I'm the proud owner of a Logitech Harmony 688 Remote Control- it has brought an unparalleled level of usability to our home theater and returned matrimonial bliss to events such as oh, watching TV, a DVD, viewing photos, or listening to music in our main living space.  Dr. Phil should give away these remotes in a Father's Day special.

But now my 688 just got schooled by the new kid on the block- the Harmony 880.  A color screen, Alpha letters on the numeric keys for triple-tapping text in (such as a quick artist search in Media Center) and a rechargable battery all combine with a motion sensor that lights the remote up when you pick it up to create a near-perfect remote experience.

Why only near-perfect?  I don't see any mention of my requested "Child Lock" feature- the one where if your remote is left unattended where a child can get to it, they cannot start messing with it.  My son has successfully reprogrammed two other remotes in the house just by banging on the buttons.  I now have to use the volume key to change the channel.

Retailing for $249.00, this is a steep price to pay for a remote control.  The Logitech site says it's available at Best Buy but check first- it's not on BestBuy.com and I've seen spotty coverage in the past. But ask yourself- how important is my marriage?  How many years of future upgrades does this ensure because the vaunted, "No more gadgets, I can't control the ones you already have" argument goes out the window? PC World gives it 4 out of 5 stars.  Now if Oprah or Dr. Phil would endorse it, we'd all be set. 

While all the fervor has been around AOpen and Intel's Mac Mini-killer, "Pandora" at Computex, AOpen has also been plenty busy in the Home Entertainment PC space:

AOpen XC REC6 (Upper-right) – AV system for sitting room, a combination of bedroom AV system and conventional PC

Although AOpen XC REC6 is also designed for providing digital home entertainment, the look-and-feel of XC REC6 is totally different from that of AOpen Media Center Server.  The stylish and super slim XC REC6 is only 6.9 cm (2.72”) in height, making it ideal for sitting room. 

Even though it is one of the slimmest desktop PCs in the world, the small size does not mean performance sacrifice.  It supports nearly all important audio and video interfaces including S-Video, YPbPr, and D4 connectors for displaying video output to HDTVs or LCD screens. 

* The size of the product is only 8.9 liters – nearly the same as home electronic products.
* Provides one 5.25” and one 3.5” drive bay.
* Built with a stylish VFD panel to show operation status.
* Supports Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition.
* Supports multiple-channel audio outputs.
* 275W power supply.
* Dimensions: 69mm(H) x 300mm(L) x 430mm(W); 2.72” x 11.81” x 16.93”
* Supports Intel Pentium M Dothan processors.
* Supports Intel i915G and ICH6 chipsets.
* Supports dual channel DDR II 400/533 MHz.
* Provides PCI-Express x16 and PCI expansion slots.
* Provides ATAand Serial ATAconnectors.
* Provides S-Video, YPbPr, D4 video output connectors.
* Provides USB, IEEE1394, and HD Audio 7.1-channel sound.
* Built-in 10/100/1000 Mb LAN connector.

AOpen Media Center Server 400/410 (Lower-right) is designed to look like a conventional audio amplifier.  The housing of the innovative product is designed with storage space for seven hard drives.  The system is developed with the functions to receive video streams from multiple TV channels.  A user can record video streams or TV programs of up to three different TV channels with built-in hard drives.  The user can manage, edit, browse, or play back the recorded video streams or TV programs recorded in the system hard drives.

* Built with large size VFD which shows system playback status clearly.
* Designed with dual-channel TV tuner – the user can watch the program of a TV channel while recording the TV program of another TV broadcast station.
* Supports Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition.
* Supports 7.1-channel surround sound.
* Supports Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz 820 processor which is designed with dual core and Hyper-Threading technology.
* Supports dual channel DDR II 533/667 MHz and expandable to 4 GB.
* Provides PCI-Express x16 and PCI expansion slots.
* Provides one ATA and six Serial ATA connectors.
* Built-in 250 GB hard drive.
* Built-in DVD Combo drive.
* Built-in 10/100/1000 Mb LAN interface.
* Full function remote control.
* Provides S-Video, YPbPr, and D4 video output connectors.

Corey Gouker called me up a few months ago about a group buy he was doing for displays.  He had this idea for creating the ultimate MCE Desktop configuration with 4 displays.  I passed at the time. I must be getting old because I thought this is something I would have done when I was single and sans-kid but not very practical right now.  Since then, I've gone Multimon at work and will never go back- now after seeing Corey's home setup on the Media Center Flickr Pool, I'm trying to figure out how to convince my wife that this would make a great anniversary present.  Here's one for the Engadget lover in all of us.  In his own words:

As for how I use this setup... Well I listen to music (loudly). Usually have a movie playing or ripping on the MCE. The server is usually showing the status of everything else. I'm retiring my main system in the middle. I pretty much use it only for winamp, wmp, web, outlook, messenger. All the machines are domain joined and have outlook setup with Exchange so it's not that big of a deal. Still have to build my server so I can centralize the storage. The laptop isn't being used enough yet since I just received it and haven't had a chance to install everything (too much work). I use the PMC's for mainly music. One for work music one for driving music.

I bow before Corey's WOPR of an MCE-setup.

I'm a photo enthusiast but by no means a prosumer in the photo space, but I'm pining after the Nikon D70 I borrowed from a friend last holiday season, drooling over the pictures my co-workers took in Greece, and sitting idly waiting for my Canon Digital Elph to die someday (a great point and shooter, just not great for blow-ups).

During my journey with the D70, I learned about RAW image format support.  RAW files are uncompressed, and store a massive amount of information (hey, another reason for native 64-bit computing <g>). The problem is that RAW files aren't natively supported by Windows- you don't get thumbnails, you can't view the pictures unless you install a 3rd party component. That's about to change.

Today, Microsoft along with Adobe, Canon, Fuji, and Nikon announced plans to add native RAW image format support into the next version of Windows, code-named "Longhorn".

What's more, for Windows XP users, a freely downloadable add-on for Windows XP will be available soon, the Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer with native support for Canon and Nikon-based RAW files. It will be available from www.microsoft.com shortly- I'm checking on exactly when and will post here when available. Now anywhere in the shell (Windows Explorer) such as My Pictures or My Documents, you'll see the pictures previewed along with other popular formats.  This functionality will also show up in a future version of Digital Image Suite.

Ok so more about the Longhorn stuff. For consumers, the ability to work with RAW image files just as easily as with JPEGs today will allow them to take advantage of the growing support for RAW in digital cameras and imaging software. Consumers will have more choices as new camera models are introduced because the new architecture in “Longhorn” makes it possible for all software programs on Windows to easily work with RAW image files.  My understanding is that MCE will also pick up this functionality however I'm working to confirm.

So the HD manufacturers have another reason for us to get larger HDDs- time to get RAW ;)

Press release

Taking a break from BBQing, I came acros this little gem. I'm not sure if this is the fourth or the fifth sign of the apocalypse.

Yes.  That's right.  A thong for your phone.  Try to erase it from your mind. I tried and failed.  I fear this will become the "Parachute Pants" of 2005 so misery loves company.  First one to spot Paris Hilton with one of these is... well... nevermind.

Enjoy via ohgizmo.com

Not only am I Addicted to Digital Media, I'm also addicted to good BBQ.  Perhaps it was spending too much time in the mid-west that did it to me, too many 2am ventures to Wilson's BBQ in college after the bars closed with one to two dozen friends. Either way, I've learned the hard way that you cannot find good BBQ in Seattle at a reasonable price.  So about 5 years ago, I started my journey for BBQ bliss.  It started with an electric smoker, then a propane unit from Wal-Mart, then a new stainless steel version from Costco last year.  The first thing I learned is that there is a big difference between grilling and BBQ.

Today I was up at the crack of dawn (thanks to Ryan) and putting a 10lb brisket into the smoker.  Brisket, Ribs, sausage and more today for a little neighborhood get-together.

If you're thinking about getting a smoker or just dabbling, I recommend the book "Smoke and Spice".  It has a wealth of recipes.  Steven Raichlin's BBQ Bible and BBQ USA are also very good books. Lastly three good sites: The BBQ Guy Blog, The BBQ Forum for discussions on BBQ, and BBQ Search.com - the "Google" of BBQ.

I'm not sure I can wait until 5-6pm for this brisket... but I'll try :) Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone

For those who **do not** have young kids, this is an idea that's about 30 years overdue. With all of those "Wall Warts" aka Power Transformers under my desk at the office, I have 3 power strips all plugged into different wall plates.  The Power Strip Liberator fixes that.  No need to describe any further- you can see it here. A 5-pack will run you $8.95 over at Cyberguys.com.  Just in time for Father's Day.

Courtesy SmartHome and Coolhunting.com

Intel launched their new Pentium D-series processors yesterday, starting with the model 820 (2.8Ghz) expected to offer affordable dual-core performance for about $300, maybe even closer to $250 and going up to the 840 Extreme Edition with Hyperthreading support for closer to $500. If you're not familiar with Dual Core- now is a good time to get up to speed, prior to the upcoming holiday season.  Dual Core processors are the wave of the future for both Intel and AMD, and while the benchmarks are decidedly mixed (see ExtremeTech), the idea of effectively 2 processors in one is a winning combination. If you're heavy into encoding or media conversion, or a multitasking junkie with 20 apps open and running at a given time, this may be right for you.

More news: News.com
Read More: ExtremeTech
Dual Core Defined: Wikipedia

Lots of interesting tid-bits I haven't had much time to write about:

The BBS Documentary is finally out.  Tons of chatter on aliases in MSFT among those of us who used to BBS.  I got my start in the industry as Operations Manager for Excalibur Communications Inc., creators of the first GUI-based BBS, Excal BBS for Windows (via Way Back Machine).

Speaking of way back and given the recent escalation in "we're better" mantra's in the console wars, check out the hype way back for a certain game console. I'm still looking for my real-time rendering of Toy Story. :)  Xbox 360 guru Major Nelson has his take here, while Sony has theirs here.

Through the din, dust, and ashes of the latest salvo in the console wars, you might have heard about Xbox 360 supporting display of photos, music, TV, and even high definition content and services from Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PCs. Personally I was waiting to see who was going to be the first to announce RSS and Podcast support for their console ;). I've been tracking this since long before we launched MCE05 and I can say I was super-skeptical they could get the polish of the MCE experience on "Xenon" as Xbox360 was known.  I was dead wrong. Consumers will now have two premium choices if they're connecting to an HDTV: a full-fledged Media Center PC, or an Xbox 360 with Extender built-in (BTW: this functionality was codenamed "XeSled"- a play on Xenon and the codename for the first-generation extender, "Bobsled".  I'm looking forward to putting mine through it's paces but security keeps stopping me from liberating one of these bad-boys from Xbox offices over at Millennium campus- go figure.

Speaking of High Definition and Xbox, the team posted a whopping 17 WMV-HD gameplay trailers here. Download em all.

Lastly, I had a good chat with Ian Dixon over in the UK this AM via Skype.  My wife and I used Skype to make calls home from the UK and Greece just a few weeks ago and it worked great. I was surprised at how low the latency was.  It wasn't without issue (couldn't find peer nodes from time to time to help connect) but that was a small price to pay for free calls!

More tonight...

Matt Muller (AussieinSeattle) wrote a nifty plug-in for Seattlites looking to check up on current traffic conditions.  Features include:

1. SR-520 Cams (4 of them)
2. I-90 Cams (4 of them)
3. Bridge Traffic Flow
4. Carillon Point Cam 1 (good for checking wakeboarding conditions )
5. Carillon Point Cam 2
6. North Taffic Flow
7. South Taffic Flow

More details on this thread at The Green Button.  

BetaNews is reporting on Samsung's new development which enables them to store up to 16GB of data in and hard drive-only it's Flash memory.  They're reporting this could lead to extended battery life for notebooks and Tablet PCs.  During WinHEC a number of weeks ago, I was in a Sr. Exec meeting and had an opportunity to see this technology first-hand. It did in fact fit right into the HDD slot on an existing laptop. BetaNews reports access to data up to 2.5x that of regular HDD. Can you say fast? If the economics can be worked out, this could usher in a new generation of computing devices.

Competing with Google Earth, MSN's new Virtual Earth was demo'd earlier today by BillG according to reports.  Features include:

• Satellite images with 45-degree-angle views of buildings and neighborhoods 
• Satellite images with street map overlay.
• Ability to add local data layers, such as showing local businesses or restaurants

Screenshots and more here. theunofficialMicrosoftweblog has more here.

www.startsomethingpc.com is now open for online submission of competition entries to win up to $125,000. Downloads of the entry kit are 3x what we expected.  Apparently some folks have an idea about next-generation PC hardware design. What are your ideas?  What would you like to see?  Share you thoughts here.

Do you have Tiger "Widget" envy?  Konfabulator is available for both Mac and Windows PCs, delivering a solid level of polish and productivity (if you can call it that) to your desktop, even if you don't have Mac OS X "Tiger".

What's more, the new Konfabulator 2.0 is out with redesigned plug-ins and enhanced APIs.  While I cannot vouch for system resource usage or security- they may have have issues like Apple is having now with its own Dashboard Widgets.  At $19.95 to buy and free trial.  Be sure to check out the Widget Gallery. 

Unfortunately I am very tardy in writing up my thoughts on the Geek Dinner in the UK.  We had a great time and in typical fashion, not only was it Cinco de Mayo (which apparently is not celebrated in the UK- go figure <g>) and Election Day which may have helped to reduce the attendance. Either way, we had about 20 attendees and had a great time. More thoughts here and from Ian Forrester.  Next time I'm in the UK, we'll definitely do this again. 

I finally broke down and joined LinkedIn at the suggestion of some friends and co-workers.  You can find me there- just use my email address here.  Let's get the digiital media network growing- link in.