February 22nd, 2007
A new WPF reader application by Identity Mine
We've heard a lot of good things so far about the New York Times reader that Microsoft and the NYT Co. worked to put together to showcase WPF technologies. Now an independent firm, Identity Mine has taken the idea and run with it creating branded reading experiences built on Windows Presentation Foundation technology. With their reader, companies can bring their content to the desktop in the form of a Rich Internet Application.
The official announcement is coming tomorrow, but this looks to be a pretty solid application and they've lined up some great launch content with Forbes and the Seattle Post Intelligencer. And they've gone beyond the scope of the New York Times reader by incorporating other features of Vista like the Side Bar to bring the reading experience to users at a lot of different touch points. The reader has everything you'd expect including updating and auto-synchronization so you can take your content with you. It incorporates Vista's desktop search so that you can easily find articles and the layout engine is tailored so that it fits on a variety of screens.
Identity Mine gave a presentation about WPF at Ignite Seattle and it's a company that I'm going to be keeping a close eye on. I think we're starting to see an ecosystem built around WPF just like we saw one with Flash in the beginning. It looks like designers and developers are doing interesting things with the platform and the tools that Microsoft has created. I think this bodes well for the Windows Presentation Foundation, especially as Vista gets out to more customers. Rich Internet Applications on the desktop are getting better and better.
Ryan Stewart, a Rich Internet Application developer and industry analyst, recently joined Adobe's Platform Team as a Rich Internet Application Evangelist. full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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