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.

An interesting tid-bit:

"Finally a word about Apple's big announcement next week. I'm told that if you try to access a page on the Apple web site that doesn't exist, something like http://www.apple.com/cringely you get a "page not found" redirect. But if you try http://www.apple.com/movies you get a "forbidden" message."

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.

I've been using the new Hotmail for about a month now and I love it. It's so much more interactive and Web 2.0ish.  Learn more here on how to sign up.

A few enterprising developers have built an emulator for Windows Sidebar to run on Windows XP.  I'm not going to link to it because of a few things:

• We didn't officially release Windows Sidebar... yet. Think around Beta 2
• Developers who build on this platform will be disappointed b/c it is evolving
• Gadgets will be available on XP - officially (Ed. Note: I've since changed teams and understand this was the POR at time of writing however is no longer the case.)

I'm super-excited to see all the enthusiasm around Windows Sidebar but I also don't want developers to get frustrated building on the wrong platform. We have big plans in the works- when the timing is right :)

Universal just released the first 9 minutes of the motion picture Serenity online.  Now that's smart marketing- in order for this one to get out of orbit, more folks (than just the fanboys) need to see just how good it is.

Watch here.  Enjoy.

Unfortunately they're missinga # of MS properties' RSS feeds (WMPlugins, Startsomethingpc.com, and www.microsoftgadgets.com to name a few) however this is a GREAT start.

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?

My son was on a riot act this weekend so I shouted, "Serenity Now!" to my wife.  Over the past month, I discovered the little-known TV program, "FireFly" in limited reruns on SciFi Channel.  Why limited?  Because it appears Fox did such a poor job of marketing the programming and meddling in the creative aspects that the show was cancelled after only a few episodes.  (Note to self: Don't ever watch SciFi ever on Fox- remember Space: Above and Beyond? The suits don't get it). Now I'm sure there is plenty of blame to go around, starting with naming a program "FireFly"...

Anyway, I initially hated the "country/western" aspects of the show but gave it two episodes.  I had never heard of this Joss Whedon creator/writer/director/executive producer guy- I'm not a "Buffy" or "Angel" fan.  What I did find was an amazingly well scripted show with edge, humor, culture, and of course, tech. 

Since the cancellation of the TV show and it's resurgence on SciFi, last week, "Serenity"- a major motion picture was released based on the TV show. My impression - Whedon is the next George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry rolled into one.  With Star Trek so whitewashed and formulaic it is going to have to be re-"envisioned", and Star Wars suffering from bad acting and even worse scriptwriting, Whedon slips into an opening here.  And with a 4.25 out of 5 star average critic's rating, let's hope the audience shows up for it.  I had a kick in the pants time and will go see it again- in the theater.  High praise for any movie.

And what did my wife say?  She "really really enjoyed it".

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.

Let me start by saying I love the industrial design behind the ipod nano.  I just bought one and am eagerly awaiting its arrival so I can run it through its paces.  But now I'm learning that there may be significant concerns regarding the engineering and ease with which it can be damaged. The Register, MacIntouch, Apple's Support Groups (a 291 thread discussion), and a new site called "FlawedMusicPlayer.com" (formerly ipodnanoflaw.com) all report on failures, the latter of which is posting pictures of others' broken ipod Nano's.

I won't pass judgement, particularly until I see it myself, but it sounds like there's a lot of unhappy folks out there and some frustrated Apple store employees dealing with the returns. Here's to hoping I'm not one of them when my Nano arrives next week.

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.