Silverlight 2 Beta2 was released today. You can download both Silverlight 2 Beta2 and the Visual Studio and Expression Blend tools support to target it here . Beta2 adds a lot of new features (more details below), but is still a 4.6 MB download that takes less than 10 seconds to install on a machine...

Microsoft next quarter plans to launch a consumer beta test version of its Internet Explorer (IE) 8 browser -- showcasing its upgraded compatibility with current standards. The most obvious feature for consumers in IE8 Beta 2, as it's known, is likely to be the browser's new default rendering...

Adobe Systems is offering two-day trials of three beta applications from its next Creative Suite package. The previews of Dreamweaver for Web design, Fireworks for image editing, and Soundbooth for audio editing became available Monday. Trials expire after 48 hours for most people, but registered CS3...

SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Beta is the service pack release for SQL Server Compact 3.5 and it also installs with SQL Server 2008 CTP and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta . The Beta release has the following new features: Support for the ADO.NET Entity Framework for creating flexible, strongly typed queries...

If you do, you should definitely email the guys who are looking after the betas'. If you are interested, drop an email to preview@microsoft.com , with the name of the beta you want to go onto in the subject line: Small Business Server 2008 Beta Program Essentials Business Server 2008 Beta Program...

SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Beta release for the ADO.Net Entity Framework Beta 3 enables the following scenarios: Applications can work in terms of a more application-centric conceptual model, including types with inheritance, complex members, and relationships Applications are freed from hard-coded dependencies...

Windows Live OneCare 2.0 was released back in mid-November and, ever since, we haven't heard much from the Windows Live OneCare team. That should change soon, as LiveSide has noticed a 2.5 English-only public beta signup page. Hopefully the official blog entry will appear soon, since at press time...

We have been waiting for Microsoft to open the beta for Fiji, the suspected codename for the next version of Media Center for well over a year now. I first posted about it in March of last year , with invites first opening just a month after that , and now it appears we may finally have taken a step...

So I'm curious what people think of the new look and feel of the Connect 3.0 beta site . We've seen some activity and a few suggestions/bugs filed (thanks!), but I'm interested in general feedback on the site. What do you like, not like, etc? http://blogs.msdn.com/csnow/archive/2007/12/17...