
• Wirestone
• Microsoft

Thanks to everyone who came to the Windows Phone Unleashed event in Portland.  It was a super great time.  It was great to see devices, and it was even better to run apps on them

First of all, if you missed the Portland event, we have upcoming events in several cities around the Northwest:

Register now as seating is limited.  Portland sold out, and I would expect others will, too.

What did the day look like?

It was a giveaway of a seat on the Silverlight Tour course.

It was sessions on sensors, navigation, web services, push notifications, launchers and choosers, etc.

It was a Hands On Lab where everyone got to build a real Windows Phone 7 application.

But best of all, it was an app building contest.  We worked really hard so everyone could have a chance to deploy their apps to an actual device.  The apps that were created were pretty amazing.  And some of them are pretty nearly ready for the app store… It was a jaw dropping contest.

1st Place – Dawg application.  This application was created by an individaual with 0 previous .Net experience!  It allows a user to interact with Craigslist and had *tons* of features.

2nd Place – Zoo Pals.  This app is a great idea.  I hope it makes it into the app store err Marketplace.  Your kids get to take picture of zoo animals and put them over cartoony animal pictures.

3rd Place – Am I too Drunk? This app uses accelerometers to determine if a user is too drunk to accomplish certain tasks.  Great idea

Honorable Mentions

My piggy bank.  I missed the action shot on this app, but it’s another one for kids!  It keeps track of piggy bank totals to avoid kid fights.

My baby. Info about pregnancy (what happens in the 2nd trimester and… that kind of stuff).

Apple Killer.  Get it?? The WP7 devices are “killing” Apple?  Well, not quite yet   It’s an XNA arcade app.  Again, I missed the action shot

Caddie Mate.  Who needs a caddie with this application?  Well except to carry  stuff.

Color Shaker. Shake the color out of pictures.  Another one that’s great for kids.

Twitterly.  What hackathon would be complete without Twitter?  This app (among other things) shows tweets that happen in close proximity.  The Tweet is coming from inside the house!

Thanks to everyone who came!  It was a super day.

sponsors

Special thanks to our amazing sponsors!

• Agilitrain
• Silver Bay Labs
• Silvertail Software
• Wirestone
• Microsoft