Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer Division, has announced the final release of Silverlight 2.0. Scott runs the teams responsible for Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), ASP.NET, and IIS 7.0. Silverlight 2.0 is a major release for Microsoft’s Developer Division and allows developers to utilize the benefits of .NET within any browser. Scott also lets us know of several high-profile websites that are jumping onboard in utilizing Silverlight 2.0 such as CBS College Sports Network to broadcast 20,000 hours of live games, AOL with their new AOL Mail, and Blockbuster with their new MovieLink subscription service.

My favorite example of the capability of Silverlight 2.0 is the Hard Rock Memorabilia website using Deep Zoom. This impressive site, designed built by the awesome folks at Vertigo, showcases tons of music memorabilia of historic value such as The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour Bus which is my personal favorite since I got to see it in person several years ago at the Hard Rock in Universal Studios Orlando.

CORRECTION: The Hard Rock Memorabilia website (including the embeddable "widget" that you can share on your website as mentioned below) was actually conceived and designed by the creative geniuses at the San Francisco-based advertising and design firm Duncan/Channon. You can read about the new widget capabilities in the Hard Rock Memorabilia website in this Duncan/Channon blog post. They also have a post up about the Hard Rock Memorabilia website for you to read as well.

They have enabled a super cool widget feature on the Hard Rock Memorabilia website where you can zoom in to a specific object in the collection and choose to share it by embedding it on your blog! As you can see above, I embedded the Magical Mystery Tour Bus Widget for you to see here. Special thanks to OffBeatMammal for the heads up on the sharing functionality in the Hard Rock Memorabilia.

Speaking of Deep Zoom, to go along with the final release of Silverlight 2.0 a new version of Deep Zoom Composer has been released.

Download: Deep Zoom Composer Preview 2 (October 2008)

The Deep Zoom Composer Team tells us that this release is mostly an “under-the-hood” release focusing on reliability. In the near future, expect the Deep Zoom Composer Team to talk more about the changes as they polish the V1 release of Deep Zoom Composer. For those not sure what Deep Zoom Composer is: Deep Zoom Composer is an application that lets users very easily compose their very own Deep Zoom collections, similar (but not as complex) to the Hard Rock Memorabilia website I mentioned above. After composing a Deep Zoom collection in Deep Zoom Composer – you are then given the ability to upload your collection to the Microsoft Live Labs PhotoZoom website. Developers can use this tool to develop their own Deep Zoom collections as well for their own websites. You can check out my Deep Zoom collections on PhotoZoom here. I plan on adding many more collections

 

Congrats to the Silverlight Team on their Silverlight 2.0 release!

On Friday, a new build of Deep Zoom Composer was released sporting some really neat new functionality including the ability to upload collections to Microsoft Live Labs PhotoZoom.

Download: Deep Zoom Composer (8/1/2008 Release)

Microsoft Live Labs PhotoZoom is designed to let users show off their photos with Deep Zoom and Silverlight by allowing users to upload their Deep Zoom collections to the web. To upload my collection, all I needed to do was login using my Windows Live ID in Deep Zoom Composer under "PhotoZoom Export".

NOTE: Before you are able to upload a collection, you must first go to the Microsoft Live Labs PhotoZoom website and login to create an account associated with your Windows Live ID.

Once signed in, I can create a new album, give it an album name, choose image format and quality and upload. I can also add to existing collections.  

After I published a collection to PhotoZoom - I can embed that collection into a website or blog post to share the collection with others. Here is my first "test" Deep Zoom collection on PhotoZoom. It's a panoramic shot I stitched together using Windows Live Photo Gallery from a recent trip to Smith Rock State Park in Central Oregon. To view this collection you will need Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2.

You will be able to find any future Deep Zoom collections from me here on PhotoZoom. I'll be publishing a bigger collection from my Central Oregon Trip in the very near future.

Currently - PhotoZoom Upload functionality inside Deep Zoom Composer may not be working properly. A fix is expected very soon. I'll edit this post once a fix is released and you can also watch their blog for further updates.

Deep Zoom Composer also now utilizes the same technology developed by Microsoft Research for panoramic stitching - also seen in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

RELATED: Look from the top of the Space Needle with Deep Zoom

As announced earlier this week during the Tech•Ed 2008 Keynote - Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 has been released. Tech•Ed 2008 for Developers is taking place in Orlando this week with Tech•Ed 2008 for IT Professionals starting next week. Check out the Virtual Press Room for Tech•Ed 2008 for the latest announcements.

On top of today's Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 release comes two new releases also worth taking note of: Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP and an updated build of Deep Zoom Composer for Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 support.

Because of updates made in Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2, I needed to install the updated build of Deep Zoom Composer and re-publish my Space Needle Deep Zoom Collection to take full advantage of today's Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 release.

Download: Deep Zoom Composer June 2008 Release (Version 0.9.0.3)

Download: Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP

With the new build of Deep Zoom Composer - I was able to choose between JPEG and PNG for the format of my photos within my Deep Zoom Collection. In my updated Space Needle Deep Zoom Collection I went with PNG. However, when you choose JPEG you can set the quality of the JPEG images which is really nice. Another new feature in the new Deep Zoom Composer is the ability to tag images within your Deep Zoom Collection. Apparently there is a way to add sorting by tags for Deep Zoom Collections but this process is fairly code-intensive and I'm not really sure just how to do that - yet.

Deep Zoom Collection*: Top of Space Needle in Seattle, WA (UPDATED)

* Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 is required to view Deep Zoom Collections. If you don't have Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 installed, it will ask you to install it to view the Deep Zoom Collection.

Using the Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP release I was able to change some of the formatting of my Deep Zoom Collection such as changing the background and the size of the actual Deep Zoom area. Expression Blend 2.5 can open Deep Zoom Projects created by Deem Zoom Composer - allowing for more advanced control over the project.

I plan to have my second Deep Zoom Collection published shortly - and to be quite a bit bigger than my Space Needle Doom Zoom Collection.

Have you created a Doom Zoom Collection? Leave a comment with a link to your Deep Zoom Collection!

Not Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 related - but still Silverlight related - check out the trailer to the upcoming new X-Files move X-Files: I Want to Believe in Silverlight! Thanks Barack for the heads up.

A couple weeks ago, the Deep Zoom Composer Team announced an update to Deep Zoom Composer that was first released at MIX this year. You can download the new version here (version 0.9.0.2).  I decided to use Deep Zoom Composer myself to create my very own Deep Zoom Collections.  

If you recall, I took a roadtrip around the Pacific Northwest with a friend and took quite a bit of photos with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi  (a Certified for Windows Vista camera). I used many of the photos to create some panoramic shots with Windows Live Photo Gallery. Click here to view the shots as well as the post about my trip. However I still had tons of photos left over from the trip. I decided to use some leftover photos taken from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, WA to create my very first Deep Zoom Collection.

Deep Zoom Collection*: Top of Space Needle in Seattle, WA

* Silverlight 2.0 Beta is required to view Deep Zoom Collections. If you don't have Silverlight 2.0 installed, it will ask you to install it to view the Deep Zoom Collection.

Creating a Deep Zoom Collection is really easy with Deep Zoom Composer. Almost anyone can create their own Deep Zoom Collection.

All I needed to do was import the photos I wanted to include in the collection into Deep Zoom Composer and compose them onto what is called the "artboard". I can drag and drop photos I imported from the image selector on the right-hand side onto the artboard and arrange the photos however I want in variety of sizes and alignments. Deep Zoom Composer includes alignment presets (located on the toolbar at the bottom of the artboard).

Once I was done composing my Deep Zoom Collection, I went to the Export tab and exported my project out as a Silverlight Project. In exporting out a project, be sure to export as a collection and not a composition. If you export out as a composition - it flattens your entire arrangement of images into one giant image. Exporting as a collection is like a collection of "compositions" - with each image being a composition. You'll notice things look better when you export as a collection. I made this mistake the first time.

After the export of my project is finished, I am presented with several options - such as being able to preview my Deep Zoom Collection in a browser.

So how did I get my Deep Zoom Collection onto the web? All I needed to do was FTP all the files within the "DeepZoomOutput_Web"  directory which is under the Project Folder (see above screenshot on how to quickly access your Project Folder) into a directory here on the Windows Vista Team Blog.

Give Deep Zoom Composer a try yourself. I would love to see some of your Deep Zoom Collections. Leave a link in comments. Let me know what you think of mine. I hope to regularly do Deep Zoom Collections here. Special thanks to the Deep Zoom Composer Team for helping me with my first Deep Zoom Collection!