Learn to Fly--Foo Fighters

Things Have Changed--Dylan

This Is How a Heart Breaks--Rob Thomas

Runnin' Down a Dream--Petty

Someday Baby--Dylan

LA Woman--Doors

Locomotive Breath--Jethro Tull

Won't Get Fooled Again--The Who

You Can't Catch Me--Stones

Freebird--Skynard

China Grove--Doobie Bros.

Don't Fear the Reaper--Blue Oyster Cult

We're an American Band--Grand Funk Railroad

One of my favorite people in eHome, Charlie Owen notes, "I'm going to head up an effort here at Microsoft between the Media Center, XBox and Zune teams to give you a set of resources which help you put our products together and begin to realize the 'Connected Home' dream." 

An admirable start. As I've noted here, I would like to see the merging of Windows Home Server and Media Center, and perhaps a wireless home automation component, though I have yet to use it beyond my Logitech Harmony remote. 

I'd also like to see a, "Buy anywhere, Watch anywhere" merging of the Marketplaces in Xbox 360, Zune, and Media Center.

Give Charlie your feedback in comments on his blog here.

via eHomeUpgrade

The meme is all gaga over an MIT project demonstrating the ability to power a 60W light bulb up to 6.5ft away from a wireless power coil using magnetic waves. Funny thing is this isn't news - the announcement was made last November. Two other companies, Powercast and eCoupled are doing similar things. If it proves out, this is a very cool development but the real question I haven't seen asked is: how efficient is it?  Does it take 90W of power to support a 60W bulb? Can it scale to support multiple devices like a wireless power strip?

Wireless charging of your cell phone may be just the break the iPhone and other multi-function devices will need to avoid the Russian Roulette game of managing your power consumption between music, video, email, and voice calls so you're not caught with a dead phone.  Will it replace all your cables in your home?  I'm highly skeptical.

I want to be more social.  I really do.  The problem is my trusty little Zune rarely has its WiFi radio turned on in order to save the battery when traveling.  There's nothing I like less than when my video ends abruptly for lack of juice.  So it's a personal sacrifice I make.

Here's a simple idea that would turn the social aspects of my little Zune. It's time for ZuneFinder.  ZuneFinder would be a small Sidebar gadget or systray app that notifies me when a Zune is found in general vicinity I'm in. This would be great in airports, where I often camp out between flights near an AC plug. The big question is whether a Zune can be uniquely identified via your WiFi adapter.  I have to imagine this is possible.

Then taking it a bit further, I could see ZuneFinder mashups- with a GPS, you could drive around and geomap all the Zunes you find in your area, automatically.  Of course, the snarky will retort, "You won't find any."  But being social should be passive, then active in nature.  This is the appeal of Facebook. 

Sadly, ZuneFinder doesn't exist (that I know of). Has anyone been able to uniquely identify Zune devices from an app?  Developers inquire within. :)

Charlie Owen has a great writeup on how to optimize your pictures for viewing on the Zune. 

I really like my Zune, except for one thing- I'm obsessed with battery life so I tend to keep the wireless radio off except when I want to actively look for others.  The likelihood of users to do this could severely diminish the "social" aspects of the device.  I want to be social, but I don't want to run two WiFi radios between my laptop and my Zune, unnecessarily using up battery power.

What I really want is a small utility that runs on my laptop and notifies me when a Zune comes into the area.  It's running WiFi so it must have some sort of broadcast/ID mechanism no?  I can see all sorts of interesting applications of this- mashups that show how many Zunes are available in a given area for one.  It would be interesting to see if I could use my laptop to broadcast the fact that I have a Zune, and take requests.  Then I'll turn on the radio and away I go. And with Vista support now out for Zune, I'm hoping someone will write the ZuneFinder gadget.   Anyone working on this (psst. Phil Torrone, psst) :)

On10.net has a good demo of wirelessly sharing photos and the like with the Zune, though formatting for the page is broken in some browsers (just scroll down).  They've also started offering their videos formatted for the upcoming Zune.  Nice to see sites are already preparing for the format.

A good friend of mine is in charge of 3rd party accessories for Zune. That means all accessories not from Microsoft.  And now, he's blogging over at www.ZuneGuy.com.  And he's getting an enthusiastic response for his open inquiries for feedback.  Oh no, maybe the competition will hear a great idea too!  It doesn't matter - either way as consumers we win if he manages to adopt even a few of these ideas.  Send em his way!

For all the lip-service Apple gives to community creativity, where is the iPod blog?  Don't send them your ideas, they don't want them, especially if you're in the third-grade. 

If Robert Scoble is even just a little bit right in his book, Zune will win the marathon. Why?  Time-released transparency is what I call it.  PR folks know that timing can be worth millions of dollars in perception.mSo time your details, your release of details, and then go transparent on that stage.  PR flaks? No.  Recognizing the blend of PR and community that optimizes your business goals - yes.

Cesar at Zune Insider has posted a video of the new Zune UI.  I think this is the same B-roll footage provided to the press, but it gives a good overview of some of the UI features.

Just the links and only the links for now:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune 
(lots of pictures in here)

http://www.zuneinsider.com/

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/microsoft-launc...

I'll chat more later.   

A fun how-to for removing logos with minimal scratching etc from products by using sugar as a soft abrasive.  YMMV.

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Amir Majidimehr recently took time to post in AVSForum on the new digital audio features in Windows Vista that haven't really seen much publicity yet.  Net-net is that when paired with the right audio drivers supporting the new features, you'll get customizable enhancements normally reserved for high-end AV receivers such as:

• System-wide Loudness equalization
• Bass Management (get the bass channel even on systems without a subwoofer)
• Better support for surround sound systems up to 7.1 channels
• Virtualized surround sound (Surround-->2 speakers)- mix 5.1 DVD's to headphones or standard desktop speakers
• Virtual Surround (Stereo-->Surround)- turn 2-channel into surround sound for your receiver
• Room Calibration - using a simple microphone, this profiler "listens" to the sound from each of your speakers to automatically adjust pitch and volume for where you're sitting in the room.  The better the mic, the better the results (My favorite for Media Center in the home theater!)

Now, not all audio drivers will support these features at Vista RC1- it's up to the sound card manufacturers to support it via in-box class drivers.  I know that HD Audio from Intel integrated into many new PC motherboards over the past 2 years does support it, but the currently available Beta 2 drivers from other card manufacturers haven't implemented yet.

Also worth mentioning is the work being done to really reduce latency and improve resiliency in the entire audio stack, both important to pro musicians and consumers alike.

You can also ask Amir questions about Vista Audio Processing here.

And a new whitepaper with more detail on Audio Innovations with screenshots is available here via the official Vista Blog.

Ahh, the spat between two prior partners.  It was getting hard there to keep track of all the lawsuits flying between Creative and Apple.  Now they've settled out of court.  Is this an admission by Apple that they copied stole liberated Creative's IP?  It's unclear.  But Creative's Soon-Kon Kim is now $100M richer and planning to make iPod accessories.

Steve says:

"Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "This settlement resolves all of our differences with Creative, including the five lawsuits currently pending between the companies, and removes the uncertainty and distraction of prolonged litigation."

"Very fortunate"?  An odd way of acknowledging Creative owns the intellectual property.  Is sense much gnashing of teeth and PR jockeying over this exact quote.   I wonder if some designer/engineer just got fired for stiffing the company with the $100M tab for failing to rush out and patent everything they were working on with Creative. 

It's not often I make predictions here, but yesterday I had an "aha" moment spurred by sites abuzz with Reuters report that SanDisk is launching the Sansa e280, an 8GB version of  their e2xxx series for $249.99.  This little device will hold about 2,000 songs, double the capacity of the similarly priced iPod Nano.  Meanwhile prices on their 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models are being dropped an average of 30%. This may sound like just another product announcement, but I believe this is much more.  This is the equivalent of a shot across the bow of every MP3 player in the market and a new price war is underway. 

One of the reasons SanDisk can compete so well here is that they own and run their own NAND Flash memory fabrication plants in partnership with Toshiba. NAND or "Flash" memory has been popularized by everything from MP3 players to memory cards for cell phones and cameras; development of these memory products is one of SanDisk's core competencies.  Using economies of scale to their advantage, they're able to acquire large quantities at base price, and pass some savings on to customers, a competitive advantage few have. 

But the bigger question is will Apple emerge with a new flash based player ala Nano to compete or wait?  Part of the answer I believe lies in another quiet announcement made recently which hints at Apple's upcoming roadmap.

Where is the new iPod Nano? Read the NAND leaves.
Apple, being one of the largest purchasers (and by proxy best negotiators) of flash memory destined for MP3 devices, recognized this choke point in 2005. But rather than lay out the capital cost of building their own chipfab, the entered into a $500M agreement with Intel and Micron last November helping to form IM Flash Technologies. By paying out $250M each to Intel and Micron, they've secured first-mover access at unparalleled pricing for NAND+ products.  I call them NAND+ because IM Flash is already sampling the industry's first 50nm scale technology for manufacturing flash, a process 10x smaller than that of facilities just coming online now.

This got me to thinking about why we still haven't seen a new iPod released by Apple.  Are they relinquishing their perceptual first-mover's advantage? Not necessarily. My prediction is that they're waiting until their investment in cheaper, smaller, NAND technology is ready.  Smaller nm NAND flash offers higher capacities in a smaller space.  Today Apple sources Flash memory from other companies such as Samsung.  But production goes online in IM Flash's VA facility later this year albeit with limited production capacity until their Utah-based facility comes online in mid-2007. 

So what is Apple going to do? I'm going to make my own prediction: Apple will first start to integrate their new memory investments into an upcoming iPhone, which will have a smaller unit-volume requirement than a next-gen iPod Nano.  They'll release a phone with 16-32GB of flash memory to cater to the high-end market. In Q1/Q2, once IM Flash is ramping up, the new Nano/Nano replacement will come out, and a price battle will kick into overdrive. The smaller sized chips + lower price to Apple gives them an edge on size of device, capacity, and without a major price differential. 

SanDisk isn't going to slouch here though. They've started production on Fab3, their 3rd 500nm NAND production facility with Toshiba.  At 500nm though, these chips will be larger than the 50nm units that IM Flash is ramping up.  Either way, it will be interesting to see how the next round plays out.

My boss made me do it.  Seriously.  My boss wants me to blog about the Aquagate, saying it's the coolest MP3 player he's ever seen.  It's annual review time at Microsoft so I will humor him.  Matteo Thun has partnered with Villeroy & Boch to bring this showering/steaming class cube that has been buzzing around the Internet. From their product material:

Thanks to the possibility of playing MP3-files or listening to your favourite radio programme, you can now relax and at the same time enjoy your favourite music during a refreshing shower or vitalising steam bath. Hot mist from above, cold mist at head-height, a ‘cool down’ programme that offers you coolness from top to toe, aroma and light therapy, a rain shower or a Scottish shower are all part of the extremely luxurious equipment level.

Aquagate™ is fitted with four delightful automatic programmes in which all functions are harmoniously combined. For a conscious and healthy life the Wake up, Relax, Fitness and Feel good programmes provide perfect relaxation at the right time of the day. The central gate of the Aquagate™ is available in the stylish materials teak-wood, pure Italian limestone and aluminium in a champagne-metallic colour. The cabin can be placed free-standing, but will also make an unprecedented impression as a design-icon in your bathroom against a wall or in a corner. The Aquagate™ is available in two spacious sizes: 90 x 100 cm and 100 x 130 cm. In our special Aquagate™ brochure you can read everything about the endless possibilities of the Aquagate™.

They had me at Steam shower, they lost me at Scottish shower.  But I like the way they spell "programme" so I'm happy enough.  An LCD display, USB port for loading MP3s.  Too bad there's no WiFi.  This thing would be bad-ass with WiFi enabled access to your music library.  Villeroy and Boch, I'm willing to beta test, just leave the Scotsman at home please. ;)

Like coke and pepsi, Windows or Mac, another heated debate is raging- XM or Sirius satellite radio. My wife wants a car that has XM, and already is talking about getting it because she thinks the playlist on Sirius' Broadway is too limited.  Of course, she never would have thought of this if not for my testing the Sirius S50.  I'm sheepishly admitting I'm a Howard Stern fan (for better or for worse- I'm from the NY area) so I like Sirius also for NPR, and Rolling Stones radio.  Fortunately for the rest of the unwashed masses, The Washington Post's Marc Fisher has a great, in-depth guide to picking between the two.  Now debate amongst yourselves :)

As the Sirius S50 continues to shine on the list of Top 10 Most Wanted on eBay, apparently Crutchfield has published details about the truly portable Sirius Stiletto 100.  Here are the latest details from OrbitCast:

• True Portability. The Sirius Stiletto will have a built-in antenna that allows reception of Sirius' signal without the need for an external car-dock or home-dock.
• Antenna/headphones included. For supplemental reception, you get a Sirius antenna strapped to your noggin - included with the Stiletto.
• 100 hours of Storage. The Sirius Stiletto handles MP3/WMA, and allows you to intermingle Sirius content with your own digital music collection. The Stiletto supports Microsoft's PlaysForSure protocol.
• WiFi Capability. The interface (pictured to your right) looks very similar to the Zing interface as SBS points out. I'd it's not too far of a guess to say that the Stiletto is using the Zing's WiFi technology - allowing you to stream Sirius online when you're in a hotspot.
• Battery Life. Two batteries are included with the packaging. One standard, and one extended life, which offers 4 hours of live SIRIUS reception, 14 hours of WiFi reception, and 22 hours of stored playback time. (The wording is a little fuzzy here - are these numbers from the standard battery? extended battery? or both?)
• Cost. The Sirius Stiletto will MSRP for $399.99.

I suspect this device, like the Sirius S50 may be based upon a PortalPlayer design. Portal also provides the innards for the iPod as well as other players on the market.  The implementation of course, is largely up to the end-manufacturer of the product.  To me, it looks like an S50 and a Sansa got sensual and forgot to wear protection. ;)

Update0: According to Anything but iPod, CNet reports this device is powered by Zing.

Courtesy OrbitCast and Sirius Backstage

GearLive recently sat down with Jonathan Sasse, President of iRiver America at their offices about the development of the Clix.  You can see the framed signoff poster we gave them commemorating the effort and learn more about the experience here.  The audio quality leaves a bit to be desired but a good demo and interview overall.

Last night, I had the opportunity to have dinner with Jeremy Toeman, VP of Sling Media and a group of folks from the Windows Mobile team.  I had a fantastic time- this was the first time Jeremy and I had met in person and we clicked.  I've been a reader of his blog for some time at www.livedigitally.com which he does for fun on the side as I do this site.  We both use Shure headphones.  We both like to smoke... BBQ (gotcha!).  We both love Slingbox.  He set up my new HTC Breeze aka MTeoR aka Qtek 8600 with his own home account for testing (sustained 140kbps over EDGE in Bellevue WA).  I was getting 14fps which was truly watchable.  His wife called up shortly thereafter because he was fighting with her on the same TV for control.  Uhoh- glad he was at the controls :).  No marital tiff here, he just apologized and said he was doing a demo.

I forgot to take a picture, but as an owner and fan of the iRiver Clix, I gave him my launch jacket as a thank you for all the good (Windows Media) work that went into the Slingbox.  I love my slingbox and with my new super fast cell phone, I'm sure to enjoy it on more wifely excursions.

Special thanks to Jonathan.  I've officially been out-gadgeted. Of course, now my boss wants a Slingbox as well. :)

Long Zheng from Australia was excited to win my little giveaway a few weeks back and finally recieved one of the first iRiver Clix players in his country.  His thoughts are posted here as well as pictures of the swank jacket we created for the launch team which I included as a bonus.

Now comes more good news for our friends down under. The Clix is now available officially at Dick Smith Electronics.

Sorry, I don't have any additional details on Clix availability in other markets- please contact iRiver and/or your favorite retailer directly for your region.

Back in the saddle at work today after an extended vacation :). 

Billboard has a good write up about a new Microsoft project under the brand name, "Zune". I've received a few phone calls and emails asking for comment, but prefer to make my thoughts known here.  Let me first say I’m not a member of the Zune team and in no way speak for them or Microsoft in an official capacity on this topic.  With that out of the way, here’s my take.

From what I've learned, Zune is a new brand for Microsoft - Zune is about community, music and entertainment discovery.  You'll experience Zune with a family of devices and software that bring it all together. Yes, we all want more details, but we’ll have to be a little patient for more details. Check out www.comingzune.com and sign up if you want more details.

One question that gets asked here is the relationship to our existing PlaysforSure program. The Windows digital media team (of which I've been a member) has been focused on raising the tide for all boats, raising the experience for many partners through programs like PlaysforSure, giving sessions on 360 degree product design at partner events, offering frank feedback on product designs when requested and more.  We want Windows to be the best place to experience digital music and entertainment.  The Windows team will continues to work closely with service and device partners to make Windows a great platform for any digital media.

And one need only look as far as the MP3 player/portable media player market to find other examples of taking multiple approaches.  At least two of the largest consumer electronics manufacturers compete on not one, not two, but three levels:

• They supply memory for their own, and competitive MP3 players
• They design and sell MP3 "engines" (systems on a chip) for their own, and competitive MP3 device manufacturers
• They design, build and compete for retail space for their own, branded MP3 players

There are many other examples that can be drawn within Microsoft as well – for example, Microsoft Game Studios competes with independent game publishers for consumer dollars on the same platform (Xbox) also built by Microsoft. In all these cases, relationships of trust must be established independently between product groups or divisions.  The same holds true here as well.   It’s hard to understand unless you’re inside Microsoft but these groups have separate P&Ls (Profit/Loss metrics) and that sometimes means trying different strategies.  To quote Jonathan Sasse, President of iRiver America in a recent CNet News.com article:

“Microsoft is a great partner and we expect continued success moving forward. The potential launch of a device by Microsoft does not appear to threaten our relationship in any way.”

I personally hope, like Jonathan, that this new effort will help to raise the tide once again for all players as the so-called digital lifestyle continues to evolve.  PlaysforSure continues to be a Windows effort with some 140+ products in the market today and with the recently updated PlaysforSure 2.01 specification, the experience bar will be raised even higher.  Zune is a part of a different group and P&L,  but an integral part of Microsoft’s vision for “connected entertainment” that spans across offerings including as games, music and devices. So that’s my take on it. 

(To learn more about the Zune community, check out Cesar’s new site at www.Zuneinsider.com or the official teaser site at www.comingzune.com, which will offer more information when available. For more on PlaysforSure devices available today, see http://www.playsforsure.com)

Update0: Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times weighs in on my post here.
Update1: Richard Winn, a member of the Zune team and new to Microsoft is blogging at www.madisonandpine.com
Update2: Chris Pirillo says the post is a link worth loading and notes I'm one of the Microsoft employees he trusts - thanks Chris :)

Check out an interview with the On10 Team and learn more about what it's like to work on this sister-site to Channel9. 

You can also get a Sneak Peek at their upcoming site redesign.  What do you want to see more of on On10?  Let Jeff and the team know.

One thing to note on the upcoming site redesign is more discoverable support for downloadable versions of their videos formatted for iPod and PSP.  I think this is great- support what the people do en-masse.  Does this surprise you?  It shouldn't. I just hope my Toshiba PMC will also be supported. :)

Today the announcement was made that Bill Gates will be stepping down as Chief Software Architect and in two years will retire to his part-time position as Chairman of Microsoft. Instead he's going to focus on efforts such as battling tuberculosis, a topic near to our family. 

My "little" sister is a microbiologist for the CDC, running Tuberculosis projects around the world.  Yesterday she IM'ed me from Botswana-a surreal moment.  She was in Kazakhstan just a few months ago, it's amazing.  Regularly she talks about Bill Gates a reverence not seen (in my parts) in a while now.  Despite all the flak he received in years past, Bill is doing something incredibly worthy with his immense wealth.

I've had the opportunity to work with and talk with Bill on four separate occasions.  In each of these, he had the air of an elder statesman, on one occasion even sticking around for an extra hour to brainstorm a few ideas with a group of us.  It was energizing to have this kind of engagement with him, outside of a review, just like a group of friends and co-workers out of the office shooting bull about the industry.  He's human, we didn't necessarily share all the same ideals but could discuss and debate.  I enjoyed our time in this capacity.

Bill is part of the reason I joined Microsoft- the mystique inspired me like many; the desire to meet him "one day" was strong (checkbox filled plus pictures).  But in actuality his is just one person.  Microsoft is filled with bright and passionate people I learn from every day. He's not the only one.  The transition is bittersweet, but now it is perhaps my sister's turn.  I know she (like many other scientists) would like to one day work at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.  Perhaps she'll get her opportunity one day to meet Bill and the two of us can compare.

For now, we can all joke about how Bill is following Robert Scoble's lead :).