A new Seesmic app is coming and this could potentially distance the company from the likes of Tweetdeck. With the introduction of a plugin architecture, Seesmic will become the facilitator for your perfect social media experience, so long as someone has built a plugin for it.

The new app, which will be let loose on developers in “2 to 4 weeks” is a brand new build using Silverlight 4. You don’t need to worry about the ‘back end’ – it just means the app can work on more platforms than ever before, including the Windows 7 Phone.

The plugins and the plugin directory are where Seesmic starts to innovate away from other social media apps..

Not content with adding in other social networks to their existing apps, this new release will allow every user to individually tailor their social media experiences by adding and removing the elements they like and dislike.

If I wanted to include mapping data, I could add the bing maps facility which would open any geocoded tweet with an interactive map.

For me, I want a Twitter app that allows me to grab links and bookmark them for future reference. So, I could use the new Seesmic app and add in a Delicious or Read it Later plugin, once someone has built it.

Like any social media experience, the new Seesmic will only be as good as the people that contribute to them, so it will be important to get a wide range of plugins as soon as possible. Loic suggests at least 400 developers have signed up to the new SDK which is the first step to developing plugins.

A decent plugin directory is also going to be crucially important, the Seesmic team are working on directory which will enable descriptions, downloads, reviews and ratings. No further news on that just yet.

So, we won’t be seeing anything for a while but this could be an awesome app. As one would expect, other Twitter apps are making noises of ‘big changes’ coming so time will tell if Seesmic has a unique proposition in the market. From where we’re sitting today, the plugin possibilities could propel Seesmic to become your personal social media portal, moving away from just a Twitter + app.

Images kindly taken from Seesmic blog.

The first Windows 7 Phone apps were unveiled today, and damn they look good. On first glance these apps look like potential iPhone killers. I know that is a big statement, but I genuinely believe Microsoft is back in the game.

The phone itself will run a tiled interface, almost a cross between the app screens on the iPhone and the app elements on the Android. The big difference on the Windows 7 phone is that the tiles are live – they can show you content even while they sit there.

So, we have some screen shots to show you after the break, just a handful of examples demonstrated today. Check them out, they look pretty fine.

Before we go on, a small note about the apps. These are all development apps at this time. The images and details have been presented and released by Microsoft but most of us won’t be able to get our hands on these in the short-term. There is a strong chance that these apps will improve before full launch. From these initial examples the future looks very bright for Windows Phone 7 apps.

Three Buttons

You will note on all of these example, the three buttons at the bottom of the phone. These are the standard buttons that work across the phone, namely back, search and home – the same functions as found on the Android phones.

Panoramic Design

You may have seen the reference to ‘panoramic design’ in our previous post. This actually means that apps are not restricted by screen size but are instead created to allow you to move around or zoom into the app when you need to. This enables the app to be much ‘bigger’ and makes for a great interface and user experience. Breaking free of the screen size restrictions could also be a great foil for Android which struggles to deliver a uniform experience due to the large range of handsets and screen sizes.

This example from AP demonstrates the scale an app can achieve. This app is wide with the ability for the user to zoom into the particular bit they wish to focus on.

Location Based

The combination of location services and Bing maps integration is demonstrated in this app from foursquare.

Admittedly this screen shot does look like a flat map but the live demonstration shows the map as an active function which will focus in on the last known location of your friend.

The map can be manipulated to go anywhere, or zoom in so you can move around to see other friends nearby indicated as pins on the map. A direction feature also allows you to find the best route to hook up with your friends should you wish to.

This location feature was also demonstrated on the new Seesmic app.

Awesome Graphics

Silverlight is creating a reputation for great graphics abilities which are extended to the phone.

Hardware acceleration also means the graphics are not only beautiful and crisp but also stand up to deep zooming.

The two examples here are from an Xbox game (played on the phone = awesome) and Graphic.ly – an online comic store and comic ‘book’ application.

Excellent graphics are really going to be one of the key’s to Phone 7′s take up. I personally believe that all these shots look great and flow easily which will be an important first battle ground when competing with the iPhone.

Microphone

Shazam is here, making use of the mic. No real revelations here, slightly different graphics but the same old Shazam.

With the launch of a free Silverlight app tool kit today, no doubt we will see more apps developed to make use of the microphone.

The iPhone Killer?

Every one of these apps looks great. With the iPhone trading off its looks for much of its promotional work, I believe that Microsoft has developed something that looks just as good, if not better.

The functionality demonstrated on these apps also shows huge potential for the phone. Couple this with a direct extension of existing Silverlight developments into the phone and pro-active developer support this could really upset the market.

What do you think? Has this got potential?

First came the news that Flash would not be supported on the iPad, then Steve Jobs called it a ‘Dying Technology’ now comes news that Adobe themselves may not support all Android ‘Phones.

The news, spotted on the official Adobe Forums suggests that Adobe will not support all Android Handsets and operating systems moving forward.

In a thread about the future roadmap for flash on both the Android and Windows Mobile platforms, an official Adobe source wrote that the HTC Hero will not be supported due to its older operating system and weaker chipset. This confirmation was also coupled with an earlier post that suggested support for Android with Flash 10.1 will not be available until later in the year.

It also highlights the delay in support for Windows Mobile until version 7 appears.

So, could this be the opportunity for new technologies to work with the mobile systems or will it finally be the chance for Silverlight to shine?

With perspective, this is only one forum post, admittedly on the official Adobe Forums and, for the sake of clarity, from someone who appears to be from Adobe.  However, the new definitions of which systems and handsets they will support will mean that different users will have different experiences with Android, compared with a uniform graphical experience on the iPhone.

Food for thought. With thanks to Androinica for spotting.

A scant three months after the release of Silverlight 3, Microsoft is releasing the beta of Silverlight 4 for download today. It fixes a wide number of performance gaps, and greatly expands the abilities of the product.

The new features are grouped three main areas: media, business applications, and things that go beyond the browser. One by one:

Media:

In SL4, developers can now have access to the webcam and microphone of the user’s computer. There were two demoed applications, one involving a very Mac-esque photo booth application, and a bar code scanner. SL4 also now supports multicast streaming, output protection, and to the chagrin of some, offline DRM.

Business Applications:

There are so many different new additions to the business side of Silverlight, that I will just place them all here. The tend to explain themselves. New in SL4: printing, rich text, clipboard access, right-click, mouse wheel, implicit styles, drag and drop, Bidi and RTL, Commanding and MVVM, share assemblies across SL and .NET4, data binding improvements, UDP Muliticast Support, REST enhancements, WCF improvements, WCF RiA services.

If none of that made any sense, you can take the word of the man sitting next to me during the keynote. He kept saying “vunnderfulll,” throughout the presentation.

Moving Beyond The Browser:

SL3 let developers install and build applications that were stand alone, outside the browser. SL4 takes that a step farther. There are new windowing API’s, notification pop-up support, HTML support, and drop target has been added.

Also, in SL4 you can build trusted applications, to get your Silverlight app out of the sandbox. Users must consent to trusted applications, of course.