MIX09 kicks off today in Las Vegas and brings together web developers and designers to discuss how they can deliver a better experience through software and the Web. And we are making several announcements this week at MIX09 that will help web developers and designers easily create the best experiences with their websites and applications.

Today at MIX09 we introduced the next version of Silverlight – Silverlight 3. Silverlight 3 offers web developers more than 60 controls to take advantage of – making it easy for them to create cutting-edge Web applications. Silverlight 3 expands on high-quality and high-definition video experiences with true high-definition video in full-screen mode including stutter-free live and on-demand video. Silverlight 3 supports more video formats, including H.264, and hardware-based media acceleration. And Silverlight 3 also adds support for Windows Touch on Windows 7 (click here to view my blog post on enabling Windows Touch on supported PCs with the Windows 7 Beta)!

 

Download: Silverlight 3 Beta for Developers

The final release of Silverlight 3 is expected to ship later this year. For more information on Silverlight 3, check out the Silverlight Team’s brand new blog: The Silverlight Blog.

NBC Universal has announced that they have chosen Silverlight to deliver the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games on its official Web site NBCOlympics.com. They used Silverlight for the Beijing Games with great success.

For a perfect example of the power of Silverlight web applications – check out the brand new web client for the Microsoft WorldWide Telescope. You can browse the galaxy directly within your web browser! A comparison of features between the web client and desktop PC client of the Microsoft WorldWide Telescope software is available here.

Here on The Windows Blog, we utilize Silverlight for delivering video content to our readers. Our video content is hosted on Microsoft Videos and with their Silverlight Video Player we embed the video into our blog posts. We’re working with the folks at Microsoft Videos in doing something real neat with our video content (and it’s all in Silverlight) so stay tuned!

For the full press release of today’s announcements from Day 1 at MIX09 – click here. On top of the Silverlight 3 announcement, we also announced several new components of the Microsoft Web Platform which includes the Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta. And we also announced new capabilities for Windows Azure as well.

Tim Sneath is “live blogging” MIX09 so if you’re wanting to stay on top of all the latest MIX09 happenings, read his posts.

Also announced today is the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit. Web developers can use the toolkit to make it possible for people who use Windows Live Messenger to communicate and express themselves directly within their website. Essentially, a web developer can give you a pretty slick web IM experience using Windows Live Messenger on a website you are visiting.

Why would a web developer want to embed Windows Live Messenger IM functionality within their website? Visitors of a website with Windows Live Messenger functionality built in can IM with their contacts or even other visitors on the website. This creates a new level of engagement for visitors on that website.

For more information on the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit, click here. UPDATE: Angus Logan blogs about the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit here and worth checking out.

We are looking at deploying the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit here on The Windows Blog for our readers.

Donavon West, Sidebar Gadget-maestro, is at it again! He just released a brand new Windows Sidebar gadget designed to let users keep track of Olympic Medal wins from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Download: 2008 Beijing Olympics Medal Count Gadget

This is a great gadget for people who aren't following the Olympics very closely but want to keep tabs on Olympic Medal wins. I'm not following the Olympics as closely as I'd like due to several things I'm working on so this Gadget is very helpful in at least keeping me "in the loop".

You can also watch encore videos of the Olympics at NBCOlympics.com thanks to a partnership with MSN Video and are presented in Silverlight. Also: don't forget you can also watch Olympic content directly within Windows Media Center on PCs running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate. I posted about NBC Olympics On The Go a few weeks ago here. I hear TVTonic has released a 64-bit version of NBC Olympics On The Go as well.

NBC is further expanding its coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with an Internet-delivered catch-up TV service powered by TVTonic on Windows Media Center on PCs running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate! With NBC Olympics On The Go and Windows Media Center, you will be able to create a customized channel lineup of your favorite events for automatic download to your PC. Download NBC coverage of the Games overnight, and take them with you to watch online or offline in up to HD quality.

 

In Windows Media Center on PCs running either Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, you'll find a new graphic under "Online Media" called NBC Olympics. Click on "Install Now" to install the NBC Olympics service for Windows Media Center.

 

When I went to install, I was given two options: Easy Install and Full Install. The Easy Install requires no keyboard or mouse and sets everything up for you to begin watching content. However, more advanced users (and users with plenty of bandwidth) can choose to do a more comprehensive Full Install. As you could have predicted, I ended up choosing the Full Install.

The Olympics begin August 8^th, and video will become available in NBC Olympics On The Go on that day. Click here to find more about this service.

NOTE: If you don't see NBC Olympics under Online Media in Windows Media Center on your PC - not to worry! It should appear very soon.