For years, industry pundits have claimed that Cablecard is dead.  Cablecard, which enables consumers to get local and premium HD cable television programming directly into TV's and Media Center PC's via a digital cable tuner. It seemed poised to unlock consumers from the underpowered, much maligned cable boxes many rent from their cable provider and often loathe today. Yet the reality is there are only 443k 3rd party Cablecard devices in service (4 of those in my own house) and it's clear the situation is going to get worse before it gets better.  Now the new Genachowski-run FCC is stepping in:

New FCC Requests Comment on Video Device Innovation

As Sean Portnoy details in his writeup (with tip of the hat to Ars Technica's deeper dive) there's reason to pause and discuss as the FCC is asking for comment.  I used to be a big supporter of Cablecard but am increasingly of the opinion they're right.  Cablecard has lacked mass adoption due to death by a thousand cuts, a bureaucratically devised solution to end a monopolistic stranglehold on innovation in the living room.  The main reasons as I see it include:

• Cable never wanted it.  The Cablecard requirement was foisted on the cable industry by the FCC as a part of the Telecommunications  Act of 1996.  They dragged their feet until the last possible moment when after many requested and approved delays over 11 years, on July 1, 2007 Cablecard went live.
• Set-Top Boxes are more Profitable when they're Clunky. There's a reason why the performance and graphics of your cable box look nearly the same over the past 15 years - in short their costs for each set-top have gone down astronomically while delivering effectively a 1990's-level user experience. If you analyze SEC filings from major operators, you'll find that their CapEx has actually reduced over the past 5 years thanks in part to cable box rental being a cash cow.  The longer you can keep the hardware in-market, the more profitable it is.
• Not enough Competition to drive innovation. New entrants such as Verizon and AT&T offer more substantial capabilities as a means of differentiating their offering, but their main challenge today is footprint. It's expensive to wire a new municipality with competing offerings.  Some estimates put the costs as high as $600/household.

The Consumer Cablecard Experience

So what about the consumer experience today for Cablecard?  How bad is it really? Admittedly the below in aggregate paints a worst-case scenario however roadblocks to consumer adoption abound:

• No Video On-Demand or Interactive Services. Cablecard finally started showing up about the same time large operators started rolling out their on-demand services which don't work with Cablecard.  By it's nature, Cablecard is a one-way device and can't talk to interactive services. Integrated services like Twitter and Facebook via your Cablecard are impossible.
• It's Physical. Cablecard requires you have a credit-card sized unit plugged into your TV/TiVo/Tuner. First generation required one card per tuner.  In many cases, you need a "truck roll" in order to get the hardware or go stand in a long line at your local cable office.  Not customer-friendly.
• Few Supporting Devices. Until just recently, the qualifications required to get a device certified for Cablecard support were challenging. Take PCs for example - until just a few months ago, OEM Windows PCs had to be pre-certified as ready for Cablecard for the hardware to work until last month.  As for HDTV sets, in the increasingly commoditized HDTV set industry, what manufacturer in their right mind would increase their costs and certification requirements by adding Cablecard tuner support?
• PC Cablecard certified Tuners are costly and hard to find. Because of the PC qualification restriction, even if you did have a qualifying PC, you had to know the right place to find a tuner - often on Sony or Dell's site. The ATI Digital Cable Tuner product that is well known and respected (I use two) has apparently all but disappeared.  Other Cablecard-certified PC tuners are hard to find- the most promising from a Kirkland, WA startup, Ceton won't be available until 2010 and a 2-tuner offering likely around the $300 mark.  No wonder there are only 14 3rd Party certified devices for Cablecard 
• Setup is too Complicated. Setup requires you have possession of the physical card, you need to seat it in the device, call the cable provider, offering up a long series of IDs and wait for the data to download, sometimes up to an hour.  Diagnostics require technical training on part of cable provider's staff.
• Rental Fees. Cable operators introduced cablecards for free, then started charging a monthly rental fee.  In some cases, the cost for two cable cards is comparable to the cost of renting an HD DVR from the cable operator.

The Future (and recommendations to the FCC)

And the future doesn't appear to be much brighter.  The interactive support needed for Video On Demand or Interactive services has been slow to materialize - July 1st 2009's agreed-upon deadline came and went and Panasonic continues to be the only TV manufacturer to have support for the platform.  Ok, so what if you don't care about getting "Premium" channels such as HBO or Showtime and just want to record Discovery Channel or ESPN? More economical solutions such as the SiliconDust HDHomeRun (which I also really like) in many regions can now only pick up local TV signals.  Here in the Seattle area, as of December 8th, all non-local stations are encrypted by Comcast.  Reports are Verizon's FioS will still let you tune but for how long?  It's clear concern among content providers over piracy of their unencrypted HD content is a top driver of this behavior.

So what would I do if I were at the FCC working through this issue?  Here's a quick scorecard cheat sheet for consumer perspective for starters:

• Simplify the Offerings.  The fact that these solutions are so confusing and hard to understand is a root issue - build one solution and market it.
• Drop the Cablecard Hardware Requirement.  Strong encryption exists today in software. The need for a rented piece of hardware is a dinosaur in the age of online services such as Xbox LIVE.
• Incentivize operators to reboot and innovate. Today's cable networks are a hodge-podge of mis-matched technology some have described as "Protection through Obfuscation".  Combined with the flurry of acquisitions through the 90's and 00's and you have today's experience - mis-matched channel lineups and product offerings sometimes street by street.  The faster the industry can move to a switched, all-IP infrastructure the better.
• Support Federated, Personalized Logins. In the online beta of Fancast Xfinity which launched yesterday, Comcast uses your Comcast.net email and password today, one per household.  This limits options for personalized guide listings and integration with other federated services such as Twitter and Facebook. Architect the solution for today's established and emerging consumption habits.
• Advocate a Multi-screen, Multi-location solution. The replacement should acknowledge the rightful place of multiple devices in consumption of services you're already paying for - namely PC and mobile devices alongside your TV.  Segregation based on screen size is no longer an option.
• Unify the Interactive platform with minimum UX/performance requirements. Blu-Ray discs, BDLive and tru2way all standardized on Java as middleware for the platform.  While I won't get into a debate over the merits of Java, my experience has been poor on BD players with excessively long load times and reports of immature designer/developer tools. Learn from BD and ensure the industry to make the same mistakes with Tru2way.
• Simplify Certification. The existing methods can certainly be improved.  I won't go into details here but have had enough conversations in the industry to know this is a hard problem exacerbated by many factors.
• Recognize need for Consumer Marketing. If consumers don't know it exists, they won't use it. The industry learned a lot from the DTV switchover earlier this year. Encourage an ecosystem to flourish.

There is no doubt these are hard problems with very smart people working on solutions.  But from a consumer's perspective, tru2way is lining up to look like more of the same for the next 15 years.

This is just one person's opinion on the situation and my advice to the FCC.  What do you think?

Ed. Note: Fixed table to reflect Cablecard+Tru2way middleware solution (thanks Dave).
Ed. Note 2: Updated Ceton product availability to 2010. (thanks Alexander).

A few months back, I stumbled onto Hallowindow as a fun and freaky special effect for decorating our home for Halloween.  I wanted to do something similar for Christmas and seeing as we don't have a large yard to run a Mannheim Steamroller over our neighbors, I went with something a bit more subtle and easier to set up.  The unexpected side effect is that kids throughout our neighborhood now think that Santa lives at our house!  Here is the result:

Project List

To create the effect yourself, here is what you need:

• A window.  Just about any window will do.
• An old PC projector.  HD isn't needed and you can pick these up cheap on eBay or Amazon.
• A Windows 7 PC to drive the video, or an old DVD player with ability to set playback to repeat.
• A Virtual Santa or two (I like Santa's Symphonies and Santa in the Window)
• A good FM Transmitter. I used a C. Crane Digital FM Transmitter)
• A white sheet to cover the window.  Avoid patterns.
• Black Scrim used for theaters or a sheet of the black garden weed blocker fabric from local hardware store

Step 1: Set up the Projector

In my case, I'm using an Optoma DS317 SVGA DLP Projector.  It has a great throw ratio and at 2500 lumens should be bright enough for neighborhood outdoor movies during the summer.  Don't worry about fancy features- a standard-def projector will work with VGA input.  The trick is to get one with 2000 lumens or better.  Also look for ability to adjust keystone and reverse the image. 

I placed the setup on a small coffee table and made good use of the Windows 7 box to adjust the angle and do a quick alignment with the window:

Step 2:  Prep the PC

As you can see above, I decided to use a PC instead of a DVD player.  In this case, Windows 7 and Windows Media Player make an excellent choice if you're going to change up your order, add custom music etc.  I'm using an HP Mini 311 Netbook which works great with Windows 7. I set up the projector via the included VGA cable and have extended Windows Media Player to run on the projector as a second display.  You can set this by pressing [Windows Key] + P and choosing, "Extend" as seen below:

Make sure Windows Media Player is set to run in full screen and move the mouse cursor back over to the main Windows display.  This will set the player controls to hide automatically and has the added benefit of making sure any alerts/notifications will not appear on the projector.  The last thing you want to do is ruin the illusion.

Step 3: Prep the FM Tuner

There are a number of FM tuning options available, however I strongly recommend against using a solution designed for in-car.  They're just not powerful enough.  Be sure to read the comments on Amazon for the C. Crane Digital FM Transmitter and you should get tips on how to boostfor cars driving up to be able to hear your music.  If you're eagle eyed, you'll notice below that I've soldered a dipole FM antenna wire to the transmitter to improve the distance.

To figure out which station works best in your area, I recommend Belkin's "My Best FM Stations" service. Just tap in your City/Zip/State and it will give you a number of options.  Be sure to try these out yourself.

Step 4: Create a WMP Playlist for your Virtual Santa
Santa's Symphonies is available as a digital download (MPEG-4) which plays fine with Windows 7 and Windows Media Player.  For Santa in the Window, there's no music provided, but it's easy to add your own - just rip the DVD using Handbrake, import it into Windows Live Movie Maker, add your favorite holiday music tracks and save.

You''ll also notice that I have shuffle and repeat turned on on WMP.  Be sure to set repeat so the video can play indefinitely.  With Windows 7, the system is so stable I've let it run for an entire week without issue.

Step 5: Set up the Window Screen

For the projection screen, I used a two-ply of a white sheet and the black scrim material as seen below.  The scrim adds a great deal of realism to the effect because it blocks out the high intensity "halo" effect many projectors create and increases the black levels in the video.  I just pinned up the scrim and the sheet behind it.  Take this picture to your local fabric store and they'll be able to set you up (thank to my wife for contributing to the effort <g>).

Step 6: Fire up the projector, Create a Sign for the Yard and and delight the Kids

Be sure to level and center the display.  You'll also want to adjust the distance from the window so the scale of Santa is correct.  I use the WMP toolbar in full screen (seen below) to help center the video:

Remember to move the mouse cursor back to the main screen Be sure to put a sign on the yard with the FM Frequency you're transmitting on and house and you're ready to go!

Happy Holidays everyone!

If you know me, you know I can go a little Clark Griswold this time of year.  I love the holidays and spreading a little Christmas cheer.  So here are a few of my favorite downloads, dusted off and repackaged for Windows 7.    With apologies to my friends in the southern hemisphere, I'm keeping the Winter Fun Pack naming convention ;).  So this year I'm super-sizing my blog post on fun PC projects with features that are simplified by Windows 7.  Please note that this is not an official release from Microsoft, rather something I like to do for fun.  So here goes:

#1 NEW: Add a Winter Desktop Theme to Windows 7

This combination of Winter wallpapers and sound effects are sure to warm your heart and will be familiar to those who installed the Windows XP Winter Fun Pack back in 2003 as this is a re-release, simplified by Windows 7.  I tried to take care not to overdo with the sound effects but you'll find a few little additions I think you'll enjoy.  To install, just run the .themepack file on your Windows 7 desktop.  The wallpapers are set to change every 30 minutes, but feel free to choose your own.

Download Winter Desktop Theme for Windows 7 via Skydrive (5MB):

#2 Add a Yule Log Visualization for Windows Media Player to Windows 7

This was one of my favorites and the good news is that it's been tested and works great with Windows 7.  Watch as the Yule log flares along to your favorite holiday music in Windows Media Player.  A bit of trivia - we commissioned Frog Design to create this back in 2003, inspired by years of the 24 hour Yule Log on WPIX 11 in New York on Christmas Eve/Day.   Little did we know then what a classic it would become. 

Download Yule Log Viz for Windows Media Player via Skydrive (1.9MB)

#3 Quickly get to Holiday Autoplaylists with Windows 7

Another oldie but goodie - unzip these playlists to your default folder (e.g. My Music) and Windows Media Player will create playlists based on holiday music in your library.  Not only good for finding the music based on common keywords, but also for removing those tracks from your library after the holidays.  In music mixology, nothing is worse than "Jingle Bells" in the middle of a 4th of July party.  You'll find playlist selections including "All", "Fresh Tracks" for music added in last 7 days,  "One Audio CD Worth" and "One Data CD-R Worth" in the mix for holidays of multiple denominations.  To install, just unzip into your My Music\Playlists folder.

Download WMP Holiday Autoplaylists via Skydrive (15.5KB)

#4: Create a Holiday Trivia Slideshow with Windows Media Center and Windows 7

A few years back, I built a pack of trivia questions as slideshow images that could be used as a slideshow on Xbox 360 or Windows Media Center.  Organization is now simplified with the Slideshow creator built into the Windows 7 Media Center - Pictures feature - just pick your Pictures, add the trivia questions and music, and you're set for your next holiday party.  Trust me, friends will ask how you did it.  You can learn more here at my original post.

Download Christmas Trivia Pack #1 (.zip, 3MB)

Except for the Desktop Theme, most if not all of the above should work on earlier versions (XP, Vista) but some of the features are easier/more intuitive on Windows 7.  In the coming week, I'll post additional clips here as well as my own How To for a cool Holiday outdoor display I'm doing this year created with Windows Live Movie Maker and powered by Windows 7. 

If you like the Holiday add-ons, please let me know in comments here and tell your friends.  Happy Holidays everyone!

Mike Garcen of MissingRemote has a good article about integrating the new Hulu Desktop application with Windows Media Center.  Thanks to support for appropriate WMC keymappings and a little XML ingenuity, you can directly launch and navigate the Hulu app from within Windows Media Center.  I've confirmed this works (mostly) with Windows 7 as well, though getting the tile to work appropriately is still a bit of a challenge.

The other challenge is returning to WMC when you're done with Hulu Desktop.  Pressing the "Green Button" will return you to WMC, but Hulu will continue to run in the background.  This is pretty annoying when you accidentally hit the button during playback in a Pavlovian action to pull up the main menu.  Hopefully the good folks at Hulu will see it fit to improve integration.

Tip: Read Mike's article to the end for Yaggs simplified steps.

Announced via email, carrier pigeon, tweet, SXSW messenger,  and the interweb, Dell's new luxury brand for PCs has launched with their new Adamo laptop. Featuring an etched unibody aluminum case or black (onyx), the new laptop sports:

• A 1.4/1.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• Up to 4GB  of 800Mhz DDR3 dual-channel memory
• 13.4in 16:9 display with edge to edge glass
• 128 GB SSD standard
• Wireless N & Bluetooth 2.1
• One RJ45 port (what, no mention of Gigabit Ethernet?)
• Optional  Mobile broadband
• More than 5 hours of battery life on a single charge
• Full Size backlit keyboard

The unit is only .65in thick and starts at $1999.  Fully tricked out, the "Jet-setter package" starts at $3,088 and includes an Ecru Tumi sleeve, mobile internet via a copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student and an external DVD-RW.

I'm not sure why they chose this economy or the unlucky-in-some-states number "Thirteen" as the moniker for the unit, but it definitely has drool factor. I'm looking forward to hearing how it performs.  The most valuable feature in my opinion is- at that price, does it come devoid of the bloatware that ships on most new PCs and a free update to Windows 7?

Learn more at the ultraswank www.adamobydell.com

Last night, Microsoft unveiled the official Microsoft Store online in the US, offering direct purchase of Microsoft products online, including the largest library of Microsoft digital downloads.  Additional countries will be coming soon including UK, Germany, Korea, Japan, France, Spain, and the Netherlands.

If you're looking for an Xbox 360 or accessories for the holidays, Microsoft published games like Gears of War 2, Lips, or Zune devices and accessories, this is a great place to start.   With Xbox 360 bundles starting at $199, there are some good deals to be found.

Tip of the hat to Brandon LeBlanc at the Windows Experience

Ahh yes, Olympics frenzy is upon us.  The time when countries cheer on their athletes in games of sport and goodwill.  It's also a time when companies cheer on their contributions to the Olympic efforts and services available to keep tabs on the event which is lining up to be the largest streamed event in history.  Since we're Addicted to Digital Media around here, it wouldn't be the Olympics without a roundup of the ways you can keep tabs and this year it's much cooler - with thousands of hours of content available in HD streaming on the Web for Windows and Mac users, perhaps for just a few weeks we'll see some peace and harmony.  Unfortunately for my friends outside the US, these services are specific to the USA so apologies. 

So, here's the roundup:

1.  Olympics Tracker in the new MSN Toolbar

What: This isn't your old MSN Toolbar.  Generally I cringe at installing any toolbar app into my browser, but this new version is both functional and visually slick in part thanks to being built with Microsoft Silverlight.  You'll find an Olympics button that presents the latest medal count, photos, video and sport-specific news right from the comfort of your web browser. The button even glows when updates happen to notify you in a polite way.  Alternately, Live Search is optimizing search results to include latest stats, news, and medal counts.  Details available here.

How to get it: Visit www.newmsntoolbar.com and download the free toolbar.

2.  Live and HD On-demand Events on NBCOlympics.com

What: So you forgot to set your DVR to record that amazing football game, or want to watch live coverage but it's not being broadcast on the myriad of NBC/Universal TV stations?  Have no fear - NBC and Microsoft Silverlight are bringing over 1000 hours of live and on-demand Olympics coverage to your PC or Mac.  On-demand coverage will use a brand-new adaptive streaming technology capable of true HD-quality video over the Web - no stopping and buffering either, the technology automatically adjusts video quality to available bandwidth.  Live events are presented using the Emmy-award winning Windows Media technologies.  Be sure to check out the enhanced player - in the Control room you can stream up to four events - at the same time! 

How to get it: Visit www.nbcolympics.com/video and check out the new player.  Note: Silverlight is a required installation for the experience.

3.  Windows Media Center on Windows Vista Premium & Ultimate

What: If you have a Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate PC, you can watch NBC Olympics On the Go in Windows Media Center, an Internet-delivered catch-up TV service from NBC Universal powered by Wavexpress’ TVTonic platform, no TV-tuner required. This free download-and-play service differentiates Windows Media Center as the platform with the highest-quality Internet-delivered Olympics experience in the USA. No word yet on whether this works via Extender - I will have to try it later.

With NBC Olympics On the Go in Windows Media Center, you will get:

• NBC Sports’ complete on-air HDTV coverage of the Beijing Olympics on the NBC, USA and Universal networks – even when you don’t have a TV tuner for your Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate PC
• 225 hrs of long-form Olympics video over 17 days
• 24 sports, full opening ceremony, and a closing ceremony montage
• Up to HD quality, with the vast majority of the video delivered in 840x480 progressive scan resolution at 1.5 Mbps bit rate, plus several events per day delivered in 1080i resolution

How to get it: Click here for details or here for the TVTonic app  Note: for 64-bit Windows users, hang tight- there's an update going through certification that should provide support before the games actually begin. 

There are a host of other ways to get the Olympic experience as well. Google has a summer games page and mobile page and I'm sure to have missed some others.  Tell us what you think- how will you be watching the Olympics?

One of the hits of the Financial Analyst Meeting was a series of focus group study videos of XP users who had never seen or used Windows Vista.  They were told they were going to be evaluating a future OS code-named, "Mojave".  When I first saw the video during a FAM run through I cringed at the beginning but was pleasantly surprised by the end.  Check it out for yourself at www.mojaveexperiment.com.  My only complaint about the site is that the audio in the focus groups wasn't the best in the world and some of the clips could use some audio re-mastering, particularly the "You can't please everyone" clip. I'd also like to see them show the complete demo presented to the attendees. A few interesting data points:

• 84% of participants were XP users, 22% Apple, 14% pre-XP Windows, 1% Linux
• Of the 140 respondents polled, on a scale of 1:10 (10 highest), the average pre-rating of Vista was 4.4. After the demo it rated an average of 8.5.  Many respondents would have voted higher but wanted more time to play with it.
• 89% of Vista users are satisfied with it, 8 out of 10 would recommend it to a friend.
• Vista users are 60% less likely to be infected with malware

Note all these data points are available on the site.  I would also like to see a clearly labeled clip with the demo of what was shown - that would be a nice follow up touch.

Dell just released the new Studio Hybrid- a "first step" in a series of eco-friendly PCs.  Noting that most tower PCs use about 300 watts of power (which I can attest to with my quad-core behemoth), the Studio Hybrid sips less than 65w and is 80% smaller than a Mac Mini desktop.  Add Blu-Ray, HDMI out, an 8-in-1 card reader and tuner option (including Digital Cable) and this looks like a winner.  Even in the processor department, a 1.73 Dual-core, 1GB of RAM, and 160GB HDD w/ Vista will set you back only $499, beating back Apple on performance, size, price and a run at style. 

I hope Dell succeeds with this design and I'm now drooling over it as a possible HTPC or Windows Home Server.  This may also make a great replacement for my father's ailing WinXP system.  I worry about fan/drive noise though- any in the wild reports/feedback are appreciated.

More at Electronista

Power Pack 1 fixes the data corruption bug as well as delivers significant new functionality including:

• 1x64 support for home computers running Windows Vista
• Home Server Shared Folder backup
• Improved remote access experience
• Improvements to power consumption and performance
• Localization support for Japan and China

HP has also started pushing an update to their Windows Home Server powered HP Media Smart products timed to coincide with Power Pack 1.

• Update Package
• Release Notes
• Team Blog

Congrats to the Windows Home Server team.  I really like WHS and would run it instead of Vista Premium + Drobo as my primary home media hub if they'd support Windows Media Center & OCUR recording as a service.  Then I'd truly have a headless home media server that does it all (as I sit here dealing with my wife's system requiring a backup...)  How would you improve Windows Home Server after this release?

Ian Dixon locks on to Charlie Owen (of the Media Center team)'s new post discussing DVD Streaming from a Media Center PC to Media Center Extenders such as Xbox360.  Many have lamented the fact that the same theatrical releases are available in streamed from via PPV, Amazon, NetFlix, iTunes, Xbox Live, PS3 and others, but if you own a physical copy, you cannot stream it around your home.  The same holds true of personal DVDs you burn but in that case, most enthusiasts can rip the DVD (legally) and keep it on our HDDs in a matter of minutes.

While Charlie's post (and mine) should not be interpreted as insight into future features in Windows Media Center and do not represent any formal position of the Media Center team, Charlie outlines a number of speed bumps to delivering a comprehensive DVD streaming solution.  The legal issues alone would make this highly prohibitive at a time when the industry is moving to direct digital (vs. physical-digital) distribution.  Is it a niche feature?  Depends on your perspective.  Personally I'd like to see the MCE team first address codec support issues (my Vista MCE still can't stream home movies captured on a Canon Powershot to my Media Center Extender but can playback fine on the PC).

Lots of discussion happening on this on Charlie's blog.  Feel free to post your thoughts over there.

As Media Center enthusiasts know, www.thegreenbutton.com is a fantastic resource for all things Media Center.  The good news is that the ads are gone.
I'm going to ping the team and get some details but this is fantastic news as we've always been super-supportive of the site and the contributions of the founders, moderators, developers, and community members over the years.  Perhaps it's time for me to re-up my account during vacation and pop into the site.

Those who know this site also know I'm a fan of the Data Robotics Drobo.  I've caught some heat from product managers for other comparable products because I just don't think they match the capabilities of this little device.  One area I've been disappointed about however is performance.  The Drobo docks massive amounts of storage in a small, rock-solid little unit but it's S L O W when doing large transfers.  That's why I'm keen on today's announcement of the new Drobo 2.0 with a faster processor, faster USB 2.0 and new Firewire 800 performance options.  I recently moved my home Media Center into a single desktop system with a Quad-core and it's been working without a hiccup using my Drobo as the primary storage for all media except for two things:  1) Hard Drive spinup lag when the drives haven't been used in a while, and 2) that pesky data transfer performance.  I have two  HDTV (OCUR) tuners connected via USB as well as sundry peripherals and haven't seen any perf issues fortunately, though I would

I'm eager to try out the new Drobo 2.0 and may pick one up - but if I have to transfer over all of my existing nearly 2GB of Drobo 1.0 content to the Drobo 2.0 via the original's sluggish USB, that may be a deal-breaker.  I'm hoping I can swap the drives out and the new 2.0 device will pick up where the 1.0 left off.  I have email into the folks at Data Robotics to learn more on that topic and a few other - will report back here.  Thomas Hawk also has an excellent review here.

Starting at $450 up to $700, the Acer x1200 is about the size of a large book complete with 4GB of RAM, an AMD Dual-Core processor, up to 500GB in storage, and even an eSATA port to go along with the nine USB ports. While Nvidia has taken some lumps as of late for their mobile GPU issues, this unit has a GeForce 8200 integrated along with two PCIe slots (looks like half-height only).  The Mac Mini has little in terms of performance on this gem if you can spare an extra inch and some cost savings.  I am curious about power consumption and heat though and an HDMI out would seal the deal.

Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 is out earlier than originally announced.  You'll also find a new Deep Zoom Composer available shortly (link may be broken for some as it propagates across the innertubes.  Brandon has a good writeup here including download links:

The Windows Experience Blog : Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 and Deep Zoom Composer Update

Nvidia is touting their new system on a chip (SOC) called, "Tegra".  The new unit, Tegra 650 is primarily targeted at consumer electronics devices such as phones where it will be capable of 3D graphics, 30 hours of HD video playback, includes up to 1080p video and WSXGA+ resolutions along with an 800Mhz ARM processor.  It's being optimized for Windows Mobile phones.

While I can't see myself watching 1080p HD video on my phone, I can see it storing and playing back a single file from local screen or docking it to watch on the big screen when I get home.  Oh and the entire unit is about the size of a dime.

Handheld computers are right around the corner it seems...

Release

Ryan Stewart and Long Zheng summed it up nicely.  This kind of banter and candor is why I work at Microsoft.  A CEO who will go, "Monkey Boy" just to please his customers.  Guy had some really nice things to say about the new Microsoft culture which was great to hear.  I'll post the keynote here when available.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  A lot going on as of late so here's a quick rundown on activities and topics I'm going to write about during flights:

• Mix Update. The teams have been working incredibly heard in preparation for the MIX conference next week.  I've seen a sneak preview of some of the demos and think attendees won't be disappointed. 
• Silverlight 2 coming. ScottGu (now a newly minted VP!) provides a glimpse into Silverlight 2 on his blog.  If you can't be at MIX this year, don't fret- the videos will be posted on the Web shortly after the events thanks to Jeff Sandquist and team.
• HD-DVD is dead.  You can start buying Blu-Ray discs now or just go the digital route- my preferred method of delivery
• Apple TV Take 2.  Will I cancel my NetFlix and Comcast subscriptions?  Thoughts over the weekend and I'll explain how you can score one for $99.
• uStream as NannyCam.  Take an old IR-shot Sony DV camcorder, firewire and UStream my wife is addicted to her new Nannycam as a baby monitor.  I also hacked together a Vista Sidebar gadget for her which I may post. Now if only it was available in Silverlight...
• Dell XPS m1330. - my new and best laptop ever, despite the crapware
• New Silverlight site launches - Congrats to the team!
• MyNetflix Plugin for Media Center - Another reason why I need to put a full PC in the living room?
• Playing with CubeDesktop and loving it.  A must for any power user (thanks Chris)

I don't often blog here about the enterprise side of Microsoft though for digital media delivery it's hard to beat Windows Server in terms of cost or scalability. Then comes news that Windows Server 2008 just got a Five-Star Rating from eWeek Labs, noting even "Faster" and "Slimmer":

The new Windows Server boasts a set of networking enhancements that dramatically boost file serving performance, and the product can be deployed in a new, stripped-down Server Core configuration, which significantly reduces the attack surface of systems hosting certain Windows Server roles.

Toss in a more modular and securable Web server in IIS (Internet Information Services) 7.0, Microsoft's new hypervisor-based virtualization functionality and a host of management enhancements, and Windows Server 2008 merits eWEEK Labs' Analyst's Choice designation.

Congratulations to the Windows Server team- this is a huge feat.  And for those in the digital media biz, be sure to check out Windows Media Services 2008 and the IIS7 Media Pack, both blogged about and available from Chris Knowlton's blog here. 

Why does this all matter?  Fact is most video-serving sites are pigs when it comes to responsible use of Internet bandwidth.  The average clip is about 5 mins in length, and only 20 seconds are watched, though most users receive the entire file.  With the IIS7 Media Pack, all forms of digital audio and video - even QT, MOV, and FLV/SWF can benefit from the Intelligent Bit Rate Throttling built in.  You'll be hearing more about these features at MIX in a few short weeks.

eWeek: Windows Server 2008 Is Microsoft`s Leanest, Meanest Yet

If you have an XM Radio Subscription, the XM Radio Windows Vista Sidebar gadget is for you.  Recently updated to version 1.5, features include a polished and easy to navigate channel list, favorites support, and advanced Amazon search so you can purchase the CD or the MP3 of the song you're listening to as well as browse lyrics, Wikipedia and YouTube entries for the artist.  From the folks at BuildaGadget.com (a work-for-hire outfit), this is one I'm going to pin permanently to my Sidebar.

Download: XM Radio Vista Gadget

Having reported here my frustration with AT&T and Samsung's silence, it would appear Sammy just released the Windows Mobile 6 update for owners of the Samsung Blackjack mobile phone, months after the BlackJack II went on sale with WM6 pre-installed and nearly a year since its announce.  Note that you will need WinXP or lower OS to do the update.  What's interesting is that Samsung is not only making this available, but noting it is "highly recommended to be installed":

Where Do I Obtain Windows Mobile 6 For My SGH-i607 (BlackJack) And What Does The Update Do?
Samsung has released a software upgrade for the BlackJack, which is highly recommended to be installed. This update includes an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0 and numerous enhancements/corrections. The update may take up to 10 minutes to complete if the system is already set up.

Download and additional details: Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for Samsung BlackJack.

I just got back from Costco where I got Blue Harvest for $12.99 after the $10 instant discount. 

This image sums it all up:

No iTunes exclusive - these kinds of digital copies have been made available for WMP users for years (WMV-HD anyone?) The difference is in how it gets perceived reported by the press who are covering Apple.

Don't get me wrong- I'm glad to have both.  But this is a parity play by Fox.

The new Microsoft at CES site is up, and it's powered by Silverlight. There are so many projects underway now it's hard to keep track of them all and this was a great one to see.   
What's more, you'll be able to watch the keynote live in-page with Silverlight or via WMP/default browser.  Take a look, spin the wheel in LV fashion and check out the latest news from Microsoft at CES.

Hope y'all enjoy the show - Sunday night @ 6:30pm

Todd Bishop of the Seattle P-I provides a glimpse into the Take-Home testing that many of us do on digital home technologies at Microsoft.  Scott and Hakkan are two of the guys I've had the pleasure of working with in the past - nice to see inside their homes. 

Which brings me to realize my setup has changed so much in the past few years since I was GPM for Media Center- it might be time for a video this weekend walking around our Digital Home 2.0 ;)

Microsoft employees try out new technology at home

Earlier this AM, HP shot me a mail with the latest details on announcements they're making for CES.  Here's the latest:

• MediaSmart Receiver - works with XP and Vista PCs, offering wireless delivery of media via 802.11 ABGN and is also DivX certified.  Includes a Pocket Media Drive slot on the front for the big files and will offer Media Center Extender support this spring via an Internet-delivered update.  No note on whether that's an additional cost.
• MediaSmart TVs - Updated 1080p TV's with three (3) HDMI ports, wired and wireless connectivity and (drumroll please) Media Center Extender support built in!
• Media Vault and Media Vault Pro - Home "NAS Plus" offerings in 500GB and 1GB offerings for the Media Vault mv2100, and up to 1.5TB for the mv5100. Both include Photo Webshare and iTunes server features previously seen in HP MediaSmart servers. These units are Linux-based, unlike the HP MediaSmart Server which is powered by Windows Home Server.

All products will be available in Spring 2008

Setting aside some of the complaints that users have had with Vista, Thomas calls out one of my favorite features of Vista as well- file moving and conflict resolution.  To quote Thomas:

One of the things that I hated about XP and Mac OSX as well for that matter is that frequently I'd try to move my photos from my MacBook to my drobo after I uploaded them and I'd get a message reminding me that I already had a file with that name in the folder and would I like to replace the file or not replace it. The problem though was always that I didn't know if it was an actual physical dupe file or a different photograph using the same name.
Well now with Vista when it notifies me of this conflict, it actually shows me thumbnails of the photos in question and then gives me three choices. To replace the photo, not to move it, or to move it and give it a new title.

This is one of my favorite useful features along with Media Center which is now powering two HDTV's in our household via Xbox 360 Extenders.

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: Moving Files With Vista is Awesome

Every year, I pore over my Christmas music looking to create the ultimate mix for that cocktail get-together with the neighborhood friends, the perfect in-car mix for shopping, the Christmas Eve Classical mellow-out of young children, and the anthem to which tiny feet run down the stairs Christmas morning.  Yes, I'm a sucker for the holidays.

I also use my free time over the holidays to try and put digital media to some unnatural uses around the home.  This year, sharing photos of holidays past with family and friends takes center stage.

Step 1: Assemble your "Best of the Holidays" Picture Collection into a Single Folder
To simplify transfer to my phone/PDA/Xbox/Media Center and call-up, I use the recently released Windows Live Photo Gallery to organize all of my holiday best pictures into a folder at the top. These are pictures I want to share during the party.

This is easy to do and can be done with any one of your favorite photo apps, though I strongly recommend WL Photo Gallery - not because I work at MSFT but because it has some really great features like ability to upload directly to Flickr.

Step 2: Sprinkle in some Holiday Trivia

I've created a set of 15 questions in the below pack and included the master images from the- all you have to do is unzip it, put the pictures in the same folder as your "Best of" collection.  You'll probably want to rename the files so as to mix them in sets with your own photos.  The pictures are from the old Winter Fun Pack I did as a side project so many years ago for XP.

Step 3: Assemble the Ultimate Christmas Mix

This year we went a little upscale with a swank set of songs for the adults and a few favorites.  Pretty much anyone can build a playlist these days.

Here are some of my favorites:

Cocktail Party Swanky Christmas (Most off "Christmas Classics" on Zune)

• Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio
• White Christmas - Bing Crosby
• Baby, It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Lou Rawls
• Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let it Snow! - Lena Horne
• (Everybody's Waiting' For) The Man with the Bag - Kay Starr
• Happy Holiday - Peggy Lee
• Sleigh Ride - Ferrane & Teicher
• I'd Like You for Christmas - Julie London
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Ella Fitzgerald
• Grown-Up Christmas List - Michael Buble
  

Step 4: Share it on the Big Screen with Xbox 360, PC, Media Center, Digital Picture Frame etc.
There are a number of ways to get your photo playlist onto your PC or picture frame.  I use my Xbox 360 as an extender, and a CompactFlash card inserted into a digital picture frame to share them in two rooms.  Here are a few examples (click images for larger sizes):

Play it on Xbox 360 from your Zune - from the Zune device or home network

Play it from Windows Vista Media Center

Play it on a digital picture frame

Hope you enjoy- Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours.

I don't always agree with Chris but this time I tend to. With the disclaimer that the announcement is huge - to enthusiasts willing to spend all that $$ to be able to watch and record HD and subscription cable TV on their PC. 

Dell’s CableCARD Re-entry Is Huge In the Grand Scheme - Chris Lanier's Blog

"Jackass" is the name of the hit MTV television show and two subsequent blockbuster movies starring a band of merry mischief-makers playing physical pranks on each other, themselves, and about anything with a pulse claiming to be a human.  I'll admit to renting Jackass 2 and snickering to myself one weekend when the house was quiet, my family away doing something more productive.

Then comes news that Blockbuster will premiere the third installment - Jackass 2.5 as the first full-length feature on the Web exclusively using Microsoft Silverlight  between December 19th and December 31st to audiences 17 years or older at www.blockbuster.jackassworld.com.  All you need is the one-time 1.5MB Silverlight plug-in and IE, Firefox, or Safari on Windows or Mac.

This is exciting to see as it marks another milestone in how users are shifting to consume their media online as well as through traditional outlets.   The content may not appeal to all, but definitely has a loyal following among its fans.

With this release, Blockbuster and Paramount are joining many other companies including MLB.com, BMW (Germany), Sony Ericsson (Japan), Baidu (#1 search site in PRC), NBA.com, Entertainment Tonight (CBS/Paramount) and UVNTV.com in their use of Silverlight.  Check out the latest examples being updated regularly at http://silverlight.net/Showcase/

TiVo has been on a bit of a tear as of late.  Today. they released MusicChoice for TiVo. I'm watching Bon Jovi's, "Lost Highway" while writing this (you can take the boy out of Jersey...) but here's the deal - the service may appeal to some but without pre-programmed playlists ala radio stations on Comcast, I don't see a lot of value here other than another slightly confusing way to get to video.

One interesting thing to note is that they're offering 15sec pre-roll ads as a part of the experience.  The quality is pretty good overall and starts up quickly.  So in that vein, here are three services I'd like to see on TiVo:

• Karaoke downloads
• Traffic - a real traffic map w/ video
• NetFlix - live streaming & browse/add to queue

TiVo | TiVo Boosts Its Robust Broadband Offering With the Addition of the Music Choice Network’s Vast Library of Music Videos and Original Music Programming

This is great news.  If you have no idea what HD Photo is, you will soon.  Also known as JPEG XR, the new codec developed by Microsoft and turned over to JPEG for standardization keeps up ever-increasing megapixel cameras with wider dynamic range, can store images without data loss from compression and is free of royalty or licensing constraints and can even be embedded into cameras.  More details here on News.com or Bill Crow's HD Photo Blog

If you're a hardcore video geek dealing with the mix-mash of video formats and wondering what will really be supported in the December 2007 Xbox Dashboard Update, then you'll want to read this FAQ.  Otherwise, we return you to your morning coffee.

Xbox Team : December 2007 Video Playback FAQ

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

If you're using an Airport Extreme with WPA/WPA2 Personal security enabled, you might notice that your shiny new Zune 2.0 software can't find your network automatically. The fix is  to manually add your Airport and set the network type as "WPA using TKIP" and away you go.

Technical reason: Airport Extremes for some reason squawk as WPA2  and not WPA, even when in mixed security mode which means they don't show up in the list. The Zune team is aware of the issue and it has been reported to Apple.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the wireless sync feature. Four years ago we were talking about being able to wirelessly sync your device from your car in the garage. Now it's a reality, and a killer feature IMO.

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

Sometimes there's just so much good stuff happening that I miss out.  I was browsing the Facebook community for Silverlight (nearly 1000 strong now) and a picture caught my eye.  There was  Adam Kinney's Xbox Friends Watch gadget.  Designed for Windows Vista Sidebar and built with Silverlight, pick the friends you want to track (by gamertag) and you can see online status, browse through latest games and more. 

Adam is one of my favorite inventors in our Developer & Platform Evangelism group.  Simple, yet functional.  Kudos Adam, kudos.

In what is sure to be a smart business move for TiVo, they've announced that they're bringing Rhapsody's music service and the ability to download any of four million digital track into the living room.

There are some limitations according to the New York Times- TiVo owners can't move music around their homes or transport songs from TiVo to a mobile device.  These are both well understood and limited issues given that most consumers will just save the music to a playlist, and then sync  from their PC. 

This is great progress to see for TiVo. Their support for application extensions has languished and ISV community fizzled in part due to the lack of rich graphical capabilities such as what Media Center + Xbox 360 extenders can offer.  First MTV, now this, Rhapsody seems to be building out a new playbook.  I have to wonder- does Rhapsody have a Media Center solution waiting in the wings?

My mother always taught me if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.  I decided to opt out of all the hype/buzz/drivel about the Zune 2 announcement here because quite frankly I've been underwhelmed.  But I seem to keep getting emails asking what I think.  Sure, I have friends working on it.  I've inquired, "Please tell me the player is much much improved" and was told, by a friend "Trust us, it will be".  After sending mail to some other friends in Zune-land stating, "I love the iPhone, will I like the Zune?"  The response, "Just wait".   Hey, I want to like it, but I'm not going to shill for it.  I just can't seem to get jazzed up about the product after v1 was such a let down for me personally.  Then the company meeting happened.  I waited for the big Zune demo and announcement all employees would get one (ala Steve Jobs + iPod).  Neither the demo or the rumored announcement happened.  How will this device get to escape velocity if we're not firmly behind it?

So I've been waiting, looking the space more as a general consumer than I've been for years.  The tepid comments regarding Zune 1 and somewhat quiet introduction of Zune 2 had me concerned earlier this week.  Now it appears things are changing.  First the team is smartly offering the free update for all customers who purchased Zune 1 - we'll get all the software features.  Second, the new devices are definitely a generation ahead of v1.  Now, I'm waiting and reading Steve O'Hear from Last 100's coverage on the 5 things Microsoft did right with the Zune 2:

1. WiFi music syncing.  Definitely a big plus in my book.  Fewer wires = goodness and my Zune can now sit in the kitchen/office
2. Support for audio and video podcasts. Finally!  Someday I'll write my memoirs on how hard we tried to get this into another player...
3. Windows Media Center TV recording transfer. Good to see, still skeptical until I see it in action. 
4. Social Networking. Zune Social and Zune Card will be interesting.  But I still want "Zune Finder" as a gadget/widget/mini-app that detects Zunes when I'm on my laptop and have my Zune WiFi turned off at the airport, at conferences etc.
5. Free update for existing customers. Yep.  This is great.
   
   To this, I want to add my own:
   
6. MP3 Store. It's about friggin' time.  I completely converted from WMA and iTunes DRM'd content to MP3-only earlier this year through a painful series of CD rips ;).  Now my iTunes, Media Center, and Sonos Libraries work in harmony.  I use MusicBridge (an awesome, must-have tool) to keep my playlists, ratings, and playcounts in sync and I'm good to go. 
7. Media Player Software that looks clean and usable again. The video clips I've seen of the Zune look outstanding.  iTunes has it's quirks, WMP hasn't kept up with my music library but does a better job at certain functions  like album art matching. 
8. FM radio. Often overlooked, I sometimes get bored with shuffle and my playlists and just want to connect with the outside world. FM radio still has it's place.
9. The new Zune 2. Touchpad is the way to go.  Single-handed use is still easy, something that is increasingly frustrating me about the iPhone.
10. Support for Apple's Podcast extensions are coming. First comes denial, then anger, then acceptance ;). Zunester seems to confirm this which is nice to see. Album art today, full features soon?

Will I be trading in my iPhone for a Zune 2?  Not likely, namely because I love the in-car integration I have with my VaisTech adapter in my Toyota.  But I will load up the new software on my Zune 1 and give it another whirl.

(These thoughts are my own and don't reflect my employer)

There are certain things that are hard to watch being built - meat products and software come to mind.  In the software realm, the ante goes up when you're talking about consumer software that is critical to peace and harmony in the household.  Of course I'm talking about the DVR.

As the Group Product Manager for Windows Media Center 2004-2005, I had an enlightening opportunity to see the sheer volume of work required to create a stable DVR application that runs on a multitude of OEM PC configurations.  At the time, I really loved the product and technology. Then a few things happened.

First, I was given an opportunity/challenge to join the Vista team and had to leave my beloved MCE team behind.  I became a consumer again. Then, we moved to an area where I could no longer get an over-the-air HD signal and Media Center had to take a back seat as our HD DVR.

The Comcast Cable Box Nightmare
The Motorola box from Comcast was our only option at the time for watching HD, something that my wife and I both really enjoy.  But the Comcast box was (and continues to be) infuriatingly slow.  My wife regularly complained, rather her head spun like a merry-go-round whilst flames spew out of her mouth at the lack of performance.  The upholstery was starting to get charred from this weekly occurrence.

Switching to TiVo Series3
Finally, a solution that delivered adequate performance and HD DVR plus a few other features I loved.  After a year of my wife ranting about the Moto cable box, and realizing  it was going to be a while before Cablecard was ready for Media Center (and vice versa) I switched to the TiVo Series3.  It was a hard move, like the breakup of a long relationship. The extenders were put away, the Media Center removed from the living room.  I have raved here about my Series3 but recently have found myself disappointed in a few key areas:

• Database performance. Dare I say the TiVo seems slower than the Comcast box when adding new recordings or pulling up guide data
• UI sluggishness.  The TiVo engine seems like it hasn't changed much in5 years and neither has the performance save for a modest increase in speed
• UX Idiosyncracies.  Since adding new features such as Swivel Search and Amazon Unbox (both of which are welcome additions) the UI doesn't appear to be able to handle these additions elegantly.  Add to this the fact that the guide displays in 4:3 instead of 16:9 when tuned to an SD channel, and I get strange flickering as the device switches formats between channels and guides and it still has some rough edges (not to mention the rough edges on the graphics- this is HD!)
• A year later, still no ability to stream video from one TiVo to another room, only vague statements of future support. I understand these are issues related to CableCard's requirements and the long times to get certification on any solution, but this was a reason I wanted to go to TiVo! 

So, a few weeks ago I was invited to try a new Vista Media Center w/ CableCard support.  I held my breath and dove back in. 

Vista Media Center, Cable Cards Grow Up
At first I was apprehensive. I knew how complicated Cablecard setup could be and didn't look forward to training Comcast's CSRs as I had to with TiVo.  I installed the new PC, plugged in the Drobo, the ATI HD Cablecard tuners and set up the cablecards.  I had one defective card which I returned and after a quick call to Comcast, both were up and running.  Next I paired my two Xbox 360's and curiously, everything worked. I was tuning channels, recording two stations without issue.  Now keep in mind I have a wired ethernet network in my house, which certainly helps things.  I had forgotten just how polished the experience is on the Media Center.  Setup is still not as easy as it could be (this is symptomatic of the entire cable industry who was forced by the FCC to add support for 3rd party cable boxes on their networks so the clunky CableCard was born.  At least Comcast's CSR's were knowledgeable when I called to set it up. What a difference a year makes.

I'm now entering the two-week period with my Media Center working as an HD DVR. With a little reprogramming of my remote, my wife is actually happy. Every program we've scheduled has recorded.  Amazon Unbox works with Media Center as well and the promise of new Vista Media Center extenders with multiple format support (thank you Dave Alles!) and free Internet TV programming mean I can enjoy around the house.  I've been testing the new Internet TV features and think users will be pleased.

In an upcoming post, I'll compare and contrast my experiences.

This is great news - apparently MCE can support up to four HD cable (cablecard) tuners.  Engadget has the scoop.  Off to company meeting now.  More on my Media Center cablecard experiences later today.

Chalk it up to global warming.  Earlier tonight, Microsoft and Novell announced plans to bring Silverlight to our shared customers on Linux. In a solution called, "Moonlight", Novell will be creating a Silverlight implementation as a part of the Mono project.

Why is this significant?  It's a continuation of our commitment to listen to customers and bring Silverlight to the platforms that matter to them.  Scrape away the veneer and it's simple- because they asked us to. Nicely.  A lot of credit goes to Miguel de Icaza whom I had the opportunity to meet at MIX.  From there, the teams held a series of conversations throughout the summer. 

Also in the news, Entertainment Tonight is doubling down with Silverlight, as are about 35 other partners announcing support. 

I'd also be remiss to not mention that tomorrow AM, we're launching Expression Encoder.  If you're looking for an easy tool to publish video and audio content or even live events with Silverlight, Expression Encoder is your tool.  In the coming weeks, we'll also release a plug-in for publishing directly to Silverlight Streaming and an API that makes it easy to publish via other services.

Too much for one blog post.  Net-net, at MIX we said we'd deliver Silverlight 1.0 this Summer* and we did. Silverlight 1.1 is in tandem development and significant resources are going to this effort.  It's time to Light up the Web.

Congratulations to the teams who made this possible.  Truly the most "can do" effort in my time at MSFT.

(Note: Many web properties will launch tomorrow AM Pacific by design)

(The first of a three part series)

I'll admit it.  I tried to break my Drobo on Day 1.  No, I didn't drop it or mangle it.  I just did everything backwards.

1. I plugged it in before installing the dashboard app.  It showed up as a "Protected USB device". Oookay...

2.  I downloaded installed the software and installed it... via Remote Desktop.

3.  I put four of the five drives in- starting with a piddly 42GB drive, a 160GB, a  320GB and a 500GB'er. Did I forget to mention I put the last two drives in backwards?

4.  Did I forget to mention that I put all the drives in before powering it up, and then proceeded to format the two drives?

5.  Then I put the bottom 320GB and 500GB drives in correctly. Drobo Dashboard found and automatically formatted the drives.

6.  Next I started a big copy - 23GB.  Started off great, though a  little slow.

7.  Then I got impatient about 10GB in and pulled the 42GB main drive OUT and dropped a 400GB in.

8.  Transfer went fine.  Then I took 300GB and let it run overnight.  Logging back in in the morning- all my data was there.

So what happened? Not a hiccup. The Drobo protested with blinking yellow lights that I wouldn't be protected against a single HDD failure.  But I didn't have to re-format, everything just worked as expected.  You have to get over the confusing fact that the drives will always report 2TB to Windows (or greater) but the actual storage is much smaller.  A large portion of the available space is also taken up for buffer so even after formatting I had on the order of 100GB unavailable. I suspect this is buffer space. The Drobo Dashboard gives you a true view of space on the drive (psst- where's the Drobo Dashboard Gadget?)

As with most USB transfers however, it felt a bit slow.  Here's to hoping for an eSATA version in the future or if someone can figure out how to "channel bond" two USB ports for faster throughput (send my patent check in the mail please). :)

(Next up: Serving HD video off the Drobo- Media Center Style)

The site says, "On June 5th, Data Robotics will change the way you think about storage forever".  RAID-style expandable storage at any point?  It sounds too good to be true!  As one who just filled my 500GB RAID1 setup (largely with recorded MCE TV programs) this product sounds like an ideal solution- automatic backup, mix and match HDD sizes, makes and models, and it will work with my Mac or PC. If this works as advertised, I may be sitting in a pool of storage soon. 

Home sick and head is swimming in sudafed- a good time for a diversion.  Pete asks what my Top 10 Sidebar Gadgets are.  Here is my latest list:

1. Weatherbug
2. Traffic by Live Search
3. App Launcher
4. Gas Price Information
5. Outlook Info
6. Traveler's Toolkit
7. iTunes or The Zune
8. Multimeter
9. DriveInfo
10. The Magic Folder (great idea, but buggy on my system)

S itting in Newark Liberty Airport and catching up before my flight.  As announced in Bill Gates' keynote at WinHEC this week, 81 entries into the NextGen Windows PC competition were entered, and the three winners were announced, complete with a few physical prototypes showcased by CNET. It's great to see this program live on from when we first launched it two years ago.  The entries are definitely evolving into some very cool designs.

Last night, Scott Guthrie and a few of us on the Silverlight product team went to see Aerosmith in concert at the Mandalay Bay - something I've always wanted to do and it as worth every moment!

Tonight I finally met Dave Winer in person at a Blogger meetup.   Today was mostly partner meet & greets, keynote rehearsals (which look great) and a few other things. One of them was giving Jeff Sandquist a special edition Microsoft Silverlight skateboard- the same design seen in the intro video at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight.  He love skateboarding as do I.  The difference is tha the can actually skateboard.

These are special giveaways for partners and customers.  I've had to carry a few around the Venetian and keep getting stopped by security guards wanting to look at it, attendees etc.  I have one extra and will probably send it spontaneously to the person who does the most impressive Silverlight-enabled app about 30 days from now.   Heck, you might see a few given away at MIX07 :)

Tomorrow blogging is going to be a bit sporadic as I have a pretty tight schedule but will try to post as soon as possible - lots to talk about, so much good but will be covered elsewhere.

If' you're at MIX and want to meet up and discuss Silverlight's media capabilities, feel free to text me at +1-425-442-5712 or leave vmail (sporadic notification) and we'll try and meet up Tuesday or Wednesday. 

I've received so many inquiries and kudos about the Silverlight name, logo, and brand video internally and externally that I thought I'd post the real story of how it came together.

• Naming research was completed in Q3 2006.  We decided to hold it for a special event at a later date.  "WPF/E"- the codename of Silverlight was intentionally unappealing to keep mainstream consumers from installing it until we had good feedback from the developers/designers during the alpha (CTP) preview.
• Brand work was done by my team working with an outstanding design firm I'll mention here once I have clearance to do so (by them).  We kicked this off in October, and went through many iterations before landing on the animated logo and final frame lockup.  If you don't like the frame, you can blame me Long :)  The orb is a plasmic energy being held into shape by an unseen force, where it spins and flows, almost organically.
• The brand video was done by Phoenix Edit, a group of ex-Industrial Light & Magic wonks out of San Francisco.    The goal was to show many different Silverlight-enabled scenarios woven together – designer/developer collaboration, personalized e-commerce, devices, user-generated video, viral sharing, and the network effect on sales. We intentionally avoided excessive use of text or voiceover so the video will translate globally as we kick off events around the world. For the line, "Light up the Web" - you have me to blame.  It's more about illumination and blazing a trail vs. blazing anything else ;)
• The music in the brand video is by my friend and prominent UK DJ Andy Hunter. The song is “Go” off his album, “Exodus”.  Andy consulted on the project and the remix, and has considerable street cred touring with DJ Tiesto. His songs have been used in The Matrix games, and multiple movie/television show. Andy is now on Nettwerk records working on his next release.
• Customer and partner engagement was tightly synchronized.  During initial briefs, partners were shown a slide announcing the final name as "X-Plat Player Plug-in for Browsers" in Microsoft logotype, a self-deprecating way of noting that we knew the name had to be cool and were on the ball (ironically or sadly some thought that was the actual name!).  We'd show the logo without the name, and always used the name "WPF/E" in our discussions and external communications.
• For the press announce, named companies didn't even know the final name until a matter of hours before the release hit. We intentionally didn't publish any brand elements internally and had about a dozen people total that had access.  The product management team got really tired of hearing me talk about secrecy and except for a few small nits that went unnoticed, they really did us proud.

Some day I'll post the evolution timeline of the logo if others are interested.

Hot on the heels of our annoucements at NAB and the overwhelming response, I'm happy to announce the Silverlight team is growing again.  If you want to be a part of the next wave of media experiences and help to build the business to create, deliver, and experience RIAs, new job opportunities exist for the following job roles:

• Sr. Product Management - Enterprise & Solutions Engagement
• Sr. Product Management - Server & Services Engagement
• Silverlight Business Development & Deployment

All jobs are located in Redmond, WA.  Qualified candidates should have minimum of 5 years in the industry, MBA preferable with experience in the enterprise streaming and/or content delivery space.  Excellent customer/partner references are a must.  Skiing and/or 'boarding experience is a plus.

If you're interested, feel free to contact me at LinkedIn or send me email at sean@seanalexander.com with "INQUIRY:" in the title and your resume/VC. Or come find me on LinkedIn if you prefer.

The positions are located in Redmond, WA and will require some travel, about 4 days a month. It's important to note these are senior positions, with large impact on the business working directly with partners, customers, and product team to  ensure we're meeting the needs of our customers in the years to come.  Mac+Windows enthusiasts appreciated. ;)

Hot on the heels of last night's Top 10 for Silverlight, the other product making major waves at NAB is Microsoft Expression Media Encoder - a template-based video publishing tool for Silverlight and more. Expression Media Encoder supports live and on-demand video encoding and is a feature of Expression Media (our upcoming Digital Asset Management tool based on the lauded iView Media Pro).  Tim Sneath has a great writeup on the encoder here. 

Top 10 Questions about Expression Media Encoder

1. What video formats can I import with MEME?
   A: QuickTime, AVI, WMV, and any other format with a well-formed DShow filter.  Yep, we did the extra work to support the QT API's and are showing it working on the show floor.  If you have QT installed, it will work.
2. What can MEME do with Silverlight?
   A: MEME can quickly add chapter points with thumbnails and publish out your video into WMV/SMPTE VC-1 - no coding required.  Then just add the Javascript and video to your site and away you go.  You can also do basic enhancements - add a transparent .PNG or .GIF as an overlay, add leader/trailers, crop and even do A|B compare.
3. Can I encode for devices?  Web sites?  Streaming servers?
   A: Yes!  We'll include device profiles for outputting just the video for now ;)  Silverlight works with any web server as well as the more efficient Windows Media streaming platform. Profiles are just .prx same as Windows Media Encoder. 
4. What about live support?
   A: Another big hit at the show is EME's ability to handle multi-angle, multi-source video.  You'll be able to do pre-roll from local disk, then output, even archive to disk.  Yes, I think some vloggers will find this handy for both live broadcasting and on-demand.
5. Tell me more about these templates?
   A: The beauty of Silverlight apps is that they can be written with Javascript + XML (XAML).  As a result, the chrome/skin/templates can be created in Expression Blend (or other tools, even notepad) and then swapped- much like blog site, website, or powerpoint templates. This feature is a huge hit at NAB.  We're showing how Blend can be used to create  template easily from scratch, then use the template in EME. 
6. Expression Media is available for Mac and Windows.  What about EME?
   A: EME is a Windows-only product and was actually built with Expression Studio- it's a WPF-based application. 
7. How fast is encoding with Expression Media Encoder?
   A: Very fast- about the same as WM Encoder but we know time is money in encoding, so we're working with Intel spin-off and Red Herring darling Tarari to add hardware acceleration!  Tarari's boards are used by major broadcasters and post houses to encode today.  With EME, Tarari is seeing up to 15x faster encoding times when compared to software only solutions. Just drop the board into a PCI slot and away you go
8. Can EME run on the server?
   A: Yes! EME is scriptable, automatable, and templatized (is that even a word?) so you can integrate it into your server workflow.  We think some user-generated content sites may find this interesting for example where long encoding times mean customers leave your site.
9. Will EME support output to other formats?
   A: We're considering it based on feedback. We know there's a demand for better, simpler transcoding tools, and EME is really optimized for Silverlight which uses VC-1 (as well as older.  Silverlight could add more formats, but when you consider the entire package is 1MB in size, just adding another video codec could increase that by 50%. Keep the code tight! 
10. What is the coolest feature of EME?
    A: For me, it's the A/B Encode Compare feature. Today most tools require you encode the entire file, then review the quality. Then tweak - a huge time sink.  EME will improve the quality of videos in general because you can encode a segment or snippet you define (such as a high action sequence) and then review.  You can even wipe back and forth in the frame, reviewing side by side the original and compressed, or even multiple encoder settings side by side to get the best quality possible. The metadata features are pretty cool too.
11. Does Expression Media Encoder replace Windows Media Encoder?
    No.  EME is a new product, optimized for fast and simple publishing of video on your website with Silverlight. WME continues to be made freely available at www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia EME will cost about $299.

A few of you have been asking where I've been and why I've been so quiet about digital media. Has blogging become passe? Am I spending too much time reading Scoble? (no) or Pirillo (no)?   I am Twittering though - delivering bite size bloggables. Perhaps I joined Michael Gartenberg in returning to the "private sector"?  No again. I've been working heavily on exciting things we're going to unveil at MIX07.  If you're involved in digital media delivery on the web, you're going to want to see what we unveil at the show.

For the past six years, I've been involved in different aspects of digital media, dating back to Windows Media Player 7 and beyond.  With every release, a debate roiled internally - are we an experience or a platform?  More effort over time was put into creating an experience with Windows Media Player (as our customers were asking for), but the developer platform never saw much in the way of major leaps forward.  OCX updates were modest, load times were unacceptable to customers on web pages, and it was too complicated to create compelling and differentiated experiences.

Not for long.  We've been listening.  Taking notes.  Asking questions. Understanding what's needed to go beyond what's available today for delivering media-enriched experiences on the Web.  And MIX is where you're going to here more about that.  I have emails reporting that the media experience in www.vista.si from Microsoft Slovenia  beyond delivering a full Vista desktop emulator in "WPF/E" runs faster than some web-enabled experiences.

So at MIX, we're going to step it up with sessions dedicated to those focused on rich digital media delivery on the Web. You'll learn how to use new tools coming such as Expression Media Encoder, and how to use new features with Windows Server "Longhorn". Our team will be there- engaging in the conversation across a broad range of topics. 

Yesterday, I a podcast for the Mix website where I'll talk some more.  I'm going to be doing a lot of talking soon.  I'm also doing the first-day keynote at Streaming Media East. (Note to Dan Rayburn, I look about 10 years old in the picture on the site)

I'm also Twittering now.  The RSS feed is here.  Feel free to add me to your list if you dare.

Still catching up on blogworthy items. As is customary with the release of any new OS, a lot of attention is being given to the new, native features of Windows Vista, the compatibility of devices as well as existing applications.  But what about new applications?  Vista doesn't rest on the laurels of traditional, flat, 2D applications. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a feature of Windows Vista that enables rich, textured, 3D applications to be built that take interactivity to a whole new level. 

One such application was developed by famed design firm, Metaliq. Their Snowboarding application incorporates two of my loves - snow sports and GPS.  Marrying 3D rotatable maps of Aspen Ski Resort with GPS data, it seamlessly integrates  live data, video clips and a playback reel give you the perspective of your runs as you head down. 

I'm a sucker for this kind of app I always take my GPS with me when I go skiing- just "Set it and forget it" while I'm riding.  When I get home, Pictures I take on the mountain are geotagged (I like RoboGeo), and I like to review representations of my runs on satellite maps with ExpertGPS or Google Earth.  This is admittedly geeky today, but imagine being able to sit down after a vacation with the family, and review your photos, ultimate runs, and home videos and navigate it visually.  It's clear we're just getting started.

It's the weekend, and a perfect time to go through Tim Sneath's blog list of amazing WPF applications.  C9 has a great list here as well.

Here's a list of some of my favorite english-language applications (German, French and others on  Tim's site as well):

1. NY Times Newsreader
2. Nostalgia Flickr Browser
3. British Library's Turning the Pages
4. Electric Rain's Standout 
5. Notescraps
6. Denounce (RSS/Podcast browser)
7. Cine.view (NetFlix browser)
8. Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista
9. Calendar Printing for Office 2007
10. Wikipedia Explorer
11. iBloks 3D Movie Creator

Let me know if you find more ;)

I'm having an issue that is driving me crazy.  For some reason, my Samsung Blackjack is unable to sync w/ Windows Mobile Device Center for Vista.  I have five machines that are all recognizing the phone as:

SAMSUNG USB Composite Device
SAMSUNG CDMA Modem
SAMSUNG CDMA Modem Diagnostic Serial
Port (WDM) (COM#)

They should be recognizing it as an RNDIS Network Adapter which will enable WMDC to connect.

I've checked the Settings|USB Settings and even the underlying registry, hard-wiped the phone (hold up arrow and power up) and nothing is working.  After spending two hours on the phone with Cingular and Samsung Level 2 technicians, they told me (nicely) that they'll have to get me to Level 3 which is open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm when I'm working.  Has anyone else run into this issue?  Bueller?  Anyone?

My favorite digital audio receiver just added support for Zune Marketplace, Napster, Urge, Wal-Mart, etc. and enhancements for iTunes though they still won't play Apple's own DRM'd music (something Jobs left out he won't license).  Finally, my little white Sonos boxes aren't sitting in a Zuneless island.  Every time I think I'm done with DRM'd music services, they bring me back in.  I have to say though, I'm increasingly impressed by Rhapsody's integration with the Sonos.  It makes me wonder, why shouldn't all music services offer a network connected version, similar to what Napster is doing today?

Also note to music services - not everyone listening to your service is a twentysomething head-banging, ultramegalophile monster mashup music culture listener.  Take some cues from  XM's "Flight 26".   I like my hard-core, but not when the kiddies are around.  Families want to listen too.  That's a note to Sirius as well.

Recently, I've been playing with a free Gadget for Vista Sidebar called, Visual Voicemail from CallWave and color me impressed.  Stevie J is right - audio management of voicemail is a pain.  CallWave on Cingular and other carriers can replace your existing voicemail system so that incoming calls are automatically routed to their service offering email notification, SMS notification with call details, and the Gadget, which provides a management feature for viewing, listening to, and deleting messages.  Nicely done.  It's free for a basic voicemail box with the gadget, or you can pay $9.95 for call routing etc.  My only complaints are the lack of a way to turn off SMS (it costs me $$) and lack of a Windows Mobile client for my Blackberry (er Blackjack) ;).

For those of you waiting for Nikon's official RAW image file reader (.nef) to show up and integrate with Windows Photo Gallery, it's now available.  Canon's RAW codec (.cr2)is still AWOL as is Adobe's Digital NeGative format (.dng).  Here's to hoping they show up soon.

While consumers work through the dizzying array of new features in Windows Vista, Ryan Stewart cuts through the hype and brings it back to what really matters - User Experience.  He notes, "We're all better off when experience wins and Vista is a huge step forward."  I couldn't agree more. But what about after the hype, the roar of marketing moves into sustain?  I'm expecting to see big pops of innovation as new Vista-enabled applications start to emerge.

An example of this is WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation, which is going to enable the next-generation of desktop applications that are 3D accelerated, and designer-developer collaboraration with Expression Studio and  Visual Studio.  I agree with Ryan, and look forward to seeing Tim Sneath write about these new applications.  Yes, they'll run on many XP PCs as well, but will truly sing on Vista.

Another will be "WPF/Everywhere" or "WPF/E" (Codename), which will take rich media experiences traditionally targeted at the desktop, and bring those to the Web with the flexibility of standards-based programming, and the power of XAML for presentation.  I've seen how important XAML is first-hand- when I worked in Windows as a program manager on Windows Vista Sidebar, the tension was palpable between the User Experiece designers creating the UI, and the developers who were unable to fully realize the vision pixel for pixel.  With Expression Studio + WPF, what you can envision, becomes programmable, pixel for pixel.  That is a powerful thing, and soon we're bringing that to the web as well.

Try WPF for yourself with my favorite "essential" application - the NY Times News Reader (beta). 

(I have the flu so I'm heading back to bed. :( )

While visiting a friend yesterday in the OEM Group at Microsoft, I spied an interesting sub-notebook on his desk.  It appeared to have a Windows Vista logo jeweled into the case and backlit in color.  My trusty camera in tow, I snapped a few pictures for your enjoyment.

The PC was a special edition created exclusively for a select number of partners (read: executives).  Microsoft partnered with ASUS to custom-build these little gems to demonstrate how laptops can take advantage of the latest technology in Windows Vista.  It's a widescreen Tablet PC, a Media Center, runs Vista Ultimate with Aero Glass, and even has a fingerprint scanner and smart card reader for login.  It also sports the latest Intel Centrino and Core2Duo technology.  Battery life is impressive as well.

Unfortunately you won't find these PCs at retail with the Vista logo, but it's a nice example of what PC OEMs can do when motivated.  Even the materials are premium, not plastic in texture.  Reportedly there are a few of these running around with leather finish!

As for the Tablet features? It's the first tablet my friend ever really liked.  With Vista, he's gone so far as to say he enjoys the tablet feature.  Of course I'm drooling over the PC and would love to see what I could do with Microsoft Expression Studio on it.

More pics here.

Here's to hoping PC manufacturers are willing to take even bolder risks in design.  To that end, IDSA and Microsoft partnered again this year on the Next-Gen PC Design Competition.  Entries are closed, and the winners will be announced in April.  I'm hoping to see some phenomenal new prototypes later this year.

 Fox Sports, Microsoft  and major retailers are doing launch events across the country next week for the Windows Vista launch.  This is pretty cool as major sports stars will be on-hand to get your picture taken (I'm planning to get my picture taken in Bellevue, WA with Shaun Alexander).  There will be some great prizes and giveaways and possibly some amazing deals on PCs etc.  The events start at 10pm at retailers including BestBuy, CompUSA, and more. Learn more about what events are happening in your area here.

Now this is cool.  Between tomorrow and April 30th,  Microsoft and T-Mobile will be offering free public WiFi to Vista users.  That's at places including Starbucks, Borders, FedEx Kinko's etc.  If you're a business traveler, this is a great deal.  More details at www.skysurprise.com.   

Next time you start up Media Center, the Online Media strip should automatically refresh with the new content (it may take a few minutes). Additional partners will be filtering in shortly.  Looks like things are getting prepped for the Vista launch at the end of the month.

While on the show floor, I got permission from a friend to video behind the scenes at the Games for Windows Booth.  Unbeknownst to many, they were enjoying Halo 2 for Windows on DirectX 10-enabled NVidia cards, in some of the fastest PCs yet.  You'll notice a sneak peek of the Live for Windows integration announced, which will for the first time enable you to play on Windows against others.

Video: Vista Halo 2 with Live integration from CES 2007

No details on whether you'll be able to play Halo 2 on PC against users on Xbox 360, however I did notice a few maps I didn't recognize while playing, evaluating the platform.  Long Zheng has more on Live for Windows here.

I recently got my hands on the original source of the PC manufacturer's video shown in Bill Gates' keynote.  The first person to correctly identify all PCs models shown in the video (in order) will win a cheap tacky prize.  Submit via comments :).

Video: Windows Vista New PCs - CES 2007

I also have it in WMV-HD and will post later this weekend.  Perhaps we should do a mash-up contest for the best remix of the spot?  I'll pose it to some friends who could make that happen.

Last night, I had the honor of attending the Technical Emmy Awards ceremony at CES to help accept the Emmy Award for Streaming Media Architectures and Components.  Afterwards, we went to the Vista party at the Pure Nightclub in Caesars and brought the Emmy for safe keeping and to take pictures with other team members. It was a hit with a number of old friends who helped us to get this win.  It was a shared win- there was a sense of surprise when I congratulated the Apple team on their shared win as well.

John Carmack, co-founder of iD, creator of Doom and Quake and founder of Armadillo Aerospace was one of the presenters.  When I get a chance, I'll post some video I took during the ceremony. The DirectX team was also on-hand to accept an award for their 3D engine.

Thank you to all the engineers, designers, bizdev, marketing, management who helped to make the win possible but most importantly, to our customers.

More pictures from the party on Flickr here

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) :)

Zune update 1.2 with support for Windows Vista is out.  More details at www.zuneinsider.com

With Vista Media Center, you can do some pretty nifty 3D effects for applications built with the new Media Center Markup Language (MCML) and .Net 3.0's WPF (which "WPF/E" is also based on.

Mobilewares in Melbourne, Australia has released a series of five add-ins for Vista Media Center including a Flickr plug-in and Stock Ticker (seen above).  I'm expecting we'll see some pretty jaw-dropping applications for the technology shortly.  The Flickr add-in has a few bugs (it's beta) but you can easily see the value.

Don't have Vista Media Center yet?  Download stand-alone samples of most of the apps at the site above as well.

Note: Looks like the stock app beta has expired :(

(Ed. Note: The new sites are being propped and updated as we speak, but getting this out ASAP.)

Today I’m excited to finally be able to talk about a new project I’ve been working on—“WPF/E”.   As some of you know, I spent the last year working on End to End User Experiences, specifically with Windows Vista digital media efforts and devices.  This was an amazingly fun and rewarding job, but when all the product work was done (some yet to be announced <g>), it was time to turn my attention to the next challenge.  It was about that time that I was made aware of another opportunity that was too interesting to resist.   

(My) Introduction to “WPF/E” (codename) 

About a year ago, I heard of an intriguing new project codenamed, “WPF/E” or “Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere”.  Announced at the PDC 2005, “WPF/E” is a key part of the next-generation Web platform from Microsoft.   I was intrigued and continued to track progress.  Designed to be delivered as a lightweight, cross-platform browser plug-in, the “WPF/E” client is optimized for presenting rich media such as vector-based graphics, animation, and video content efficiently over the Web.  Microsoft releasing a cross-platform technology?! Readers here know I own a few Macs (one PPC, two Intel-based) and I had to pinch myself.  More importantly I had to be a part of this effort, and I’m excited to say that not only am I a part of the team delivering the technology, we’re making it available to you starting today as a Community Technology Preview (CTP) for evaluation and feedback.  Together with Microsoft Expression Studio also just announced, it’s a goodie bag of toys for designers, developers, and content providers to collaborate on delivering next-generation web experiences and we’re just getting started. (By the way, the codename is a temporary thing, with a much more simplifed one TBA).

Rich web media, simplified with “WPF/E”

Of course, being “Addicted to Digital Media”, there are certain features which led me to join the team.  The “WPF/E“ December CTP also includes support for playback of Windows Media Audio and Video, enabling delivery of rich audio and video integrated with graphical overlays, dynamic resizing, and marker support for interactivity. Customers have been asking for a simple way to embed Windows Media (and VC-1) files and streams organically on web pages for cross-platform playback.  With “WPF/E” they’ll be able to do it (starting with eval’ing progressive download support in the CTP and content protection is on the roadmap).  With “WPF/E” we’re finding new ways to tap into the broad ecosystem of content, tools, and solutions for Windows Media and make it easier.  And for standards-fans, common profiles of the SMPTE standard VC-1 codec are also supported in this release (that’s the same one that ships in all HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players in case you’re keeping count).  Naturally for the Web, standard-definition quality will reign in the near term, but the platform is capable of HD delivery ;),

Introducing Expression Studio

Today, Microsoft also made a number of announcements focused on delivering tools and platforms for delivering rich user experiences (UX) in Windows and on the Web.  The first was an announcement around Expression Studio, a suite of four tools focused on bridging the designer/developer gap that exists today in most development houses.  Using the Expression suite, whatever a designer can visualize and be implemented by developers using .Net Framework 3.0 and Windows Presentation Foundation.  As a program manager, I’ve witnessed first-hand the tension that exists between the designer who creates phenomenal concepts that the developer just can’t code behind.  These tools will also be optimized to support “WPF/E”. I’ve seen upcoming applications built using these tools over the past few months (you’ll get to see some of them soon) and it really takes desktop app development (and soon, web development) to a new level.

Also simplified is the encoding and publishing of content via the new product in the Expression suite is the just announced, Expression Media.  Based on the iView Media Pro product acquired by Microsoft last summer, Expression Media is an update to the professional digital asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital media (pics, fonts, sounds, videos etc.) for easy access  and presentation. (And yes, we’ll still support Mac for asset management).   For video publishers, it will also include a new tool for Windows - Microsoft Expression Media Encoder for encoding and publishing of video with “WPF/E” and beyond.   For more on Expression Media and “WPF/E”, stay tuned.  I’ve added a new category called, “Rich Media” so you can keep tabs on the topic. ;)

Also be sure to check out the blogs of my co-workers talking about “WPF/E” as well including our VP, S. “Soma” Somasegar:

• S. Somasegar - http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/
• Scott Guthrie - http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/
• Joe Stegman - http://blogs.msdn.com/jstegman/default.aspx
• James Clarke - http://www.clarkezone.net/
• Mike Harsh - http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh/default.aspx

I’ll provide links to other team members shortly as they post more.  We have a ton of interest in blogging from the team among members with designer, developer, and video production backgrounds.

So take a look at the resources, send us your suggestions, and come back here with questions.  And while you’re at it, check out the just-relaunched sites at http://www.microsoft.com/expression and http://www.microsoft.com/design.  J

A year ago, I extolled the virtues of Sirius Satellite radio. The Sirius S50 has been happily chugging out tunes in my Toyota Prius with minimal issues, getting updates "over the air", though the recording functionality is little more than a novelty at this point.  What's causing me to consider switching is the "Wife Acceptance Factor" again.  No, it's not Howard Stern that's the problem.  The issue is that my wife got XM free in her new Honda Pilot for 3 months.  This led to her subscribing on her own, a first for any service.   For both of us, it's the quality of the programming for our lifestyle.  But a few nice touches are about to put us over the edge. So here I'm going to break it down into sections:

• Music programming (Winner: XM) - Generally a tie between the two, except when you consider adult contemporary content.  Sirius is heavy on the rap/R&B end of Top 20 on Channel 1.  Good decades and rock (Rolling Stones, Who, Aerosmith). Flight 26 on XM plays contemporary hits suitable for my son to be in the car. I'm a soundtrack fanatic- my wife turns on Cinemagic and I'm hooked. She complains that the broadway station on Sirius has a limited selection and loves it on XM.  Now for the holidays, XM offers 5 radio stations vs. 0 (will be 1) for Sirius. 
• Talk programming (Winner: Sirius) - I grew up in the NY/NJ/Conn tri-state area.  Howard has been a guilty pleasure, but not enough to buy Sirius just for it.  Opie and Anthony can't compete and I like a diversion on the drive in the AM. Sirius has better comedy channels as well and CNBC/CNN/Fox troika of news simulcasts. Martha on Sirius, Oprah on XM if you're into that kind of thing.
• Sports programming (Winner: Tie) - Sirius has NFL and NBA; XM has MLB.  both have Nascar, NHL, and College sports. It all depends on what you're into.
• Kids Programming (Winner: Sirus) - Believe it or not, Sirius has 3 kids stations vs. 1 on XM.  Perhaps they're trying to make up for the bad boy image HS brings to the lineup.
• Music in the Home (Winner: XM) - My wife asked what it would take to get XM in the house.  I powered up the Xbox 360, went to Media Center and voila, XM Radio in Online Spotlight! I've patched it through a Sonos and now have whole-home music Now she has another reason for the Xbox beyond her Bejeweled games (keep that gamerscore going up honey <g>).  Sirius does offer an Internet-based player as well, but the Media Center integration on Xbox 360 for my wife is hands down the easiest.
• Listening in the Car (Winner: Tie) - In my experience, a factory-integrated satellite system just sounds better.  It's better grounded, better integrated.  Sirius has Volkswagen/Audi, Volvo, Kia, Rolls Royce? and Subaru.  XM has
• Music on the go (Winner: XM) - I just purchased a Samsung Blackjack cell phone (more on that later) from Cingular at an amazing deal and I love listening to XM built-in on the phone.  Anywhere in the US I have a data connection I can listen to XM.  I did some tests for delay in my wife's car- the internet-based version on the phone is about 10 seconds behind the satellite delivered version, and offers a wide range of channels. Yes, you can do Sirius on your Windows Mobile phone as well, but having an app built in is a nice touch.

The final tally in my highly unscientific evaluation:

• Sirius: 2
• XM: 3
• Tied: 2

It really comes down to what you're looking for- if you really want Howard Stern, then get Sirius.  If you want better programmed music for adults (my perception) get XM.  In my case, music around the home and on the go is also important.  So it looks like I'm headed to XM once my Sirius subscription has expired.

Back when I owned a Honda S2000 in the age of B.K. (before kids), my tweaker friends would do a, "Dyno Day" where they'd rent out a dyno facility and benchmark their supercharged, ultra-flow, boosted, EFI adjusted S2K's. 

Apparently that's already started with Windows Vista.  Using the new Windows Experience Index, overclockers are getting some impressive numbers for their PC "horsepower". Jeff noted in comments on my Vistas PC post, that he was getting a 5.7 index # on his overclocked system.  He included a how-to with details on his equipment - a Core 2 Duo system here. Not sure about the "Take that Microsoft" part (it was a Dell PC), but I felt an urge to go visit Fry's and that's not a good thing (tm) according to my wife.

Instead, after playing Gears of War last night over at my house with ZuneGuy and Zunester, I'm thinking about how I can get a Zune to output display and control to my Prius on-screen display.  Where's Phil Torrone when I need him?

A friend in the Windows Vista team sent me pictures of a cool new PC for Windows Vista they just did with Dell for a promotion. 

This hot-rod took the fastest Dell Media Center PC on the planet, then added a tricked out paint job by mondo paint mod shop Colorware to commemorate Windows Vista release to manufacturing. As the picture hints at, the finished result is top-notch automotive-quality paint that appears lit from within.  That's not surprising when you consider the specs of the system:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Processor
• 512MB NVidia GeForce 7900 GTX
• 4GB RAM Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 667mhz
• 1Terabyte RAID0 SATA HDDs (2x500MB)
• 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW Double Layer Burner
• Dual TV Tuners (Analog)
• Dell 30" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
• Full 5.1 Surround Sound system

My contacts tell me this system has a Windows Experience Index # of this system is a 5.2. For those of you unfamiliar with this feature of Windows Vista, it is a ranking # that represents the capabilities of your PC based on performance of your video, CPU, memory, HD, etc. and can be  used to determine which software will run best by matching the number or below (goodbye trying to deceipher 3 point text on bottom of software boxes to see if you can run the latest/greatest).  

The Vista screamer was conceived as a way to commemorate the RTM of Windows Vista at the ship party.  A few were made, and one contributed to Microsoft's annual, "Giving Campaign" where OEM employees raffled it off, with Microsoft matching the raffled amount going to the United Way. Considering the full version will put you back $3200+tax, that's a healthy donation.  

The only thing it's missing as far as I'm concerned is a Windows Sideshow display on the front and maybe an HD-DVD drive.

More pictures on my Flickr set.

Update: Fixed details on the charity process - it was a raffle.

A certain other company may have been first to mention this shared win, but they neglected to disclose this was a 4-way tie in the same category.  In the order announced by the National Television Academy:

• Microsoft for Windows Media
• Adobe for Flash Video
• Real for Real System
• Apple for QuickTime

Congrats to the Windows Media team (and others) on the win.  The real winners at the end of the day are end-users enjoying audio and video on the Web.

http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/advmedia_nom_release.html

About four weeks ago, a debate was raging in my household.  My wife, being of sound mind and body, was pleased with HDTV, primarily for its ability to fill our screen (a nearly 4yo Samsung HLM-507W 720p unit), delivering a level of clarity and screen-filling that sated her desire for such classics as, "CSI", "ER" and er... "Dancing with the Stars".

But never mind that.

We had a Comcast Motorola 6419 STB.  It was a marvel... for 2003. I had conversations with folks who talked about the challenges of writing to this box, the things they had done to get around hardware issues and I was (and continue to be) amazed by the abilities of the box.  But, it was suffering me.  Or rather, I was suffering IT in our household. 

There's a not-so-subtle metric among those of us who have battle scars in digital media.  It's called the "WAF" or "SAF".  It's the dreaded "Wife Acceptance Factor" or "Spousal Acceptance Factor".  I fell victim.

You see, where I live, OTA HD (ATSC) isn't even a remote option.  Between two hills, I believe the technical term is SOL. And after getting a taste of HD, my wife was hooked.  The Moto box did well enough.  But the gateway drug of "On Demand" never took hold.  Forget HBO and their on-demand, who appears to split up their seasons to extract more $$$ on DVD sales.  I'd go to Media Center if it were an option, but it's not right now until Vista ships.  Instead, I have my Comcast box. A marvel given the hardware, this thing freezes up, has IR reception far shorter than anything I've seen resulting in this exchange:

"Fast forward!"

"I'm trying"

"It's a commercial!"

"Did you hear me? It's frozen up"

"The angle's all wrong, try holding it up by your ear"

"Ok, I think that's working"

"You've overshot it.  Rewind!"

"I am rewinding"

"You went too far!"

"I'm trying to get it back but it won't respond!"

"Put it up by your ear"

"For the sake of ..."

This is the "WAF" or "SAF" I speak of.  What is family harmony worth to me?  Priceless.

Enter the TiVo Series 3. After serious negotiation, my wife agreed that it made sense to get a TiVo.  This was after trying convince the kind folks at TiVo to send me an evaluation unit.  Then, all hell broke loose (tm?).

Hell?  I had one CableCard and picked up another at the local Comcast store.  I tried to auth both on my TiVo via the phone to no avail.  Long story short, Comcast was "Cold initing" both cards, resulting in a 10 minute delay, yet the Technical Support Rep (TSR) knew to wait only about 4 minutes before trying a truck roll.  Major kudos go to those TSR's I spoke to, because they held in there and were sending a truck the same day. Yes, you heard that right- 11am and they're saying they can send someone out by 4pm the same day.  Major, major kudos to Comcast on that one.

This made me want to stop the poor Comcast "Truck Roll" guy from having to come out the same day. So, I started researching and came across the following article.  My gosh, I've never seen such an articulate description of the workings of the Cablecard process.

Ten minutes after I hung up with Comcast, I checked the TiVo again.  Bingo- the 1 (of 2) cards was now initialized. I was getting HD.

Then I went for #2.  I called Comcast and explained the situation.  I told them what I had read and the TSR asked me to send them a link to the article.  I did, and he was mighty appreciative.  His supervisor was over his shoulder and they were impressed when the second card was correctly initialized.  They thanked me profusely for helping them, and I know they get scored on # of truck rolls so they were happy to see that get cancelled.

I felt good.  I was up and going, and I had given back to my cable provider.  It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling actually.  Not sure why, but I guess I figured others wouldn't have to go through what I did.

Since then, my wife has taken to the new TiVo Series 3 like [insert saying here].  She loves it.  She doesn't need on-demand.  She records those educational programs for our son, and we've practically negated our Netflix subscription (what is it about crappy movies these days anyway).  So I digress.  The TiVo has rebooted a couple of times and of course, I'm pissed about lack of KidZone, or Multi-Room Viewing (MRV), or TiVo To Go (TTG), but it works as (relatively) advertised.   My wife hasn't complained about it more than once (the first reboot).  My son doesn't even miss on-demand.

So what do I miss about the Comcast box?  Nothing, except the additional $$ in my pocket. Heck, I could have bought a full-fledged PC with ATSC tuning in my area for that amount!  But there is a dollar amount on SAF and WAF so for that reason, despite the fact TiVo rebuffed any request to contact them, I will say I like my TiVo Series 3.

I've used Media Center in Vista, and it will give TiVo a real run for it's money for those customers with Cablecard-enabled PC's.  Will I ebay my TiVo for Vista Media Center? Probably at some point. Even then, I have little buyer's remorse over the TiVo Series 3, other than the ridiculous price.  Once set up, it works as advertised.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Windows, Windows Media Center, Media Player or anything that starts with Media or ends with Media.  Though Media might be somewhere in the name. But more on that at a later date. ;)

From Major Nelson:

Looking for official details on the Fall Dashboard update? Check out the Newsflash (or the complete list of new features) just posted on Xbox.com then look for the update to head your way after 0200 PT Tuesday morning (What time is that in my time zone?.)  If this whole ‘update’ thing is new to you, don’t worry…it’s quick, free and painless. Next time you login into Xbox Live you’ll get prompted to receive the update…it’s that easy. There is no way to force the update (and, regardless of what you have heard, it's not geographical based.) So sit back and relax and it get ready for the update sometime after 0200 PT Tuesday morning, October 31st.

Can you say, "Ready for HD-DVD" or "Ready for WMP11"? Nice work.   

  Ditch the tape, Furrygoat (Steve) points to the Sony HDR-SR1 camcorder that records in High-Definition, 1080i quality on a built-in 30GB hard drive (which loosely translates to around 2 hours of recording in highest quality).  This should work out of the box with Windows (Vista) Movie Maker which has support for HDV editing (yes, my Mac does that too thanks).  Though I understand the new camera uses the MPEG-4/AVC/H.264 codec so you may still have to do some conversion. It also takes adequate 4 megapixel stills, and has dolby digital 5.1 recording.  you can even snap 2.3 megapixel stills while you're recording video.  Sony still seems slave to their own proprietary Memory Stick format, but otherwise, this sounds like a winner.  As Furry says, "Must. Resist. Temptation."  At $1300, I'll be resisting unfortunately for a while.  I do wonder though- should I put it on my christmas list and hope that my wife reads my blog, amping up the whole "our son will never get any younger" argument for purchase? 

More details and a preliminary review can be found at camcorderinfo.com.

Things have been incredibly busy at work lately- so much so that I haven't had any time to post here. I'l try to get better about that. 

In other news, friends over in the eHome team are celebrating. Is it Vista related?  Almost ;).  They're celebrating a major milestone - 20 million Windows XP Media Center PCs have now been sold.  Some might recall that just last April, the stat was at 10 million. Talk about a ramp rate. By comparison TiVo has just over 2 million stand-alone units out there (which I also own and enjoy).

Speaking of Vista, I've started getting questions on when the right time is to buy a PC for Vista. My father is still hobbling along on the Windows XP PC he bought 5 years ago right after the launch of XP (and he's never reinstalled). The hard drive is starting to go, but we're using chewing gum to keep it going. My neighbor's PC also just died and he's hobbling along on an old PC of mine right now.  Buying a new "Vista-ready" PC is pretty easy when you see the logo, and I expect there will be some pretty amazing deals this holiday season.

Which brings me back to Media Center.  Friends over in eHome-land told me that they worked will all the Media Center PC manufacturers to make sure any MCE PC sold this holiday season will be Vista Premium-ready.  So if you have to buy, look for the Vista logo, or just get an MCE PC.

One last comment on Vista for home users- I've noticed that if you connect a Vista desktop to a UPS, the PC will run in "Balanced" mode, just like a laptop.  At first I thought this was a bad idea, but then I realized that for the overwhemling majority, this is fine- and a more energy friendly way to do things.

I'll write more this weekend- thoughts on using a TiVo Series3, and taking Flight Simulator X (Final release) for a whirl.

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.   

Uninnovate.com has an interesting article on Apple's new support of "Reverse syncing" of content with the iTunes 7 release yesterday:

Today, Apple released iTunes 7.0, among other things. In earlier versions of iTunes, Apple did its best to prevent users from being able to copy music from an iPod back to a desktop computer. Now, Apple has changed course and is marketing “Reverse Syncing” as a new feature of iTunes 7.

But there is one giant catch:

1. Music and media not purchased from the iTunes store only syncs one way, from your computer to your iPod.

This is uninnovation in its most frustrating form. It’s easy to spot and avoid drm-saturated junk, but these kinds of subtle limitations in an otherwise great product frustrate users and drive them to alternative applications. How about trusting the user enough to let them get at their own files without these childish restrictions?

WMP11 added reverse file transfer support back in March which works with purchased, and clear content. (It’s also had album art matching in WMP9, dramatically improved in WMP11). I think the author is being a bit overzealous however in his claim of “uninnovation”- it's always been easy to transfer music off your iPod, it's just a little hidden.  Here it’s a little less hidden.

I’ve seen lots of chatter on iTV - Apple's Media Center Extender-esque device for streaming video to the living room.  It feels like we’ve been here before. Long Zheng at istartedsomething.com has a good recap of the relative strengths and weaknesses of products in this space.   It seems a bit odd that Apple would break from long-time tradition and give a "sneak preview" of a product that won't be available for at least Q1 '07, particularly when they could have held the announce to availability around MacWorld in January. It's clear they had to do this to try and spur purchase of movies from their new store- with no rental model, people just don't want to buy movies to watch on their portable players. Tell them they'll be able to play it in other places as well around the home and their likelihood of purchase is higher.  It’s the battle of cognitive dissonance - buyer's remorse. After all, you're already dealing with the psychological barrier in that the user is buying an intangible good, something without physical form that perceptually has less value than physical media such as DVDs. But... you're going to charge about the same as a physical DVD. Without the Bonus DVD content.  Oh and the 640x480 video quality people are downloading is going to be between VHS and DVD quality (which offers 720x480p).  Never mind that it will be potentially less for letterboxed content since the new iPod doesn't support 16:9 (widescreen) display.  In the time it will take most customers to download one of these movies, I could have gone to the store, bought the DVD, popcorn, a 6-pack of Coke, dinner, come home, cooked dinner, and be ready to watch. In a rental model, all of these issues can be forgiven for immediate gratification and a lower price, as witnessed by the popularity of Video On Demand and InDemand services.

The challenges in streaming TV from the PC aren't just the hypothesized need for higher speed wireless (802.11n) which should be provisionally approved in early 2007.  This might be delaying their launch, but streaming 640x480 video across the home has been possible with Media Center Extender for just about two years now.  A challenge is going to be convincing consumers to buy and set up yet another single-purpose device in the living room, another remote, another input on the TV for this thing.

Today, you can get an Xbox 360 that includes Media Center Extender at no additional cost. Over 16 million Media Center customers can use this today, no additional charge. Even if you don’t have a TV tuner in your PC, you can connect a USB tuner and record TV or HDTV (OTA today, Digital Cable with equipped PCs with Vista). No additional fees.  As announced at CES last year, multiple HDTV manufacturers are putting Media Center extender into their designs, something that costs less than a night at the movies to implement.

As for another box in the living room, the Xbox 360 does HD gaming, DVD/HD-DVD Playback, Music, Photos, Video, TV/HDTV playback, runs rich media apps from a multitude of providers, and delivers an increasing amount of media content via Xbox Live, including HD.   And it's going to get significantly better with Windows Vista Premium's Media Center features – automatically updating your Xbox 360 to support in the family room with the same level of animation and experience. 

Either way, a saying comes to mind: “A rising tide raises all boats” and for that I welcome Apple's foray.  But if Apple's iTV costs the same as an Xbox,  offers nothing more than a "simplified remote" and fewer mainstream features which really makes more sense when competing for  consumer dollars outside the Job's faithful?  With Sony and Nintendo's Wii also vying for that same space, it's about to get a bit more crowded. Or perhaps just noisy.  So begins the "Great Family Room Battle of 2007".

(Disclaimer: I used to work on Media Center, but haven't for over a year, and speak only for myself.)

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.

I just have to say congrats and thanks to the Windows Vista engineering team.  The new RC1 escrow builds are looking so much better and better.  Pundits and enthusiasts alike (sometimes the same) are starting to see what so many long hours is delivering.  Media Center in Vista Premium and Ultimate is really starting to shine.  On to RC1 and RTM...

tags: Windows, Vista, Engineering, Blogs, Media Center, Media, Center, MCE

Michael Gartenberg has an interesting recount of the negotiations between  Microsoft and The Rolling Stones by Brad Silverberg and  Brad Chase for the  commercial rights to "Start Me Up".  Part 1 of 2 details the negotiations, and the new version of the song that almost was.

This got me thinking about what should be the launch theme of Windows Vista?  (Disclaimer - I have no knowledge of any plans).  Windows XP's commercial anthem was Madonna's "Ray of Light".  Everyone thought it would be Jimmi  Hendrix' "Are you eXPerienced?".  No doubt any music selected will be contemporary, but I think the anthem should be Van Halen's, "Right Now".  Considering  the following:

• The original album hit #1 and was on the charts for 74 weeks, this is no small feat. 
• The median age of a target Windows PC user is in the same demographic that  will remember the song fondly
• The experience of Longhorn/Vista, the song's lyrics speak  to me  about both the challenges and incredible effort of the engineering team to deliver what's shaping up to be a great release
• The song is forward-looking, capturing the essence of opportunity
• Rock music is making a comeback  ;)

Another nice choice would be U2's "Original of the Species", but given U2's relationship with Apple, I doubt that would happen.

What song would you pick? Feel free to comment here.

Duncan tipped me off to a new video he just posted looking at mceAuction, an eBay add-in for Windows Media Center. Developed by long-time and highly respected Media Center developer Christoph Buenger of Scendix, this is a great example of the cool stuff you can do and winner of the, "eBay Star Developer Award 2006". 

New features include:

• Show item's location in Google Maps®
• Get notification when you got outbid, your watched auction end in a few minutes, ...
• Shows shipping costs, payment options, item's attributes, ...
• Shows all details for a seller (latest feedback, % feedback score, ...)
• List of other items from a seller
• List of auctions in "my eBay" that are ending soon.

I can't wait to see what Christoph and team comes up with using the Vista Media Center SDK and rumor has it he's working  on  a Windows Sidebar gadget or two.

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

Back when the Xbox 360 was announced, J. Allard and Robbie Bach also talked about a new development platform called "XNA", designed to make it easier to build games Xbox and Windows PCs, sharing much of the same high performance code.  A series of tools announcements were made and then frankly, we didn't hear much more in the general tech 'sphere.  Until now.

XNA Game Studio Express will be unveiled today at Gamefest, an annual event Microsoft holds.  Until we have a public demonstration, here's a little snippet about XNA Game Studio:

XNA Game Studio Express will democratize game development by delivering the necessary tools to hobbyists, students, indie developers and studios alike to help them bring their creative game ideas to life while nurturing game development talent, collaboration and sharing that will benefit the entire industry.

Stripping away the PR-speak, these tools are being developed specifically with Game developers in mind.  The Express moniker is also used in Microsoft developer tools such as Visual Studio Express and SQL Express to denote fully functional but slightly less industrial-grade versions focused on students, hobbyists, and the like. 

Some call it "democratization of the game platform". Ick. What's cool about this announce is that the same way YouTube and GarageBand.com are opening up the doors to indie video, film, and music creators, this will do the same for gaming for the first time.  Up until now, you had to be a game publisher paying thousands of dollars just to get your foot in the door to do serious development for game consoles.  It will be a trickle at first, but this is a disruptive technology that has the potential to revolutionize game development similar to when a few hard-core enthusiasts built a little game called, "Doom".  Think about all the games that could be developed that never would have seen the light of day because, "some suit" said it didn't test well in a focus group. I think the flood gates have just opened. 

Update0: The XNA team has posted their blog here.  More details to come soon ;)

No, seriously I love the revisionist history tact Apple is taking in their "PC Guy" video from the WorldWide Developer Conference.  Yep, I'll link to it too.  At the beginning of the "wink wink" comments about Vista, they mention Vista's Gadget feature vs. Apple Widgets.  Funny - Apple was inspired by Konfabulator Yahoo Widgets enough to what... dare say you... copy it?  Name for name? Years after Konfabulator's release?  The concept isn't new- Microsoft Research did a paper on it in 2000, well pre-dating either product.  Then they make a statement about Windows Gadgets (which in full disclosure, I helped to name for Vista prior to Google shipping their dashboard) :). 

A few days ago, I called up the guy in charge of Windows Sidebar to congratulate him on the Apple video.  Apparently the competition thinks enough of the feature to slam it.  Like it or not, a good idea is a good idea, and I won't get bent out of shape when OSX SP3 Leopard is made available for download for purchase and includes some features inspired by Vista.  Windows XP has the feature Apple calls Spaces too, but it's a powertoy. It's been available since 2005, mentioned in Wikipedia for some time and it's a free download for Windows customers.

Others took shots at OSX when it was late to arrive, and didn't include features like DVD playback.  Vista will ship when it's ready and include advanced features such as digital cable HDTV PVR and enhanced home networking that makes it super-simple to set up and even diagnose when a WiFi router or other component goes on the fritz (happening a lot since I upgraded my WiFi- another story). Yet my Powerbook consistently decides to drop connection after ~5 minutes of access (WEP is enabled and authenticated). My wife on her Tablet PC right next to me?  She's still online.

For me, I welcome Apple's ads. The prevailing sentiment outside Microsoft circles?  Go to the "Nascar Nation" and I hear "That Bill Gates guy gives billions to help poor people".  What do they say about the Apple ads?  You be the judge  This is one PR battle I actually look forward to seeing more of.

Update: Paul Thurrott has his own thoughts here.  As does Engadget's Ross Rubin. And in the Apple camp, Daniel Eran. All in all, I think it's fun and not worth getting bent out of shape over. Satire is satire.  Apple's just trying to pull a Colbert/Wikigate (Video on YouTube).

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.

Last week, at Microsoft's Financial Analysts Meeting, reporters poked fun at a demo bug with speech recognition, some going so far as to call it "Speech Wreckognition". Slashdot had it, Neowin had it,  Digg had it, Reuters had it.  

Clearly this was a bug in a test build of Vista and it made for a good chuckle (you don't hear about all the other demos that ran flawlessly of course).  There must be someone responsible, to hold accountable right?  That was probably a faceless, nameless developer somewhere in the "Echo Chamber" who would never admit it publicly right?  When these things happen, engineers tear the demo system apart to learn from it but then keep that to themselves and quietly fix the bug, right?

Wrong.  The owner of the issue, Larry Osterman is one of those developers I just admire the heck out of.  He fessed up.  "It was all my fault" he writes on his blog about the bug, noting what caused it, creating a shared learning with others. He could have said, "I spoke to the guy who owns the bug" but that would have been disingenuous.  He held himself accountable.  Kudos Larry.  Subscribed.

Nick White from the Vista team posts on their official blog more details on Vista changes coming in the Release Candidate or already seen in interim builds here on their official Vista Blog.  It's a good start but pretty wordy.  Thanks Nick - how about some shiny happy screenshots with John Madden-like chalk talk to detail the changes before/after?    :)

Todd Bishop of the Seattle P-I has updates on Zune and Vista from the Microsoft Financial Analysts Meeting (FAM).

Correction: Todd Bishop of the Seattle P-I. ;)

From the "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet" file, Anything but iPod is reporting has been relaying a rumor that an iRiver Clix 4GB version is expected next week.  The apparent source of said rumor is an hourly-wage employee at a major retail chain.  I've helped to train said types of employees in a former life and I can tell you these guys are the last ones I would trust to have inside skinny on product releases or even how to market them. 

Case in point: I was recently forwarded pictures of a major retailer placing multiple Apple iPods in the PlaysforSure section of one of their stores, in demo stations with security wire and PlaysforSure logos, all of which was likely an honest mistake by a sales employee/manager type, but is highly deceptive to consumers.

So is a 4GB Clix coming next week?  I checked with our friends at iRiver and while they don't normally speak about future product plans, I can tell you a 4GB version is not expected to be released next week.  What about the week after?  Come on guys, I'm not going to do that to you.  If you're in the market for a Clix, now is a good time to buy.  If a 4GB comes out, you can always put your existing device up on eBay or Windows Live Expo (which just launched) and sell it there.

I've expressed my desire for a 4GB as have many customers via forums and contacting iRiver and Reigncom (their parent company) directly, but there is no news to communicate at this time.  If this changes, I will report it here from a confirmed source. :)

Xbox Live's Major Nelson interviewed my VP, Amir Majidimehr for his podcast while I was out on vacation.  This is a frank and highly informative look at HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and DVD.  Even if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I still recommend you listen to this interview to learn more about why Microsoft got behind HD-DVD, and continues to supply technology that will ship in both formats.

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 :)

In my totally unsanctioned but nice to poke have a little fun style, you might recall a month ago I announced a contest to win an iRiver Clix.  The winner is in: Long Zheng's "Feel the Beat" was selected based on its simplicity and spirit in line wiht the player+device+service combo.  Long's second design, "Press the Magic Number" was another top contender.

And for the heck of it, Austin wins the runner up "Nice try and yes, there's some truth there too Award" for his entry I call, "Usable".  Austin gets a cool WMP11|iRiver Clix launch team jacket (with tiny logos) for his entry because it made me laugh.

Congrats to both our winners!

Brier Dudley seems to agree about the Clix in his latest column in the Seattle Times:

"I'd argue that Microsoft has already developed an iPod challenger, and it's been on sale for a couple of weeks at Best Buy and Amazon.com for about $200... The device is called the Clix."

I was interviewed for this article and got a nice quote.  Brier has more details about the development experience over on his blog.  Just one correction- we didn't specify the silicon for use, but we did provide direct feedback as decisions were being made . 

I also want to call out the amazing work done by the iRiver America team.  The packaging is largely to their credit- we provided critical feedback and encouraged a new, more refined design based on existing packaging in Korea.  The iRiver team did all the heavy lifting and it shows.

At the end of the day, my job was two-fold: As UX (User Experience) PM, to play the part of the consumer end to end- to apply what I've learned working in this space for 7+ years and document our recommendations.  From there, we (the v-team as we called ourselves) agreed on relative priorities w/ iRiver up-front.  We acknowledged where we disagreed without ego or hubris, and worked together on a solution in the interest of the customer.  We were invited to provide input in every meeting on the UX, system flow and regular milestones on naming, branding, messaging, out of box experience and more.  

Shifting gears for a second.  Looking to the development process we used as a case study, Chris Pirillo is still largely right in my opinion about the "User". Except it's users vs. the traditional development process that's the issue- not the developers themselves.  PMs, Devs, Testers, and Marketing are still WAY too silo'ed from their customers and residing in the echo chamber.  I get irate when a PM or Dev tells me they're too busy to go on a customer visit or staff a booth and talk to customers about their product.  I look for these opportunities. But a better requires a multi-disciplined approach working together on a daily basis as well as talking to customers.  That's why we instituted a Scrum Model with "butts in seats at 9:30am accountability" on this project. Our mission statement, "Help our partner build a device we're proud to recommend to family and friends everywhere with WMP11 Beta".  In my opinion, that's what made it work so well this time around.  And the fact that with the U10, iRiver was already on their way to building a great product.  I speak for many within Microsoft when I say thank you to Reigncom/iRiver for the opportunity to work together.

P.S. I'm getting out of my echo chamber later this week at Gnomedex.  See you there.  And a question for the future- where else should I go to further get out of the echo chamber?

Geoff Harris leads the team responsible for Windows Media Player 11.  In this interview, he talks about the new player and the Urge Music Service.

Watch at On10.net

Wonder how active Microsoft is going to be in giving people new features as well as comprehensive driver coverage via Windows Update and the Ultimate add-ons?  Try this on: a major update for Vista Beta 2 users went out for the Mobile Device Center.  Thanks to Sidebar Geek for the scoop- this is great to see.

Last week I wrote about the new MusicGremlin portable media player.  An interesting concept, the musicgremlin is the first portable media player to incorporate music sharing via WiFi and the concept of community sharing.  Both are compelling ideas to me, but I have some fundamental issues with the implementation.  Net-net, musicgremlin in my opinion has a long way to go before it's ready for prime time. 

Out of the Box Experience
The "MG" (as it's called in the UI) has a premium enough cardstock box with matte finish. The front flap has the only other messaging on the box- "the record store in your pocket".  In an attempt to achieve Apple-like simplicity though, other essential details are missing- storage size (8GB), formats supported (WMA, MP3) essential features (Local and Network music playback, FM radio), battery life (reportedly could be better).

The unit is displayed right on top and protected with a spongy foam insert.  A "get activated now" card is placed on the top, another smart touch.  Pull the gremlin out of its nest and a bright orange backing can be seen, another premium touch.  There is no electrostatic or adhesive protector over the screen or the face which I would like to have seen. Underneath is the getting started guide and three items: An AC charger, a USB 2.0 (mini) cable, and headphones.  All three are in plastic baggies, the AC adapter bad was open-ended.  This was not a great experience- it felt like the item packaging was an afterthought.  A pang of buyer's remorse set in.

The headphones look and feel cheap- plastic and too big to fit in my ears.  What bugs me the most is that the left and right earbuds have different length of cable and are unlabeled.  This doesn't generally bother me since I use my Shure e-series or Sony studio headphones when listening.

Despite its chubby girth, the device fits nicely in my hand, but not nearly as well as my current two favorite devices - the Toshiba Gigabeat-S (HD) and iRiver Clix (Flash) (disclaimer- I worked on the Clix). The left-hand side control is a slider with neutral central position- up for lock, down for on/off.  The right hand side has +/- at the top for volume, Play/Pause, and Prev/Next from top to bottom.

The front D-pad is fine as well with good, tactile response.  During boot up, the d-pad lights up very brightly but not at all as far as I can tell during use. 

Ed. Note: I was intending to do a full review of the device, but have decided to wait and focus my time on providing MusicGremlin with a comprehensive list of all the bugs I encountered and in most cases was able to easily reproduce.

Pros

• Nice concept
• Simple browsing of other's libraries
• Can only download/play back subscription music on others' devices
• Supports PIN Locking of device

Cons

• Expensive
• Unstable firmware
• No Windows Vista support (yet)
• No Photo support
• Easily scratched
• No case for device
• Cheap headphones
• Poor audio quality w/ pops

Sample of Bugs/Issues Found during a 20 minute eval:

Bootup/Shutdown/Charging

1. Screen shows unpolished "Please wait" and firmware version over refined logo.
2. Audible "pop" on startup & shutdown.  A big no-no.
3. Returning from standby, saw pixelated, multicolor "static" across entire screen on multiple occasions
4. Turn off device while connected to power for charge and it blanks the UI, then entire screen is blank (white and lit)

On-Device Navigation

1. Music experience always prompts the user to search and peck in letters.  Even if you're searching artists and there are only two in the list. 
2. No menu option for "Now Playing" to take you back to album art and seek view, but volume and seek take you temporarily to the view?
3. Alpha entry & search navigation isn't consistent.  For example, Up/Down scroll for network security key goes backwards through alphabet as if centered on "blank" between "Z" and "0" vs. defaulting to "A" when searching music.

Sync Experience

1. The device reports itself as "MTP Device" when syncing with Windows Vista.  It should state the name, and present the Device Icon and Device Logo in WMP11.  Right now WMP can't even see it.
2. MTP-class devices shouldn't prompt the user for drivers.  Something is wrong here. After forcing a device reboot, it installed. Other devices sync no problem w/ Vista using MTP.
3. Device never reports status of sync relationship other than USB icon. The icon reports actual USB connect state instead of communications state with the PC.  It should tell the user if it's connected, busy, or if there's a problem.

Get New Music

1. If I choose Get New Music, why am I prompted for "New Search" when there are no saved searches?
2. Search on Genres returns Artists.  I want to browse by Genres>Albums.  This makes the feature unusable.
3. Gremlists NEVER worked.  Every song is unavailable, even when other tracks could be downloaded
4. Downloading no longer works at all. Even after factory reset.  No downloads are queued up.
5. Display of queued tracks to download isn't centered on icon when double digit value exists (e.g. 10 downloads)

Community

1. Device stopped playing back tracks downloaded from any users.  DRM-12 error when I went into the Download Manager which told me to contact MG technical support.
2. A number of users in the community could not be browsed.  After factory reset, no users could be downloaded from.
3. Device is now in a state where I cannot download any music from any users.  Nothing gets added to the Download Manager even after rebooting or factory reset.

FM Radio

1. You have to push up/down to tune. 
2. No visual notification of presets found during seek. 

Mailbox

1. It looks like on 06/08/06 the device was either flashed or tested and "Error getting root license" was found.  Why would a new user need to see this?

Settings

1. If the device is registered, it should tell you.  Right now if I go to the website it says the device is registered and will not give me a key.  The MG unit prompts me for a regkey. 
2. If you restore the device to factory defaults, this should wipe out your list of downloads in the download manager and your WiFi security keys.
3. There is No way to de-activate the device (e.g. if you wanted to resell it on ebay in the future.)

Conclusions

If you're going to give your product a name that refers to a mythical creature that destoys machines and is the subject of one of the scariest episodes of The Twilight Zone ever and two campy 80's movies, you better make darned sure you've worked your own Gremlins out of the system.  This was honestly one of the worst device experiences I've ever had. The fact that Walt Mossberg's column seems to like it so much tells me either someone over at the WSJ isn't really spending much time living with the device or perhaps I just have a bad unit.  Either way, it's time to put this one back in the oven and let it bake a bit longer. Here's to hoping there's a firmware update because right now, the device isn't working for me as-advertised and is about to get returned. I'm waiting to hear back from technical support.

Update #1: Well, it looks like MusicGremlin got my bug list because they sent me out a new device and a separate box to ship the "defective" unit in.  They did look at my connection and it does appear something was awry.  I still think many of the user experience points stand but will report back tomorrow on my experience with the new unit.  Big points to MG's customer service though.

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 :).

The WSJ has an interesting article on a small outfit called MusicGremlin whose portable music player goes on the market today.  What makes MG unique?  Wireless.  You can wirelessly download music from the service or even share tracks (legally) between friends and other subscribers.  It's a really interesting idea and Uncle Walt and Kathy seem to agree.

The device is a bit chunky (or is that clunky?), the service lacks the desirability of others (i.e. letting people browse before creating a registration) but it's an interesting concept to what I'd call, "Super-enthused music lovers who have a wireless connection and want to share with friends and can't wait until they get home to download music oh but they still need a wire to charge their device" kind of people.  Wireless should support the core experience, not BE the core experience IMO. Laboriously typing in characters to search? No thanks.  Back in the day it was a pain typing in three letters for my high score in Pac Man using a joystick, I'm sure not going to make this my primary way of searching for music. 

But... it supports PlaysforSure so Urge should work with this, so thats a plus... when connected to a PC.

Update: Michael Gartenberg weighs in on the concept himself here. David Card seems to agree with him that Uncle Walt has been seduced.

Here's the link. They started shipping to stores over a week ago as well- call your local store or pop your zipcode in online but chances are if you're looking for a last minute father's day present, this could be it.

Speaking of which, today my VP stopped by my office to note all the VPs that have Clix devices now.  The funny thing is, they're getting one passed around by another VP at a meeting.  Then they're buying them for themselves.  They're showing them to family and then have to buy them for their family.  I know of at least 50 units that have been sold.

Why?  Because it just works. Just like the iPod, it works as advertised. But this one works with services where you can download all you can eat for a flat rate per month.  iRiver has done the due diligence and the hard work on the QA side to make sure the issues were addressed.  While I may have helped by leading the Microsoft team that worked on this project and was the Microsoft UX guy on the end to end, iRiver's engineers are what makes this thing shine.  It was the best project I've ever worked on- hands down.

DAPreview was skeptical of the other big reviews too.  They said:

After using the player these past weeks I have to say it is one of the best players I’ve ever used, and right now is the best flash player out. When I first saw it, and read how high it was being rated by other reviews [read: CNET] I couldn’t believe it. I still just saw it as a 2GB U10. The first few moments of using the player changed all that. The player has more features than others in its range and for just about the same price.

So there you have it.  One C|Net Editor's Choice, one Top 100 of the Year by PC World, and now DAPreview, perhaps one of the most intense reviews gives it the thumbs up.  Now you can go to BBY and try one out yourself. 

Update: Go demo at BBY, it's coming soon online but their price is too high at $229.  You can get it for cheaper ($195.00) at Amazon.com.

Update2: I hear rebates should be available soon at BBY.  Please let me know if you see them.

Ok, not that I really know of, but at this point it could happen as we've entered a bit of a bizarro world. :)  The reaction to Robert's announcement about his leaving Microsoft has been a groundswell of feedback, blog postings, analyst comments, CNET headlines, Reuters articles etc.  I knew the Scoble effect was big, but not that big.  Larry Hryb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) and I were talking about it on our respective drives home last night*.  He asked my thoughts on Scoble leaving and here's basically what I said:

I've known Robert for almost ten years now, going back to when he was an event and communities coordinator at Fawcette Technical Publications and I was just entering the corporate world.  Scoble and I have always had a good relationship and I think the key to his success is that he's affable and a little goofy, while amazingly self-aware.  He uses these traits to his advantage.  Like a certain cartoon bear, he wanders around Microsoft looking for picnic baskets.  Sometimes, he wanders into the wrong campground and he gets shooed away, but people like him still.  He's also been amazingly adept at using his position to build his own brand, his own presence, and no one can fault him for that.  It's just the nature of blogging.

This disarming charm and sense of humility paired with a strong desire to share his own perspective is what's made Scoble such a lightning rod.  Am I sad to see him go? Yes.  A bit perplexed? Yes.  Then there's the obligatory questions about who is going to step up to replace him?  I think there may be in the future others who take on his job role, but he came along during a perfect storm- one part nascent blogging concept in corporate america paired with a curiousity about what happens behind the curtain at Microsoft.  Let's not forget the willingness to let the story be told by Microsoft as well (and many teeth were gnashed in the process I'm sure).

Good luck Robert and I'm looking forward to reading about your next adventure.

*Note: We were using speakerphones in our cars in true geek fashion. ;)

I've been doing my part by dutifully dogfooding Office 2007 and Vista over the past three weeks and while things are a little slower (as often happens with betas), my productivity is still up there.  But every once in a while, something goes haywire.  For example, I was just catching up on some RSS feeds when Outlook 2007 disappeared.  I said the required, "What the?!" and Outlook restarted.  But that's not the cool part... what happened next is.

I got a notification (toast) message: "The bug you just experienced has been fixed in an upcoming build of Office 2007."

How's that for customer response?  Sure, it would have been even nicer to get an actual fix, but I got peace of mind in getting a checkpoint that the issue had been found and fixed already. I don't have to be one of the many who will file a duplicate bug against this issue.

Sometimes I wish WMP and Vista were more like Office.  This is one of them.  I just email to my VP about that topic.

If you're a beta junkie like me, and have a spare test system laying around, why not give Windows Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 a whirl? Unlike when XP was in beta, broadband is finally at acceptable speeds for most to able to download.  Just be sure to run the Vista Upgrade Advisor first m'kay?

• Download Windows Vista Beta 2 (or order DVD media)
• Download Office 2007 Beta 2 (or order DVD media)

Wondering what all the fuss is around Vista?  Download the Vista Beta 2 Guide (Word .doc).

Last week an ad popped up on Microsoft.com:

The buzz internally was palpable.  "Coolest MS ad ever!" claimed one person.  Others have asked for more of this kind of thing.  I would love to see it the inspiration for a new wallpaper (which is being discussed).  

So, that got me thinking; I'm going to offer up a brand spankin new 2GB iRiver Clix to the person that creates the coolest WMP11 (XP), iRiver Clix, or WMP11 (Vista) inspired wallpaper.  Post your link in the comments in order to be eligible. In 30 days, the best one wins.  Tell your friends :)

Thursday night, our team hosted a small get together with iRiver as a thanks for the hard work between the teams on the Clix.  The highlight of the party was recalling one iRiver employee's first trip to Dixies BBQ in February where he ate an entire fork full of "The Man" after being egged on by our group and owner Gene Porter.  We told him it was insanely hot BBQ sauce. We tried to warn him (imagine three guys in slow motion saying "nooooooooooo" as he gulps the forkful). 

Classic quotes include:

• "No, seriously, when is the burning going to stop?"
• "I can't phfleel my libps"
• "@&#(%&@#%"
• "Come on, seriously, when does it stop?"
• "Can I get some milk?" (upon returning to MSFT, shotgunning two open pints of milk walking down the hall)

We were crying we were laughing so hard.  Two iRiver engineers from Korea were with us and fighting hard not to laugh, then they just gave up. Turns out the poor guy barely puts ketchup on his food. 

In the end, it was a great party and a good time had by all end-capping over six months of hard work. Ironically, this is the same day that PC World named the Clix one of their Top 100 Products of the Year (Why in June?  Their year is a 12 month span; they used to announce these awards at PC Expo which no longer exists).  The criteria is highly subjective but hey, it ranked #90, with the Xbox 360 being #89 - not bad company.  Reportedly sales of the Clix have been brisk - a best-seller on their site at www.iriveramerica.com  and at least one online retailer sold out of their initial allotment very quickly.  All good to hear.  At least two more major retailers are in the process of receiving inventory so that you'll be able to go out and try one in person soon. ;)

Matt Goyer has a post re: MCE library performance improvements seen when running WMP11.  I may have contributed to this confusion.  Yes, the WMP11 library is wicked-fast compared to WMP10.  Yes, it can search 2 million URGE tracks in an instant.  Unfortunately MCE won't see these benefits in Media Center unless you're running Windows Vista.  Apologies for any confusion.

Tom, I definitely hear your concerns and appreciate that you state up front you're not the normal user.  Most users will see significant performance improvements when using a keyboard and mouse (vs MCE). Not that many customers measure their media library in "terabytes", as you do ;) but you bring up a good point overall on the importance of making sure MCE and WMP11 work well together at final.

Chris Pirillo recently wrote an interesting writeup of feedback on Vista Beta 2. In what could be described as a mashup of bug report and user-experience feedback, he captures the essence of what a super-users and influentials see when they use Beta 2 (note: most users of any beta 2 fall into one of these categories by definition).  While I'm sure certain folks would have preferred a different, more private approach (PR <cough>), this type of feedback is fantastic whether I agree with it all or not. It's structured.  It's digestable.  It comes from a credible source. Bugs can be filed against it. We need more of it.

Microsoft has MANY ways of collecting feedback and usability reports.  During the course of Vista, entire teams dedicated to this practice have been doing an excellent job of rolling the feedback up to management as well as the rest of the Vista org for shared learnings.  It's refreshing to see.  Vista is not perfect, but the team is actively taking notice of feedback and more importantly taking action.

Yes Chris, I see you as a passionate user.  Thank you for taking the time and sharing.

I've been playing with a few of the gadgets showing up on the Windows Sidebar gallery at http://gallery.microsoft.com.  It's a beta gallery and the SDK just went live but already I'm more productive with the Traffic Map showing flow on the main highways around Seattle.  I just wish there was more detail and an RSS feed available for new gadgets.  Great, now I really need to upgrade to a widescreen monitor at home.  Father's day is coming up...

You know what would make a killer gadget?   Flickr Uploadr.  I've been using the Uploadr to add pictures from my Windows Photo Gallery to Flickr this AM (sorry, they're pics for family).  But, Uploadr still works great with Vista.

Email from my Dad - he's loving Urge's collection of Rolling Stones and Benny Goodman hard to find tracks.  Mom, who I would consider a non-enthused computer user (they mostly frustrate her), just had jaw surgery and I suggested Urge as a diversion.  She says she, "can't stop!".  Now she wants an iriver clix.

For those here in Seattle area, the weather has been complete s*%# for the past week.  My son, (recovered from his cold) was inconsolable yesterday due to being cooped up. So I suggested going outside and splashing in some puddles which was exactly what the Dr. ordered.  The kid is just tired of being cooped up.  I don't blame him.

As for me, here's my Urge playlist for a rainy Sunday:

Chill and Serve: Pop

• Here with Me - Dido
• Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap
• Sail Away - David Gray
• Lazy Lover - Brazilian Girls
• Protection - Massive Attack
• Finally Woken - Jem
• Trouble Sleeping - The Perishers
• Breathe (2AM) - Anna Nalick
• Concrete Sky - Beth Orton
• Home - Zero 7
• Breathe Me - Sia
• Angels - Wax Poetic
• The Sea - Morcheeba

Mental note: Talk to Player team about copy/paste support from library to links in Urge ;).  Send email to a friend does one link per email.  Add playlist to MSN Spaces isn't working.  Grr.

By popular request, I created a video walkthrough of the out of box experience with the iriver clix and syncing Urge playlists using WMP11/Windows Vista.  Sorry for the fumbling, I was straddling a full-sized tripod to do this :).

• Streaming version (350kbps)
• Downloadable version (Uploading; Coming Soon)

The iriver clix should be arriving shortly in major retailers including Best Buy- until then, it can be ordered online at www.iriveramerica.com.

Created the video using Windows Movie Maker in Windows Vista and a Sony HDV Camcorder. Dogfooding Vista Beta 2 E2E.
Apologies in advance for the "one take" lack of polish- but it's the product that matters. 

Update: Another good video demo here: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/05/iriver-clix-review.php

This weekend, I upgraded all of my PCs to Windows Vista (more on that later).  As a part of the experience, I've gone completely Urge - set aside my ~20,000 track library and am only listening to Urge music for a week. So far, so good.

Saturday AM - Gym time!
Friday I discovered Urge has added new pump-up Playlists for the Gym for each genre under the category "Work It Out: [Genre]". They have Rock, Alt, Pop, Electronica, Inspirational, even Classical.  These are great cheat lists for building your own ultimate Gym mix.  I downloaded them all to my Clix (now equipped with the optional armband) and was ready to hit the gym.  Then I realized I forgot my headphones and boy, was I pissed!  Still, it made for great compilations.
Suggestion to Urge:  Let the community rate your playlists and submit our own. 

Saturday PM - BBQing
This was guys weekend - Nickie was out at a cabin with her mom's club friends and that meant Ryan and I were open to do a "Red Meat, Red Wine" kind of night with a few of the local guys in the neighborhood.  Any time you open a bottle wine hand-carried from Australia called, "The Factor" from Torbreck, you know it's going to be a good night.  We eased into it listening to Urge's "Reunion" Radio.  All classic rock like K-ROCK used to play in NYC growing up.  Here's the hack not quite worthy of Philip Torrone.  I patched the Vista PC into the Aux In on a Sonos receiver and set up a party zone- instant sync'd music in the living room, family room, and patio (courtesy my 2-zone receiver) and we were jammin.  Later I broke out the guitar and Stephen played some U2 and Jimmy Buffett.  A nice way to cap off the weekend.

I thought going all Urge would be hard, but the more I download, the easier it gets.

C|Net's Top 10 Must Haves List: "You may be shocked not to find an iPod on the list below. Well, here comes some more shocking news. The iRiver Clix, thanks to its excellent compatibility with the revamped Windows Media Player 11 and MTV Urge music service, joins the party this week. Yup: no iPod, no iTunes...and no doubt about it."

As a part of our end to end evaluations, my team selected the only two music devices listed - the iRiver Clix and Creative Zen Vision:M, as the best "showcase" devices for each category- Flash and HDD.  This was a nice validation.

I am a little annoyed at how bad the screenshots are of the Clix device.  I may have to put together a short video of the device. Static screenshots don't do it justice.  

In the words of a good friend, "It's on like Donkey Kong". Go download WMP11 Beta and if you dare to enjoy hours of musical enjoyment, sign up for your free two week trial of Urge.  And this isn't just for those kids young enough to still watch MTV.  I've found some killer classic rock playlists - Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, and Pink Floyd to name a few.  Let me know your questions here and I'll try and do my best to get them answered.  Tell me what you like/don't like and I'll share it with the team.  Oh, and iRiver has the Clix available for immediate shipping at www.iriveramerica.com for a cool $199.  Father's Day is coming up!

Urge Tip: A little known feature of Urge is 700kbps streaming music videos for a huge swath of the library - look for the little film icon to the left of songs to see if a video is available.

• Learn more about WMP 11
• Download WMP11 Beta

Wow.  I thought the combo was good, but sometimes you zoom in and stare at the blemishes for so long you lose sight that you're looking at a Ferrrari. Even I didn't expect this kind of welcome. 

Read: CNet's, "Awesome: The WMP/Urge/Clix Combo"

And no, no one was paid off/schmoozed/invited to a poker game to get this review. ;)

Many more positive reviews today - Michael Gartenberg has his thoughts here.
In fact, they were all glowing of WMP/Urge/Clix in one way or another.
Today was a very good day. 

About a month or so ago, cool new posters for Windows Media Player 11 started showing up around Microsoft's Redmond campus in buildings.  I thought it might make a good desktop wallpaper so I've converted it into a number of popular screen resolutions and aspect ratios.  The marketing folks gave this the go-ahead for release- hopefully you'll enjoy.  If you want additional sizes, just let me know.

Download: WMP11_Wallpaper_Set.zip (1.04MB)

This weekend, I tried to go to Best Buy to pick up an HD-DVD player.  I figured Easter Sunday I could sneak out.  I should have purchased and held online because in the span of 9 hours in the night, all the inventory was sold out pretty much throughout Seattle. I could have driven 4 hours to get mine, but that would have been overkill.

Ok NetFlix, time to start offering your HD-DVD movies because I'm ready and getting my player next week.  Details to come.

I've gone to Boot Camp and now I'm getting a lot more use out of my MacBook Pro.  MCE (and an unreleased player) are running like champs.  I'm hearing reports of Vista running as well.  Battery life still stinks compared to my sony but hey, this is a desktop replacement riight?  Oh and now I have to carry a DVI-->VGA dongle for presentations because DVI is just so well supported.  Overall, not bad though I don't expect many family members will be asking if they should spend the extra $$ for a Mac next time they buy a PC, but I could be wrong.

(Bliss is the name of the XP/MCE wallpaper)

I nearly lost my swill of coffee yesterday morning seeing how "news" outlets and pundits alike all just took a small website's word for fact that Microsoft was rewriting 60% of Windows Vista.  Now, now... anyone with a small amount of project management sense knows if you take a swag of the # of developers in Windows org and the # of lines of code that would need to be rewritten, then factor in the amount of time left to do this and QA work required, it's a silly proposition.  So, my BS-meter went way off scale and broke.  This should be a reminder not to believe everything you read on the Internet. 

Oh and I'm disappointed in a certain member of the digerati who appears to baiting Robert Scoble over the 60% rewrite (and others), calling into question Robert's credibility and instincts (by the way, the saying is "reap what you sow", not "sew").  I used to sing this person's praises.  Sour grapes because he's upset he wasn't invited to a meal with Bill Gates? Possibly. Trying to rattle cages?  My read: Yes.  Unsubscribed? Yes.

As for the annnouncement that consumer Windows Vista will ship in January, yes, I was disappointed too. But at the end of the day, I'm a cup-half-full kinda guy. What this tells me is that our management realizes just how important quality and security is in this release over near-term revenue and the pressures of the marketplace looking for a bump this holiday season. I know there are a lot of frustrated people right now, but I have to give some credit to those that are holding the line.

Now this is cool.  Charlie posted screenshots of the SDK sample for Media Center (Vista-style) for a Podcast Client. Pretty rockin if you ask me.

I've been out the past 3 out of 4 weeks on the road, little time for blogging, meeting with partners and customers.  It's been a whirlwind trip and lots of learnings and few fun happenings along the way. More on that later.  What did I miss?  Well, Mix06 for one. That sounded like a blast from what I'm hearing from folks who attended.  Charlie showed a sample app that handles RSS/Podcasting in the 10' Media Center experience built on Vista from what I hear.  Unfortunately a few folks got a little overzealous in thinking this was a different announcement.

Either way, I think it's great that Microsoft continues to refer to "Podcasting" by the term, etymological arguments aside. I'll see what I can do about a few screen shots when Charlie is ready.

I'm off to Japan on Sunday.  It's my first trip to Japan and I'm really looking forward to meeting with the subsidiary, our partners, and of course taking in the culture.  I'll do my best to keep up with moblogging and posting a semi-daily journal here of our experiences.

The small bummer is that by going, I missed out on an opportunity to show our execs and leadership some of the new features we're working on in media for upcoming Vista CTP (Customer Technology Preview) releases.  Let's just say the next CTP release will be exciting, but it's going to get even better much faster from there.  Sorry, I can't say more than that at this time.  But when we can, I'll make sure to set up a geek dinner with some members of the teams and we'll take your feedback. Timing is TBD ;)

I had lunch today with one of my "mentors".  He's very smart and we often spend the time debating company strategy instead of discussing career goals.  I'm in a good place right now and enjoying learning in a role that has freed me from some of the baggage I used to have to endure.  I'm a builder- I'm enjoying working with motivated v-teams that are building better products.

I sense a change in the air right now but for the good company wide.  People seem to be "thawing out" - becoming less risk-adverse than I've seen for the past three + years- when done smartly, that's a very good thing.

Call it an ad or what you will, it's a bit european and quirky.  Check out the video the IE7 team put together as a teaser/commercial. 

IE7_Big.wmv       (7.8MB)
IE7_Medium.wmv (2.9MB)
IE7_Small.wmv    (1MB)

I've been a fan of Orb, but found it didn't run as stably as I like.  And with a bunch of international business trips coming up, I bit the bullet and am evaluating Slingbox as a way to control and watch my favorite shows recorded on our DVR.  I have to say, wow I'm impressed so far.  The UI could use some work, but the function is solid.

Underneath the hood, it's basically a hardware-based WMV Encoder that can easily be found across the Internet. Put in some quality of service (QoS) goo and away you go.  Lots of folks have been having fun with it including Scoble.  Hundreds of uses - some folks monitor their babycam using one. 

One idea I had was for Slingbox to build a Gadget for Windows Sidebar and Live.com.  They're already close-with the ability to dock the SlingPlayer on the left or right sides of your screen, but it leaves a lot of unused space.  What do you say SlingMedia? 

In the coming months I'll be blogging my experiences with Slingbox from Hong Kong and Japan.  Away we go!

ExtremeTech just posted results of their tests comparing CPU utilization across recent ATI (Radeon X1800 XT) and nVidia (GeForce 7800 GTX) cards for three codecs: DivX, H.264, and WMV9.  The results?

For 720p content WMV 9 plays back at typically 25-40% CPU utilization for the clips tested.  H.264 on the other hand takes 80% (using ATI's acceleration) and on other systems even spike to 100%.  Note however these are different clips than those used for WMV 9 testing. Playing back 720p DivX clips results in 50% or so CPU utilization

To quote:

"H.264 acceleration has a long way to go before it's ready for prime time. Even with ATI's hardware acceleration, it's way too CPU intensive. What's more, ATI needs to work to offer acceleration on basically all popular H.264 decoders, the same way their DVD acceleration works with DVD decoders."

Also interesting to note DivX playback performance of DivX player vs. WMP:

"The performance of the GeForce 7800 GTX when using the DivX Player is atrocious, at 75-80% CPU utilization. Under Windows Media Player 10, it's right around 50%."

One thing's for sure, there's still a lot of work to be done in this area. 

"The video landscape on the PC is still far too big a mess. There are too many codecs, and sometimes too many software providers making decoders (we found a dozen H.264 decoders and at least as many DVD decoders in 10 minutes of Google searching). Some are accelerated, some are not."

I have some ideas on how to fix this (that don't involve "destroying" the competition thank you) but I'm interested in your thoughts first?

Developers can get their hands on the latest Internet Explorer 7 Beta preview starting today for XP users.  Congrats to Dean & team for releasing. While not quite ready for the mainstream consumer quite yet, I'm running it on my main system at work- a few quirks but I've reported them to the team and they've responded already.

A tour of the new experience is here.

Chris Pirillo says,

The ala carte iPod Video store is getting worse, not better. If you watch only one TV show per week (and you don't already have a cable subscription), I'm sure their efforts are a godsend. However, if you're like me, and already have three DVRs in your house to record all the shows you want to watch, this lack-of-subscription thing is an absolute nightmare.

...I'm thoroughly disappointed that I can't take my Napster subscription with me on my PSP or iPod. Instead, companies want me to spend even MORE money for LESS freedom - and to complicate my life even more than it was before. The sad thing is, many folks walk into it blindly thinking it... "looks like fun." Bullshit. It's all Bullshit, and Apple's leading the bullshit charge (albeit with style).

Bullshit?  Hmm.  Convenient?  Yes.  It's all about variety and viscousity.  Offer just enough variety with a low viscosity among the key moving parts (discovery, purchase, and download) and you're set. It's just another take on the path of least resistance.  Nature doesn't lie.

Perhaps we need a viscosity index for software experiences end to end?

Thomas Hawk has an excellent writeup on his blogger's dinner with Microsoft VP Jim Allchin last week. Jim confirmed that in order to get HDTV over digital cable in a Windows Vista PC, you'll have to buy a PC system that has been "certified" by CableLabs. Unfortunately there's nothing Microsoft could do here - they must honor the wishes of  CableLabs.  I've been fortunate to be one of those who has been testing the technology and I have to say it's fantastic.  I've done A/B switching tests vs. my Comcast set-top DVR and see no difference in image quality, despite the fact that the tuner is a simple USB-based box (RNDIS) that you just plug your cable (and cable card) into and go.  No news on whether free and clear QAM services will require a CableLabs certified system but I will check. I suspect local channels in HD may still be an often from after-market or home grown builders.  In order to get your premium channels DVR'd you'll need that CableCard-qualified system and CableCard installed by your local cable operator.

Also news at CES was the DirecTV Media Center announcement.  In the future (timing wasn't discussed), you'll be able to have an installer come out and install a DirecTV tuner into your Media Center PC and get your local channels complete with DVR.  As many know, DirecTV uses their own protection scheme with a "conditional access card" not unlike a cablecard.  The big difference here is that they recognize the value in offering an after-market system installed by their own installers.  In the past, it was DirecTV that was considered "evil" for their use of DRM and protecting their assets too stringently vs. Cable. Could the shoe be on the other foot?  Only time will tell.

There's been a bit of speculation over the past few weeks about what Microsoft's recent reorgs both company-wide and within Robbie Bach's org mean to the company's entertainment efforts.  While I certainly don't speak officially for anyone other than myself, I did want to share my perspective:

Reorgs happen at Microsoft.  They happen more often across the company than gets reported (or speculated upon).  Reorgs in my experience bring more focus.

So what does this mean for me in particular?  Not much really.  I'm as strongly committed to my job and my partners as ever.  More and more devices are supporting our technologies and PlaysforSure and they're getting better (look at my prior CES scorecard post).  Partnerships like those with MTV with Urge and Verizon Wireless's V-Cast are the result of significant investments on both sides.  What matters isn't speculation, but proof.

From the wires: Netflix Inc. the world's largest online movie rental service, today

announced it will carry the first movies available in HD DVD when the new

high-definition format launches in late March, according to plans recently

outlined by several major movie studios, and said it will similarly offer

titles in the Blu-ray format when that product launches, expected to be

later this year.

Audioholics did an interview with Sage Schreiner, HD DVD Program Manager which helps to clear up some misconceptions about the coming format.  Personally, I got one of the sample (production-ready) hybrid HD-DVD/DVD discs that was being handed out at the Microsoft booth at CES and can't wait to try it out.  It's literally a single-sided disc with both the HD-DVD and DVD formatted movies on it and plays in both types of drives.

CD Freaks, the self-ascribed, "World's Largest CD/DVD Community" recently did a poll which format would be the follow-up to DVD.  The results of over 500 respondents polled can be found here.

While this doesn't mean anything from a scientific perspective, it is interesting to see that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are effectively neck and neck with this audience, with a good-sized # of holdouts.

In other news, reportedly Blu-Ray drives for PCs will be ready in March. The drives can read CDs, DVDs but will not be able to burn until the second generation hits the market this summer.

Mano Clement has a great roundup here thanks to Robert Scoble. Items of interest to Digital Media enthusiasts:

- Many times the perf on Networking stack (and USB stack too BTW) ;)

- All new Audio stack with per-app audio and more.

- FAST search through tens of thousands to millions of tracks in WMP11 (I can't go back)

- Other features I just can't talk about yet...

I talked to Robert last week and we're going to line up a bunch of videos for Channel 9 on digital media efforts in Windows Vista in the coming month.  Stay tuned for more.  And congrats to Robert and Shel on their book- sorry I missed the party- had another party last night!

(Update: All my Beta invites are spoken for. If I get more, we'll have another runoff.  Thanks!)

I'm a huge believer in "dogfooding" our own products.  After my friend Harry (who runs the Windows Vista demo lab) moved his own home PC to the December CTP (Customer Technology Preview), I decided to take this integrated build thing for a spin.

You see, for "the field" at Microsoft (that's what we call the subsidiary offices), they also need to be able to show Vista to customers.  Of course, they have all sorts of different hardware, so creating a master demo image can be a pain.  With Vista, the drivers are "abstracted" from the core OS - the result is that you can build a single image and deploy it on multiple PCs of different types and in most cases, no additional drivers are required. 

In my case, I run an Intel D865PERL mobo and P4HT processor w/ a mix of SATA and IDE drives and the like.  Vista recognized everything, including the ATI Theater 550 and Hauppauge TV tuner boards.  It set up no sweat, off of the demo disc Harry gave me.  Sure, there is the occasional bug and performance optimizations haven't started yet, but it's looking pretty good.

I have a raft of feedback for my team on areas we can provide fit and finish.  Overall though, I'm finding it really hard to go back to Windows XP and WMP10 on my freshly installed dual-boot system.  WMP11 is sooo much better.  Sidebar is really coming along as well (I know I'm teasing- good things come to those who wait!)

Want to do a little dogfooding yourself?  I have 9 invites to Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) top 9 answers for why you'd make a good beta tester (pictures may be submitted  via email) will get the invites. 

Oh and in case you haven't noticed, I've switched my photoblog to Flickr - I'm sean_alexander there. Gosh I love that service, more on that another time.  Now we need a totally tricked out Flickr screensaver (I was unimpressed by Slickr, sorry).  We also need a general tag/cropping mechanism for display on 16:9/16:10 displays (most widescreen PC monitors are 16:10 <g>).

The winners of the Next-Gen Windows PC Design Competition have been announced.  This was a risky idea I had back when I worked on Vista planning. While I'm not longer associated with its development, I'm excited to see the team do a great job carrying through on this competition and the winning design, "Bookshelf" was personally my favorite as well.  I understand it was so successful it may become an annual event.

There's a ton of good talent and good ideas out there.  I just wish the economics of the PC industry were such that more manufacturers had premium brands that looked premium as well as the innards (hello, Dell XPS?)

CNet has posted their Best of CES award winners and Creative has done it again with the Zen Vision:M. I've been playing with a Zen Vision:M for a few weeks now and I love it.  It has twice the video playback of the video iPod (4hrs vs. iPod's 2hrs) and frankly, I'll exhange a bit of thickness for being able to watch a full movie on a charge any day of the week.  The UI is familiar and friendly.  My only major complaint so far is the adapter needed for USB/charging and it has too many controls (4 discrete buttons + 2 rocker positions + touchpad.

So, this got me thinking about how Windows Media might have fared this year at CES. Here's a rundown of my report card:

• Best in Show: Creative Zen Vision:M - does WMV, WMA, and is PlaysforSure
• People's Voice: Pioneer Inno (aka Samsung Helix) - it does 50 hours of XM Radio recording, WMA and cool bookmarking feature for Napster so it's going to be PlaysforSure. Not bad- not bad at all.
  
• Cameras and Camcorders: Sanyo Xacti HD1 - a slick little HD (720p) camcorder/digital still camera that records to 1GB SD cards. Though no direct support for WMV, it records into MPEG-4 which Microsoft is a member of the patent pool.
• Home Audio: Denon AVR-2807 - supports playback of multiple formats including HDCD owned by Microsoft, but what's really stellar is the built-in WM Connect digital audio receiver in it's older sibling product, also called out in the article.
• Car tech: Pioneer AVIC-Z1 - This double-din unit is a multimedia powerhouse w/ 30 GB HDD, GPS, bluetooth built-in all atop Windows Automotive so it should be able to support WMA as well. iPod connector support coming too.
• Home Video: Pioneer BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player - noted to be around $1800 vs. $499 HD DVD players, this is still a win because Blu-Ray requires the SMPTE-standard submitted Microsoft VC-1 codec.

So how did Microsoft do? Both of the grand prizes support PlaysforSure services and WMA and 6 out of 8 winning products (in eligible categories) for awards include Microsoft digital media technologies.  Not a bad roundup at the end of the show and there's still a ton of work to be done.

I also just learned that all 3 nominees in the Best of CES: MP3 and Digital Video category support PlaysforSure and WMA (or WMV), including Windows Media Player 11 :).

I had the rare opportunity to lounge in the grass picnic-style with Thomas Hawk, Ian Dixon and his wife and blather on about digital media in general.  Thomas has a good recap of our conversation over on his site not to mention some stunning pictures.  Thomas has inspired me to re-engage on Flickr and I've posted my own pics from the show here.

Lots of big announcements that are ushering in the year of HD.  I would link but have to run to my flight.  A quick recap:

• CEA announces HDTV sales will beat analog TV sales in 06
• Windows Vista will have support for HDTV over digital cable, and DVR! I've tested it, it really works.  I can't wait.
• ATI announces HDTV Cablecard designs (note they aren't the first and only though ;)). 
• ViiV PCs from Intel will sport HDTV playback abilities.
• Buzz on the floor that retailers saw Xbox 360 as a key accelerant to HDTV purchases during the holiday season.
• Gates tipped us off that Xbox 360 will get an external HD-DVD drive :):):)
• HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were everywhere at CES, duking it out.  Blu-Ray demos focused on hardware demos, Microsoft on ability to copy HD-DVDs to your PC and really rich interactivity. It will be interesting to see how this goes.
• Oh, a consumer HD-DVD player will ship for $499 from Toshiba available this March! 
• TiVo announces their new Series 3 with HD over digital cable (OCUR/Cablecard) support and a SATA-based drive, sync to PMC, iPod, and PSP coming (does Portable Media Center (PMC) devices today.
• Tons of HDTV set announcements.  Excitement around 1080p - only place to get 1080p today is select WMV-HD discs, almost everything else is up-res'd 1080i but people like the buzz.

More to come...

Whew.  Crazed schedule at CES, I really haven't had time to post as I'd like.  The Windows Vista/MTV-Urge party last night was completely crazed.  I've literally never seen lines that long (about 200 feet) to get in, and when in, the floors were completely packed.  Microsoft parties have had great attendance before, but the buzz I kept hearing was about the Urge announcement (and the party). I get irritated with large crowds so I ended up hanging out in the "VIP area" most of the night trying to keep away from the crowds.

The keynote went well the day before- I had lunch with BillG's speechwriter the week before and made a few jokes about the importance having an electrical engineer monitoring the power after last year's power outage. It's good to be able to laugh about it now.  It's even better when the keynote went so well.  One thing that did bother me though- little applause, little laughter. This is a fundamental difference between MS and Apple - they surround themselves with their fans, throw a bash for them, and THAT is where they announce their products (like next week).  The buzz is infectious. Press and public alike get wrapped up.  I don't buy statements that CES or other shows are the equivalent of a "WinWorld".  The problem is too many audiences to make this work effectively.

One of the pieces that has me so excited this year is the new Windows Media Player 11.  This is part of the reason I re-joined the group.  Can you say performance?  I have over 10,000 tracks in my library.  I was so tired of UI freezes and slow searches that I started using Windows Desktop Search as my way of finding music. WMP11 takes a completely rethought and highly optimized database that is hands-down the fastest media player library I've ever seen- visually and logically. Album art is amazing. There are tons of perf improvements folks are just starting to see. I'm also hearing about additional perf optimizations in Vista's USB stack that will help as well. MCE users will benefit from all of this as well.  More on this over on the new Windows Vista site at : http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/community/mediaplayer.aspx

I've accepted recently that I'm now more a part of the VH1 demographic than MTV. At first I wasn't wild about Urge but then I realized that MTVN (Networks) recognizes this fact, and that's part of the reason they created the Urge brand.  I'll be able to tap into my favorite "classic rock" like Alice in Chains, Aerosmith, and  Now, I'm addicted. Urge integrates cleanly into the UI, I can download and sync a playlist in one step.  And my favorite is "Feeds"- these are truly smart playlists. This concept takes the best of smart playlists, smart sync, and concepts like RSS and mashes them together.  What you get is truly smart playlists that update (and sync) to your device automatically.  More on that later.

There's so much more to WMP11 and Vista which hasn't even been announced yet.  Stay tuned.

Catching up on news after the holidays.  My friend Shawn Morrissey who is a Program Manager on the project, writes with a quick update on Windows Vista Sidebar, named by BetaNews as, "Vista's most prominent new feature".

Some of you have noticed my job has changed.  I love Windows Sidebar and believe strongly in the platform the team is delivering. However, recently I was made, "An offer too good to refuse" to join the staff of the VP of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft.  While I cannot go into specifics of my job, my title is still Senior Program Manager, I'm still writing specs, and working on exciting things I cannot discuss right now. Departing the Sidebar team was very tough, but it does afford me the opportunity to return to my main passion- digital media and entertainment. 

I'll continue to write here about Windows Sidebar, Vista, and all things Digital Media.  Of course, the best place for details continues to be www.microsoftgadgets.com. But as I told a friend, I'm not going to rehash the same device reports you see elsewhere.  So... if there are specific topics you'd like to see me tackle, or questions you have, please let me know.

Update: Welcome Digg.com and Kotaku readers. Updated below w/ tips on only getting notifications when new Xbox inventory is available. Congrats to the many that have read this and purchased your Xbox 360.  Thanks to Bensbargains.net for their Xbox tracker service and Sightmax.com for sponsoring hosting for this site.

Here's a fool-proof way to get notified when Xbox 360's are available for online ordering- no online auctions required.  I've tested it personally- and I should receive my premium system in time for Christmas.  There may be other tactics, but I hope it works for you. Happy Holidays!

Step One: Bookmark Bensbargains Xbox 360 Tracker
There are lots of sites that purport to track Xbox 360 shipments.  Bensbargains is the best IMO.  They're tracking all the major and a number of minor sites that are carrying the Xbox 360.  The site is legit and updated about every minute. Even better is their history list so you can see who got what in and map our trend patterns.

This is great if you want to check every minute.  They also have convenient RSS feeds, but again this requires you to sit there and wait for an update.  There's got to be a better way- something that notifies YOU when status changes?  That's covered in step two.

Step Two: Download URLy Warning from Download.com
Get notified instantly when a Web page changes, and see exactly what's changed. With URLy Warning, a pop-up window appears when a Web page you're watching changes, and you'll see a visual comparison of what's been added and deleted. The trial allows you to track one site in demo mode.

Once installed, you'll need to launch the app and proceed to step three.

Step Three: Configure URLy Warning
I've tried a number of tactics, but this one works best.  Click on options and set the URL to http://bensbargains.net/xbox360/xbox360.php 

Configure the rest of the settings you see below or read onfor customizations:

Setting to when at least 3 words are added or deleted will notify you when items go in or out of stock. This can result in a high count, but ensures you don't miss anything.  There are other strategies here such as setting When page contains the phrase "In Stock".

Updated Strategy: Search for changes in history only

Kevin writes, "I added a test range to only ping me on changes to the Tracker History by entering ‘History’ in the first text box and leaving the 2^nd text box blank.  This way, I only get notified when something is in stock and not when a timeout occurs."  Nice addition Kevin- thanks for the tip!  Screenie below.

You can set the app to give you a popup, a chime sound, or even send email to you or a paging device.  I used the popup and chime.  If you use the settings I did above, you'll see when words change.  If the number is in the hundreds, that means multiple deals are popping up or selling out since your last check.

Just hit reset between checks.  Plan on checking multiple times as some bundles are ridiculously priced- I played the waiting game and won.

Step Four: Get up early, check early and often
I've noticed a trend from the east coast- many stores first update their inventory between 5 and 8 am Central time.  I've seen and let go a number of high priced bundles, before getting a reasonable (MSRP) deal at Circuit City. 

Good luck and happy hunting!

First, please put your hands together for Windows XP Media Center Edition's Online Spotlight debut in Hong Kong. It's a great start for a potentially large market.

As planning enters it's fevered pace across many businesses for CES, we can't help but ask why the powers that be didn't move it to the pre-Thanksgiving spot previously occupied by Comdex.  Perhaps something about not wanting to kill holiday sales for "last years" goodies?  Oh well, the teams continue to toil.

But wait, there's more happening internationally, and it's not even CES-time yet!  The latest updates to Online Spotlight this week from around the world:

- mceWeather has been added to France and Switzerland.
- TV Norges and Scandinature have been added in Norway.
- TVOnTime has been added in Denmark
- New offer added for KMS (Sudoku) in all the locales.
- Movielink offers updated.

For those asking, yes I will be at CES, but not in the booth- mostly in partner meetings. More details and itinerary to come soon.  I hear an MCE enthusiast party is in the works - more details on that later.

Unfortunately due to some other commitments (and getting a nasty cold),  I/we won't be able to host a Seattle geek dinner on the 8th. The good news is that Peter Rojas and the Engadget crew are hosting a get-together in Seattle tonight so we're suggesting you join our friends over at:

Neumo’s
925 E Pike St
Seattle, WA 98122

December 8th, 2005
7pm - 9pm

Sorry about the late notice! We promise to do another one to make it up early in 2006.

Reason #37 I use Live.com: Refreshing honesty in error codes.

Plenty of thoughts on the net on the Xbox 360 launch.  Me?  I was going to wait in line but realized I was going to spend 5 hours on a plane with a 2 1/2 year old and 2 hours of sleep before getting up for the trip was a bad idea.  So where is my Xbox 360?  I didn't order.  I beta tested Media Center Extender functionality but given the amount of time I've had lately to game, I haven't been able to justify paying a premium (no pun intended) over MSRP on a box- yet.  Now of course, I'm itching for one.  I call it the "Me Moo Mentality" - yep, the cattle call of a mob.  

First, the insanity around this reminds me of the Cabbage Patch Doll craze of the late 1980's. A guy reportedly held up an Electronics Boutique in Virginia for two Xbox 360s.  I hope they recorded the serial #'s off them so they can find the guy as soon as he logs onto Xbox Live and bust the jackass.  Sure, it's very very cool, but not worth this.  As for whether MS is withholding supply to boost demand- Robert Scoble has an interesting post about this. Did you hear about the guy who had his Xbox 360 stolen? An Xbox employee gave up his personal, unopened box to the victim.  But no, the conspiracy mill will roll over this fact (just as Bill Gates is evil despite the massive amounts of good he does via the B&M Gates Foundation- where are Larry, Steve, and others spending their wealth?)

Michael Gartenberg has a number of interesting posts talking about the end to end experience, Live Arcade (which seems to be custom-made for my wife's demographic of casual gamers) and of course the Media Center Extender functionality. 

One feature I'd like to see more mention of for the legions of Windows XP users is the Windows Media Connect 2.0 support in XBox.  You don't need Media Center to enjoy Music, Photos, and more streamed to your Xbox 360.  It even automatically adds new music to the index, something even the Sonos does not do. Of course, Media Center makes this experience even better but it's great if you haven't upgraded to MCE lately, Windows Media Connect does the trick.

So for me, it looks like I'll be Xbox 360-less for a while. I'll just be patient while legions of kids beg their parents for one this holiday season. You never know- there's always March and my birthday shortly thereafter (the earliest EBGames is guaranteeing).

Thomas Hawk points us to Sean McLeod's very interesting Virtual Earth add-in for Media Center, complete with source code and how-to article.

While I also haven't geotagged my images (any suggestions on software appreciated), this seems like a worthwhile thing to do for the future.  I used to have friends whose parents would put thumb-tacks in a world map in the basement to show all the places they've been- it's the same concept, only much cooler.

A few of us were talking about doing a Digital Media/MCE Geek Dinner sometime this December- we'll have some of the latest Gadgets to show (I'll bring my S50 and a few mobile phones).  A good time to see the latest Gadgets and chat with

So with that- Who is up for a December 8th Digital Media Geek Dinner- Crossroads Mall in Bellevue, WA?   Please RSVP here so I can get an accurate count.  All are welcome.

Ed Update: Unfortunately due to other recent commitments, I/we won't be able to host this on the 8th. The good news is that Peter Rojas and the Engadget crew are hosting a get-together in Seattle tonight so we're combining:

Tomorrow (Thursday), December 8th, 2005
7pm - 9pm

Neumo’s
925 E Pike St
Seattle, WA 98122

Sorry about the late notice.

Since Microsoft's Live.com opened it's doors to the world last Tuesday as a beta, they've already shipped updates including improved Firefox support, and the # of Web Gadgets has grown to nearly 50 from a broad (and growing) range of ISVs and enthusiasts.

One thing that struck me is that more people should see the demos shown at the Live.com.  I watched them w/in MS's corpnet this weekend and had a big "aha" moment.  Lots of conversation about how Live.com is Web 2.0-enabled Microsoft.  It's a start (no pun intended for fans of Start.com). More importantly, I think what you see today is the equivalent of a whiteboard and a set of tools- dry erase markers, magnets, and some high tech wizardry to project what you want onto the whiteboard.  But you still have to start by putting what you want up on the board.  I think this is what is tripping some folks up.  IMO it isn't a pre-programmed experience.  It's worth 5 minutes setting up my homepage the way I want, and 20 minutes saved a day by getting just the info I'm interested in. 

Speaking of those newfangled Gadgets, a few of my favorites:

• Windows Live Favorites - all my favorites, syncd from MSN and IE.
• Expedia.com - It's a good start at a good looking gadget.
• Seattle Bus Tracker - I'm one of those jerks who drives his own car (hey, it's a Prius at least) but I have lots of friends who like this mashed-up gadget showing overlay of bus positions on Virtual Earth.
• GetFireFox Counter - This is the beauty of Live.com.  It's your content, from wherever. As the developer of this gadget says, "Can't we all just get along?".
• Stock Portfolio Tracker - Good for tracking your diversified portfolio, however I look forward to seeing this from a brand-name firm w/ analysis.
• Gadget Player - Embeds Windows Media Player right into your site.  Not I just need to wire this up to my voicemail and I have my voicemail system on my live homepage. (We get vmail via email at Microsoft).
• Pac-Man - All work and no play makes Sean a dull boy. The classic Pac-Man (Space Invaders, Tetris, Sudoku, and Simon) are all now available as of today.  See, adding Flash-based elements are easy too.

Installing Gadgets will get much easier.  Developing will continue to become more robust. Like ActiveX, Gadgets are a powerful feature for enthusiasts and developers today and have the potential to go mainstream in the future.

What Gadgets would you like to see for Windows Live? 

For sports nuts in the US, 9:30 am (Pacific) Saturday morning is your first chance to check out the new Virtual Coach app from Fox Sports powered by MSN during its first live run. Virtual Coach is a simple predict-the-play game controlled by a live operator; you play in real time as you watch a live football game.

Entries in the Next-Gen Windows PC Design Competition have been unveiled at www.startsomethingpc.com. 

The distinguished panel of judges met in the Seattle Area, deliberated for two days, sealed their decision until CES and now it's YOUR TURN. You have an opportunity to browse a number of the designs in multiple categories and pick your one favorite. It's going to be hard- there are a number of good ones and a few that blew me away.

To vote: Visit www.startsomethingpc.com, click the image at the top and start browsing by category. Each box has a series of entries:

To vote, Passport login is required (blah blah blah).

About the Competition
Earlier this year, a small group of members of the hardware design, interface design, and engineering teams at Microsoft started a conversation with the ID field at large- the idea was the envision the future of the Windows-based PC.  Directors of design at Nike, Ziba Design, Bose, Dell, Nissan, HP and others joined us for the ride as would over double the # of expected entrants. As a refresher, check out the concept video used to spur ID creativity around the competition (WMV-HD version downloadable here).

Winners for the Judge's Award, Chairman's Award (Bill Gates), and Public's Choice Award (yours) will be announced at the International CES 2006 event the first week of January 2006 in Las Vegas, NV.

I know this was a blast to do for the teams that pulled it together- I hope you do to.

Sometimes, software just works well. Such is the case with MyTV ToGo, an add-on for Windows XP Media Center Edition (and Windows XP) that will convert your recorded TV programs into formats ready for Windows Mobile Smartphone, Pocket PC, iPod Video, and PlayStation Portable.  I've been trying a number of applications over the past week to convert and this is the one that does it for me.  I purchased a license for the Video iPod version and with it came support for PSP.

The concept isn't new and frankly you can do the same thing with free software.  FFMPEG, a popular geek utility for file conversion is actually at the heart of MyTV.  But what it does well is conversion into MPEG-4 (4:3 TV content) with good cropping and reasonable amount of time.  Expect a 1 hr TV program to take about 45 minutes to convert, possibly less depending on your CPU.

Conversion (and transfer) are seamless... for the PSP.  That's not to say it's not without a few issues.  iTunes required a little cajoling to get the content to transfer but once it started, the rest is history.  Programs will show up in your My Videos folder as well as on your device under Movies.

Then there's quality- both were "acceptable". I used the "Better" setting for video and ended up with a 391MB .MOV  file for The Amazing Race for iPod (MPEG-4, 320x240, 846kbps, AAC, Stereo 48khz), and for the PSP, a 217MB .mp4 (MPEG-4, 320x240, 630.45kbps, AAC, Stereo 24khz) file. The PSP file appears to have a second audio stream encoded, but unsure based on what Quicktime Pro is or isn't telling me. I have a 1GB MemoryStick Duo card ($99.00) and being able to carry around only 3-4 programs isn't of big interest to me. A big shortcoming of the PSP IMO is the lack of a built-in HD for user storage.

A few other items that I'd like to see:

• Scheduled recordings - right now recordings are manual.  How about supporting scheduled recordings or setting it to automatically convert all new (non-repeat) programs?
• Background conversion - conversion right now can throttle for background operation, but what about when I'm not using my PC?  WMP auto-converts in the background so transfer is seamless.
• More control over settings.  I like the simplicity of the model, but let the user get under the hood with more advanced profile settings.
• Support for AVC codec for PSP.  It's more efficient but requires a license from Sony, something I gander they're not likely to do.
• Make it clear that the iPod Video software (which costs $29.95 and doesn't offer a demo) also includes support for PSP.

As for final thoughts, simple and does what it purports to do, which a lot of touted iPod Video and PSP Video software today- does not IMO.  As for Pocket PC and Smartphone,  I'll stick with MCE 2005 and Windows Media Player 10 which I believe do a better job overall.  Next up: Attempting to encode HD content which they claim to do.

The Hotmail Plus Reader for Media Center lets you quickly check your Hotmail Plus or MSN Premium e-mail on your Media Center PC. This program is designed for use with a remote control and display on a television monitor. This is an email reader only - use the Web version for composing or replying to email. Get it here.

More details tomorrow however you can see things are being wired up. Enjoy the new site design at www.microsoftgadgets.com.  Soon you'll be able to start posting your Web Gadgets for Start.com and share with the world. Windows Sidebar gadgets will be coming around Windows Vista Beta 2.  Until then, enjoy and send feedback.

Update: The gallery has gone live. New Web Gadgets including Flickr and Virtual Earth are now available. Visit http://www.microsoftgadgets.com and customize your Start.com homepage.

One of Microsoft's very own wrote a little diddy based on the Windows XP startup sound (and a few more) and guess what, it beat out the competition on SongFight.org. Listen to it here.  Nice job Jim!

Speaking of startup sounds. A few weeks ago I came across this funny video of a Mac users' startup sound. I think we all know a guy like this. 

As for mine, it's My father for years has had, "It's alllllive... ALLLIVE!!" from Frankenstein as his startup sound (appropriate for Halloween). What's your startup sound/music?

A quick jaunt over to SonyStyle.com and you'll find the flagship Sony Vaio VGX-XL1 Digital Living System. Sporting a 200 disc DVD changer and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Rollup 2, this sleek looking system is a flagship of home entertainment integration, showcasing exactly why the My DVDs feature was added in Rollup 2.

That's the good part- here somes the less stellar: The system ships with only 512MB RAM and 64MB of on-board video memory in a GeForce 6200.  Fine for 80% of customers, if you're buying a $2300 home entertainment addition, you should at least get 1GB and 128MB of memory, respectively. A 50% off offer on a paired receiver with WMA Pro 7.1 audio support would be another nice addition or even cross-marketing with a Digital Walkman.  But alas, these are separate organizations under the Sony flag so I guess that's a non-starter. 

Back on the plus-side, the thing supports just about every DVD burning format including dual-layer (no HD DVD or Blu-Ray support... expect Blu-ray only in an update in the future is my guess).  If you're rich and have the moxy, this is a good system for you.  Given the specs, it should serve you  into the Windows Vista timeframe as well.

Quick note that www.xbox.com has relaunched with a new look and goodies for the Xbox 360 launch. Only 28 days away!

A few weeks ago, David Streams, myself, and Sanaz Ahari (of Start.com fame) did an interview on Gadgets: Windows Sidebar and Start.com with Robert Scoble on Channel 9. The video has been posted here. Enjoy.

Visit Microsoft.com and download now by clicking here. Coming soon as an optional update via Windows Update.

The obvious question is, "What is Windows Media Connect and why do I care?".  Windows Media Connect 2.0 is a feature of Windows that enables other digital media receivers such as the Roku Soundbridge, D-Link MediaLounge or Xbox 360 to play streamed music, photos, and video* on plain old Windows XP.  Xbox 360 you said?  Yes. 

And it works with services like Napster, MSN Music, FYE, and Yahoo Music in your Windows Media Player library. Whatever you say about DRM, the team is working hard to make sure this stuff will go around your house or on your devices as easily as possible given requirements.

Personally, I have a Roku Soundbridge connected to an older set of bookshelf speakers in our living room and I love it.  During Halloween, I create a playlist and point a speaker out the window to scare the kids. Thanksgiving, it fills the dining room with mood music, and Christmas we use it to play our "opening presents" music. The rest of the year, I use it to listen to internet radio from Virgin UK while cleaning the front side the house that the MCE doesn't cover. 

The best news is that Windows Media Connect 2.0 is over 5x faster than version 1.0 and all with a smaller memory footprint.  This really appeals to me- when you have over 10,000 songs indexed, this becomes pretty important.  The teams are finally prioritizing this as key customers have large media libraries and digital media around the home needs to better support.  Congrats and thanks to the Windows Media Connect 2.0 team- my son can hear "Freight Train" before he starts crying out of frustration and that's worth more than you know to this father.

*Note: Not all devices support all media types.

In a former life, a few of us had an idea to engage the design and enthusiast community in a competition about future Windows PC design.  The results have been phenomenal, the number of entries over double the expectation. 

The Competition Updates Blog notes that the competition has ended:

On Oct 27th, 2005, a group of internationally renowned designers will meet at Microsoft to review the entries and select the winner of the Judges’ Award.

Beginning November 1st, there will be a whole new look to this site. From November 1st through December 16th, 2005, you will be able to view all the entries from the competition and vote for your favorite. The winners of the 3 categories: Judge’s Award, Chairman’s Award and Public’s Choice Award will be announced at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas in early January, 2006.

 I personally can't wait to see the designs.  I'm really excited that the community at-large is getting an opportunity to weigh in on this.  I'm sure there will be some wild designs to consider.  For more on the judging panel, click here. Heavyweights from Bose, Nike, and even Ziba (the outfit that designed that ultra-cool Sirius S50 mentioned earlier).

Okay, I don't work officially on Windows Media Player 11, but some friends let me know about a new screenshot showing how it's shaping up in Windows Vista. The form and function of the Player is still evolving so I've been asked not to comment on any of the features you see here.  But as you will be able to easily discern for yourself, the media library is getting a nice facelift.

Full-size screenshot available for download here:

• WMPlayer_Vista.png (341k, 1024x768)

Again, this is actual work-in progress and shows the latest thinking.

It's really great to see the team opening up like this and sharing more proactively.  Feel free to post your feedback here and I'll pass it along to the rest of the team.  I for one am excited at the direction they're taking.

Update: This screenshot was first posted to The Hive, a surprisingly hip Microsoft community for insiders. Be sure to check it out for yourself at www.hive.net.  

One of the really great things about Media Center is its extensibility model for adding new applications.  One of the most requested has been an email reader/client and this update does not disappoint.  Just as reading email on your cell phone is appealing to a number of us, there are times when you want to quickly catch up w/ your email.  For me, it's the times when my wife asks me to pause a movie or show for her to take a call.  I'd like to quickly check my mail without having to

After receiving approval from the team developing the add-in, here's a sneak peek at the upcoming release of the Hotmail add-in for Media Center. Currently under development, a preview release will be made available next week:

As you can see, the login screen is clean and readable.  Email name is cached on login, however the user must enter the password on next login for. I expect this is because Media Center is often used in a shared environment. An on-screen keyboard displays making it easier to tap in with a remote, but I really recommend a keyboard at this point.

The inbox again is clean, and well styled for MCE, MSN and supporting 10'.  I was concerned they might try to overload with features but as you can see, it's easy to use.  Sorry for the blurries- but privacy comes first for those who send me mail :)

As mentioned before, this first preview release will be a Hotmail Reader.  That means you can catch up on your mail, but you're not going to be able to delete/edit/reply via 10'.  Personally, if I get an important mail, I'll go back to my 2' desktop and respond there.I understand expanded features will work their way into a later release.  I'm encouraged to see the team releasing this earlier to get feedback rather than delivering monolithically and making minor updates over time.

Another thing I noticed is how fast this add-in runs.  It's snappy on my systems and should work fine on Media Center Extenders as well (such as the upcoming Xbox 360) ;).

Availability: I've been told the add-in will work its way into the new Media Center on Windows Marketplace catalog for free download next week.  It's clear last week's releases were just the beginning of a new wave of goodness. Nice.

Okay, I've never bought into the Satellite radio thing... until now.  Sirius partnered with world reknowned design firm, Ziba to create a one of a kind portable satellite tuner and recorder with support for MP3 and WMA all rolled into one called the Sirius S50, slated for release on 10/31 with a $359.99 SRP.

See, I'm a closet "Howard Stern" fan. Growing up in the Tri-State NY metro area, I listened to Howard in high school and was happy to rekindle the relationship when his syndicated show came to the Seattle area a few years ago.  Now he's leaving the regular airwaves and frankly, sports isn't enough of a reason to get me to satellite.  But neither is Howard- I want a device that lets me record radio and more.

Call it podcasting via satellite- the device doesn't include a satellite receiver in it- it can compress up to 1GB (50 hours) of radio broadcasting you can listen to when, where, and how you want to.  BusinessWeek called it, "Radical" in a recent study on the creation of the device.

What is?  The one-two punch of my Creative Zen Micro's audio plug crapping out after too many flights shoved into my bag, and a strong desire for CD-quality radio in my Toyota Prius (that is before the engine cuts out on the highway, but so far, so good. 

If this thing supports subscription Windows Media content such as Yahoo Music Unlimited (sorry Napster- your personalization stinks in comparison), I'm set and have approval from the wife for two in-car mounts- hers and mine.

Damn, that's a lot of product links, and I don't even get compensation for them.  Anyone wants to give me a Sirius S50 for extended eval (or any other digital media gadget) let me know :).

Finally, someone gets the memo- stop trying to copy the Cupertinos and do something unique.

Image courtesy of OrbitCast.com

Just got off the phone where a little birdie gave me the go-ahead to let folks know the release of a Hotmail Email add-in for Windows Media Center 2005 is happening as early as next week.  I'm working to get a screenshot to share.

Speaking of screenshots, another little birdie is giving me approval to release a screenshot of something I think will be very popular next Monday.  Sorry, I can't say more yet. Stay tuned here for more :)

Charlie and I were just brainstorming that sometimes, you just gotta have some fun with the community and give back a little.  Last year, we started a Media Center Flickr community at http://www.flickr.com/groups/mediacenter. 

Inspired by the faceplate design competition Major Nelson from Xbox360 did last year, how about a little competition on the best Media Center setup?  We're going to have winners in different categories.  The goal will be to ensure you don't have to pour thousands into your Media Center. Prizes will be things like the Remote Keyboard for Media Center.

A couple of ground rules we're proposing:
- Media Center 2005 UI has to be up on the screen
- Photo has to be your own- no faked photoshop pictures of Magnolia's showroom.
- A short description of your setup and how you use media center.  Annotation of your equipment is a plus.
- Any MCE posted to the Flickr group (past or present) meeting above is eligible.

Voting will likely be done by a bunch of eHome folks.  Winners selected in December. We'll see if Joe Belfiore can lend his vote as well for a Grand Prize

What do you think?  What kind of categories do you think would be fair? 
What kind of prizes would you like to see in the max $200 range?

This isn't officially sanctioned, just an idea we have.  What do you think? Let's start the conversation ;

Yesterday I posted about Update Rollup #2.  One of the coolest features IMO is the ability to view a library of DVD movies. While designed for DVD changers, guess what, this works for DVD images stored on hard drives too ;) Note this doesn't work for CSS-encypted movies such as those you get from your DVD rental store. But that's right, those personal DVDs you have stored on a monster hard drive will show up automagically.

Courtesy of Matt Goyer who couldn't let me scoop him, here's the key.  Below I've added a download to do this automatically

If you don't have a changer you can enable the 'My DVDs' functionality with the following reg key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\SettingsDvdSettings

There you'll find a setting that says "ShowGallery"="Play". Double click it and set it to "Gallery" 

If you're unsure how to do this, choose Start, then Run, then type "RegEdit".  This will launch the registry editor then look for the above. I haven't found a way to make WMVs show up here- I don't think this is supported.

For the lazy or regkey infirmed, here's a file that will do this automatically. Just save locally and double click

• Download ShowMCEGallery.zip (.59kb)

Includes two files- one to show the gallery, the other to show Play DVD in main menu.

Now just add a watch folder in My Videos to look for the root folder the DVD image(s) are located in. You can play them from My Videos or My DVDs. The major downside is that your home-made DVDs don't have cover art, which DVD drives/jukeboxes do.

Other Settings in the same regkey hive:

• GallerySort
• SearchNetworkFolders
• ShowDiscsInDrivesAtTop
• FolderSearchDepth
• ViewByCover

I haven't had a chance to play with all these- hopefully Matt will post a few thoughts :)

Note: If you're looking for another cool movie add-in check out http://www.mymovies.name 

Disclaimer: Use at your own risk, sorry I don't offer support yada yada.  Enjoy.

From eHomeUpgrade:

Niveus Media, Inc., manufacturer of media entertainment devices for the high-end audio/video market, is excited to announce its newest digital home solution, the Niveus Disc Changer. With support for over a thousand DVD discs, the Niveus Disc Changer paired with an award-winning Niveus Media Center running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2, enables the “My DVDs” feature within the Windows Media Center interface.

Niveus Disc Changer Availability
The Niveus Disc Changer will begin shipping in November via select Audio/Video Retailers and Dealers. For further details, visit the company website at: www.niveusmedia.com

I'll post a regkey later this weekend that enables the My DVD feature in Update Rollup #2

Congrats to Tim and all the folks at Niveus. 

Joe Belfiore is one of my favorite people to work for/with.  I first had the opportunity during the Windows XP launch, and he's just a great leader.  Thomas writes with some interesting conclusions on Joe's open letter to the Media Center community.

Oh and can you say 4 million Media Center PCs?  I remember a short while ago when they announced 2 million. 

In the immortal words of Thomas Hawk, "Hot Donkey!" Update here. Update Rollup #2 for Media Center adds the following features:

• Xbox 360 Extender functionality. Customers can seamlessly access digital music, video, photos, and standard and high-definition television and movies on Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs through any Xbox 360 game console in the house.  (Come on, you know you want one...)
• Away Mode. Away Mode will bring the convenience, quiet performance and instant on/off functionality of consumer electronics to the Media Center PC.   (BTW: This is a kick-ass feature that almost all new Media Center PCs will have. Now you can save electricity and still record in the background or serve out to devices.
• DVD changer support. Media Center now offers integrated support for external DVD changers, enabling consumers to watch movies and manage DVD selections (up to 200) from the Media Center interface. (Ok, we all want DVD ripping, but take that up with the MPAA.  This just shows the team's heart is in the right place)
• DVD-burning improvements. Updates to the Sonic DVD burning engine improve the performance and capabilities of DVD burning in Media Center. Now consumers can convert high-definition TV shows to standard definition and burn to a DVD all in one step.
• Additional HDTV tuner support. Update Rollup 2 provides support for up to four TV tuners. Users will now be able to utilize two NTSC (analog) capture boards and two ATSC (digital) capture boards. (I'm not positive but I think you can do more than two NTSC tuners here as well ;)).  I'll double check.
• Performance Optimization. This update enables a new feature to "clean house" like most PVRs do today, Ed Bott has a good write-up on what this does here. You won't see this advertised, but it's a great great feature IMO.

Go to Windows Update and get your update.  Also a good time to make sure you have the latest Video Card, DVD, and Tuner drivers for your MCE.

Looking for an add-on for Media Center?  Wondering what this whole Media Center thing is about, go check out the new Media Center Marketplace.  Too bad there isn't an RSS feed for the latest and greatest, but still pretty darn cool.  You'll find over 35 software add-ons, Extenders and lot more.  I'd like to see a more friendly home-page, but other than that, this site is functional and a great diversion.

If you're an ISV- submit your stuff here and get promoted. This is going into my list of permalinks tonight - nice work MCE team.

Update: You can also find the catalog of software for Media Center on C|Net's Download.com here.  Get your downloads rollin for the weekend- tell us what's best.

The Media Center service rollout continues.  While Apple announces FrontRow, Media Center puts customers front and center with big-name content from a slew of providers. Interactive TV?  Bah. It's already here.

Digital Interactive Systems Corp. (DISCover) My Games. Designed exclusively for Media Center PCs, DISCover’s My Games gives customers access to a wide range of PC games that they can digitally demo, buy and stream. Customers can view an in-depth game guide with screen shots, box art and descriptions for thousands of top games, and can purchase "boxed" games via top online retailers with the ease of a Media Center Edition remote control.

Game xStream. Game xStream’s now-live gaming-on-demand service for Online Spotlight connects users to its extensive catalog of video game titles from leading game developers, from which they can buy and stream games instantly. Within minutes of pressing the Buy button from a Media Center Edition remote control, gamers can begin playing graphic-intensive games from publishers including Merscom LLC, Global Star Software and Encore Inc.

The Tech Report has an in-depth  review of Creative's new 51 Million Transistor X-Fi audio processor for PCs.  So, is this the new "de-facto standard" for audio/video and Media Center enthusiasts?

A big "pro" idea:

While the X-Fi architecture is impressive and its ability to accelerate 3D audio unmatched, one of the chip's more interesting features is that it can be paired with onboard memory that Creative calls X-RAM Onboard memory is nothing new in the sound card world (the AWE32 was available with 2, 4, and 8MB of RAM), but X-RAM is different because it's there specifically to be used by applications. Creative hopes that game developers will utilize X-RAM to cache decompressed audio, potentially saving precious CPU cycles in the process. Developers are also encouraged to use X-RAM to store higher quality audio assets that would otherwise be infeasible to decompress on the fly or stream from the hard drive. At least one developer is already taking advantage of X-RAM, with DICE's Battlefield 2 using it to cache in-game audio.

From the "missing the point" category:

Despite its fancy new architecture, onboard memory, support for Dolby Digital ES and DTS-EX output, and THX certification, the X-Fi won't encode Dolby Digital Live. According to Creative, Dolby Digital Live support would make the X-Fi more expensive due to both licensing costs and the need for additional tank RAM on the chip. Creative also asserts that Dolby Digital Live encoding introduces a small amount of latency, and points out that it's limited to 5.1-channel output. Perhaps more notably, Creative says that Dolby Digital Live encoding can't handle DRM-protected content since it passes unprotected data through a digital output. That's an interesting limitation, although PC enthusiasts have never really been enthusiastic about DRM-encrusted content.

I find this statement interesting.  I regularly download music from MSN Music and Yahoo (also did from Napster) but I've never had a problem with my S/PDIF out audio in PCM. Dolby Digital wouldn't do anything to mux this.  So, the 80% scenario is now negated?  Am I missing something here?

Then there's the lack of a S/PDIF (optical) connector.  There are many affordable receivers starting to show up with WMA Pro support built-in.  Too bad- we'll still have to go with analog/coax digital.  I was really hoping for DD Live encode like Nvidia supports in their NForce boards.

At $110 online, it's not a bad board by any stretch,but lack of a PCI Express version as well keeps me in the "waiting to upgrade" camp.

I had a great meeting today with Catherine in the Developer Evangelism team. She turned me on to a webpage I missed at PDC which articulates how to archictect applications for Windows Vista.  There's a lot of good detail here- beyond the traditional marketing fluff.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/top10/

But what do you think?  What would you like to see covered/detailed further? I'll pass the team your feedback.

Link here. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9659973/

I for one am happy to see this happen.  RealNetworks has a # of good, smart folks who have learned from past mistakes (as does Microsoft) and we're all still learning.  Harmony is a good subscription service, though I personally prefer Yahoo! Music Engine for their personalization system.

In the end, I think this agreement will be good for consumers.  Rob hints that this could pave the way to better interoperability on everything from mobile phones to alternative OSes.  I don't have any data to back that up one way or another, but I do see this as a step in the right direction.  What will be telling in the coming year is whether a relationship of trust can be established between key members of the organizations.  Microsoft has done it with others (eg. AOL in Media Center). I think it can.

A friend and I were talking the other day about the 20th Anniversary of Windows coming up.  Folks regularly buy "Collector's Editions" of games for PC and game consoles like Xbox, but what about Windows?  What if there was a 20th Anniversary Edition of Windows?  What would be compelling enough that folks would want to collect it?

So what do you think- if you could add anything to a 20th Anniversary Edition of Windows, what would it be?  Here are a few ideas to get it started:

• A copy of every version of Windows sold to-date (eg. Windows 3.0, 95, 98, etc.) Maybe a Virtual PC image of each?
• Microsoft Bob? (haha)
• A discount/rebate on Windows Vista when it RTMs
• Bill Gates autographed copies?
• Access to a special community?
• DVD decoder?  (I don't even know if this is possible)

How about packaging?  maybe something like a cool lucite block to display your Discs?  We got something like this as a Windows Vista Beta 1 "Ship-Gift" with slots for the upcoming beta 2 and later updates.

Post your comments here- what are the top 3 things you'd want to see in a Collector's Edition?

Tonight (or appropriately enough in Japan, er tonight...er make that tomorrow), Microsoft and Intel announced their plans to support HD DVD and join the DVD Forum’s HD DVD Group. 

Both companies have been undergoing extensive reviews of the competing formats, and have determined that only the HD DVD format delivers unique and crucial advantages, including PC and connected device interoperability, superior capacity, and an easy, affordable transition to HD for consumers.  The companies believe HD DVD will bring more high definition video to the consumer faster, with the potential for more affordable hardware and more interactive features than other HD optical formats.

Microsoft and Intel rationalized this by noting the following strengths of the HD DVD format:

For those of us who suffered through the DVD format wars and cringing at the thought of doing the same with High Definition DVD (HD-DVD), this news may be enough to bring all the players together and unify a format before we get to Betamax vs. VHS.  Here's to wishful thinking ;)  What do you think?

I can't say what it is yet, but "it" will be made at an unusual 9pm tonight.  Between the Palm partnership with Treo running Windows Mobile announced today and this 9pm announcement, the shock and awe is starting... more later but I think Scoble will be pleased.

Shawn (a fellow PM in Windows Incubation) takes Mini-MSFT to task and says it's time for the armchair quarterbacking to stop. He also calls me "the PM that can get anything done" That's high praise coming from Shawn- I'm still learning, and you're right, we have an amazing team.

Side note: On Monday a small group of us are filming an interview for Channel 9 with Robert Scoble talking about Windows Sidebar, Windows Gadgets for the desktop and the Web.  If you have questions you'd like to see us answer, feel free to post them here.  We may not get to all of them, but this is the first of what I expect will be a series of videos.

I don't normally talk much about internal happenings but there's been lots of chatter following the company meeting yesterday.  Even Mini-MSFT (who doesn't know what an employment agreement looks like) was happy. Sanaz was wowed. Scoble was impressed. Even the unauthorized Microsoft blog nets out positively.  

To put things in perspective, I'm no longer a newbie but recognizing I'm becoming a seasoned veteran at Microsoft (who joined post-"stock payout" by about 12 months).  This was my ninth company meeting. I'm working on my fourth OS launch and have two "Ship It" awards filled with over a dozen products and technologies I've played a part in shipping.  It could be easy to become jaded.  I prefer the term "pragmatic" in my approach as I've tasted kool aid and briny water alike over the years.

Yesterday, Bob, the manager at my local grocery store saw my Microsoft hat and asked me,

"So, you work for Microsoft?"
"Yes" I replied"
"I read this morning you're having some trouble?" he said
"We're staying the course" I responded and smiled.

You know what?  I was wrong.  We aren't staying the course. The course is different, the "ship" is finalizing a major refit. Two years we stood-down to re-engineer our security processes. A year ago, we did the same for engineering the OS.  This is responsible engineering, which takes more time but puts a premium on the customer experience.  The recent reorg further clarifies who is in command, and the controls they will use to speed up the pipeline in a responsible way.

Further cementing this, after reading the surprisingly frank article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal detailing what went wrong with the first incarnation of Longhorn, the thought kept popping into my head, "The first step to recovery is recognizing you have a problem and the will to do something about it."

So what are my thoughts after the company meeting? 

Two words: Hopeful and focused. Hopeful that others will recognize the changes that have been made to the customers' long-term benefit, and hopeful that the recent reorg will focus efforts on the challenges both near and long-term.  What I've seen is encouraging so far and our team has managed to stay largely focused on our charter.

What's more, the "shock and awe" of products as Scoble describes it is just starting (as early as Monday ;)). And when you consider what's coming down the pike, the largest and most focused set of releases - from Xbox 360, to Windows Vista, to Office, to Visual Studio, to our server, small business, and enterprise solutions and more are all coming.  Microsoft has never had a compelling product pipeline like this before.

A few weeks ago, another article, this time in The New York Times (08/28/05), noted:

"On Wall Street, however, a recent tally by Thomson Financial showed that of 34 security analysts following the company, 30 recommended that Microsoft be bought. Only one advised selling ... [T]he dominant sentiment on Wall Street is upbeat, Mr. Friedman said. "The word people are using with Microsoft right now," he said, "is 'renaissance.' "

I wondered the first time I read this article whether Mr. Friedman knew something I did not.  After seeing it lined up at the company meeting, it's starting to make sense.  I just hope that for others like Bob, they don't have to wait too long to see it too.

From LonghornBlogs.com:

Tom's Hardware Guide talks with ATI's vice president of their software divsision Ben Bar-Haim about "Vista-Ready" Drivers and discusses their stability.

Vista graphics drivers are programmed for a new driver model currently named LDDM (Longhorn Display Driver Model), although the "Longhorn" part is subject to change. According to Bar-Haim, the "user mode-based" drivers depart from Windows XP's "kernel mode-based" model, and are thus unable to crash the operating system: "Microsoft had concerns about the stability of drivers in XP when they noticed an unreasonable high amount of XP crashes due to device drivers. With LDDM, we can run the driver engine for months without crashing," he said.

This is definately another plus on Microsoft's part for Windows Vista. I'd like to install drivers without crashes. I want to be able to install an incorrect driver and have it just tell me that the device driver won't work with the specified device instead of possibly crashing the entire operating system. The drivers ATI has released for Windows Vista Beta 1 have proven strong and reliable as I tested Beta 1. I have yet to load the ATI drivers in Build 5219 as of yet.

Lou, Shawn, and Steve from our team had an opportunity a few days ago to meet Kathy Sierra and Burt Bates of, "Creating Passionate Users". They were on campus and the guys cold-emailed them and asked for a meeting.  What they got what something so much more. In Kathy's words:

I spent yesterday at Microsoft. And yes, it was on a "passionate users" mission -- something even my teenage daughter found hilarious given the Microsoft we all know and love to hate. But the day was a string of surprises and challenged assumptions... ending with meeting some amazing MS guys including Furrygoat's Steve Mafosky, Shawn Morrissey, and Lou (whose-last-name-I-forgot)).

...It's so tempting to say that anyone who really cares that much about users ought to get the hell out of the big company. I know, having done my time at Sun. But I'd forgotten how to see Microsoft as something other than a Big Company. I'd forgotten (or never recognized) that it's a collection of individual people, and no matter how entrenched the company's views, policies, practices, values, bureaucracy, etc. are, there are motivated, smart, caring, creative people who work there.

It's guys like Lou, Shawn and Steve that are the reason I joined this team.  I wish I could have been there. In "traditional" models of user-interaction, some development teams abhor the idea of meeting customers, of "hanging out" at a booth at a trade show.  One of my most memorable moments years ago was helping a wonderful woman from the US Postal Service who attended the old PC Expo show with her PC. She had just bought a Windows XP PC (which had just shipped) and had dozens of questions. She stuck around for 40 minutes asking questions, deferring to others with their own questions and coming back.  She came back the next day with more questions.  At the end, she said to me, "Thank you so much. I never knew Microsoft could be so helpful".  She's one of the customers that I carry with me day to day - she needs to feel that what we're doing "kicks ass". (Then there's the flight attendant in 1999 who sat in the aisle during final approach asking me questions until we're 20 seconds from landing, but that's another story.)

She wasn't just referring to me.  I was representing all of Microsoft.  So often folks forget that.  As Kathy points out, I too have been accused of "burning bridges" with coworkers on old teams who adopted "can't do" attitudes, avoided talking to the customer, or thought that "blogging" is such a geeky and wasteful thing.  Nothing upsets me more than taking the stance that they're too important or already know the customer based on just primary and secondary research. Understanding the customer is a daily event.

While Kathy says to "Subvert from within", I prefer to think of this as "raising up" or "raising the bar" from within.  Sometimes you have to shine a light into the dark corners- the people you find there won't like it, but it affects change.

A new Version 3.0 of  mceWeather is available for FREE at http://www.cbuenger.com.

Matt Goyer posts details on how to get your Media Center application posted into Windows Marketplace and seen by millions of Windows users. As a bonus, it will also show up on C|Net's Download.com.

In order to help promote your great Media Center development work to consumers, the Media Center group at Microsoft is excited to announce that, starting today, you can upload your finished Media Center application to Windows Marketplace, a comprehensive, easy-to-use shopping and download site that helps Windows customers discover, experience, and purchase partner products and software.

After Microsoft has processed your application, your approved Media Center product will be available for download from CNET’s Download.com and Windows Marketplace - www.windowsmarketplace.com.

First, a sincere welcome to the Pro-Mac community.  I'll agree every OS has it's strengths and weaknesses.  Many a good idea has been interpreted by different groups and if you search through my posts, I think you'll come to find I'm not going to participate in "Which came first" discussions.  I'll read your posts- the good and the bad though- they're all appreciated as a part of the conversation provided they're constructive (criticism or kudos).  I also won't censor you here unless you're profane.  In the end, all of your comments will help us build a better product- pros and cons.

One important note about Windows Sidebar.  It's come to my attention that someone got a very early build of Windows Sidebar, stripped it out of Windows Vista, and may or may not be distributing it.  Windows Sidebar has not been officially released by Microsoft and I will not comment on it other than to say developers and end-users are strongly encouraged NOT to download and install any software that says it's from Microsoft and not from Microsoft servers.  It could be malware, a virus, or something else- you just don't know. 

As for why Windows Sidebar wasn't made available to developers as a part of the PDC build, sometimes development schedules don't line up exactly.  Windows Sidebar will be available around Windows Vista Beta 2 to testers/developers.  Trust me that you want to wait and start building for the platform at that time.

I hope that helps, I'm on vacation for a few days- in the meantime, I encourage you to submit your questions about Windows Sidebar here for inclusion in our FAQ and an upcoming interview with the team for Channel 9. 

For those who know me, I have a varied number of interests- having started at Microsoft in developer tools before transitioning to digital media platforms, and then consumer technologies in Windows.  About six months ago, I heard about a team that was working on adding "cool" new features into Windows Vista.  The team was hiring so I started kicking tires and today, I'm a Senior Program Manager on the team.

Things are crazy here at PDC but Bill Gates just demo'd what I've been working on most recently: Windows Sidebar.  It's back, but it never really went away, just out of the public view.  What's more is that it's just one of the things our team is working on -others to be announced later.  Given how busy we are here- I'm going to lift Steve "Furrygoat" Makofsky's most recent post.

Now that it's been revealed in the PDC Keynote, I can finally start to talk about one of the projects that our team has been working on. Yes, it's the Windows Sidebar.

So, what exactly are Gadgets? Offically, "Gadgets are a new category of mini-application for the Windows Desktop and the Web. Windows Sidebar is the container for Gadgets on the Windows desktop in Windows Vista. Web Gadgets can also be built for rich, dynamic sites like Start.com."

Unoffically? Well, I'll be posting a lot more on that in the coming weeks. :)

It's really a great feeling to finally see all of the blood, sweat and tears finally make the light of day. The team behind Windows Sidebar is really small, and I can easily say that it's been pretty inspiring to work with such a passionate group of people. Windows Sidebar will be available for developers 'around Beta 2', but in the mean time check out http://www.microsoftgadgets.com (it should be up today).

I've also set up a new "gadgets" category to talk about building Gadgets for the Windows Sidebar, so please feel free to send over any questions, thoughts, comments, etc and I'll see what I can do to either answer them here, or get them into the FAQ.

Finally, did you notice at the beginning of the post, I mentioned that Windows Sidebar was only one of the projects we're working on....... (more coming soon)....

Update: Shawn has posted on Windows Sidebar as well.

But Windows Sidebar is just a part of the story.  Gadgets are available for Web, Windows Desktop, and Devices.  No one else is doing that. Check out www.microsoftgadgets.com for the skinny on Gadgets- more details to come soon.

Update: Comments aren't working yet on www.MicrosoftGadgets.com

Geek Dinner for Media Center (and what I'm talking about tomorrow AM when my feature is announced) at:

Wilshire Grand Hotel (Bus Route 2 I believe)
Point Moorea Restaurant & Bar (reservation under "Alexander")
6:30PM Tuesday 9/13/2005

I have space booked for 10-15 people.  First round of drinks are on us. 
Please RSVP here if you're in so we know if we need more space.

Special prize for the geek with the loudest hawaiian shirt. ;) Come on, you know you have one- I'll be wearing mine!

About a year ago, I was prepping to do 50 minutes on-stage with Bill Gates at the Windows XP Media Center 2005 Launch.  I didn't think it was possible but I'm as excited, or possibly more for the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference and what's going to be shown.  I started in the developer org and with my new job, I'm a bit closer to my roots.

I can't go into details yet, but the hard work of my new team is going to be shown in keynotes. It's going to have a session that hasn't been made public yet. I'm going to be there to help see this all come together.  It's like watching your kid climb up the playground ladder the first time on their own. :)

I have nearly a dozen meetings set up and will be hanging out in the Track Lounge once everything becomes public.  But what the hell, Tuesday night- if you're up for joining us at the Media Center Geek Dinner (see last posting), I'm gonna chip in and first round of drinks are on my new team.  We'll be talking about what we're working on and answering questions.  But darn it, I can't tell you what it is yet! 

Any LA'ers out there have a recommendation on where to do our Tuesday Geek Dinner? Near the convention center, cheap food, lots of room, plenty of beer is my priority.ii

Charlie Owen and I are talking about doing a geek dinner on Tuesday night (Sept 13) in LA in honor of the PDC.  Who's in? Any suggestions from locals on a reasonably accomodating location nearby the convention center?

You know the old adage- Microsoft doesn't create anything cool, it's design is uninspired blah blah.  Did you know some of the coolest industrial and interaction designers in the world work at Microsoft?  CA does.  Media Center recently won Communication Arts Interactive Annual Awards- for more see Interactive Annual 11: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Charlie talks more about the relevance of CA here

Communication Arts is the leading trade journal for visual communications. It's the largest design magazine in the world and showcases the top work in graphic design, advertising, illustration, photography and interactive design.    

Congrats to my friends over in Media Center land.

Next week I'll be at the Microsoft PDC (Professional Developer's Conference).  I'm very lucky I was able to get a hotel room- it seems every hotel room in LA is booked for the dates I'm trying to attend... in any event, I'll be there talking about my new gig, meeting with partners and customers. I'm excited that I will also finally able to talk about what I'm working on.

Care to get together? Know of a happening after-PDC party? Drop me a line- email link below on the left.

A few really cool keyboards, higher DPI mice, and more details on the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows.  I've held one of the new controllers and all I can say is it's a significant improvement over the first and second generation controllers. 

Pretty darn cool- Start.com is my new homepage- pulling in blogs, news sites, weather and more. Ad-free. More on this later.

But it's good to have a sense of  humor :)

Here's a quick roundup of digital media items from this week:

• Here's a new episode of The Media Center Show with an interview with Matt Goyer from the MCE team. Lots of interesting things here.
• mNewsCenter RSS for MCE is now available
• Everyone seems to be opening up their API's these days - Orb is the latest
• In-stat report says Digital Terrestrial and Free To Air Sat will give PC Tuner market a boost - $3.7B in 2009, 42.6% CAGR.  Credits MCE's traction.
• Barb Bowman writes about Windows Connect Now technology.
• Parks' report says 4M US HH's now engaging in digital video editing every month.

Ed Note: Fixed download URL below and updated to reflect HKey_Current_User as the appropriate regkey setting.

Okay, here's my first unofficial Windows Vista "Enhancement Pack" and early feedback is that it's a good one- add 32 search providers to Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 in 32 seconds ;)

New in Internet Explorer 7 is a simple searchbox with the ability to search many different providers (e.g. MSN, AOL, Ebay, WSJ, Fandango) all from one place- just select the search provider (aka Scope) of your search by clicking the Magnifier glass icon and you're ready to go. The only problem is that the ability to add search providers is not in IE7 in Windows Vista Beta 1 (which I'm sure will be remedied). With this kit, you get over thirty of the top search and service providers on the Internet, including:

-Amazon.com
-AOL
-AskJeeves
-C|Net (Product search)
-C|Net News.com
-Costco
-eBay
-Encarta
-Fandango
-FedEx
-Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/mediacenter)
-Google
-IMDb
-LA Times
-Lycos
-The Mercury News
-Microsoft.com
-Microsoft Help & Support Knowledgebase
-Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery Live (Note: May require MS Office license)
-Microsoft PressPass (for the Journalists and Newshounds)
-MSDN (Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!)
-MSN Images
-MSN Music
-MSN News
-The New York Times
-The Seattle Times
-Technorati (Blog it!)
-UPS (United Parcel Service)
-The Wall Street Journal
-The weather Channel
-Yahoo!

Download: IE7_Search_Providers.zip (4.31 KB)

How to Install:
-Select the entry you wish to add to IE and double-click it.  Accept when prompted.
-To add all 32 entries at once, choose "Add All.reg"

How to Use:
-Once installed, restart IE7 (any instance will do)
-Click the Magnifier Glass icon next to Search in upper-right corner of IE7
-Choose your Search Provider

How to Change your Default Provider:
-Click the Magnifier Glass icon next to Search in upper-right corner of IE7
-Choose last option, "Search Settings"
-Change Settings

How to Remove Search Providers:
-Click the Magnifier Glass icon next to Search in upper-right corner of IE7
-Choose last option, "Search Settings"
-Change Settings

How this works:
IE7 in Windows Vista Beta 1 stores search provider information in the registry under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\

If you run RegEdit.exe and do a "Find" (F3) for SearchScopes, you'll find em.  Each entry has four pieces of information starting with the full Key name, for example:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\CNet]
"DisplayName"="C|Net News.com"
"URL"="http://cnet.search.com/search?chkpt=astg.cnet.fd.search.cnet&q=%s&tag=srch"
"SortIndex"=dword:00000005

It's pretty easy to figure out. "%s" is the wildcard for the search string the user enters.

If you like it, feel free to leave feedback at my blog at http://blog.seanalexander.com/PermaLink,guid,04a7843f-bbdd-460b-8d49-8c7848bad52f.aspx
Ugly URL isn't it? ;)

^ No Washington State Marmots were hurt in the creation of this kit. One Furrygoat (www.furrygoat.com) was sighted.