Microsoft unveils Silverlight 4 release candidate

Microsoft today unveiled the release candidate for Silverlight 4, saying its rival to Adobe's Flash already lives on 60 per cent of "internet devices".

The latest edition of Silverlight will add new features including support for Google's Chrome browser and hardware acceleration for a graphics tool called Deep Zoom. It will extend out-of-browser abilities introduced in version 3, and tweak text, printing and networking to make it better for business applications.

The full version is set to arrive next month, Microsoft said. The RC can be downloaded here.

At MIX10 in Las Vegas, Microsoft claimed that adoption of Silverlight has jumped 15 percentage points over the past four months, and now lives on 60 per cent of all "internet devices" around the world.

Microsoft also announced that Silverlight would be the main development platform for Windows Phone 7.