This week Silverlight 2 is getting ever closer to being released, Adobe is using AIR with Photoshop CS4, music notation comes to the browser, Jaxer gets to a release candidate, Dojo is refreshed, and taxes made easier. All this and more on this week's Weekly RIA RoundUp from InsideRIA.

FEATURED: Silverlight 2 RTM Soon

UPDATE: The Silverlight 2 Release has been announced. It will be made available October 14th. Read more here.

Many sources have stated that the Silverlight 2 release is coming very soon. This comes right on the heels of the Silverlight 2 RC0 release (which was at the end of September). This was further clarified by a posting on Silverlight.net that stated, "Silverlight 2 Release is imminent. Get ready now.".

Official Silverlight Site

Joel Neubeck: Ready Set Update! - Silverlight 2 RTM is just days away

Preparing for Silverlight 2 RTM

If a Silverlight application has been adapted for Silverlight 2 RC0, it should work fine with the final release version. However if an application was built for Silverlight 2 Beta 2, it will need to be updated to properly work. Microsoft has compiled a list of breaking changes between Silverlight 2 Beta 2 and Release Candidate 0:

Breaking Changes Between Silverlight 2 Beta 2 and Silverlight 2 RC0 (Word Document)

Adobe Uses AIR To Configure Photoshop

John Nack from Adobe announced Adobe Configurator, an AIR application that can be used to configure Photoshop CS4's interface. Nack states that one of the goals of Adobe Configurator is to "let anyone remix the Photoshop UI to fit their needs". While Adobe has long allowed developers to customize the Creative Suite applications, this is easiest method to date for users to truly adapt Photoshop to their needs. John's post includes screenshots of the application and there are links below to a demo video.

Adobe Configurator is in the final stages of development, and John states that it will be available around the end of this month on Adobe Labs.

John Nack (Adobe): Introducing Adobe Configurator

YouTube Demo of Adobe Configurator (Higher Quality Quicktime Version)

South African Government Using AIR

Serge Jespers highlighted one of the first widespread government uses of AIR this week on his blog. While on a visit to South Africa he discovered that the South African Revenue Service uses AIR to assist people in preparing their taxes. They take advantage of the occasionally-connected support in AIR to allow people to file their taxes even if they don't have a consistent high-speed Internet connection.

More information can be found on Serge's blog:

Serge Jespers (Adobe): South Africans file their taxes using AIR

Aptana Jaxer 1.0 Release Candidate

The open-souce Ajax server, Aptana Jaxer, has reached a release candidate for the 1.0 release. This version brings many new features as well as numerous improvements. Details can be found in the release notes:

Aptana: Jaxer 1.0 Release Candidate now available

Ajaxian: Aptana Jaxer 1.0 RC

Aviary Phoenix Tutorials

Aviary Phoenix, the Flex-based online image editor, now has a new set of forty-two tutorials for new users. These tutorials cover such tasks as working with layers, textures, and masks. Aviary Phoenix is currently in beta, and you can sign up for an account at the link below.

a.viary.com: 42 Sweet New Phoenix Tutorials

Full List of Phoenix Tutorials

Aviary Phoenix

Dojo 1.2 Released

Dojo version 1.2 has been released. This release has addressed over 1100 issues. The official site states:

I have tentatively named this the 'Sliced Bread' release, as over the last six months each new item has truly felt like "the best thing since sliced bread". This iteration of the Dojo Toolkit has a very large delta, countless levels of innovation, cleverness, polish, and usefulness, as well as several internal changes regarding the overall project.

The 1.2 release version is available to download now.

DojoToolkit.org: Dojo 1.2 - So Much Sliced Bread

Dojo 1.2 Release Notes

Download Dojo 1.2

Online Music Notation with Noteflight

A browser-based music notation application named Noteflight was released to semi-public beta this week. The release post states:

Noteflight is a new kind of tool for musicians, composers and educators: an online music notation editor. With Noteflight, anyone can create, share and publish musical scores using nothing more than a web browser. This ease of editing, sharing and publishing are what make Noteflight so different from other notation editors: music notation can finally be used on the Web in as natural and flexible a way as text, images or videos.

You can sign-up for a Noteflight account today, and you will be notified when your account has been activated.

Noteflight Blog: Introducing Noteflight