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February 17, 2009 5:49 AM

News roundup: CBS picks Silverlight for March Madness on Demand; Full Flash coming on Windows Mobile; So many app stores; Maps as the metaphor for cellphone era

Posted by Benjamin J. Romano

Silverlight, Microsoft's competitor to Adobe Flash in online video and rich Internet applications, will power CBSsports.com's March Madness on Demand -- the men's college basketball tournament, reports the SportsBusiness Journal. CBS was already using Windows Media Player for the service, which drew 4.8 million users last year. Silverlight will power a higher-quality version, SBJ reports. Also, Microsoft's Scott Guthrie wrote in a November update on Silverlight that "CBS College Sports is now using Silverlight to stream NCAA events." In any case, It's a nice win for Microsoft, which three months ago lost another high-profile outlet for Silverlight when Major League Baseball Advanced Media switched MLB.com back to Adobe Flash.

Speaking of Adobe Flash, the software maker said at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that a full version of Flash 10 would be available for mobile devices -- including phones running Windows Mobile, Google Android, Nokia S60/Symbian and Palm's new OS, but not Apple's iPhone -- beginning in early 2010, reports CNET. Last year, Microsoft licensed Flash Lite, the pared-down version of the popular player, for Windows Mobile.

In other Mobile World Congress news, Fortune has a good summary of the mobile application stores various cellphone makers and software providers have rolled out.

The map is becoming the new metaphor for how information is organized in the fast-ascending cellphone era, writes John Markoff in The New York Times. There are many implications for the utility of the devices we carry, commerce and privacy.

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