Internet application

Microsoft released Silverlight 2 on Monday, the second major version of its platform for creating and delivering advanced multimedia applications and experiences in a Web browser.

The company also said it will continue to back Silverlight-related open-source communities, with funding for advanced Silverlight development based on the Eclipse Foundation's integrated development environment (IDE) and with new controls to developers via the Silverlight Control Pack.

In the likely event that you haven't yet mastered everything in Adobe System's massive Creative Suite 3, take a breath. On Tuesday, the company announced CS4.

Adobe said the new version delivers "radical work-flow breakthroughs that bring down the walls between designers and developers." Adobe added that CS4 is "packed" with new features.

All Adobe in One Box

Creative Suite 4 comes in several editions, including Design, Web, Production Premium, and Master Collection. The suite will ship in October at prices ranging from $1,799 to $2,499.

Blind people generally use computers with the help of screen-reader software, but those products can cost more than $1,000, so they're not exactly common on public PCs at libraries or Internet cafes. Now a free new Web-based program for the blind aims to improve the situation.

It's called WebAnywhere, and it was developed by a computer science graduate student at the University of Washington. Unlike software that has to be installed on PCs, WebAnywhere is an Internet application that can make Web surfing accessible to the blind on most any computer.