Do you think Silverlight media features are built on top of Windows Media Player?

The Silverlight browser plug-in is a separate component, independent of Windows Media Player. Silverlight is designed for delivery of cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) inside a Web browser combining audio, video, animation, overlays, and more. Windows Media Player delivers a breadth of local playback and user focused experiences. You don’t require Windows Media Player to be installed on PC to run Silverlight applications. Silverlight is completely independent and when installed is less than 2 MB in size.

Silverlight supports Windows Media Audio and Video (WMA, WMV7–9) and VC-1, as well as MP3 audio. Additional formats may be available over time.

Google has launched the Android Developer Challenge, which will provide $10 million in awards for great mobile apps built on the Android platform.

The award money will be distributed equally between two Android Developer Challenges:

• Android Developer Challenge I: Google will accept submissions from January 2 through March 3, 2008
• Android Developer Challenge II: This part will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008

In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards.

What is Android ?

Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. This early look at the Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language.

Features

• Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components
• Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
• Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
• Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional)
• SQLite for structured data storage
• Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
• GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
• Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent)
• Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent)
• Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE

Android will ship with a set of core applications including an email client, SMS program, calendar, maps, browser, contacts, and others. All applications are written using the Java programming language. Read more »