Microsoft has released Silverlight 3, after being in beta testing since March 2009.
Silverlight 3.0 includes over 50 new features, including graphic processing unit (GPU) acceleration, 3D support, H.264 video support and out-of-the-browser capabilities to Silverlight.
A full list of features can be read on the Silverlight website. Silverlight 3 is available for Windows and Mac OS X today.
European Union regulators have laid down fresh claims that Microsoft is again in breach of its anti-trust laws.
The complaint is related to Internet Explorer being bundled with all new Windows installations.
Microsoft lost a similar case in 2004 and was forced to sell Windows versions without Windows Media Player.
This has potential repercussions across the market. Apple currently bundles Safari with every copy of Mac OS X, while most Linux distributions are bundled with Firefox.
“Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice” said a spokesman for the European Union.
Any final decision on the matter is likely to be years away.
Chromium on Linux
Thanks to the CrossOver Chromium project, it is now possible to download Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux.
The Chromium project is an open source effort, built using the same code as Chrome and “aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web“.
At this stage, the browser does not run nativly on systems other than Windows, but the Chromium project has been made possible thanks to the CodeWeavers’ Wine development expertise.
You can download the CrossOver Chromium browser from the website or the links below:
Mac OS X
Ubuntu and Debian (32bit)
Ubuntu and Debian (64bit)
Google has just released a new version of their Gears project which now has support for OS X and Safari.
Google Gears “is an open source project that enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser“.
With Gears, web applications can naturally interact with your desktop, JavaScript performance is increased, and you can store data locally in a fully search-able database.
Gears-enabled websites include Google Docs, WordPress an YouTube Video Uploader.
A full run down on new features can be found in the Google Gears Blog, and you can download a copy of Google Gears from http://gears.google.com/.