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.

It's just starting, more to talk about later. In the meantime, check out www.live.com (beta) and sign up for additional beta programs here.

And what do you see in the #3 position on the left?  "Gadgets". That's right- Web-based Gadgets.  As we've discussed on www.microsoftgadgets.com, the Microsoft Gadget platform is much more than just desktop items- it will connect Windows and the Web. Start.com was just the beginning.

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.

Back during the dotcom bubble, there were a number of sites popping up that offered a simple way for folks to share their playlists (not music). Some services like Napster do a so-so job of this, and even iTunes Music Store has the concept of Celebrity Playlists (I still have no idea what Jackie Chan is listening to, and that's okay).  Let's face it, celebrities (ahem their publicists) aren't any better at building playlists than most of us are.  But a useful way of finding music that works well is elusive- unless you use iMix on iTunes, and then you're locked into their service.

The topic struck me a few weeks ago when I was looking at the latest version of MoodLogic. We were throwing a dinner party and let's face it, listening to Aerosmith and Kanye West doesn't really set the mood for a sit-down dinner.  What I wanted was a site for playlists where I could search on tags like, "November", "Fall", "Dinner" and get a list of good songs.  Then I could sort based on popularity (and here's an idea- opt-in popularity based on age group. Sorry, I don't listen to the same music a 16 yo does downloading heavily off of MSN Music).  I asked Chris Pirillo if such a service existed, we couldn't find one anymore.  MoodLogic comes close, and Yahoo Music has a great personalization engine, but they're based on your own music library.  Search engines do an abysmal job of cataloging mixes too. I tried again the other day when building my ultimate Gym Mix (6 miles of pain!)

With the advent/re-emergence of Tagging, RSS, media player plug-ins, and a number of legitimate music stores now available, I think there's an interesting opportunity for personalizing music based on playlist sharing and moods.  And I don't think it should be locked to any one group or service.

Radio networks spend hundreds of thousands to millions programming their stations, but they're so formulaic.  Isn't it time that we start aggregating our own playlists via an online service?  We do it for collections of photos on Flickr, so where's our Mixr?

And with that, I offer my latest:

Sean's Gym Playlist - Soundtracks
Tags: October; Mix; Gym; Soundtrack; Power; Pump Up;

1.  Jesus Walks - Kanye West (from Jarhead trailer)
2.  Precious - Depeche Mode (from Smallville Vol II: Metropolis Mix)
3.  Anvil of Crom - Basil Pouledouris (from Conan the Barbarian)
4.  Dragula (Hot Rod Herman remix) - Rob Zombie (from the Matrix)
5.  Learn to Crawl -Black Lab (Spider-Man)
6.  Everybody out of the Water - The Wallflowers (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)
7.  Would? - Alice in Chains (Singles Soundtrack)
8.  Lose Yourself - Eminem (8 Mile Soundtrack)
9.  Blow Me Away - Breaking Benjamin (Halo 2 Soundtrack)
10. Gladiator - Hans Zimmer (Gladiator Soundtrack)

Got some others?  Send them my way.

HDBeat asks why there are no HD trailers up on the Xbox360 web site. I agree this would be great to see, but the trailers are out there and have been covered considerably.  Check out the complete list of HD trailers available for download from Microsoft here. I'm sure a new wave of trailers is somewhere, waiting in the wings. I'll check into it.

Brandon over at www.longhornblogs.com asks,

What would be your most desired Gadget you could throw onto your desktop and "pin" to your Sidebar? Let me know by simply commenting to this blog entry! I really would love to hear what you all would like to see in terms of Gadgets!

Feel free to post your comments over there or here.

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