Microsoft Silverlight 3 available for download

Microsoft’s cross-browser and cross-platform plug-in for delivering .NET based web applications with rich interactive media has a new version, 3.0 released. A 3.0 Beta has been available since some time. The first version of Silverlight, 1.0 was released in 2007.

Some major new features that have arrived with Silverlight 3 are the significant graphics improvements including 3D graphics support, GPU acceleration and H.264 video suppor, ability to run Silverlight applications outside of browser in a desktop environment with caching support for offline viewing and desktop shortcuts(similar to Adobe AIR plugin).

Silverlight 3 includes Microsoft’s smooth streaming technology, originally developed for the Zune HD, which allows streaming of full screen HD video (720P+) without any buffering. Unlike other video streaming services, you will not see any breaks or “buffering..” messages with this one. It is also more SEO friendly in order to encourage more website developers to start using it.

System Requirements

Windows (Windows 7, XP (SP2,SP3), Vista, Server 2008): X86 or x64 500-megahertz (MHz) or higher processor with 128-megabytes (MB) of RAM
Mac OS 10.4.8+: PowerPC G4 800-MHz or higher processor with 128-MB of RAM
Mac OS 10.4.8+ (Intel-based): Intel Core Duo 1.83-gigahertz (GHz) or higher processor with 128-MB of RAM
Supported Browsers: Internet Explorer (6.0, 7.0, 8.0) , Firefox (2,3) , Safari (3,4 )

Download Silverlight 3.0