With the MIX 09 conference approaching soon, some details on Silverlight 3.0 start emerging after Scott Guthrie’s mention of what’s coming in the post he published back in November 2008:

“Silverlight 3 will include major media enhancements (including H.264 video support), major graphics improvements (including 3D support and GPU hardware acceleration), as well as major application development improvements (including richer data-binding support and additional controls).  Note these are just a small sampling of the improvements - we have plenty of additional cool features we are going to keep up our sleeves a little longer. ;-)”

First of all a number of MIX sessions will cover several aspects of it:

• User Experience Design Patterns for Business Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 3
  
  Come hear how creating great user experiences for business applications can result in both improved productivity and significant support cost savings. Learn how to use proven user experience patterns in cost effective ways with Silverlight 3, including rich data display, data input and advanced data validation, and application navigation.
  
• What's New in Microsoft Silverlight 3
  
  Take a tour of the new features in Silverlight 3 including a dive into some of the new experience oriented features like pixel shaders, perspective 3D, animation enhancements, bitmap APIs and improvements to the media stack. Also hear about new Silverlight base framework additions including updates to the style model, data binding improvements, improved resource handling and improvements to the web services stack.
  
• Deep Dive into Microsoft Silverlight Graphics
  
  Come hear about the Silverlight 3 rendering pipeline, and learn how to enhance your application experience with the latest additions to the Silverlight graphics APIs.
  
• Building Amazing Business Centric Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 3
  
  This will be a great Silverlight session, but we won't be able to release any details until after MIX09 Keynotes. Check this abstract after MIX09 Keynotes for a complete session description.
  
• Consuming Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 3
  
  Come hear how to work with external REST, SOAP, and Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services from Silverlight. Learn how to securely and efficiently communicate with services using Binary XML, debug services with improved Faults support, and implement server-to-client "push" using the new Add Service Reference for Duplex functionality

For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to be in Vegas, all the sessions will be made available online, watch this space and the official MIX 09 website for details.

In anticipation of the event though, you can already get some insights and sneek peeks at SL3. Channel 9 published a video podcast with Brad Adams on building business apps with Silverlight 3

Mike Snow just anticipated that he’s working on a book titled “Silverlight Game Programming” which is based on Silverlight 3, and will walk you through how to create a multi-player online RPG in Silverlight. Included is a Map Editor written in Silverlight that allows you to create maps for your game. I definitely cannot wait for it!!!

I will be following all the announcements and try to digest all the new info in time for our Silverlight Insight event for UK Academics where I hope I will manage to show some new and shiny stuff!