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.

According to the GetSiriusInfo blog:

Some anonymous online sources are quoted saying the S50 had been delayed possibly due to an action by the RIAA. I have been on the phone with Circuit City and Crutchfield this evening and they feel completely confident that the rumor has no merit. Crutchfields for instance, "a shipment is due on or around the 25th" and that shipment is SOLD OUT to preorders, they are now accepting orders for future shipments. CircuitCity.com Confirmed as well -will be SOLD OUT immediately from preorders! (CC could not comment on your local CC store) The S50 is the MUST HAVE gift this holiday season...I strongly suggest you pre-order as soon as possible if you want one...

The new date we are hearing is Nov 17th

I ordered my S50 yesterday from Crutchfield without issue. This could be overly hyped but while we're on the hype wagon, here's my prediction: Howard Stern will be at CES this year in the Sirius Booth.

Here's my reasoning: Stern is the single-largest driving force behind satellite radio and he believes in the product.  He's being paid hundreds of millions to make the jump, and he's very clear that he's going on Letterman, the Today Show and others just to promote his move to Sirius.  XM and Sirius have a long history of bringing out (mostly B-level) celebs at CES.  Despite what some may think of Stern, he is has a 100M listenership and would be a major draw for Sirius at the event if Stern was there.  Not to mention that Stern goes on the air on Sirius the Monday after CES ends.

FYI- you can trial Sirius for free via WMA streams on their site at www.sirius.com if you're curious what it's all about. (Windows Media Player required)

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.

In the upcoming 11/14 copy of Forbes Magazine, Bruce Upbin writes:

"I'm sick of the songs on my iPod, even my Glenn Gould and Johnny Cash albums. But it would be absurd to refill my 10-gigabyte iPod at the iTunes Music Store, as it would cost me $2,000, not to mention hours spent figuring out what's worth owning. Better idea:Pay $5 to $10 a month for a subscription service from Yahoo, Rhapsody or Napster that recommends music and loads up my player for far less, as long as I keep paying for the service.

Best idea:Give the iPod away and get Sirius Satellite Radio's slick new S50 for $360. For $13 a month I get sports, talk and news, plus 65 commercial-free music stations programmed by people way more knowledgeable about music than I am."

Crutchfield is offering the S50 for $279.99 with $50 mail-in rebate and free shipping in many cases.  I don't get anything from it, but it's a pretty good deal.  I've ordered one and will post more thoughts here when it arrives.  I hope it supports PlaysforSure so I can get subscription music AND satellite radio in one.

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? 

Via Thomas Hawk:

Matt Goyer's Microsoft Windows Media Center Blog - MCE 2005 According to Microsoft's Matt Goyer, TweakMCE ver 2.0 is out. Download it here. It works with rollup 2.

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.

DNS changes and others are coming to the site shortly. This may result in temporary or periodic interruptions to the site.  Hang with us though- more to come. I hope.

A lot of hype has been made around the $1.99 offering of a limited set of TV programs via iTunes 6.
This isn't a new or original idea. SciFi channel offered a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica online, and now CBS if offering weekly streams of it's fledgling show, "Threshold". The show is good (ok, it's manageable) but it's got Brent Spiner so how bad can it really be?

It's an interesting marketing ploy- would be even more interesting if they Podcasted it and offered as a WMV download for Smartphone, Media Center, Pocket PC, and er... other devices :)

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.

Matt has a post here regarding the CRC64/DVDID that Windows Media Center uses to populate DVD cover art in the My DVD feature, as well as a link to a utility to grab this detail manually.  Interesting stuff.

Note: Fixed the link.  Something about Firefox on OSX causing problems (yes, I use everything :)).

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?