If you're like me, you probably have multiple PCs with Photos, Music, Video etc. on them.  For me, it's more of a backup strategy- if one HDD fails, I want to have all my media and storage is cheap.  Sure, I could get a Mirra device or similar but a cheap ~$30 solution that works great for me is Smart Sync Pro, a software package that enables me to automatically sync my important documents, photos, music, home videos, and yes, even Recorded TV programs from MCE's around my home network automatically.  It watches network folders for updates to metadata (such as # of times played in WM Player, a feature you can enable in Tools|Options) so when I use Auto Playlists on either of my PCs, I get the same listing of songs.

Setup isn't for the faint of heart but it works great. I have a co-worker who turned me on to it and uses it for complete system backups to an external drive he keeps off-site. Check it out- you get a 30-day evaluation period.

I've been playing with the new MSN Toolbar Suite (Beta) now for the last few days and color me impressed. Check out the video demo at Channel 9. Now, I'm not the kind of person who loses track of my files on my PC but I often need to find something quick such as a photo or email. MSN takes the hassle out of finding photos, email, and documents. Across your PC, in Outlook and Outlook Express. In particular the Desktop Search feature is essential for any mainstream user (my parents- read up now!).

Also, Scoble has a round up of comments on the toolbar from across the blogosphere here. Here are a few real-world scenarios where I think others I know will benefit:

• Dad - Dad is big into geneology and has traced our lineage back to Scotland in the 17th centrury (and still going). He has a ton of research in email documents and photos as well as word documents and excel spreadsheets. If he's looking for all details related to a particular member of our family, he can pull that quickly. If he wants details from the Web on the village our family came from, he can do that to, all in the same toolbar.
  
• Mom - Mom has a lot of medical information on her PC and it's often hard to sort through. MSN Desktop Search will help her find everything she's looking for in short order.

One feature I think would be neat is if the system over time tagged files you searched for with ratings based on level of interest (similar to Auto Ratings in Windows Media Player 10 which rate up based on the # of times a song is played). Then backup software could take advantage of those ratings and back up your most important documents based on # of times accessed as well as searched for. Bubba, you listening?

The Acrobat plug-in is a bit of a hassle, but hey, what is one more download.

Good job MSN Toolbar Team

I'm back from LA and getting over my cold so here are a few belated updates.

Creative Zen Micro Firmware Update
Creative has released a new firmware for the Zen Micro - now available for download.  Fixes include:

• Improves battery life when the player is charged with an AC adapter already plugged into a live power outlet
• Improves touchpad sensitivity
• Resolves the removable disk detection issue after the memory space is changed in Removable Disk mode
• Removes extraneous sound occuring during playback of .WAV files

You can download here from Creative's Nomadworld.

Courtesy of dapreview.net

Rio Carbon Static Noise Fix & new firmware (11/5)
For Rio Carbon owners, you may notice static noise when moving the Earphone jack with some headphones/adapters with a metal base.  Rio is aware of the issue and two solutions are now available:

• Cheap and immediate- cover the jack with a small piece of tape, avoiding the metal on metal connection
• Cheap and not-quite so immediate- Rio is making an adapter available for existing customers that fixes the problem.  Just call them up on the tech support line.

Courtesy of Engadget. 

I missed this update on the Rio Carbon firmware as well:

• Fixed issue where unit would restart in Voice Record mode and freeze.
• Added Alert to Carbon display that's triggered whenever Carbon is plugged into a front USB port that's having problems communicating with the Carbon. This could be due to insufficient power on that USB port.
  
  "Alert: Rio Carbon is having problems with this USB port. Please try another."

You can download it here.

Courtesy of Riovolution.com

Michael and Charlie are putting together a Media Center Geek dinner at 6pm December 9th at Crossroads Mall in Bellevue.  They'll be wearing Media Center jackets. I think this is a great idea.  Hopefully we can get a few new Media Center PC form-factors there so people can take a look at them.  Chances are slim though with all the work around prepping demo systems for CES right now :).

By the way, Charlie is asking for more suggestions on what to write about re: MCE app development over on his blog. If you have questions, Charlie has answers and a number of good tips on stuff.  Personally, I want someone to write a WSDOT Traffic Cam app so my wife can see how late I'm going to be at a glance. :)

That reminds me...we've been thinking about doing a Media Center App Challenge - identify 2-3 big ideas/categories for app dev't for MCE and offer prizes (cash or products) to those that are voted the best.  I wonder, what should be the challenges?

Just in time for the holidays- a few surprises from the Windows XP Client team. A new Winter Fun Pack has just been released with add-ons for Media Center and more. Of particular interest to Media Center and Media Player 10 users:

Tweak MCE 2005 - A new Media Center 2005 Powertoy and add-on app that enables power users to control settings such as Skip Interval for “Trickplay”, Reaction timings, enable Universal Remote controls, UI timeouts & notifications, and even enable 16:9 support on Windows Media Center Extenders. There's just too much to list!

Whitecap (Holiday Edition) Visualization - From Andy O'Meara, creator of the popular G-Force Viz for MCE, this new viz is very cool and includes a number of holiday shapes and visualizations.

Yule Log Visualization - The classic visualization of a warm fireplace, the fire crackling and flaring to the music.

Winter Ice Storm Visualization - A wintry scene comes alive with snow and ice in this popular viz from years past.

Holiday Auto Playlists - I personally think this is the most under- rated feature in MP10.  These Holiday autoplaylists scour your media library to create music playlists based on a wide set of keywords for popular holidays including Hannukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Great for taking holiday music on your portable music players or Portable Media Centers too.

Download the new items as a part of the Winter Fun Pack 2004 available today. If there's something you'd like to see in future packs, please let me know and I'll pass it along to the team.

MSN is currently in beta testing with their new blogging service, MSN Spaces.  If you've ever been afraid to blog, not sure where to start or looking to try something new, check it out.

Features include:

- Rich Web-based editing
- Send pictures directly from your Cameraphone (Moblogging)
- Music Playlists - post personal music lists and playlists you can import from WM Player 10 and let people rate your playlists.
- Book Lists - Recent books you're reading or have read and recommend
- Sample for free and download (not for free) music tracks/playlists from MSN Music
- Catgories
- Comments
- Stats
- Trackbacks
- RSS Syndication - noticably absent is an RSS tag but I suspect this will get fixed

I see a number of unique features here.  The servers appear to be a little slow (no doubt due to the number of Slashdotters banging on it right now.  I'm thinking about making my personal blog available on this site. You can check my test site out and a somewhat dated picture at http://spaces.msn.com/members/seanalex

Learn more and download here.

My Movies is a free MCE (Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition) add-on application to function as remote operated DVD index for both your online and offline DVDs. Browse your DVD collection by titles, actors, directors or genres - all with covers and images. Screenshots

Not bad-I've played with prior versions but this looks pretty good for cataloging your DVD collection.

For the Halo 2 fan who REALLY needs to prove what a bad-ass he/she is not just on the Web, in IM, or on Xbox Live but also needs to do it with an Excel spreadsheet, Sam brings us this, the “Halo 2 RSS Excel Workbook”.  A data-driven spreadsheet that uses the Bungie.net website's RSS feeds to offer the ability to:

-Easily view your previous games stats
-Slice and dice your Halo stats by many categories including map and game type
-Chart your stats to visually see how you kick ass
-Calculate overall averages: kills per game, deaths per game, etc... 

Thank you Sam for once again showing me why I suck more at Halo 2. Or maybe I can find a certain Pivot Table combo that proves I really kick ass at something in Halo 2 other than dying. My prediction- we start seeing data-driven Powerpoint slide decks entitled,  “Why I kick your ass in Halo 2”. 

Engadget brings us public word about Alienware's new DHS 2 Living Room PC going toe to toe with the HP Digital Entertainment Center. Looks like a Gyration Keyboard and Mouse round the system out.  I have yet to play with one but I'm sure I will soon. :)

Chris Pirillo notes among other things this holiday season he's thankful to Microsoft and calls out a number of us by name.  For whatever it's worth, we're thankful for Chris for the feedback, both good and what can be better.  Keep it up and I'll see you soon. More thoughts on what I'm thankful for shortly.

Chris Lanier details updates coming to the NVidia NVDVD decoder. Media Center and Portable Media Center users will note a # of improvements including support for ATSC (HDTV) transcode to PMC it looks like.  Get all the details here.

Wow, Popular Science's “Best of What's New“ Grand Award for Gadgets goes to PlaysforSure! Okay, they call it WM DRM 10 but the fact is that PlaysforSure is the consumer logo for the end to end consumer experiences enabled in large part by WM DRM10.

This is also the same technology that enables you to download tracks from MSN Music, transfer them to up to 5 PCs of your choice, burn it up to 7 times, and download as many times as you like to your portable music player.  I'm suprised this doesn't get more air-play.  I think a certain i-music player only supports 3 computers.

Let's see, PlaysforSure devices are showing up in Esquire's Gift Guide, PopSci, and even MCE is showing up in the December issue of Good Housekeeping. You're going to be hearing a lot more about PlaysForSure and cool devices in the coming weeks and months.  Not all ball and chains come in black- some come in white- or others :).

A new update is now available for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 that resolves an issue where the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) may not display indicators that show which programs are scheduled to record.  (KB888316) You can download it from Microsoft.com here. I do not believe a Windows Update version is available at this time.

Much to my wife's glee, I just finished Halo 2.  This game seemed much more epic and cinematic than the original.  Whatever you do, keep watching AFTER the credits.  Without spoilers, what surprised me the most were some of the names in the credits, particularly Ron Perlman, and Orlando Jones.  You didn't see any airtime on the fact that both lended their voices.  I wonder, were they just Halo fans who wanted to be a part of the new installment? 

A friend of mine, let's call him “CP” works on the Bungie team.  Back when he first started, I was able to beat him in the original.  After an evening of H2 the other night, it's clear that he has bested me many times over.  Time to practice I guess. :)

Here's the scenario- a co-worker tells you that ABC's new TV show “Lost“ is great and you need to watch it (which you should, particularly in HD).  But you always forget to set it to record when you get home.  Solution: Set your MCE to record the series directly from your office with the MSN Remote Record Service.  From Mark Salloway's MCE blog (ok, I'm on vacation!):

Some guy called Dark Helmet broke the physics engine in Halo 2 and figured out how to fly. In his new movie appropriately titled, Learning to Fly, he shows us how to do it complete with captions. The video is long but fun especially at the surprise ending. Created with a Dazzle Analog DV Capture Kit and Windows Movie Maker 2.x :)

A new plug-in for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 enables you to control your HomeSeer Home Automation System so you can control your heating/cooling, lighting and more.  Again, I cannot vouch for their system as I don't have this in my own home but this is the third such home automation system I've seen in the past two months for Media Center.  I'm curious what you think- it there a mass-market for home automation?  If technology continues to go wireless for these types of solutions, it just might become easy enough and affordable. For me, a whole-home music/video distribution system would be ideal. What would you like to control with a home automation system?