Silverlight 5 includes new capabilities such as Hardware Video Decode, for enhanced video quality and performance, and “Trickplay,” which provides variable-rate video playback with audio pitch correction. Silverlight 5 also offers a new Microsoft XNA-based interface for delivering 3-D visualizations within applications, along with a host of new features for developers. Silverlight 5 is likely to be the final version of Silverlight. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley notes that the company plans to support Silverlight 5 until 2021.

Silverlight 5 also extends the ‘Trusted Application’ model to the browser. System administrators can enable the features via group policy and they allow greater control over multiple window support, trust support in browser and HTML hosting within Silverlight. Silverlight 5 also includes the following developer related enhancements:

WordPress is launching a new pay per click (PPC) advertising platform that will allow bloggers to earn money from ad revenues.

The WordAds PPC service comes in response to requests from the company’s community of writers producing content on 24 million blogging sites.

Launching the service, WordPress ads lead Jon Burke explained that the firm had always resisted advertising because it “wasn’t terribly tasteful, and it seemed like Google’s AdSense was the state-of-the-art, which was sad”.

He continued: “Blogs are unique and they shouldn’t be treated like every other page on the internet,” adding that if there is to be advertising, “it darn well better be good”.

The new PPC platform is the result of an agreement with Federated Media, which said the partnership will allow brands to “execute cohesive, content-driven campaigns using a variety of marketing solutions”.

Examples cited by the firm include content curation and sponsored content posts, which it says will integrate marketing messages “respectfully and appropriate to the conversation”.

Additionally, it says the PPC service will allow brands to target conversations instead of just key words.

Not every blogger on WordPress will be able to benefit from ad revenue, however. Writers will need to have publicly visible blogs with a custom domain, with selection based on level of traffic and engagement and type of content, as well as the language used on a blog.

With blogs catering to niche markets, it is probable that brands will be able to target their advertising at specific audiences.

Although WordPress did not reveal exactly how the advertising revenues would be split or the level of interest from brands, it is clear there is huge scope to make the scheme profitable, with Mr Burke noting that more than 50,000 WordPress-powered blogs come online every day.

Econsultancy recently pointed out that PPC has two main advantages over other forms of digital marketing – transparency and control. “You can see exactly where you are advertising, and control the amount that you pay per conversion with great precision,” Shane Quigley explained on a blog post.

The MSN re-launch is due to kick off on November 17 and will see the site focus on real-time coverage and more exclusive content. The project is being headed by Pete Clifton, executive producer for MSN. Clifton is the former BBC editor who helped build the BBC News site during his 15 years at the BBC. Clifton was made redundant from the BBC earlier this year and Microsoft hired him as Peter Bale’s replacement. “We had a very busy summer at MSN HQ,” said Clifton in a blog post on Thursday. “We have been reviewing new services, designing new features and we are close to revealing the all-new MSN to you very soon.”

According to Clifton the editorial team is working very closely with sales to ensure the new MSN offers brands greater opportunities to engage with its audience. This includes introducing a range of new rich ad formats, such as Filmstrip, to coincide with the new site design.

Clifton did not disclose what ratio of in-house editorial compared to sponsored content he was working to, but said MSN would be looking to produce up to 35 pieces of original content per day, which is how much it previously produced in a week.

There will be a particular focus on exclusives, such as interviews with celebrities, politicians and film trailers. “We get thousands of exclusives and we need to be prouder of these and make sure they punch their weight,” Clifton said .

MSN UK is also expanding its in-house team to include 70 editors and journalists working around the clock. MSN UK features contributors such as Vicky Butler-Henderson in MSN Cars, England World Cup rugby star James Haskell in MSN Sport and fashion expert Louise Roe in MSN Lifestyle. MSN will also focus on more exclusive content, including interviews with A-list stars and other exclusive content every week.

Cricket Wireless has a new USB modem for giving you access to a 3G network that has just debuted. The device is called the Cricket ZTE AC3781. The modem has a swiveling USB port so you can move the modem to the ideal position no matter where you have your notebook or desktop.

The device supports 3G connectivity, text messaging, email access, and any apps that need email access as well. It has a microSD card slot as well supporting cards up to 32GB. With a microSD card inside the modem is also a flash drive.

That will allow you to share your web connection and data with the one device. The MSRP for the AC3781 is $99.99. The broadband connectivity for the modem runs for $45 to $65 monthly. The 3G data speed the modem offers is up to 1.4Mbps.

Facebook announced Thursday that it would immediately begin building a massive data centre (its third globally and first in Europe) in the Swedish town of Lulea, near the Arctic Circle. At 65 degrees of latitude, Luleå is just as close to the pole as Siberia, Greenland and most of Alaska, although technically, it’s a few tens of miles south of the Arctic Circle itself. The average temperature up there is a whopping 35 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the perfect environment for a giant data center. Instead of having to pay a bunch of money for energy-hungry air conditioners, all Facebook is going to do is (more or less) open all the windows and turn on some fans.

This is not going to be some sort of piddly little exploratory project for Facebook. They’ll be building three gigantic server halls, covering an area equivalent to 11 football fields. Even without having to pay for the additional A/C, the air cooling system is still going to cost about $75 million a year. The other appeal of northern Sweden, though, is cheap hydro power: the Luleå river produces twice as much electricity as the Hoover Dam.

Cold air may be cheap in the Arctic, but once a server farm sucks up a bunch of it, that cold air turns into hot air. Then it gets blown back out into the Arctic, which instantly gets a little less Arctic-y. ‘Course, there’s more than enough cold air to go around, but it’s still just a little something that the Swedes should keep in mind, lest the environmental effects harm the indigenous moose and lucrative gummy fish industry.

Facebook is planning to build a massive new data center in the industrial town of Lulea in Swedish Lapland, about 70 miles from the Arctic Circle.

The data center will consist of three buildings, the first of which will cover about 33,000 square yards, Facebook spokesperson Alex Kirschner told TechNewsWorld.

That will make the building almost seven times the size of a football field.

The data center will be powered “almost exclusively” by hydroelectricity, Kirschner said.

The combination of hydropower and Lulea’s cool weather, which will let the data center use outside air for cooling for eight to 10 months of the year, will make the installation “significantly more efficient than the industry standard,” Kirschner stated.

Construction of the first building will begin this year and is scheduled for completion in 2012.

Greenpeace, which has criticized Facebook strongly over the years for consuming electricity produced by coal-burning power stations, has applauded Facebook’s plan, on the whole.

“Going to a place like they did in Sweden where they can power their entire data center by renewable energy is good, but we think there’s a few more things they should do to be a leader in this space in the IT world,”.

It wasn’t that long ago that it seemed like you couldn’t get an invite to Google’s new social network, Google+ for love or money. Those days are gone. Today, Google has opened up the network for everyone and anyone.

In a blog posting by Vic Gundotra, Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering, he announced that “For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal. We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups. This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about.”

In addition, Google has expanded search to Google+. To quote Gundotra, “You’ve been asking for it, and we’ve been busy building it, so today we’re bringing Google’s search expertise to Google+. Just type what you’re looking for into the Google+ search box, and we’ll return relevant people and posts, as well as popular content from around the Web.”