I'm actually not sure why people aren't more up in arms over this (via iPodLounge & MacWorld UK).  It sickens me personally.

The WSJ has an interesting article on a small outfit called MusicGremlin whose portable music player goes on the market today.  What makes MG unique?  Wireless.  You can wirelessly download music from the service or even share tracks (legally) between friends and other subscribers.  It's a really interesting idea and Uncle Walt and Kathy seem to agree.

The device is a bit chunky (or is that clunky?), the service lacks the desirability of others (i.e. letting people browse before creating a registration) but it's an interesting concept to what I'd call, "Super-enthused music lovers who have a wireless connection and want to share with friends and can't wait until they get home to download music oh but they still need a wire to charge their device" kind of people.  Wireless should support the core experience, not BE the core experience IMO. Laboriously typing in characters to search? No thanks.  Back in the day it was a pain typing in three letters for my high score in Pac Man using a joystick, I'm sure not going to make this my primary way of searching for music. 

But... it supports PlaysforSure so Urge should work with this, so thats a plus... when connected to a PC.

Update: Michael Gartenberg weighs in on the concept himself here. David Card seems to agree with him that Uncle Walt has been seduced.

Here's the link. They started shipping to stores over a week ago as well- call your local store or pop your zipcode in online but chances are if you're looking for a last minute father's day present, this could be it.

Speaking of which, today my VP stopped by my office to note all the VPs that have Clix devices now.  The funny thing is, they're getting one passed around by another VP at a meeting.  Then they're buying them for themselves.  They're showing them to family and then have to buy them for their family.  I know of at least 50 units that have been sold.

Why?  Because it just works. Just like the iPod, it works as advertised. But this one works with services where you can download all you can eat for a flat rate per month.  iRiver has done the due diligence and the hard work on the QA side to make sure the issues were addressed.  While I may have helped by leading the Microsoft team that worked on this project and was the Microsoft UX guy on the end to end, iRiver's engineers are what makes this thing shine.  It was the best project I've ever worked on- hands down.

DAPreview was skeptical of the other big reviews too.  They said:

After using the player these past weeks I have to say it is one of the best players I’ve ever used, and right now is the best flash player out. When I first saw it, and read how high it was being rated by other reviews [read: CNET] I couldn’t believe it. I still just saw it as a 2GB U10. The first few moments of using the player changed all that. The player has more features than others in its range and for just about the same price.

So there you have it.  One C|Net Editor's Choice, one Top 100 of the Year by PC World, and now DAPreview, perhaps one of the most intense reviews gives it the thumbs up.  Now you can go to BBY and try one out yourself. 

Update: Go demo at BBY, it's coming soon online but their price is too high at $229.  You can get it for cheaper ($195.00) at Amazon.com.

Update2: I hear rebates should be available soon at BBY.  Please let me know if you see them.

Ok, not that I really know of, but at this point it could happen as we've entered a bit of a bizarro world. :)  The reaction to Robert's announcement about his leaving Microsoft has been a groundswell of feedback, blog postings, analyst comments, CNET headlines, Reuters articles etc.  I knew the Scoble effect was big, but not that big.  Larry Hryb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) and I were talking about it on our respective drives home last night*.  He asked my thoughts on Scoble leaving and here's basically what I said:

I've known Robert for almost ten years now, going back to when he was an event and communities coordinator at Fawcette Technical Publications and I was just entering the corporate world.  Scoble and I have always had a good relationship and I think the key to his success is that he's affable and a little goofy, while amazingly self-aware.  He uses these traits to his advantage.  Like a certain cartoon bear, he wanders around Microsoft looking for picnic baskets.  Sometimes, he wanders into the wrong campground and he gets shooed away, but people like him still.  He's also been amazingly adept at using his position to build his own brand, his own presence, and no one can fault him for that.  It's just the nature of blogging.

This disarming charm and sense of humility paired with a strong desire to share his own perspective is what's made Scoble such a lightning rod.  Am I sad to see him go? Yes.  A bit perplexed? Yes.  Then there's the obligatory questions about who is going to step up to replace him?  I think there may be in the future others who take on his job role, but he came along during a perfect storm- one part nascent blogging concept in corporate america paired with a curiousity about what happens behind the curtain at Microsoft.  Let's not forget the willingness to let the story be told by Microsoft as well (and many teeth were gnashed in the process I'm sure).

Good luck Robert and I'm looking forward to reading about your next adventure.

*Note: We were using speakerphones in our cars in true geek fashion. ;)

I've been doing my part by dutifully dogfooding Office 2007 and Vista over the past three weeks and while things are a little slower (as often happens with betas), my productivity is still up there.  But every once in a while, something goes haywire.  For example, I was just catching up on some RSS feeds when Outlook 2007 disappeared.  I said the required, "What the?!" and Outlook restarted.  But that's not the cool part... what happened next is.

I got a notification (toast) message: "The bug you just experienced has been fixed in an upcoming build of Office 2007."

How's that for customer response?  Sure, it would have been even nicer to get an actual fix, but I got peace of mind in getting a checkpoint that the issue had been found and fixed already. I don't have to be one of the many who will file a duplicate bug against this issue.

Sometimes I wish WMP and Vista were more like Office.  This is one of them.  I just email to my VP about that topic.

It appears more CEDIA installers are putting MCE and Xbox 360 into their mix.  Over at AVSForum, there's a headling on the following article detailing an impressive setup involving whole-home distribution, home automation and more.  I'm humbled.

As a budding photo hobbyist (Nikon D200 in-hand), like Thomas Hawk I enjoy taking pictures of architecture when I'm out and about on my travels.  What happened to Thomas when he was snapping from a public venue at 45 Fremont Street in San Francisco is unconscionable.  I wish I could say this was the first time this has happened to him.  Thomas is standing up for all of our rights - photographers or otherwise.

Suggestion for Thomas - consider taking a small portable audio recorder in the future and notify the person at the beginning that this conversation will be recorded. ;)

If you're a beta junkie like me, and have a spare test system laying around, why not give Windows Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 a whirl? Unlike when XP was in beta, broadband is finally at acceptable speeds for most to able to download.  Just be sure to run the Vista Upgrade Advisor first m'kay?

• Download Windows Vista Beta 2 (or order DVD media)
• Download Office 2007 Beta 2 (or order DVD media)

Wondering what all the fuss is around Vista?  Download the Vista Beta 2 Guide (Word .doc).

Last week an ad popped up on Microsoft.com:

The buzz internally was palpable.  "Coolest MS ad ever!" claimed one person.  Others have asked for more of this kind of thing.  I would love to see it the inspiration for a new wallpaper (which is being discussed).  

So, that got me thinking; I'm going to offer up a brand spankin new 2GB iRiver Clix to the person that creates the coolest WMP11 (XP), iRiver Clix, or WMP11 (Vista) inspired wallpaper.  Post your link in the comments in order to be eligible. In 30 days, the best one wins.  Tell your friends :)

If you've missed the hilariously campy trailers and buzz around Samuel L. Jackson's upcoming movie "Snakes on a Plane" (no, that's not a working title), you'll still appreciate this.  A guy flying his plane at 3000ft found a stow-away- a 4.5ft Black Snake in his instrument panel.  Full story at MSNBC.

Thursday night, our team hosted a small get together with iRiver as a thanks for the hard work between the teams on the Clix.  The highlight of the party was recalling one iRiver employee's first trip to Dixies BBQ in February where he ate an entire fork full of "The Man" after being egged on by our group and owner Gene Porter.  We told him it was insanely hot BBQ sauce. We tried to warn him (imagine three guys in slow motion saying "nooooooooooo" as he gulps the forkful). 

Classic quotes include:

• "No, seriously, when is the burning going to stop?"
• "I can't phfleel my libps"
• "@&#(%&@#%"
• "Come on, seriously, when does it stop?"
• "Can I get some milk?" (upon returning to MSFT, shotgunning two open pints of milk walking down the hall)

We were crying we were laughing so hard.  Two iRiver engineers from Korea were with us and fighting hard not to laugh, then they just gave up. Turns out the poor guy barely puts ketchup on his food. 

In the end, it was a great party and a good time had by all end-capping over six months of hard work. Ironically, this is the same day that PC World named the Clix one of their Top 100 Products of the Year (Why in June?  Their year is a 12 month span; they used to announce these awards at PC Expo which no longer exists).  The criteria is highly subjective but hey, it ranked #90, with the Xbox 360 being #89 - not bad company.  Reportedly sales of the Clix have been brisk - a best-seller on their site at www.iriveramerica.com  and at least one online retailer sold out of their initial allotment very quickly.  All good to hear.  At least two more major retailers are in the process of receiving inventory so that you'll be able to go out and try one in person soon. ;)

Last Thursday, the installers arrived and we're now customers of Comcast Digital Voice service.  Basically the service runs over your existing cable system for phone service. At first I was skeptical, hearing the many stories about features that were missing from VOIP services (e.g. E-911 service).  Despite the fact that three of our neighbors are RNs, and the Eastside Fire Chief lives two doors down, there's a certain peace of mind that comes with this.  The good news is that this doesn't appear to be an issue anymore and with nationwide long-distance, the cost is nearly the same as our local POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) provider for just local calls.  Here's a quick rundown of the good and bad in my opinion. 

The Good

• Good (not great) voice quality.  The average person probably wouldn't notice any difference. 
• E911 service including address reporting
• Battery Backup (in case the power goes out)
• Voice mail support for phone and Web (secured). You can even download as excel spreadsheets all incoming, missed, and outgoing calls.
• Security system integration
• No service contract
• No apparent drop in download speeds (for upload see below)
• One bill for cable and phone

What could be better/Suggestions

• E911 doesn't work during extended outages over several hours; resiliency is a concern often noted regarding network congestion etc.
• My upload speed appears to have gone from close to 384 to 284, unsure if it's related.
• Takes up to 10 days before new customers will start seeing incoming/outgoing calls on the Web system.
• Visual notification when voicemail is waiting & Caller ID. Some sort of auxiliary display would be nice (Sideshow anyone?)
• Windows Live Messenger bot.  I want an agent that notifies me when a call comes in.
• Online personal phone book
• Phone integration (something like this new Philips Windows Live Messenger-enabled phone)

I'll report back after a few weeks of living with the service.