A few months back, I stumbled onto Hallowindow as a fun and freaky special effect for decorating our home for Halloween.  I wanted to do something similar for Christmas and seeing as we don't have a large yard to run a Mannheim Steamroller over our neighbors, I went with something a bit more subtle and easier to set up.  The unexpected side effect is that kids throughout our neighborhood now think that Santa lives at our house!  Here is the result:

Project List

To create the effect yourself, here is what you need:

• A window.  Just about any window will do.
• An old PC projector.  HD isn't needed and you can pick these up cheap on eBay or Amazon.
• A Windows 7 PC to drive the video, or an old DVD player with ability to set playback to repeat.
• A Virtual Santa or two (I like Santa's Symphonies and Santa in the Window)
• A good FM Transmitter. I used a C. Crane Digital FM Transmitter)
• A white sheet to cover the window.  Avoid patterns.
• Black Scrim used for theaters or a sheet of the black garden weed blocker fabric from local hardware store

Step 1: Set up the Projector

In my case, I'm using an Optoma DS317 SVGA DLP Projector.  It has a great throw ratio and at 2500 lumens should be bright enough for neighborhood outdoor movies during the summer.  Don't worry about fancy features- a standard-def projector will work with VGA input.  The trick is to get one with 2000 lumens or better.  Also look for ability to adjust keystone and reverse the image. 

I placed the setup on a small coffee table and made good use of the Windows 7 box to adjust the angle and do a quick alignment with the window:

Step 2:  Prep the PC

As you can see above, I decided to use a PC instead of a DVD player.  In this case, Windows 7 and Windows Media Player make an excellent choice if you're going to change up your order, add custom music etc.  I'm using an HP Mini 311 Netbook which works great with Windows 7. I set up the projector via the included VGA cable and have extended Windows Media Player to run on the projector as a second display.  You can set this by pressing [Windows Key] + P and choosing, "Extend" as seen below:

Make sure Windows Media Player is set to run in full screen and move the mouse cursor back over to the main Windows display.  This will set the player controls to hide automatically and has the added benefit of making sure any alerts/notifications will not appear on the projector.  The last thing you want to do is ruin the illusion.

Step 3: Prep the FM Tuner

There are a number of FM tuning options available, however I strongly recommend against using a solution designed for in-car.  They're just not powerful enough.  Be sure to read the comments on Amazon for the C. Crane Digital FM Transmitter and you should get tips on how to boostfor cars driving up to be able to hear your music.  If you're eagle eyed, you'll notice below that I've soldered a dipole FM antenna wire to the transmitter to improve the distance.

To figure out which station works best in your area, I recommend Belkin's "My Best FM Stations" service. Just tap in your City/Zip/State and it will give you a number of options.  Be sure to try these out yourself.

Step 4: Create a WMP Playlist for your Virtual Santa
Santa's Symphonies is available as a digital download (MPEG-4) which plays fine with Windows 7 and Windows Media Player.  For Santa in the Window, there's no music provided, but it's easy to add your own - just rip the DVD using Handbrake, import it into Windows Live Movie Maker, add your favorite holiday music tracks and save.

You''ll also notice that I have shuffle and repeat turned on on WMP.  Be sure to set repeat so the video can play indefinitely.  With Windows 7, the system is so stable I've let it run for an entire week without issue.

Step 5: Set up the Window Screen

For the projection screen, I used a two-ply of a white sheet and the black scrim material as seen below.  The scrim adds a great deal of realism to the effect because it blocks out the high intensity "halo" effect many projectors create and increases the black levels in the video.  I just pinned up the scrim and the sheet behind it.  Take this picture to your local fabric store and they'll be able to set you up (thank to my wife for contributing to the effort <g>).

Step 6: Fire up the projector, Create a Sign for the Yard and and delight the Kids

Be sure to level and center the display.  You'll also want to adjust the distance from the window so the scale of Santa is correct.  I use the WMP toolbar in full screen (seen below) to help center the video:

Remember to move the mouse cursor back to the main screen Be sure to put a sign on the yard with the FM Frequency you're transmitting on and house and you're ready to go!

Happy Holidays everyone!

If you know me, you know I can go a little Clark Griswold this time of year.  I love the holidays and spreading a little Christmas cheer.  So here are a few of my favorite downloads, dusted off and repackaged for Windows 7.    With apologies to my friends in the southern hemisphere, I'm keeping the Winter Fun Pack naming convention ;).  So this year I'm super-sizing my blog post on fun PC projects with features that are simplified by Windows 7.  Please note that this is not an official release from Microsoft, rather something I like to do for fun.  So here goes:

#1 NEW: Add a Winter Desktop Theme to Windows 7

This combination of Winter wallpapers and sound effects are sure to warm your heart and will be familiar to those who installed the Windows XP Winter Fun Pack back in 2003 as this is a re-release, simplified by Windows 7.  I tried to take care not to overdo with the sound effects but you'll find a few little additions I think you'll enjoy.  To install, just run the .themepack file on your Windows 7 desktop.  The wallpapers are set to change every 30 minutes, but feel free to choose your own.

Download Winter Desktop Theme for Windows 7 via Skydrive (5MB):

#2 Add a Yule Log Visualization for Windows Media Player to Windows 7

This was one of my favorites and the good news is that it's been tested and works great with Windows 7.  Watch as the Yule log flares along to your favorite holiday music in Windows Media Player.  A bit of trivia - we commissioned Frog Design to create this back in 2003, inspired by years of the 24 hour Yule Log on WPIX 11 in New York on Christmas Eve/Day.   Little did we know then what a classic it would become. 

Download Yule Log Viz for Windows Media Player via Skydrive (1.9MB)

#3 Quickly get to Holiday Autoplaylists with Windows 7

Another oldie but goodie - unzip these playlists to your default folder (e.g. My Music) and Windows Media Player will create playlists based on holiday music in your library.  Not only good for finding the music based on common keywords, but also for removing those tracks from your library after the holidays.  In music mixology, nothing is worse than "Jingle Bells" in the middle of a 4th of July party.  You'll find playlist selections including "All", "Fresh Tracks" for music added in last 7 days,  "One Audio CD Worth" and "One Data CD-R Worth" in the mix for holidays of multiple denominations.  To install, just unzip into your My Music\Playlists folder.

Download WMP Holiday Autoplaylists via Skydrive (15.5KB)

#4: Create a Holiday Trivia Slideshow with Windows Media Center and Windows 7

A few years back, I built a pack of trivia questions as slideshow images that could be used as a slideshow on Xbox 360 or Windows Media Center.  Organization is now simplified with the Slideshow creator built into the Windows 7 Media Center - Pictures feature - just pick your Pictures, add the trivia questions and music, and you're set for your next holiday party.  Trust me, friends will ask how you did it.  You can learn more here at my original post.

Download Christmas Trivia Pack #1 (.zip, 3MB)

Except for the Desktop Theme, most if not all of the above should work on earlier versions (XP, Vista) but some of the features are easier/more intuitive on Windows 7.  In the coming week, I'll post additional clips here as well as my own How To for a cool Holiday outdoor display I'm doing this year created with Windows Live Movie Maker and powered by Windows 7. 

If you like the Holiday add-ons, please let me know in comments here and tell your friends.  Happy Holidays everyone!

A quick visit over to TheGreenButton.com and I found the latest release of NControl - a versatile Windows Media Center remote control app for iPhone.  NControl is a free iPhone/iPod Touch application that allows you to use your iPhone/iPod Touch as a remote control for your Media Center. It enables users to browse through pictures, video, recorded shows, tv channels, as well as navigate the Media Center interface. It also has a set of standard buttons found on traditional remotes such as play, pause fast forward, rewind, stop, mute and volume.  I really like the tactile "swipe" feature for scrolling through the Windows 7 Media Center menu.

NControl Media Center plugin is also a free download. This plugin will allow the NControl iPhone application to communicate with Media Center and Media Center Extenders. Feel free to install it on as many machines as you please.

Here's to hoping for a Zune HD version in the future ;)

Download NControl here.

At the Windows Media Center event at CEDIA this week, Microsoft announced what many enthusiasts have been waiting for with baited breath: a relaxing of restrictions which made Windows Media Center less attractive to existing PC owners or enthusiasts building homegrown PCs.  The announcements included:

• Digital Cable Tuner (DCT) support for all.  Up until now, you could only get a digital cable tuner for your PC to work on a pre-built PC from manufacturers such as Dell or HP.  PCs needed to be pre-qualified by CableLabs in what was a process that left a lot of enthusiasts unable to support digital cable on their PCs.  Soon, anyone who builds a PC will be able to enjoy digital cable tuning.  I'm sure ATI is happy as well as one of the premier builders of  cable tuner hardware.
• TV Portability. As one who has two DCTs on my HTPC, I can relate to the frustration that has existed when trying to copy that content to a portable device such as my laptop or Zune.  Programs such as local television flagged as "Copy Freely" (CF) will now transfer.  I can confirm this works, I've seen it in action.
• SDV Support. This doesn't mean much to consumers other than ensuring future aggravations are avoided.  As cable systems move to "Switched Digital Video", as a means of managing their clogged networks by pushing a live feed on an empty channel when a consumer requests to view the network vs. blindly broadcasting all networks on all available channels.  The problem is it requires new hardware to talk to the cable operator and request the channel. 
• New ATI DCT Firmware for Vista and Windows 7. The new firmware (yet to be released) by ATI for their Digital Cable Tuners will enable the above support.  I can also attest that this new firmware will bring smiles to Media Center fans as I've seen it running.  You can expect improvements to the update experience as well - stay tuned for more.

Additional discussion is going on over at TheGreenButton.com.  Details on availability haven't been released yet, but I think we can all expect to see good things October 22nd.  Hopefully this quells concerns about the future of digital cable support in Windows 7.

This got me to thinking - a Windows 7 Media Center builder party in the Seattle area around October 22nd could be fun. 

As I've switched our main media room DVR over to Windows 7, I've been increasingly interested in finding new add-ons.  After messing around around with Seesmic Desktop and searching for MediaCenter tweets by other users, I stumbled upon the Media Center Status Application by Jussi Palo, an add-on for Facebook and/or Twitter that serves two purposes:

• Share your Media Center status (what you're listening to, watching etc) via FB or Twitter status
• Pop notifications of status updates made by friends via FB or Twitter

Setup
Setup was relatively painless though required a reboot.  I installed the 64-bit version on Windows 7 and one reboot later was off to the races.  I can't vouch for Vista, but expect it will work without issue.

Windows 7 Tip: If you run into access errors committing Media Center Status settings, re-run the configuration tool in Windows Vista compatibility mode. 

Sharing your Status

Now the first question you have to ask yourself is do you really want to be sharing what you're listening to/watching on a regular basis with Twitter and Facebook, a practice that's likely to get you quickly de-friended.  Fortunate the application gives you the ability to confirm updates automatically - probably a good idea if you're cycling through songs quickly or want to avoid others making fun of your ABBA afternoons.  You can also disable status updates based on specific media types. 

My suggestion: Turn on Confirmations so you're not auto-spamming your friends and taking a few moments to consider what you're sharing.  Here are some examples of what others can expect to see via Twitter:

and Facebook:

Receiving Status
Receiving Friends' status notifications are pretty straightforward.  You can configure to only receive messages at certain times of the day, or from certain friends.  There's no way to respond to the Tweets or Facebook status, and no other visual app integration in Media Center outside the status popups and confirmations.  Still, if you have a small set of friends you want to monitor status on, the utility is there. 

It's great to see others building interesting apps merging Windows and social media platforms like FB and Twitter.  Let me know below if you've seen other apps to consider.

It's been a while since I've posted - a bit of a blog break in favor of Twitter and FriendFeed I guess.  But today's post is one worth noting for Digital Media professionals- the release of the IIS Smooth Streaming module for IIS7.  Why does it matter?  Well, this is in part, the technology that enabled the NBC Olympics experience to deliver buffer-free HD streaming last summer.  Based on that experience and the learnings, this standards-based solution (using HTTP and MPEG-4 container + VC-1, H.264/AAC to come).  Authoring is possible with Expression Encoder 2 update as well.

To learn more about this release visit Ben Waggoner's blog at On10.net. You can see demos as well at SmoothHD.com (created in partnership with Akamai). I'm sure you'll  hear more about this at MIX09 as well.

As those who have read my ramblings here know, I'm always looking for the perfect holiday mix.  This year, it's been easier thanks to two services I've been playing with: Zune Marketplace and Pandora. 

Tip#1: Find Great Holiday Music on Zune

Zune Marketplace serves up a broad range of musical suggestions, but if you click on the "more" option under Genres, you'll find the latest programming for the holidays.  Select, "Seasonal" and you'll find some great playlists - Christmas Classics and Holiday Cocktails are two of my favorite playlists.

Don't have Zune?  It's a great time to take advantage of the two weeks free offer or you can sample the catalog for ideas on Zune.net.

Tip #2: Serve up Pandora's Holiday Stations

A tip of the hat to the Pandora team for sharing some tips for creating Holiday stations on Pandora! Just start by entering the name of a holiday song you like. To create a station based on an artist who performs holiday music, enter their name, followed by the word 'holiday' (for example, 'Ray Charles Holiday').  

•         Classical Christmas    Listen Now
•         Rockin' Holidays         Listen Now
•         Swingin' Christmas    Listen Now
•         Jazz Holidays             Listen Now
•         Country Christmas     Listen Now

Having spent the majority of this weekend boxing up our house for our move, I can attest that these work great on Pandora on Sonos as well. (Note: Pandora also now powers MSN Radio here.) 

And don't forget last year's Holiday Trivia Picture pack - great to put as a slideshow on your TV or Digital Picture frame during holiday parties. Happy holidays all!

More Zune news trickles out. Customers spoke and Zune listened.  The people said

"We want all you can eat music, but let us keep the ones we like." 

"Oh and make sure the songs are MP3s"

"P.S. Make sure the music doesn't suck. Make the MP3 library a part of the offer"

So now as a Zune Pass subscriber you can download from millions of tracks, and you can keep 10 songs a month as MP3s in your permanent collection for $14.99/mo.  Even if you don't like the subscription model, this is still a pretty sweet deal.  I know my Zunes and other devices will be happy during the holidays.

My favorite home audio solution just got a little sweeter and just in time for the holidays.  On top of over 15,000 radio stations being added, Sonos now has Pandora and Last.FM support for FREE. When Pandora support was added last year, it carried a monthly fee after an evaluation period, leading many customers (including myself) to evaluate and discontinue in favor of our own music libraries. Now with the support of arguably the two largest "free" personal music services, Sonos ups their game.

But it gets even better with support for Sonos Controller for iPhone and iPod Touch.   Let's admit it, the Sonos Controller first introduced in 2005 is getting a little long in the tooth.  While it continues to be best of breed, the lower-resolution display and large form factor just don't add up as well in today's marketplace.  While no less than four 3rd party solutions hit the market a short while ago, this natively supported application is a great addition for consumers who have an iPhone or iPod with WiFi support.  It also effectively drops the entry price for Sonos to about $350 for customers who already own a Sonos unit.  The application is also free, adding new value to their customers.  Check out the video for even more.  In a tough economic time when many companies are looking for any way to improve their bottom line by charging for updates and service packs, it's nice to see companies such as Sonos continue to innovate and add value for free.  Their higher price tag certainly looks better when you factor in the free updates.  Now how about support for Zune playlists? ;)

More here

Today, NetFlix announced that they have begun deployment of their new player to their customers, incorporating dynamic streaming for DVD-style fast-forward and rewind over the Web. This is a big shot in the arm for Silverlight 2, and hot on the heels of the overwhelmingly successful NBC Olympics coverage in Silverlight 2 beta.

It's hard to believe it was 18 months ago at the Microsoft MIX conference that Netflix first demonstrated their instant streaming application on-stage. One of the top features of this Netflix player was the ability to view movies on Mac and PC, and have a richer viewing experience. I'm very excited to see this happen as it brings one of my favorite Silverlight projects full circle.

When we first approached NetFlix, we had an idea for the player. I quickly wrote a two-page speclet describing the functionality.  For fun, I codenamed the project, "Big Red".  The concept was approved by Netflix and one of our top design partners refined and built the prototype in less than six weeks. Many didn't think the app would be done in time to see the stage in time at MIX, and others didn't think it would ever get released. I'd prefer to think this proves that good things come to those who wait, not to mention a ton of better instant watch content thanks to deals with Starz, The Disney Channel and others providers.  Combined with the new Xbox experience with NetFlix coming soon, it's going to be a NetFlix-powered holidays around the Alexander household.

Congratulations to the Netflix and the Silverlight teams.

Ahh yes, Olympics frenzy is upon us.  The time when countries cheer on their athletes in games of sport and goodwill.  It's also a time when companies cheer on their contributions to the Olympic efforts and services available to keep tabs on the event which is lining up to be the largest streamed event in history.  Since we're Addicted to Digital Media around here, it wouldn't be the Olympics without a roundup of the ways you can keep tabs and this year it's much cooler - with thousands of hours of content available in HD streaming on the Web for Windows and Mac users, perhaps for just a few weeks we'll see some peace and harmony.  Unfortunately for my friends outside the US, these services are specific to the USA so apologies. 

So, here's the roundup:

1.  Olympics Tracker in the new MSN Toolbar

What: This isn't your old MSN Toolbar.  Generally I cringe at installing any toolbar app into my browser, but this new version is both functional and visually slick in part thanks to being built with Microsoft Silverlight.  You'll find an Olympics button that presents the latest medal count, photos, video and sport-specific news right from the comfort of your web browser. The button even glows when updates happen to notify you in a polite way.  Alternately, Live Search is optimizing search results to include latest stats, news, and medal counts.  Details available here.

How to get it: Visit www.newmsntoolbar.com and download the free toolbar.

2.  Live and HD On-demand Events on NBCOlympics.com

What: So you forgot to set your DVR to record that amazing football game, or want to watch live coverage but it's not being broadcast on the myriad of NBC/Universal TV stations?  Have no fear - NBC and Microsoft Silverlight are bringing over 1000 hours of live and on-demand Olympics coverage to your PC or Mac.  On-demand coverage will use a brand-new adaptive streaming technology capable of true HD-quality video over the Web - no stopping and buffering either, the technology automatically adjusts video quality to available bandwidth.  Live events are presented using the Emmy-award winning Windows Media technologies.  Be sure to check out the enhanced player - in the Control room you can stream up to four events - at the same time! 

How to get it: Visit www.nbcolympics.com/video and check out the new player.  Note: Silverlight is a required installation for the experience.

3.  Windows Media Center on Windows Vista Premium & Ultimate

What: If you have a Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate PC, you can watch NBC Olympics On the Go in Windows Media Center, an Internet-delivered catch-up TV service from NBC Universal powered by Wavexpress’ TVTonic platform, no TV-tuner required. This free download-and-play service differentiates Windows Media Center as the platform with the highest-quality Internet-delivered Olympics experience in the USA. No word yet on whether this works via Extender - I will have to try it later.

With NBC Olympics On the Go in Windows Media Center, you will get:

• NBC Sports’ complete on-air HDTV coverage of the Beijing Olympics on the NBC, USA and Universal networks – even when you don’t have a TV tuner for your Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate PC
• 225 hrs of long-form Olympics video over 17 days
• 24 sports, full opening ceremony, and a closing ceremony montage
• Up to HD quality, with the vast majority of the video delivered in 840x480 progressive scan resolution at 1.5 Mbps bit rate, plus several events per day delivered in 1080i resolution

How to get it: Click here for details or here for the TVTonic app  Note: for 64-bit Windows users, hang tight- there's an update going through certification that should provide support before the games actually begin. 

There are a host of other ways to get the Olympic experience as well. Google has a summer games page and mobile page and I'm sure to have missed some others.  Tell us what you think- how will you be watching the Olympics?

Dell just released the new Studio Hybrid- a "first step" in a series of eco-friendly PCs.  Noting that most tower PCs use about 300 watts of power (which I can attest to with my quad-core behemoth), the Studio Hybrid sips less than 65w and is 80% smaller than a Mac Mini desktop.  Add Blu-Ray, HDMI out, an 8-in-1 card reader and tuner option (including Digital Cable) and this looks like a winner.  Even in the processor department, a 1.73 Dual-core, 1GB of RAM, and 160GB HDD w/ Vista will set you back only $499, beating back Apple on performance, size, price and a run at style. 

I hope Dell succeeds with this design and I'm now drooling over it as a possible HTPC or Windows Home Server.  This may also make a great replacement for my father's ailing WinXP system.  I worry about fan/drive noise though- any in the wild reports/feedback are appreciated.

More at Electronista

Power Pack 1 fixes the data corruption bug as well as delivers significant new functionality including:

• 1x64 support for home computers running Windows Vista
• Home Server Shared Folder backup
• Improved remote access experience
• Improvements to power consumption and performance
• Localization support for Japan and China

HP has also started pushing an update to their Windows Home Server powered HP Media Smart products timed to coincide with Power Pack 1.

• Update Package
• Release Notes
• Team Blog

Congrats to the Windows Home Server team.  I really like WHS and would run it instead of Vista Premium + Drobo as my primary home media hub if they'd support Windows Media Center & OCUR recording as a service.  Then I'd truly have a headless home media server that does it all (as I sit here dealing with my wife's system requiring a backup...)  How would you improve Windows Home Server after this release?

Ian Dixon locks on to Charlie Owen (of the Media Center team)'s new post discussing DVD Streaming from a Media Center PC to Media Center Extenders such as Xbox360.  Many have lamented the fact that the same theatrical releases are available in streamed from via PPV, Amazon, NetFlix, iTunes, Xbox Live, PS3 and others, but if you own a physical copy, you cannot stream it around your home.  The same holds true of personal DVDs you burn but in that case, most enthusiasts can rip the DVD (legally) and keep it on our HDDs in a matter of minutes.

While Charlie's post (and mine) should not be interpreted as insight into future features in Windows Media Center and do not represent any formal position of the Media Center team, Charlie outlines a number of speed bumps to delivering a comprehensive DVD streaming solution.  The legal issues alone would make this highly prohibitive at a time when the industry is moving to direct digital (vs. physical-digital) distribution.  Is it a niche feature?  Depends on your perspective.  Personally I'd like to see the MCE team first address codec support issues (my Vista MCE still can't stream home movies captured on a Canon Powershot to my Media Center Extender but can playback fine on the PC).

Lots of discussion happening on this on Charlie's blog.  Feel free to post your thoughts over there.

A few weeks ago, I was asked if wanted an opportunity to review a new software app under embargo that is designed to solve one of the great remaining problems with any music library - fixing album art and metadata.  Over the years between WMP/Zune/iTunes conversions of my library, converting all of my tracks into 160kbps MP3, migrating between HDDs and just plain idiosyncracies with ID3 tags and where album art gets stored, my library has become a severe mess.  TuneUp promised to fix it and I have to say aside from a few minor nits, it does a commendable job and is now available for download in two versions: TuneUp and TuneUp Gold but more on that later.

Around the UI
TuneUp is a companion app to iTunes for Windows (Mac coming this Fall) - it rides shotgun, snapping to the right-hand side of iTunes and listens into your library via iTunes' scripting engine. The UI offers four options - Clean, Cover Art, Now Playing, and Concerts.  The first two options - Clean and Cover Art are the meat of the app.  The second two options- Now Playing and Concerts are similar to other solutions offer links to YouTube, Stubhub, Amazon, Google, and eBay searches for artist information and concert listings in your area (via Ticketmaster/Stubhub).  But what sets TuneUp apart is the cleaning feature. My library started off with about 40% accurate information (horrible!) and by running through TuneUp's algorithm, was able to successfully match the majority of my songs. 

Taking it for a Spin
After backing up my music library, I did a series of ad-hoc tests to determine the accuracy of the service. TuneUp representatives tell me it works by applying a heuristic evaluating ID3 tags, filename, and even samples the audio of the song to create a fingerprint of the content. From there, it's matched against Gracenote's massive library of songs.   Gracenote is now a subsidiary of Sony and they've been making great strides in accuracy since their grass-roots efforts as user-supported CDDB so many years ago.

TuneUp correctly found a large # of U2 songs in my library that had missing album art or inaccurate media information, mostly a mix-match of Genre information.  Results are listed in one of three categories - Matches, Likely Matches, and Processing.  All display by album and can drill down to You can then choose to save each track. 

Not Perfect, But Closing in on the Target
Most of my issues with TuneUp are easily solvable.  First the UI has layout issues with the progress bar often colliding with text.  Here is a good example:

Another issue is accuracy on Live Sets or rare tracks.  The library does a good enough job of identifying the songs, but normally matches them to studio recordings.  As of right now, I wouldn't recommend TuneUp for eclectic music libraries. 

Also, I've noticed the Genre naming is quite a bit different across the industry - U2 suddenly went from a mix of Pop and Rock to Adult Alternative.  I don't know if that's a bad thing though I'm not sure Bono would agree.  Sheryl Crow's "Good is Good" genre became, "Singer-Songwriter".  Huh?! I actually started using it as an indicator for when content had been cleaned in my library.

Then there's the pricing.  The app appears to be ad-supported, with an American Apparel banner ad at the bottom of the screen.

Pricing and Advertisements
TuneUp is free to evaluate with over 500 song clean-ups and 50 album covers.  This is  a commendable # for testing and the price of $11.95 for an unlimited version is reasonable.  What I don't see noted here however is whether the Gold version removes the advertisements at the bottom.  I'd like to see more details about how TuneUp intends to use this space and exactly what information is shared with advertisers. Right now this appears to be limited to American Apparel - I don't see much of a fit between the ad and the content though, it would be less annoying if they did some frequency capping and targeted the ads to my interests.  I suspect this is to come in a later release.

Features I'd like to see
TuneUp isn't perfect- but it's pretty darn close.  Here are a few features I'd like to see included:

• View ID3 Tags and Fix.  iTunes will offer, but I can only see all of TuneUps changes after they're applied.
• Duplicate finder.  Yes, iTunes has a similar feature but is largely dependent on you as the user to go through and find
• Lyrics finder. Gracenote offers the service, would be good to see here.
• Offer to Remove Missing Songs from iTunes. WMP and Zune talk directly to the file system and know when files are removed.  iTunes tries to play and then gives you the dreaded "bang".  Nuke em all as an option.
• Zune/WMP Media Bridge.  Ensure media info is correctly set in the places Zune & WMP look, and offer a sync option for playlists, playcount, and ratings.  (Check out MusicBridge as a good proxy)
• Genre Mapper. Ability to rename a Gracenote genre (e.g. Adult Alternative) to Pop or whatever you wish.  It's a highly contentious and subjective topic.
• Faster indexing and better notification. TuneUp normally works well with ~50 tracks loaded but I decided to try and break it load in over 1000 tracks at a time.  It actually held up remarkably well but the UI updates started getting slow and I wasn't sure if it died or not.  A countdown time or est. time remaining option would be a big help.

Summary
TuneUp solves a major problem of most music enthusiasts, though if you're fastidious about your ID3 tagging, have invested hours in genre matching and the like, you may find continuing to manually update to be right for you.  Also, if you wear a tin foil hat and are concerned about personally identifiable information such as track names, playcounts and personal ratings being uploaded to TuneUp, you may want to scrub through the privacy statement. TuneUp assures us this is used for improvements to the service and personalization features such as concert listings (e.g. they won't give you a suggested concert for a one-star rated artist you hate).  For the mainstream music lover, TuneUp is a worthy addition to your toolkit, even in this first release with one caveat- back up your library before you try.  It's not perfect, but it's major improvement over in-app solutions.  Be sure to tell us how your experiences are going in the comments below.

As Media Center enthusiasts know, www.thegreenbutton.com is a fantastic resource for all things Media Center.  The good news is that the ads are gone.
I'm going to ping the team and get some details but this is fantastic news as we've always been super-supportive of the site and the contributions of the founders, moderators, developers, and community members over the years.  Perhaps it's time for me to re-up my account during vacation and pop into the site.

Starting at $450 up to $700, the Acer x1200 is about the size of a large book complete with 4GB of RAM, an AMD Dual-Core processor, up to 500GB in storage, and even an eSATA port to go along with the nine USB ports. While Nvidia has taken some lumps as of late for their mobile GPU issues, this unit has a GeForce 8200 integrated along with two PCIe slots (looks like half-height only).  The Mac Mini has little in terms of performance on this gem if you can spare an extra inch and some cost savings.  I am curious about power consumption and heat though and an HDMI out would seal the deal.

Nvidia is touting their new system on a chip (SOC) called, "Tegra".  The new unit, Tegra 650 is primarily targeted at consumer electronics devices such as phones where it will be capable of 3D graphics, 30 hours of HD video playback, includes up to 1080p video and WSXGA+ resolutions along with an 800Mhz ARM processor.  It's being optimized for Windows Mobile phones.

While I can't see myself watching 1080p HD video on my phone, I can see it storing and playing back a single file from local screen or docking it to watch on the big screen when I get home.  Oh and the entire unit is about the size of a dime.

Handheld computers are right around the corner it seems...

Release

A Microsoft VP once told me, "In the world of business, there are Pioneers and there are Settlers.  Microsoft needs both."  I've always gravitated toward the startup opportunities within Microsoft.  A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to help take a fledgling technology called, "WPF/E", name it, brand it, and launch it as "Silverlight", with my team.  The response has been phenomenal, with over 1M downloads/day and a developed balance of features for RIA-focused and Media-focused features. 

A number of months ago, I learned of a new opportunity that what right in my wheelhouse of consumer-focused digital media as a steward of user experiences in the Entertainment and Devices Division as Director of Product Planning for Ad-funded Experiences.  Looking back on the most personally rewarding times of my career so far, I've most enjoyed building teams that focus on the user experience, and deliver "free stuff" for consumers. One could argue my first attempt there was developing the original XP Digital Media Fun Pack and Powertoys, many of which included a small sponsorship message.  Following the acquisitions of aQuantive, ScreenTonic, and Massive Inc., it became clear to me where opportunity intersects with my personal interests.  Put another way, working on the Silverlight platform and seeing so many cool apps developed helped me to realize I missed having a hand in building consumer products myself.  It/s hard to leave the amazing leadership of Scott Guthrie, Soma and so many friends, but I'm not going far.

So what does the job involve?   It starts with working with many of the teams in Entertainment & Devices - Zune, Mobile, Xbox, and more to identify market opportunities where the consumer wins and brand advertisers get impressions.  This is a new area and we're going to step lightly and take feedback as we did with over 10M enthusiasts on Xbox Live who regularly download free add-ons for their games - Map packs, cars, tracks, and even feature-length movies sponsored by brand-name companies like McDonald's, Frito-Lay, Nissan, Ford, Nike, and many others.  The question is can we do the same thing for more media types and devices.  In a nutshell, that's my job - to put the fun in ad-funded entertainment experiences.

And I'm hiring. More on that later :)

Ryan Stewart and Long Zheng summed it up nicely.  This kind of banter and candor is why I work at Microsoft.  A CEO who will go, "Monkey Boy" just to please his customers.  Guy had some really nice things to say about the new Microsoft culture which was great to hear.  I'll post the keynote here when available.

Remember how I said there would be some exciting announcements coming at MIX this year? ;)  Last night (Pacific time), Nokia officially announced that Silverlight is coming to their S60 and S40 mobile phones on the Symbian platform.  This has been in development for a long time now, and will dramatically increase the number of devices that support Silverlight- S60 alone ships on over 150 million devices worldwide - you can learn more about the phones here.  Congratulations to the team - more announcements coming shortly and for those of you on-location at MIX this week, you'll see this in person ;).  See you there.

The Expression Encoder team has just launched their blog here, with a video introduction hosted by Charles Finkelstein.  Charles is one of my favorite people at Microsoft - boundless energy, and a real passion for turning customer requests and insights into product and features.  This is just the beginning with I'm sure more to come next week.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  A lot going on as of late so here's a quick rundown on activities and topics I'm going to write about during flights:

• Mix Update. The teams have been working incredibly heard in preparation for the MIX conference next week.  I've seen a sneak preview of some of the demos and think attendees won't be disappointed. 
• Silverlight 2 coming. ScottGu (now a newly minted VP!) provides a glimpse into Silverlight 2 on his blog.  If you can't be at MIX this year, don't fret- the videos will be posted on the Web shortly after the events thanks to Jeff Sandquist and team.
• HD-DVD is dead.  You can start buying Blu-Ray discs now or just go the digital route- my preferred method of delivery
• Apple TV Take 2.  Will I cancel my NetFlix and Comcast subscriptions?  Thoughts over the weekend and I'll explain how you can score one for $99.
• uStream as NannyCam.  Take an old IR-shot Sony DV camcorder, firewire and UStream my wife is addicted to her new Nannycam as a baby monitor.  I also hacked together a Vista Sidebar gadget for her which I may post. Now if only it was available in Silverlight...
• Dell XPS m1330. - my new and best laptop ever, despite the crapware
• New Silverlight site launches - Congrats to the team!
• MyNetflix Plugin for Media Center - Another reason why I need to put a full PC in the living room?
• Playing with CubeDesktop and loving it.  A must for any power user (thanks Chris)

I don't often blog here about the enterprise side of Microsoft though for digital media delivery it's hard to beat Windows Server in terms of cost or scalability. Then comes news that Windows Server 2008 just got a Five-Star Rating from eWeek Labs, noting even "Faster" and "Slimmer":

The new Windows Server boasts a set of networking enhancements that dramatically boost file serving performance, and the product can be deployed in a new, stripped-down Server Core configuration, which significantly reduces the attack surface of systems hosting certain Windows Server roles.

Toss in a more modular and securable Web server in IIS (Internet Information Services) 7.0, Microsoft's new hypervisor-based virtualization functionality and a host of management enhancements, and Windows Server 2008 merits eWEEK Labs' Analyst's Choice designation.

Congratulations to the Windows Server team- this is a huge feat.  And for those in the digital media biz, be sure to check out Windows Media Services 2008 and the IIS7 Media Pack, both blogged about and available from Chris Knowlton's blog here. 

Why does this all matter?  Fact is most video-serving sites are pigs when it comes to responsible use of Internet bandwidth.  The average clip is about 5 mins in length, and only 20 seconds are watched, though most users receive the entire file.  With the IIS7 Media Pack, all forms of digital audio and video - even QT, MOV, and FLV/SWF can benefit from the Intelligent Bit Rate Throttling built in.  You'll be hearing more about these features at MIX in a few short weeks.

eWeek: Windows Server 2008 Is Microsoft`s Leanest, Meanest Yet

If you have an XM Radio Subscription, the XM Radio Windows Vista Sidebar gadget is for you.  Recently updated to version 1.5, features include a polished and easy to navigate channel list, favorites support, and advanced Amazon search so you can purchase the CD or the MP3 of the song you're listening to as well as browse lyrics, Wikipedia and YouTube entries for the artist.  From the folks at BuildaGadget.com (a work-for-hire outfit), this is one I'm going to pin permanently to my Sidebar.

Download: XM Radio Vista Gadget

Having reported here my frustration with AT&T and Samsung's silence, it would appear Sammy just released the Windows Mobile 6 update for owners of the Samsung Blackjack mobile phone, months after the BlackJack II went on sale with WM6 pre-installed and nearly a year since its announce.  Note that you will need WinXP or lower OS to do the update.  What's interesting is that Samsung is not only making this available, but noting it is "highly recommended to be installed":

Where Do I Obtain Windows Mobile 6 For My SGH-i607 (BlackJack) And What Does The Update Do?
Samsung has released a software upgrade for the BlackJack, which is highly recommended to be installed. This update includes an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0 and numerous enhancements/corrections. The update may take up to 10 minutes to complete if the system is already set up.

Download and additional details: Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for Samsung BlackJack.

I just got back from Costco where I got Blue Harvest for $12.99 after the $10 instant discount. 

This image sums it all up:

No iTunes exclusive - these kinds of digital copies have been made available for WMP users for years (WMV-HD anyone?) The difference is in how it gets perceived reported by the press who are covering Apple.

Don't get me wrong- I'm glad to have both.  But this is a parity play by Fox.

By popular demand, Bill Gates' last day at the office video, courtesy of Channel 10.

Bonus points if you can name all the cameos and the song he's playing on Guitar Hero. ;)

Bill's Last Day: The CES Keynote video
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CBS/Paramount's Entertainment Tonight just launched their Golden Globe Awards mini-site in Silverlight.  The new mini-site is being promoted on the www.etonline.com homepage as powered by Silverlight.  Check out clips from the nominees, news and more here.

First a successful Bill Gates CES Keynote simulcast on the web, now the Golden Globes- Silverlight is ringing in the new year in style.  Kudos to IdentityMine and Rezn8 for putting this together, showing what designer/developer collaboration can do.

I'm watching the CES 2008 keynote right now, streaming live on the web with Microsoft Silverlight at www.microsoft.com/ces.  I'm so happy they allowed the funny video with a long cast of celebs in the simulcast.  I have four streams going right now for test purposes. Kudos to the istreamplanet team for keeping up with the crushing stream load, I understand it kept rising and rising during the keynote.

Speaking of which, I'm happy that Bill just unveiled that NBC Universal has selected Silverlight exclusively for online delivery of the 29th Olympics in Beijing, PRC in partnership with MSN.  Lots of exciting stuff to come there.   I'll write more on that later.

More pictures below:

Update: If you're unfamiliar with this whole Silverlight thing, check out Andy Plessner's Beet.TV interview where we discussed Silverlight last year. For some reason that day, I opted for the Quicksilver T-shirt instead of my "Evil Monkey" shirt.  Perhaps it was partner love.

The new Microsoft at CES site is up, and it's powered by Silverlight. There are so many projects underway now it's hard to keep track of them all and this was a great one to see.   
What's more, you'll be able to watch the keynote live in-page with Silverlight or via WMP/default browser.  Take a look, spin the wheel in LV fashion and check out the latest news from Microsoft at CES.

Hope y'all enjoy the show - Sunday night @ 6:30pm

Todd Bishop of the Seattle P-I provides a glimpse into the Take-Home testing that many of us do on digital home technologies at Microsoft.  Scott and Hakkan are two of the guys I've had the pleasure of working with in the past - nice to see inside their homes. 

Which brings me to realize my setup has changed so much in the past few years since I was GPM for Media Center- it might be time for a video this weekend walking around our Digital Home 2.0 ;)

Microsoft employees try out new technology at home

Earlier this AM, HP shot me a mail with the latest details on announcements they're making for CES.  Here's the latest:

• MediaSmart Receiver - works with XP and Vista PCs, offering wireless delivery of media via 802.11 ABGN and is also DivX certified.  Includes a Pocket Media Drive slot on the front for the big files and will offer Media Center Extender support this spring via an Internet-delivered update.  No note on whether that's an additional cost.
• MediaSmart TVs - Updated 1080p TV's with three (3) HDMI ports, wired and wireless connectivity and (drumroll please) Media Center Extender support built in!
• Media Vault and Media Vault Pro - Home "NAS Plus" offerings in 500GB and 1GB offerings for the Media Vault mv2100, and up to 1.5TB for the mv5100. Both include Photo Webshare and iTunes server features previously seen in HP MediaSmart servers. These units are Linux-based, unlike the HP MediaSmart Server which is powered by Windows Home Server.

All products will be available in Spring 2008

Every year, I pore over my Christmas music looking to create the ultimate mix for that cocktail get-together with the neighborhood friends, the perfect in-car mix for shopping, the Christmas Eve Classical mellow-out of young children, and the anthem to which tiny feet run down the stairs Christmas morning.  Yes, I'm a sucker for the holidays.

I also use my free time over the holidays to try and put digital media to some unnatural uses around the home.  This year, sharing photos of holidays past with family and friends takes center stage.

Step 1: Assemble your "Best of the Holidays" Picture Collection into a Single Folder
To simplify transfer to my phone/PDA/Xbox/Media Center and call-up, I use the recently released Windows Live Photo Gallery to organize all of my holiday best pictures into a folder at the top. These are pictures I want to share during the party.

This is easy to do and can be done with any one of your favorite photo apps, though I strongly recommend WL Photo Gallery - not because I work at MSFT but because it has some really great features like ability to upload directly to Flickr.

Step 2: Sprinkle in some Holiday Trivia

I've created a set of 15 questions in the below pack and included the master images from the- all you have to do is unzip it, put the pictures in the same folder as your "Best of" collection.  You'll probably want to rename the files so as to mix them in sets with your own photos.  The pictures are from the old Winter Fun Pack I did as a side project so many years ago for XP.

Step 3: Assemble the Ultimate Christmas Mix

This year we went a little upscale with a swank set of songs for the adults and a few favorites.  Pretty much anyone can build a playlist these days.

Here are some of my favorites:

Cocktail Party Swanky Christmas (Most off "Christmas Classics" on Zune)

• Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio
• White Christmas - Bing Crosby
• Baby, It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Lou Rawls
• Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let it Snow! - Lena Horne
• (Everybody's Waiting' For) The Man with the Bag - Kay Starr
• Happy Holiday - Peggy Lee
• Sleigh Ride - Ferrane & Teicher
• I'd Like You for Christmas - Julie London
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Ella Fitzgerald
• Grown-Up Christmas List - Michael Buble
  

Step 4: Share it on the Big Screen with Xbox 360, PC, Media Center, Digital Picture Frame etc.
There are a number of ways to get your photo playlist onto your PC or picture frame.  I use my Xbox 360 as an extender, and a CompactFlash card inserted into a digital picture frame to share them in two rooms.  Here are a few examples (click images for larger sizes):

Play it on Xbox 360 from your Zune - from the Zune device or home network

Play it from Windows Vista Media Center

Play it on a digital picture frame

Hope you enjoy- Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours.

I don't always agree with Chris but this time I tend to. With the disclaimer that the announcement is huge - to enthusiasts willing to spend all that $$ to be able to watch and record HD and subscription cable TV on their PC. 

Dell’s CableCARD Re-entry Is Huge In the Grand Scheme - Chris Lanier's Blog

"Jackass" is the name of the hit MTV television show and two subsequent blockbuster movies starring a band of merry mischief-makers playing physical pranks on each other, themselves, and about anything with a pulse claiming to be a human.  I'll admit to renting Jackass 2 and snickering to myself one weekend when the house was quiet, my family away doing something more productive.

Then comes news that Blockbuster will premiere the third installment - Jackass 2.5 as the first full-length feature on the Web exclusively using Microsoft Silverlight  between December 19th and December 31st to audiences 17 years or older at www.blockbuster.jackassworld.com.  All you need is the one-time 1.5MB Silverlight plug-in and IE, Firefox, or Safari on Windows or Mac.

This is exciting to see as it marks another milestone in how users are shifting to consume their media online as well as through traditional outlets.   The content may not appeal to all, but definitely has a loyal following among its fans.

With this release, Blockbuster and Paramount are joining many other companies including MLB.com, BMW (Germany), Sony Ericsson (Japan), Baidu (#1 search site in PRC), NBA.com, Entertainment Tonight (CBS/Paramount) and UVNTV.com in their use of Silverlight.  Check out the latest examples being updated regularly at http://silverlight.net/Showcase/

An interesting dialogue about consumer fair use rights happening right now.  I'm an advocate of protecting IP, but this bill (auspiciously named the PRO IP Act) goes way, way too far.

I may not agree with all of Jeremy's points (transmitting an MP3 intended for mass distribution is different from shoplifting a CD and should carry stiffer penalties IMO).  What concerns me about these kinds of bills is what happens to the Mom or Dad who puts copyrighted music under his home video, posts it and it goes viral?

This is an area where I encourage all of you to get familiar with the issues and make sure your congressional representatives have your views. Good places to start learning:

Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally » Blog Archive » A note to Nancy Pelosi regarding the PRO IP act

Michael Gartenberg - (un-) common sense on copyright

This is great news.  If you have no idea what HD Photo is, you will soon.  Also known as JPEG XR, the new codec developed by Microsoft and turned over to JPEG for standardization keeps up ever-increasing megapixel cameras with wider dynamic range, can store images without data loss from compression and is free of royalty or licensing constraints and can even be embedded into cameras.  More details here on News.com or Bill Crow's HD Photo Blog

Sad to see MovieBeam into outer space right before the holidays but glad to see some customers are getting refunds :(

MovieBeam shutting down operations on December 15th - Engadget

I'm getting reports of AT&T Blackjack users passing out from holding their breath waiting for the Windows Mobile 6 update to be released by Samsung.  If you believe what you read in the forums, AT&T reps are quietly noting that the software is done, and Samsung needs to release it.  Last April, a ROM image "Leaked" out of AT&T that appeared to be nearly done.  So where is it? 

Plenty of conspiracy stories running around in the over 2000 posts on the topic on HowardForums, some report Samsung is waiting for the Blackjack II (now shipping with WM6) to have a period of exclusivity before issuing the update for existing Blackjack users.  This seems a little far-fetched but you never know.  In the meantime, AT&T ended up shutting down the WM6/Blackjack forums in October and merging all WM6 discussion due the natives getting unecessarily restless.  It's been nearly eight months since the announcement was made, ten months since WM6 was released and the Blackjackers are feeling jacked.

Latest thread on AT&T is going strong here.  The watch continues on one of the worst customer communication experiences I've seen in years.

AT&T Windows Mobile 6 for Treo 750 goes live! | The Boy Genius Report

I've written here about Silverlight 1.0's capabilities to support rich media delivery with video and audio delivery and with ScottGu's update on Silverlight 2.0, I figured it's time for an update on all the goodness that is happening

When we think about Silverlight and media, we really think about content enablement - how to deliver video, audio, animation, and interactivity in a cost-effective way from creation to distribution to experience.  The teams are continuing to innovate on all three of these fronts:

Silverlight Content Creation with Expression

Just a few months ago, we released Expression Encoder 1.0, a easy to use yet powerful tool for building interactive Silverlight media content including live events and on-demand video. Encoder solves a particularly frustrating problem of how to convert files such as QT or AVI into VC-1 for delivery in Silverlight.  Live streaming supports multiple camera angles, direct connect from Silverlight and Windows Media Player clients for PC, Mac, and Mobile, and easily supports broadcasting from Windows Media Services, a feature of Windows Server.  By providing a series of templates that can be easily modified with Expression Blend, you can host your videos on any web server (Windows, Linux, Mac whatever) with simplicity. In recent months, the Expression team released a Publishing plug-in to upload video up to HD quality  with Silverlight Streaming, a freely available service by Windows Live.  There's even a plug-in for Windows Live Writer that makes it easy to publish Silverlight video in your blog.  More on that later. 

If you're interested to get started with Expression Encoder, download the free trial  and check out the How-to videos here.  And pay attention to Mix for more to come ;)

Silverlight Content Distribution with Windows Server 2008

Today, content providers have a rapidly growing number of options for delivering media on the Web.  In particular, delivering on-demand video has never been easier. The majority of sites today choose to host video on web servers, where the average user watches under half a minute of video, but downloads nearly five minutes of content.  Video consumption is exploding online and of you ascribe to The Big Internet Slowdown Deloitte Consulting and Nemertes Consulting have predicted, we're in for a big slowdown by 2010.  "Users will experience a slow, subtle degradation, so it's back to the bad old days of dial-up," says Nemertes President Johna Till Johnson. "The cool stuff that you'll want to do will be such a pain in the rear that you won't do it."

Just as we're hearing about the importance of responsible energy use, content providers are increasingly being encouraged to do the same for Internet bandwidth.  By only delivering the data consumed by the user by using the streaming server features in Windows Media Services for Live and on-demand content and/or the upcoming IIS7 Media Pack, content providers can realize lower costs of delivery of a wide range of content types and be a more responsible, "Netizen".  One of the complaints we've heard about Windows Media Services in the past is the complexity of having to manage a separate service in a separate console for media, separate from the web server and application farm.  Windows Media Services 2008 addresses this with simplified admin, and unparalleled scalability.  In tests, WMS 2008 is twice as scalable as the release in Windows Server 2003 on the same hardware which means fewer servers, and higher performance.  Unlike some other solutions, Windows Media Services is a fully 64-bit enabled service, not a 32-bit solution running atop the platform.  There are a number of additional features here, which Harry Mower goes into on his blog here. 

But what if you want to  host your on-demand media content on your Web server or are supporting multiple file types from different vendors?  This is where the IIS7 Media Pack comes in.  This new add-on delivers intelligent bit-rate throttling for a wide range of file types - including Windows Media, QuickTime, Real, and even Flash video content.  What's more, it's configurable so that it can be used for application downloads as well.  By throttling content downloads, you ensure a more efficient and scalable delivery model.  Windows Server 2008 also supports clustering, enhanced cache/proxy support and much more that customers have come to expect in an industrial-strength content delivery platform.

HD video puts increasing strain on infrastructure, which is why we're working closely with big content delivery networks and startups alike who are looking for ways to address, and ensuring that Silverlight is a viable solution for them.  Download WS2008 and the IIS7 Media Pack Bit-rate Module today.

It's not just about stunning marketing sites and video on the Web - enterprise customers have recognized the proven reliability and scalability of Windows Media streaming and IIS for LOB applications, corporate communications, or e-learning solutions using a trusted solution broadly used for years- it's just getting better.  Experience matters as Forrester's recent RIA report notes- even in the enterprise.  It's our intent to seamlessly integrate Silverlight into existing installations and make it simple and scalable for others.

Windows Server 2008 will be released on February 27 2008, but you don't have to wait to start taking advantage of the platform already in use in some of the biggest sites on the web- you'll hear more about this come launch.

Free Content Distribution with Silverlight Streaming

If you aren't interested in setting up your own server, you can host on the MS network via Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live.  Currently available in test form, you can host up to 4GB of Silverlight applications on Microsoft's geo-distributed network. Primarily created as a simple way to host video-based applications for developers, Silverlight Streaming has been adopted by Solution Providers and even ISVs such as Roxio for simple video publishing.  To fully prove out the network, we've been hosting applications including the Halo3 Interactive Manual.  You can expect even more great things from the Silverlight Streaming team in the new year.

Content Playback in Silverlight

Silverlight 1.0 today offers great media delivery options, addressing cross-platform support with Mac and Windows (Linux support coming), and cross-browser support for IE, Firefox, and Safari. Thanks to the efficiencies offered by the SMPTE-standardized VC-1 video format, Silverlight can deliver HD-quality without hardware acceleration as can be see here.  (It's important to note that two formats were selected for next-generation video experiences in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD - VC-1 and H.264. Today over 90% of all HD-DVD titles are presented in VC-1). No pre-requisite version of Windows Media Player or any other player is required with Silverlight, just a small browser plug-in.  What's more, with Silverlight, your HD content can play off of any web server or take advantage of the Windows Server efficiencies covered above.

There's a lot more happening by way of media support in Silverlight- more details to come in the following months. Scott detailed the developer-focused roadmap here. One thing I can saw we're working on across the stack is performance - at MIX last year, folks saw what .NET could do, with a 1000x improvement in performance over script-based solutions.  The teams are thinking about performance across the stack as seen with Windows Server, and you'll see with Silverlight 2.0

Another good gem here - walkthrough of the Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard update.

Gamerscore Blog : Fall Dashboard Update Details

If you're a hardcore video geek dealing with the mix-mash of video formats and wondering what will really be supported in the December 2007 Xbox Dashboard Update, then you'll want to read this FAQ.  Otherwise, we return you to your morning coffee.

Xbox Team : December 2007 Video Playback FAQ

Was too busy to note the following interesting stories the last few days:

• TiVo to get solution for Switched Digital Cable Nets, coming Q208
• TiVo interface coming to PC via Nero deal
• TiVo announces 3Qtr results, still losing millions :(
• Verizon to offer, "Any Apps, Any Device" option for customers (but at what cost)?
• Wired is spinning up its Video Division. IPTV for everybody!
• Xbox 360 Backwards compatbility update adds support for 80 add'l classic games
• Quad CableCard Tuner systems from Inteset for Media Center announced

Michael Scherotter has written a great overview of his workflow for adding Silverlight-based video to his site.  I also hadn't seen the video of actor/rapper Ice Cube talking about Silverlight and their latest venture, UVNTV.com and all demoed on a Mac.  Pretty wild.

Synergist : Encoding Formats for Silverlight Video

Learn to Fly--Foo Fighters

Things Have Changed--Dylan

This Is How a Heart Breaks--Rob Thomas

Runnin' Down a Dream--Petty

Someday Baby--Dylan

LA Woman--Doors

Locomotive Breath--Jethro Tull

Won't Get Fooled Again--The Who

You Can't Catch Me--Stones

Freebird--Skynard

China Grove--Doobie Bros.

Don't Fear the Reaper--Blue Oyster Cult

We're an American Band--Grand Funk Railroad

If you're using an Airport Extreme with WPA/WPA2 Personal security enabled, you might notice that your shiny new Zune 2.0 software can't find your network automatically. The fix is  to manually add your Airport and set the network type as "WPA using TKIP" and away you go.

Technical reason: Airport Extremes for some reason squawk as WPA2  and not WPA, even when in mixed security mode which means they don't show up in the list. The Zune team is aware of the issue and it has been reported to Apple.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the wireless sync feature. Four years ago we were talking about being able to wirelessly sync your device from your car in the garage. Now it's a reality, and a killer feature IMO.

One of my favorite people in eHome, Charlie Owen notes, "I'm going to head up an effort here at Microsoft between the Media Center, XBox and Zune teams to give you a set of resources which help you put our products together and begin to realize the 'Connected Home' dream." 

An admirable start. As I've noted here, I would like to see the merging of Windows Home Server and Media Center, and perhaps a wireless home automation component, though I have yet to use it beyond my Logitech Harmony remote. 

I'd also like to see a, "Buy anywhere, Watch anywhere" merging of the Marketplaces in Xbox 360, Zune, and Media Center.

Give Charlie your feedback in comments on his blog here.

via eHomeUpgrade

Michael Gartenberg, wizard of digital media at Jupiter Research recently blogged  about  the new round in the HD format battle. With Best Buy following Wal-Mart in offering Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD players at a swank $99, Michael notes, "At that [price] point, it's not a competition between HD-DVD and Blue-Ray, it's a competition (correctly so) between HD-DVD and DVD."

Frankly, the whole topic jumped the shark for me nearly six months ago.  But the whole price war has really piqued my curiosity.  I wonder if Toshiba and its partners can keep the prices that low and for how  long?  Either way, Michael has an interesting point - "With prices that low, backwards compatibility and some very good content starting to appear (the Heroes Season 1 Box Set, Transformers and soon the first season the original Star Trek series) we may be getting to a point this holiday season that could tip the balance."

Back in February, I did a quick analysis of the price points for the formats, based on Amazon.com price points for the top players in both formats.  While unscientific, this yielded an average cost of nearly $850 for BD and $400 for HD-DVD (not including game consoles).  While it's clear that BD players have made the most movement, it's unclear when or if prices will drop to this price on an average basis.

And Sony's response to the HD price event?  "Blu-ray will be down to $399 and slightly below that, but not much lower," according to Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow.

Whether Toshiba was looking to move old inventory (as in a unit that first shipped Q1CY07), or this represents a tipping point in the HD format battles is unclear. Either way, the PR and marketing value of HD-DVD becoming synonymous with "Affordable HD on a disc" is palpable.

Whichever way this one goes, my advice still remains- sign up for NetFlix or Blockbuster's online service and receive whichever format you prefer without purchasing the discs until the whole format war is sorted out.

Note: I do not work for nor with the HD-DVD effort at Microsoft - all comments are my own and not representative of my employer.

If you're an owner of a first-generation Zune,  now known as the Zune 30, it's nice to note that  you'll also shortly be able to use the new Zune software on your device and the new  Zune software starting on 11/13 - that's next Tuesday folks.  I'll post some thoughts here shortly after it's in the wild.

My iPhone and iTunes also took an update yesterday, pushing out a bunch of games and whatnot for the iPod.  I still don't understand why I have to reboot my PC it seems every time iTunes wants to do an update.  Oh well, off to rebootland.

In what is sure to be a smart business move for TiVo, they've announced that they're bringing Rhapsody's music service and the ability to download any of four million digital track into the living room.

There are some limitations according to the New York Times- TiVo owners can't move music around their homes or transport songs from TiVo to a mobile device.  These are both well understood and limited issues given that most consumers will just save the music to a playlist, and then sync  from their PC. 

This is great progress to see for TiVo. Their support for application extensions has languished and ISV community fizzled in part due to the lack of rich graphical capabilities such as what Media Center + Xbox 360 extenders can offer.  First MTV, now this, Rhapsody seems to be building out a new playbook.  I have to wonder- does Rhapsody have a Media Center solution waiting in the wings?

My mother always taught me if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.  I decided to opt out of all the hype/buzz/drivel about the Zune 2 announcement here because quite frankly I've been underwhelmed.  But I seem to keep getting emails asking what I think.  Sure, I have friends working on it.  I've inquired, "Please tell me the player is much much improved" and was told, by a friend "Trust us, it will be".  After sending mail to some other friends in Zune-land stating, "I love the iPhone, will I like the Zune?"  The response, "Just wait".   Hey, I want to like it, but I'm not going to shill for it.  I just can't seem to get jazzed up about the product after v1 was such a let down for me personally.  Then the company meeting happened.  I waited for the big Zune demo and announcement all employees would get one (ala Steve Jobs + iPod).  Neither the demo or the rumored announcement happened.  How will this device get to escape velocity if we're not firmly behind it?

So I've been waiting, looking the space more as a general consumer than I've been for years.  The tepid comments regarding Zune 1 and somewhat quiet introduction of Zune 2 had me concerned earlier this week.  Now it appears things are changing.  First the team is smartly offering the free update for all customers who purchased Zune 1 - we'll get all the software features.  Second, the new devices are definitely a generation ahead of v1.  Now, I'm waiting and reading Steve O'Hear from Last 100's coverage on the 5 things Microsoft did right with the Zune 2:

1. WiFi music syncing.  Definitely a big plus in my book.  Fewer wires = goodness and my Zune can now sit in the kitchen/office
2. Support for audio and video podcasts. Finally!  Someday I'll write my memoirs on how hard we tried to get this into another player...
3. Windows Media Center TV recording transfer. Good to see, still skeptical until I see it in action. 
4. Social Networking. Zune Social and Zune Card will be interesting.  But I still want "Zune Finder" as a gadget/widget/mini-app that detects Zunes when I'm on my laptop and have my Zune WiFi turned off at the airport, at conferences etc.
5. Free update for existing customers. Yep.  This is great.
   
   To this, I want to add my own:
   
6. MP3 Store. It's about friggin' time.  I completely converted from WMA and iTunes DRM'd content to MP3-only earlier this year through a painful series of CD rips ;).  Now my iTunes, Media Center, and Sonos Libraries work in harmony.  I use MusicBridge (an awesome, must-have tool) to keep my playlists, ratings, and playcounts in sync and I'm good to go. 
7. Media Player Software that looks clean and usable again. The video clips I've seen of the Zune look outstanding.  iTunes has it's quirks, WMP hasn't kept up with my music library but does a better job at certain functions  like album art matching. 
8. FM radio. Often overlooked, I sometimes get bored with shuffle and my playlists and just want to connect with the outside world. FM radio still has it's place.
9. The new Zune 2. Touchpad is the way to go.  Single-handed use is still easy, something that is increasingly frustrating me about the iPhone.
10. Support for Apple's Podcast extensions are coming. First comes denial, then anger, then acceptance ;). Zunester seems to confirm this which is nice to see. Album art today, full features soon?

Will I be trading in my iPhone for a Zune 2?  Not likely, namely because I love the in-car integration I have with my VaisTech adapter in my Toyota.  But I will load up the new software on my Zune 1 and give it another whirl.

Sorry- this is geek humor.  Jeff has the details here.

Hot on the heels of their latest release, the MSN Video and the Soapbox teams recently announced their plans to move to Silverlight.  In their latest blog post:

What about the future?  One topic we’re talking a lot about is offering MSN Video and Soapbox with Microsoft Silverlight.  Silverlight just shipped a few weeks ago with a lot of benefits, such as offering - up to HD quality video on the Web for Mac and Windows today, and will support Linux later this year.  We’re excited to move to Silverlight in the future and are working closely with the Silverlight team, stay tuned for more details. ;) 

You may have also noticed that Microsoft's flagship homepage, www.microsoft.com has started delivering interactive content exclusively in Silverlight as well.  This is just the beginning.  Moving forward, interactive content across the site will be presented in Silverlight.  This has been a concerted effort by all teams, and our hats off to our creative agencies, McCann Worldwide, and Wunderman (among so many others) for helping to make this happen.

As promised, the little elves have have been busy working on new surprises. The official Halo 3 Game Guide is now live, powered by Silverlight.  Get a sneak peek inside the game, the characters, and the story so far is this first of sure to be many game guides for upcoming Xbox 360 and Games for Windows titles. 

In addition to the game guide, we've placed new videos including "Enemy Weapon", "Believe" in HD and standard def for Mac and Windows users to enjoy in the Halo 3 Silverlight Movie Gallery.

But we heard you couldn't get enough Halo 3.  So we also posted, "The Making of Diorama", a story of the enduring survival of our species as told over a 3D snapshot of the epic battle and "Museum".  These were only shot in SD but we think you'll enjoy the higher quality originals.

Watch them all here, powered by the same Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live network you can use for your own clips.  Get your 4GB of free video space here.

On Friday, I had an opportunity to attend the Halo 3 Launch Appreciation Team party at an undisclosed location in the Redmond area.  This was the core marketing and  product management team responsible for releasing the product and it was a fun time.  Jerett, the Group manager for H3 had managed to secure eight final copies of the game for us to play and I took third in one of the rounds as a veritable noob on the final product.  All I can say is that the game still has surprises in it and the feel is so refined, so much more authentic when compared to Halo 2.  This was a good reminder that sometimes the most important meetings you have are outside the office.

By now a whole lot of you have seen the Halo 3 HD videos via Silverlight.  A question I sometimes get is why all the properties aren't done in Silverlight?  Answer is simple: we just shipped and a veritable army of vendors, creative agencies, and content providers A) are responsible for efforts such as the Halo launch and B) are being trained up on Silverlight as we speak, starting with top agencies of record.  Most of these campaigns were underway long before Silverlight was ready to ship.  Rest assured though, we'll have some more Silverlight goodies for fellow Halo 3 fans shortly. ;)

Speaking of goodies, one of my favorites is the new Halo 3 "Believe" experience.  This interactive diorama museum from the future was moving and has led to some very well produced fan commercials.  I'm pretty sure one of the prizes given away at the party was a soldier from the diorama (with a broken thumb) but it's significance was lost on me until I saw the site.

I've now had the pleasure to be involved in all three Halo launches - helping to produce the WMP skin and promotional DVD's for H1, the unveil of the H2 video in HD and 5.1 audio for the WM 9 Series Launch, and now HD and interactive efforts around Silverlight.  In my estimation, the journey has been the biggest reward.  I'm looking forward to launch day - Sept 25th.

(These thoughts are my own and don't reflect my employer)

There are certain things that are hard to watch being built - meat products and software come to mind.  In the software realm, the ante goes up when you're talking about consumer software that is critical to peace and harmony in the household.  Of course I'm talking about the DVR.

As the Group Product Manager for Windows Media Center 2004-2005, I had an enlightening opportunity to see the sheer volume of work required to create a stable DVR application that runs on a multitude of OEM PC configurations.  At the time, I really loved the product and technology. Then a few things happened.

First, I was given an opportunity/challenge to join the Vista team and had to leave my beloved MCE team behind.  I became a consumer again. Then, we moved to an area where I could no longer get an over-the-air HD signal and Media Center had to take a back seat as our HD DVR.

The Comcast Cable Box Nightmare
The Motorola box from Comcast was our only option at the time for watching HD, something that my wife and I both really enjoy.  But the Comcast box was (and continues to be) infuriatingly slow.  My wife regularly complained, rather her head spun like a merry-go-round whilst flames spew out of her mouth at the lack of performance.  The upholstery was starting to get charred from this weekly occurrence.

Switching to TiVo Series3
Finally, a solution that delivered adequate performance and HD DVR plus a few other features I loved.  After a year of my wife ranting about the Moto cable box, and realizing  it was going to be a while before Cablecard was ready for Media Center (and vice versa) I switched to the TiVo Series3.  It was a hard move, like the breakup of a long relationship. The extenders were put away, the Media Center removed from the living room.  I have raved here about my Series3 but recently have found myself disappointed in a few key areas:

• Database performance. Dare I say the TiVo seems slower than the Comcast box when adding new recordings or pulling up guide data
• UI sluggishness.  The TiVo engine seems like it hasn't changed much in5 years and neither has the performance save for a modest increase in speed
• UX Idiosyncracies.  Since adding new features such as Swivel Search and Amazon Unbox (both of which are welcome additions) the UI doesn't appear to be able to handle these additions elegantly.  Add to this the fact that the guide displays in 4:3 instead of 16:9 when tuned to an SD channel, and I get strange flickering as the device switches formats between channels and guides and it still has some rough edges (not to mention the rough edges on the graphics- this is HD!)
• A year later, still no ability to stream video from one TiVo to another room, only vague statements of future support. I understand these are issues related to CableCard's requirements and the long times to get certification on any solution, but this was a reason I wanted to go to TiVo! 

So, a few weeks ago I was invited to try a new Vista Media Center w/ CableCard support.  I held my breath and dove back in. 

Vista Media Center, Cable Cards Grow Up
At first I was apprehensive. I knew how complicated Cablecard setup could be and didn't look forward to training Comcast's CSRs as I had to with TiVo.  I installed the new PC, plugged in the Drobo, the ATI HD Cablecard tuners and set up the cablecards.  I had one defective card which I returned and after a quick call to Comcast, both were up and running.  Next I paired my two Xbox 360's and curiously, everything worked. I was tuning channels, recording two stations without issue.  Now keep in mind I have a wired ethernet network in my house, which certainly helps things.  I had forgotten just how polished the experience is on the Media Center.  Setup is still not as easy as it could be (this is symptomatic of the entire cable industry who was forced by the FCC to add support for 3rd party cable boxes on their networks so the clunky CableCard was born.  At least Comcast's CSR's were knowledgeable when I called to set it up. What a difference a year makes.

I'm now entering the two-week period with my Media Center working as an HD DVR. With a little reprogramming of my remote, my wife is actually happy. Every program we've scheduled has recorded.  Amazon Unbox works with Media Center as well and the promise of new Vista Media Center extenders with multiple format support (thank you Dave Alles!) and free Internet TV programming mean I can enjoy around the house.  I've been testing the new Internet TV features and think users will be pleased.

In an upcoming post, I'll compare and contrast my experiences.

The folks over on HowardForums are reporting that AT&T will finally release the Windows Mobile 6 update for Samsung Blackjack users on September 17th.  I hope this is true...  While a beta was unofficially released on the web a few months ago, the lack of any Internet Connection Sharing was a big issue for me.

This is great news - apparently MCE can support up to four HD cable (cablecard) tuners.  Engadget has the scoop.  Off to company meeting now.  More on my Media Center cablecard experiences later today.

Chalk it up to global warming.  Earlier tonight, Microsoft and Novell announced plans to bring Silverlight to our shared customers on Linux. In a solution called, "Moonlight", Novell will be creating a Silverlight implementation as a part of the Mono project.

Why is this significant?  It's a continuation of our commitment to listen to customers and bring Silverlight to the platforms that matter to them.  Scrape away the veneer and it's simple- because they asked us to. Nicely.  A lot of credit goes to Miguel de Icaza whom I had the opportunity to meet at MIX.  From there, the teams held a series of conversations throughout the summer. 

Also in the news, Entertainment Tonight is doubling down with Silverlight, as are about 35 other partners announcing support. 

I'd also be remiss to not mention that tomorrow AM, we're launching Expression Encoder.  If you're looking for an easy tool to publish video and audio content or even live events with Silverlight, Expression Encoder is your tool.  In the coming weeks, we'll also release a plug-in for publishing directly to Silverlight Streaming and an API that makes it easy to publish via other services.

Too much for one blog post.  Net-net, at MIX we said we'd deliver Silverlight 1.0 this Summer* and we did. Silverlight 1.1 is in tandem development and significant resources are going to this effort.  It's time to Light up the Web.

Congratulations to the teams who made this possible.  Truly the most "can do" effort in my time at MSFT.

(Note: Many web properties will launch tomorrow AM Pacific by design)

This is to my recollection my first link to Fake Steve Jobs.  I enjoy him every once in a while, like a Far Side cartoon.  Tonight, I read his post, "A Boring Rant" about iTunes vs. NBC and he almost sounded lucid.  I think he's off the mark on Apple creating original video. They'll start where the risks are lower - music.

My prediction:  Apple will start a music label as the first step. They will have at least three major artists -

1. An established, older but wildly successful artist that's experienced a slight downturn, to focus on the aging adult contemporaries with the budget to buy Mac products
2. A hot country artist because we're reportedly a NASCAR nation*
3. One more youthful artist, probably focused on the urban demographic.

Or they may go all-in with a big defection en-masse.  Apple will make a statement to the industry by making these tracks available at a slightly cheaper price than other tracks on the site.  The might start by offering non-DRM'd tracks for $.99 vs. the requisite $1.29 found now.  They'll generate modest profits and promote like hell to get on the radio airwaves.  They'll use television ad time traditionally used to drum up iPod awareness (like we needed any) to promote the songs and the new iPods on their way.

Or perhaps I'm off the mark and the numbers don't add up.  Either way, ubiquitous broadband is the real disruptive force happening here, and on that we agree.

*My son is an addict and preschool slave at the altar of Pixar's Cars.  John Lasseter and the Pixar team are phenomenal in my book, but if I have to hear, "It's all gas and goes for McQueen today!" one more time...

Don't know who Akamai is?  You should.  According to some reports, a majority of internet downloads and audio/video streams run through their content delivery network (CDN).  GigaOm has a solid writeup on Akamai's new HD delivery network for the Web capable of delivering the highest level of commercialized HD - 1080p to the masses.  Realistically, I don't expect we'll see a lot of 1080p content floating around for a matter of years, but certainly within the next five it will become commonplace for commercial  content. 720p will work for a lot of short-form content, with many movie trailers already being offered up in HD on sites including the new Halo 3 HD Mini Movie done with Weta digital (Peter Jackson's outfit).

The meme is all gaga over an MIT project demonstrating the ability to power a 60W light bulb up to 6.5ft away from a wireless power coil using magnetic waves. Funny thing is this isn't news - the announcement was made last November. Two other companies, Powercast and eCoupled are doing similar things. If it proves out, this is a very cool development but the real question I haven't seen asked is: how efficient is it?  Does it take 90W of power to support a 60W bulb? Can it scale to support multiple devices like a wireless power strip?

Wireless charging of your cell phone may be just the break the iPhone and other multi-function devices will need to avoid the Russian Roulette game of managing your power consumption between music, video, email, and voice calls so you're not caught with a dead phone.  Will it replace all your cables in your home?  I'm highly skeptical.

(The first of a three part series)

I'll admit it.  I tried to break my Drobo on Day 1.  No, I didn't drop it or mangle it.  I just did everything backwards.

1. I plugged it in before installing the dashboard app.  It showed up as a "Protected USB device". Oookay...

2.  I downloaded installed the software and installed it... via Remote Desktop.

3.  I put four of the five drives in- starting with a piddly 42GB drive, a 160GB, a  320GB and a 500GB'er. Did I forget to mention I put the last two drives in backwards?

4.  Did I forget to mention that I put all the drives in before powering it up, and then proceeded to format the two drives?

5.  Then I put the bottom 320GB and 500GB drives in correctly. Drobo Dashboard found and automatically formatted the drives.

6.  Next I started a big copy - 23GB.  Started off great, though a  little slow.

7.  Then I got impatient about 10GB in and pulled the 42GB main drive OUT and dropped a 400GB in.

8.  Transfer went fine.  Then I took 300GB and let it run overnight.  Logging back in in the morning- all my data was there.

So what happened? Not a hiccup. The Drobo protested with blinking yellow lights that I wouldn't be protected against a single HDD failure.  But I didn't have to re-format, everything just worked as expected.  You have to get over the confusing fact that the drives will always report 2TB to Windows (or greater) but the actual storage is much smaller.  A large portion of the available space is also taken up for buffer so even after formatting I had on the order of 100GB unavailable. I suspect this is buffer space. The Drobo Dashboard gives you a true view of space on the drive (psst- where's the Drobo Dashboard Gadget?)

As with most USB transfers however, it felt a bit slow.  Here's to hoping for an eSATA version in the future or if someone can figure out how to "channel bond" two USB ports for faster throughput (send my patent check in the mail please). :)

(Next up: Serving HD video off the Drobo- Media Center Style)

The site says, "On June 5th, Data Robotics will change the way you think about storage forever".  RAID-style expandable storage at any point?  It sounds too good to be true!  As one who just filled my 500GB RAID1 setup (largely with recorded MCE TV programs) this product sounds like an ideal solution- automatic backup, mix and match HDD sizes, makes and models, and it will work with my Mac or PC. If this works as advertised, I may be sitting in a pool of storage soon. 

My favorite home audio receiver Sonos is reportedly about to release version 2.2 with Pandora support.  I'm looking forward to this in a big way.  Now if only XM  would do a deal with Sonos, I would be a very, very happy camper.  Until then, I continue my Media Center->Xbox->Sonos workaround for listening to Flight 26 from my home theater.

Update: Version 2.2 has now been released.  Unfortunately with it comes the cryptic news:  Pandora (a free, ad-supported service on PC) comes with a subscription requirement after 30 days for Sonos.  This is a little disappointing as the only value you seem to get for your $36/year.  That's not much, but the only value offered is 100% free of advertising?  How about being able to play a specific song when I create a station based on it?  I'll probably still drop my Rhapsody subscription in favor of this cheaper alternative.  Sonos- if you want to talk to XM, give me a call ;)

Ok the blog is back up with some load-balancing features so I can talk about Popfly!  This is for the YouTube & MySpace generation- interested in mashups that bend to your will, combining mapping, Flickr, and bLaugh with unintended consequences.  Given all the new API's starting to show up, this has tremendous potential for the developer challenged.  Just connect the dots (literally) and create your own. It will even roll the code into a Windows Sidebar Gadget or enable you to embed easily into your own site. This is just an Alpha and LOT more is planned.  But I have to hand it to John, Dan and team this is an awesome use of Silverlight.  Watch the video and let the mashing begin.

Last night, Scott Guthrie and a few of us on the Silverlight product team went to see Aerosmith in concert at the Mandalay Bay - something I've always wanted to do and it as worth every moment!

Tonight I finally met Dave Winer in person at a Blogger meetup.   Today was mostly partner meet & greets, keynote rehearsals (which look great) and a few other things. One of them was giving Jeff Sandquist a special edition Microsoft Silverlight skateboard- the same design seen in the intro video at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight.  He love skateboarding as do I.  The difference is tha the can actually skateboard.

These are special giveaways for partners and customers.  I've had to carry a few around the Venetian and keep getting stopped by security guards wanting to look at it, attendees etc.  I have one extra and will probably send it spontaneously to the person who does the most impressive Silverlight-enabled app about 30 days from now.   Heck, you might see a few given away at MIX07 :)

Tomorrow blogging is going to be a bit sporadic as I have a pretty tight schedule but will try to post as soon as possible - lots to talk about, so much good but will be covered elsewhere.

If' you're at MIX and want to meet up and discuss Silverlight's media capabilities, feel free to text me at +1-425-442-5712 or leave vmail (sporadic notification) and we'll try and meet up Tuesday or Wednesday. 

To quote Allen:

The demo of LiveStation, which showed a good-quality picture from the BBC in the midst of a bandwidth-hogging tech show, has another thing going for it - its ability to leverage Microsoft's new Silverlight platform to create "content experiences" based on LiveStation's streams. Has interactive TV finally found its way to the consumer?

It's a good question, and I look forward to Skinker's public beta.  I've been playing with Joost as well, both are fine examples of what can be done.  It did occur to me that the Joost UI could be done in Silverlight, making it accessible everywhere the Silverlight client resides.  But for me, content is more important than the medium.  And my Slingbox is safely tethered to my TiVo for PVR supports for now. :)

I've received so many inquiries and kudos about the Silverlight name, logo, and brand video internally and externally that I thought I'd post the real story of how it came together.

• Naming research was completed in Q3 2006.  We decided to hold it for a special event at a later date.  "WPF/E"- the codename of Silverlight was intentionally unappealing to keep mainstream consumers from installing it until we had good feedback from the developers/designers during the alpha (CTP) preview.
• Brand work was done by my team working with an outstanding design firm I'll mention here once I have clearance to do so (by them).  We kicked this off in October, and went through many iterations before landing on the animated logo and final frame lockup.  If you don't like the frame, you can blame me Long :)  The orb is a plasmic energy being held into shape by an unseen force, where it spins and flows, almost organically.
• The brand video was done by Phoenix Edit, a group of ex-Industrial Light & Magic wonks out of San Francisco.    The goal was to show many different Silverlight-enabled scenarios woven together – designer/developer collaboration, personalized e-commerce, devices, user-generated video, viral sharing, and the network effect on sales. We intentionally avoided excessive use of text or voiceover so the video will translate globally as we kick off events around the world. For the line, "Light up the Web" - you have me to blame.  It's more about illumination and blazing a trail vs. blazing anything else ;)
• The music in the brand video is by my friend and prominent UK DJ Andy Hunter. The song is “Go” off his album, “Exodus”.  Andy consulted on the project and the remix, and has considerable street cred touring with DJ Tiesto. His songs have been used in The Matrix games, and multiple movie/television show. Andy is now on Nettwerk records working on his next release.
• Customer and partner engagement was tightly synchronized.  During initial briefs, partners were shown a slide announcing the final name as "X-Plat Player Plug-in for Browsers" in Microsoft logotype, a self-deprecating way of noting that we knew the name had to be cool and were on the ball (ironically or sadly some thought that was the actual name!).  We'd show the logo without the name, and always used the name "WPF/E" in our discussions and external communications.
• For the press announce, named companies didn't even know the final name until a matter of hours before the release hit. We intentionally didn't publish any brand elements internally and had about a dozen people total that had access.  The product management team got really tired of hearing me talk about secrecy and except for a few small nits that went unnoticed, they really did us proud.

Some day I'll post the evolution timeline of the logo if others are interested.

Every year, the publishers of Videography, DV, Digital Cinematography, and Television Broadcast magazines get together at NAB and announce the "Best of Show" award winners in multiple categories.

The Best of Show Awards are given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology, include the Videography Vidy Awards, the longest running NAB awards program, the Television Broadcast Top Innovation Awards, the DV Black Diamond Awards, and the Digital Cinematography Premiere Awards.

"To receive an award, a technology is evaluated by our panel of editors and industry experts," says NewBay Media Video Group Vice President/Group Publishing Director Doug Krainman. "The winning technologies reflect innovation and engineering excellence.

I'm elated to note that Microsoft Silverlight was the recipient of a coveted DV Black Diamond Award, in such esteemed company as Apple Final Cut Studio 2.  Congrats to the entire team!

Dan is one of the top movers/shakers in the online media space.  A veteran of Web 1.0, EVP of StreamingMedia.com and and Chairman of the Streaming Media conferences,  he recently started a blog and people are taking notice.  I first met Dan back at Streaming Media West 2001, in-between Steve Ballmer heckling me on-stage for using my wedding video in an end to end demo :). 

Dan gets our strategy with Silverlight for the media space.  Customers want a solution with the quality/reliability of Windows Media, standards-support of VC-1, and the interactivity only available from another provider today:

While the higher cost of creating and delivering in Flash over Windows Media has not stopped too many in the past, it has stopped some content creators from wanting to spend two to three times more just to use the Flash streaming format... If Silverlight truly does allow content owners to create, encode and deliver content faster and cheaper while providing the same if not better user experience than Flash streaming, then Microsoft is going to have the advantage in the long run.

Almost every broadcaster I speak to is looking with whetted appetite to the moment they can deliver HD video on the Web in a reliable and effective manner.  While everyone talks about the rapidly dropping price of bandwidth on the Web, we seem to neglect the actual cost of retraining designers to be developers (or vice versa), the production costs associated with creation of more complex, experience-centric websites, and the plain fact that more bits flowing through the "tubes" of the internet = more congestion, particularly at HD rates.  This is why we're investing so heavily in Silverlight for media, and adding new features such as SSL (https://), the same technology used to protect your credit card information, will now be used for over-the wire encryption of progressive streams from Windows Server code name "Longhorn" to Silverlight.  A certain broadcaster said they needed it and were concerned about proprietary protocols of other solutions that were recently reverse engineered.

Dan Rayburn - Subscribed.

Hot on the heels of our annoucements at NAB and the overwhelming response, I'm happy to announce the Silverlight team is growing again.  If you want to be a part of the next wave of media experiences and help to build the business to create, deliver, and experience RIAs, new job opportunities exist for the following job roles:

• Sr. Product Management - Enterprise & Solutions Engagement
• Sr. Product Management - Server & Services Engagement
• Silverlight Business Development & Deployment

All jobs are located in Redmond, WA.  Qualified candidates should have minimum of 5 years in the industry, MBA preferable with experience in the enterprise streaming and/or content delivery space.  Excellent customer/partner references are a must.  Skiing and/or 'boarding experience is a plus.

If you're interested, feel free to contact me at LinkedIn or send me email at sean@seanalexander.com with "INQUIRY:" in the title and your resume/VC. Or come find me on LinkedIn if you prefer.

The positions are located in Redmond, WA and will require some travel, about 4 days a month. It's important to note these are senior positions, with large impact on the business working directly with partners, customers, and product team to  ensure we're meeting the needs of our customers in the years to come.  Mac+Windows enthusiasts appreciated. ;)

Hot on the heels of last night's Top 10 for Silverlight, the other product making major waves at NAB is Microsoft Expression Media Encoder - a template-based video publishing tool for Silverlight and more. Expression Media Encoder supports live and on-demand video encoding and is a feature of Expression Media (our upcoming Digital Asset Management tool based on the lauded iView Media Pro).  Tim Sneath has a great writeup on the encoder here. 

Top 10 Questions about Expression Media Encoder

1. What video formats can I import with MEME?
   A: QuickTime, AVI, WMV, and any other format with a well-formed DShow filter.  Yep, we did the extra work to support the QT API's and are showing it working on the show floor.  If you have QT installed, it will work.
2. What can MEME do with Silverlight?
   A: MEME can quickly add chapter points with thumbnails and publish out your video into WMV/SMPTE VC-1 - no coding required.  Then just add the Javascript and video to your site and away you go.  You can also do basic enhancements - add a transparent .PNG or .GIF as an overlay, add leader/trailers, crop and even do A|B compare.
3. Can I encode for devices?  Web sites?  Streaming servers?
   A: Yes!  We'll include device profiles for outputting just the video for now ;)  Silverlight works with any web server as well as the more efficient Windows Media streaming platform. Profiles are just .prx same as Windows Media Encoder. 
4. What about live support?
   A: Another big hit at the show is EME's ability to handle multi-angle, multi-source video.  You'll be able to do pre-roll from local disk, then output, even archive to disk.  Yes, I think some vloggers will find this handy for both live broadcasting and on-demand.
5. Tell me more about these templates?
   A: The beauty of Silverlight apps is that they can be written with Javascript + XML (XAML).  As a result, the chrome/skin/templates can be created in Expression Blend (or other tools, even notepad) and then swapped- much like blog site, website, or powerpoint templates. This feature is a huge hit at NAB.  We're showing how Blend can be used to create  template easily from scratch, then use the template in EME. 
6. Expression Media is available for Mac and Windows.  What about EME?
   A: EME is a Windows-only product and was actually built with Expression Studio- it's a WPF-based application. 
7. How fast is encoding with Expression Media Encoder?
   A: Very fast- about the same as WM Encoder but we know time is money in encoding, so we're working with Intel spin-off and Red Herring darling Tarari to add hardware acceleration!  Tarari's boards are used by major broadcasters and post houses to encode today.  With EME, Tarari is seeing up to 15x faster encoding times when compared to software only solutions. Just drop the board into a PCI slot and away you go
8. Can EME run on the server?
   A: Yes! EME is scriptable, automatable, and templatized (is that even a word?) so you can integrate it into your server workflow.  We think some user-generated content sites may find this interesting for example where long encoding times mean customers leave your site.
9. Will EME support output to other formats?
   A: We're considering it based on feedback. We know there's a demand for better, simpler transcoding tools, and EME is really optimized for Silverlight which uses VC-1 (as well as older.  Silverlight could add more formats, but when you consider the entire package is 1MB in size, just adding another video codec could increase that by 50%. Keep the code tight! 
10. What is the coolest feature of EME?
    A: For me, it's the A/B Encode Compare feature. Today most tools require you encode the entire file, then review the quality. Then tweak - a huge time sink.  EME will improve the quality of videos in general because you can encode a segment or snippet you define (such as a high action sequence) and then review.  You can even wipe back and forth in the frame, reviewing side by side the original and compressed, or even multiple encoder settings side by side to get the best quality possible. The metadata features are pretty cool too.
11. Does Expression Media Encoder replace Windows Media Encoder?
    No.  EME is a new product, optimized for fast and simple publishing of video on your website with Silverlight. WME continues to be made freely available at www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia EME will cost about $299.

You can see the video here.  (Note, I won't be offering Silverlight-based videos here until beta ;))

Note: Silverlight doesn't use video acceleration (such as Aero-enabled PCs) for Silverlight.  That's one of the ways we keep everythng consistent between applications.   Also resize rendering is dependent upon the browser's capabilities and refresh rate. 

A few of you have been asking where I've been and why I've been so quiet about digital media. Has blogging become passe? Am I spending too much time reading Scoble? (no) or Pirillo (no)?   I am Twittering though - delivering bite size bloggables. Perhaps I joined Michael Gartenberg in returning to the "private sector"?  No again. I've been working heavily on exciting things we're going to unveil at MIX07.  If you're involved in digital media delivery on the web, you're going to want to see what we unveil at the show.

For the past six years, I've been involved in different aspects of digital media, dating back to Windows Media Player 7 and beyond.  With every release, a debate roiled internally - are we an experience or a platform?  More effort over time was put into creating an experience with Windows Media Player (as our customers were asking for), but the developer platform never saw much in the way of major leaps forward.  OCX updates were modest, load times were unacceptable to customers on web pages, and it was too complicated to create compelling and differentiated experiences.

Not for long.  We've been listening.  Taking notes.  Asking questions. Understanding what's needed to go beyond what's available today for delivering media-enriched experiences on the Web.  And MIX is where you're going to here more about that.  I have emails reporting that the media experience in www.vista.si from Microsoft Slovenia  beyond delivering a full Vista desktop emulator in "WPF/E" runs faster than some web-enabled experiences.

So at MIX, we're going to step it up with sessions dedicated to those focused on rich digital media delivery on the Web. You'll learn how to use new tools coming such as Expression Media Encoder, and how to use new features with Windows Server "Longhorn". Our team will be there- engaging in the conversation across a broad range of topics. 

Yesterday, I a podcast for the Mix website where I'll talk some more.  I'm going to be doing a lot of talking soon.  I'm also doing the first-day keynote at Streaming Media East. (Note to Dan Rayburn, I look about 10 years old in the picture on the site)

I'm also Twittering now.  The RSS feed is here.  Feel free to add me to your list if you dare.

Still catching up on blogworthy items. As is customary with the release of any new OS, a lot of attention is being given to the new, native features of Windows Vista, the compatibility of devices as well as existing applications.  But what about new applications?  Vista doesn't rest on the laurels of traditional, flat, 2D applications. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a feature of Windows Vista that enables rich, textured, 3D applications to be built that take interactivity to a whole new level. 

One such application was developed by famed design firm, Metaliq. Their Snowboarding application incorporates two of my loves - snow sports and GPS.  Marrying 3D rotatable maps of Aspen Ski Resort with GPS data, it seamlessly integrates  live data, video clips and a playback reel give you the perspective of your runs as you head down. 

I'm a sucker for this kind of app I always take my GPS with me when I go skiing- just "Set it and forget it" while I'm riding.  When I get home, Pictures I take on the mountain are geotagged (I like RoboGeo), and I like to review representations of my runs on satellite maps with ExpertGPS or Google Earth.  This is admittedly geeky today, but imagine being able to sit down after a vacation with the family, and review your photos, ultimate runs, and home videos and navigate it visually.  It's clear we're just getting started.

It's the weekend, and a perfect time to go through Tim Sneath's blog list of amazing WPF applications.  C9 has a great list here as well.

Here's a list of some of my favorite english-language applications (German, French and others on  Tim's site as well):

1. NY Times Newsreader
2. Nostalgia Flickr Browser
3. British Library's Turning the Pages
4. Electric Rain's Standout 
5. Notescraps
6. Denounce (RSS/Podcast browser)
7. Cine.view (NetFlix browser)
8. Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista
9. Calendar Printing for Office 2007
10. Wikipedia Explorer
11. iBloks 3D Movie Creator

Let me know if you find more ;)

My favorite digital audio receiver just added support for Zune Marketplace, Napster, Urge, Wal-Mart, etc. and enhancements for iTunes though they still won't play Apple's own DRM'd music (something Jobs left out he won't license).  Finally, my little white Sonos boxes aren't sitting in a Zuneless island.  Every time I think I'm done with DRM'd music services, they bring me back in.  I have to say though, I'm increasingly impressed by Rhapsody's integration with the Sonos.  It makes me wonder, why shouldn't all music services offer a network connected version, similar to what Napster is doing today?

Also note to music services - not everyone listening to your service is a twentysomething head-banging, ultramegalophile monster mashup music culture listener.  Take some cues from  XM's "Flight 26".   I like my hard-core, but not when the kiddies are around.  Families want to listen too.  That's a note to Sirius as well.

While consumers work through the dizzying array of new features in Windows Vista, Ryan Stewart cuts through the hype and brings it back to what really matters - User Experience.  He notes, "We're all better off when experience wins and Vista is a huge step forward."  I couldn't agree more. But what about after the hype, the roar of marketing moves into sustain?  I'm expecting to see big pops of innovation as new Vista-enabled applications start to emerge.

An example of this is WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation, which is going to enable the next-generation of desktop applications that are 3D accelerated, and designer-developer collaboraration with Expression Studio and  Visual Studio.  I agree with Ryan, and look forward to seeing Tim Sneath write about these new applications.  Yes, they'll run on many XP PCs as well, but will truly sing on Vista.

Another will be "WPF/Everywhere" or "WPF/E" (Codename), which will take rich media experiences traditionally targeted at the desktop, and bring those to the Web with the flexibility of standards-based programming, and the power of XAML for presentation.  I've seen how important XAML is first-hand- when I worked in Windows as a program manager on Windows Vista Sidebar, the tension was palpable between the User Experiece designers creating the UI, and the developers who were unable to fully realize the vision pixel for pixel.  With Expression Studio + WPF, what you can envision, becomes programmable, pixel for pixel.  That is a powerful thing, and soon we're bringing that to the web as well.

Try WPF for yourself with my favorite "essential" application - the NY Times News Reader (beta). 

(I have the flu so I'm heading back to bed. :( )

While visiting a friend yesterday in the OEM Group at Microsoft, I spied an interesting sub-notebook on his desk.  It appeared to have a Windows Vista logo jeweled into the case and backlit in color.  My trusty camera in tow, I snapped a few pictures for your enjoyment.

The PC was a special edition created exclusively for a select number of partners (read: executives).  Microsoft partnered with ASUS to custom-build these little gems to demonstrate how laptops can take advantage of the latest technology in Windows Vista.  It's a widescreen Tablet PC, a Media Center, runs Vista Ultimate with Aero Glass, and even has a fingerprint scanner and smart card reader for login.  It also sports the latest Intel Centrino and Core2Duo technology.  Battery life is impressive as well.

Unfortunately you won't find these PCs at retail with the Vista logo, but it's a nice example of what PC OEMs can do when motivated.  Even the materials are premium, not plastic in texture.  Reportedly there are a few of these running around with leather finish!

As for the Tablet features? It's the first tablet my friend ever really liked.  With Vista, he's gone so far as to say he enjoys the tablet feature.  Of course I'm drooling over the PC and would love to see what I could do with Microsoft Expression Studio on it.

More pics here.

Here's to hoping PC manufacturers are willing to take even bolder risks in design.  To that end, IDSA and Microsoft partnered again this year on the Next-Gen PC Design Competition.  Entries are closed, and the winners will be announced in April.  I'm hoping to see some phenomenal new prototypes later this year.

Last night, I had the honor of attending the Technical Emmy Awards ceremony at CES to help accept the Emmy Award for Streaming Media Architectures and Components.  Afterwards, we went to the Vista party at the Pure Nightclub in Caesars and brought the Emmy for safe keeping and to take pictures with other team members. It was a hit with a number of old friends who helped us to get this win.  It was a shared win- there was a sense of surprise when I congratulated the Apple team on their shared win as well.

John Carmack, co-founder of iD, creator of Doom and Quake and founder of Armadillo Aerospace was one of the presenters.  When I get a chance, I'll post some video I took during the ceremony. The DirectX team was also on-hand to accept an award for their 3D engine.

Thank you to all the engineers, designers, bizdev, marketing, management who helped to make the win possible but most importantly, to our customers.

More pictures from the party on Flickr here

I really like my Zune, except for one thing- I'm obsessed with battery life so I tend to keep the wireless radio off except when I want to actively look for others.  The likelihood of users to do this could severely diminish the "social" aspects of the device.  I want to be social, but I don't want to run two WiFi radios between my laptop and my Zune, unnecessarily using up battery power.

What I really want is a small utility that runs on my laptop and notifies me when a Zune comes into the area.  It's running WiFi so it must have some sort of broadcast/ID mechanism no?  I can see all sorts of interesting applications of this- mashups that show how many Zunes are available in a given area for one.  It would be interesting to see if I could use my laptop to broadcast the fact that I have a Zune, and take requests.  Then I'll turn on the radio and away I go. And with Vista support now out for Zune, I'm hoping someone will write the ZuneFinder gadget.   Anyone working on this (psst. Phil Torrone, psst) :)

Zune update 1.2 with support for Windows Vista is out.  More details at www.zuneinsider.com

Mike Taulty has posted an interesting sample showing 12 WMV media elements  all running in the same "WPF/E"-based web page.  Imagine being able to watch sporting events streamed in multiple video windows, mouse over a window and get the main screen view.

The uses for this technology are endless.  Imagine a device such as a Crestron-like touch screen control that has live previews of video across multiple channels.  Press the video feed you want and your TV switches.  It might be time to start playing with "WPF/E" inside Media Center's SDK too... ;)

Straight developer talk from Joe Stegman, and some demos on Windows and Mac in the  selected by the Channel 9 team to celebrate their 1000th video.  Congrats Joe (my partner in crime in San Jose last week).

(Ed. Note: The new sites are being propped and updated as we speak, but getting this out ASAP.)

Today I’m excited to finally be able to talk about a new project I’ve been working on—“WPF/E”.   As some of you know, I spent the last year working on End to End User Experiences, specifically with Windows Vista digital media efforts and devices.  This was an amazingly fun and rewarding job, but when all the product work was done (some yet to be announced <g>), it was time to turn my attention to the next challenge.  It was about that time that I was made aware of another opportunity that was too interesting to resist.   

(My) Introduction to “WPF/E” (codename) 

About a year ago, I heard of an intriguing new project codenamed, “WPF/E” or “Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere”.  Announced at the PDC 2005, “WPF/E” is a key part of the next-generation Web platform from Microsoft.   I was intrigued and continued to track progress.  Designed to be delivered as a lightweight, cross-platform browser plug-in, the “WPF/E” client is optimized for presenting rich media such as vector-based graphics, animation, and video content efficiently over the Web.  Microsoft releasing a cross-platform technology?! Readers here know I own a few Macs (one PPC, two Intel-based) and I had to pinch myself.  More importantly I had to be a part of this effort, and I’m excited to say that not only am I a part of the team delivering the technology, we’re making it available to you starting today as a Community Technology Preview (CTP) for evaluation and feedback.  Together with Microsoft Expression Studio also just announced, it’s a goodie bag of toys for designers, developers, and content providers to collaborate on delivering next-generation web experiences and we’re just getting started. (By the way, the codename is a temporary thing, with a much more simplifed one TBA).

Rich web media, simplified with “WPF/E”

Of course, being “Addicted to Digital Media”, there are certain features which led me to join the team.  The “WPF/E“ December CTP also includes support for playback of Windows Media Audio and Video, enabling delivery of rich audio and video integrated with graphical overlays, dynamic resizing, and marker support for interactivity. Customers have been asking for a simple way to embed Windows Media (and VC-1) files and streams organically on web pages for cross-platform playback.  With “WPF/E” they’ll be able to do it (starting with eval’ing progressive download support in the CTP and content protection is on the roadmap).  With “WPF/E” we’re finding new ways to tap into the broad ecosystem of content, tools, and solutions for Windows Media and make it easier.  And for standards-fans, common profiles of the SMPTE standard VC-1 codec are also supported in this release (that’s the same one that ships in all HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players in case you’re keeping count).  Naturally for the Web, standard-definition quality will reign in the near term, but the platform is capable of HD delivery ;),

Introducing Expression Studio

Today, Microsoft also made a number of announcements focused on delivering tools and platforms for delivering rich user experiences (UX) in Windows and on the Web.  The first was an announcement around Expression Studio, a suite of four tools focused on bridging the designer/developer gap that exists today in most development houses.  Using the Expression suite, whatever a designer can visualize and be implemented by developers using .Net Framework 3.0 and Windows Presentation Foundation.  As a program manager, I’ve witnessed first-hand the tension that exists between the designer who creates phenomenal concepts that the developer just can’t code behind.  These tools will also be optimized to support “WPF/E”. I’ve seen upcoming applications built using these tools over the past few months (you’ll get to see some of them soon) and it really takes desktop app development (and soon, web development) to a new level.

Also simplified is the encoding and publishing of content via the new product in the Expression suite is the just announced, Expression Media.  Based on the iView Media Pro product acquired by Microsoft last summer, Expression Media is an update to the professional digital asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital media (pics, fonts, sounds, videos etc.) for easy access  and presentation. (And yes, we’ll still support Mac for asset management).   For video publishers, it will also include a new tool for Windows - Microsoft Expression Media Encoder for encoding and publishing of video with “WPF/E” and beyond.   For more on Expression Media and “WPF/E”, stay tuned.  I’ve added a new category called, “Rich Media” so you can keep tabs on the topic. ;)

Also be sure to check out the blogs of my co-workers talking about “WPF/E” as well including our VP, S. “Soma” Somasegar:

• S. Somasegar - http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/
• Scott Guthrie - http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/
• Joe Stegman - http://blogs.msdn.com/jstegman/default.aspx
• James Clarke - http://www.clarkezone.net/
• Mike Harsh - http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh/default.aspx

I’ll provide links to other team members shortly as they post more.  We have a ton of interest in blogging from the team among members with designer, developer, and video production backgrounds.

So take a look at the resources, send us your suggestions, and come back here with questions.  And while you’re at it, check out the just-relaunched sites at http://www.microsoft.com/expression and http://www.microsoft.com/design.  J

A year ago, I extolled the virtues of Sirius Satellite radio. The Sirius S50 has been happily chugging out tunes in my Toyota Prius with minimal issues, getting updates "over the air", though the recording functionality is little more than a novelty at this point.  What's causing me to consider switching is the "Wife Acceptance Factor" again.  No, it's not Howard Stern that's the problem.  The issue is that my wife got XM free in her new Honda Pilot for 3 months.  This led to her subscribing on her own, a first for any service.   For both of us, it's the quality of the programming for our lifestyle.  But a few nice touches are about to put us over the edge. So here I'm going to break it down into sections:

• Music programming (Winner: XM) - Generally a tie between the two, except when you consider adult contemporary content.  Sirius is heavy on the rap/R&B end of Top 20 on Channel 1.  Good decades and rock (Rolling Stones, Who, Aerosmith). Flight 26 on XM plays contemporary hits suitable for my son to be in the car. I'm a soundtrack fanatic- my wife turns on Cinemagic and I'm hooked. She complains that the broadway station on Sirius has a limited selection and loves it on XM.  Now for the holidays, XM offers 5 radio stations vs. 0 (will be 1) for Sirius. 
• Talk programming (Winner: Sirius) - I grew up in the NY/NJ/Conn tri-state area.  Howard has been a guilty pleasure, but not enough to buy Sirius just for it.  Opie and Anthony can't compete and I like a diversion on the drive in the AM. Sirius has better comedy channels as well and CNBC/CNN/Fox troika of news simulcasts. Martha on Sirius, Oprah on XM if you're into that kind of thing.
• Sports programming (Winner: Tie) - Sirius has NFL and NBA; XM has MLB.  both have Nascar, NHL, and College sports. It all depends on what you're into.
• Kids Programming (Winner: Sirus) - Believe it or not, Sirius has 3 kids stations vs. 1 on XM.  Perhaps they're trying to make up for the bad boy image HS brings to the lineup.
• Music in the Home (Winner: XM) - My wife asked what it would take to get XM in the house.  I powered up the Xbox 360, went to Media Center and voila, XM Radio in Online Spotlight! I've patched it through a Sonos and now have whole-home music Now she has another reason for the Xbox beyond her Bejeweled games (keep that gamerscore going up honey <g>).  Sirius does offer an Internet-based player as well, but the Media Center integration on Xbox 360 for my wife is hands down the easiest.
• Listening in the Car (Winner: Tie) - In my experience, a factory-integrated satellite system just sounds better.  It's better grounded, better integrated.  Sirius has Volkswagen/Audi, Volvo, Kia, Rolls Royce? and Subaru.  XM has
• Music on the go (Winner: XM) - I just purchased a Samsung Blackjack cell phone (more on that later) from Cingular at an amazing deal and I love listening to XM built-in on the phone.  Anywhere in the US I have a data connection I can listen to XM.  I did some tests for delay in my wife's car- the internet-based version on the phone is about 10 seconds behind the satellite delivered version, and offers a wide range of channels. Yes, you can do Sirius on your Windows Mobile phone as well, but having an app built in is a nice touch.

The final tally in my highly unscientific evaluation:

• Sirius: 2
• XM: 3
• Tied: 2

It really comes down to what you're looking for- if you really want Howard Stern, then get Sirius.  If you want better programmed music for adults (my perception) get XM.  In my case, music around the home and on the go is also important.  So it looks like I'm headed to XM once my Sirius subscription has expired.

As engadget and Digg are reporting on their headlines, the clix 4GB flash-based player is now available. Verrry niice.

A friend in the Windows Vista team sent me pictures of a cool new PC for Windows Vista they just did with Dell for a promotion. 

This hot-rod took the fastest Dell Media Center PC on the planet, then added a tricked out paint job by mondo paint mod shop Colorware to commemorate Windows Vista release to manufacturing. As the picture hints at, the finished result is top-notch automotive-quality paint that appears lit from within.  That's not surprising when you consider the specs of the system:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Processor
• 512MB NVidia GeForce 7900 GTX
• 4GB RAM Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 667mhz
• 1Terabyte RAID0 SATA HDDs (2x500MB)
• 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW Double Layer Burner
• Dual TV Tuners (Analog)
• Dell 30" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
• Full 5.1 Surround Sound system

My contacts tell me this system has a Windows Experience Index # of this system is a 5.2. For those of you unfamiliar with this feature of Windows Vista, it is a ranking # that represents the capabilities of your PC based on performance of your video, CPU, memory, HD, etc. and can be  used to determine which software will run best by matching the number or below (goodbye trying to deceipher 3 point text on bottom of software boxes to see if you can run the latest/greatest).  

The Vista screamer was conceived as a way to commemorate the RTM of Windows Vista at the ship party.  A few were made, and one contributed to Microsoft's annual, "Giving Campaign" where OEM employees raffled it off, with Microsoft matching the raffled amount going to the United Way. Considering the full version will put you back $3200+tax, that's a healthy donation.  

The only thing it's missing as far as I'm concerned is a Windows Sideshow display on the front and maybe an HD-DVD drive.

More pictures on my Flickr set.

Update: Fixed details on the charity process - it was a raffle.

A certain other company may have been first to mention this shared win, but they neglected to disclose this was a 4-way tie in the same category.  In the order announced by the National Television Academy:

• Microsoft for Windows Media
• Adobe for Flash Video
• Real for Real System
• Apple for QuickTime

Congrats to the Windows Media team (and others) on the win.  The real winners at the end of the day are end-users enjoying audio and video on the Web.

http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/advmedia_nom_release.html

Michael Gartenberg has a good analysis on the Xbox HD TV and Movie service announced earlier today:

Net? A good move for Microsoft and XBox to add functionality without compromising anything related to game play. Don't be fooled by the limited content (although current content maps to the gamer demographic well). Like iTunes, we'll see more stuff coming to Live pretty quickly.

Engadget has details here. VC-1 will be the codec used for delivery of HD content.  The HD trailers were just an appetizer. IPTV just became a mainstream reality overnight. 

I love my SlingPlayer (v1).  So it's nice to see that the kind folks at Sling Media are letting the Mac into the kiddie pool.

Engadget has all the details on the Mac OS X beta here.

From Major Nelson:

Looking for official details on the Fall Dashboard update? Check out the Newsflash (or the complete list of new features) just posted on Xbox.com then look for the update to head your way after 0200 PT Tuesday morning (What time is that in my time zone?.)  If this whole ‘update’ thing is new to you, don’t worry…it’s quick, free and painless. Next time you login into Xbox Live you’ll get prompted to receive the update…it’s that easy. There is no way to force the update (and, regardless of what you have heard, it's not geographical based.) So sit back and relax and it get ready for the update sometime after 0200 PT Tuesday morning, October 31st.

Can you say, "Ready for HD-DVD" or "Ready for WMP11"? Nice work.   

For Windows XP SP2 and "N" versions. Check it out here and download here.  This is a significant update over the betas or Windows Media Player 10, and also includes support for music services including MTV's  "Urge" in final release.

Microsoft Game Studios announced Halo Wars, an all-new real-time strategy game based on the legendary Halo® universe and built exclusively for Xbox 360™ by Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires series.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/events/x06/halowarscomingtoxbox360.htm

You've got to see the trailer on the site in WMV-HD 720p.  Personally I think it hints at the style we should expect from the upcoming Halo major motion picture.  I'm disappointed there isn't a PC version as well though. I also wonder if there will be a tie-in with Halo 3?  Perhaps a command and control component via Halo Wars, directing troops (real players) in Halo 3?  That could be very, very cool.

Cesar at Zune Insider has posted a video of the new Zune UI.  I think this is the same B-roll footage provided to the press, but it gives a good overview of some of the UI features.

Just the links and only the links for now:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune 
(lots of pictures in here)

http://www.zuneinsider.com/

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/microsoft-launc...

I'll chat more later.   

Uninnovate.com has an interesting article on Apple's new support of "Reverse syncing" of content with the iTunes 7 release yesterday:

Today, Apple released iTunes 7.0, among other things. In earlier versions of iTunes, Apple did its best to prevent users from being able to copy music from an iPod back to a desktop computer. Now, Apple has changed course and is marketing “Reverse Syncing” as a new feature of iTunes 7.

But there is one giant catch:

1. Music and media not purchased from the iTunes store only syncs one way, from your computer to your iPod.

This is uninnovation in its most frustrating form. It’s easy to spot and avoid drm-saturated junk, but these kinds of subtle limitations in an otherwise great product frustrate users and drive them to alternative applications. How about trusting the user enough to let them get at their own files without these childish restrictions?

WMP11 added reverse file transfer support back in March which works with purchased, and clear content. (It’s also had album art matching in WMP9, dramatically improved in WMP11). I think the author is being a bit overzealous however in his claim of “uninnovation”- it's always been easy to transfer music off your iPod, it's just a little hidden.  Here it’s a little less hidden.

I’ve seen lots of chatter on iTV - Apple's Media Center Extender-esque device for streaming video to the living room.  It feels like we’ve been here before. Long Zheng at istartedsomething.com has a good recap of the relative strengths and weaknesses of products in this space.   It seems a bit odd that Apple would break from long-time tradition and give a "sneak preview" of a product that won't be available for at least Q1 '07, particularly when they could have held the announce to availability around MacWorld in January. It's clear they had to do this to try and spur purchase of movies from their new store- with no rental model, people just don't want to buy movies to watch on their portable players. Tell them they'll be able to play it in other places as well around the home and their likelihood of purchase is higher.  It’s the battle of cognitive dissonance - buyer's remorse. After all, you're already dealing with the psychological barrier in that the user is buying an intangible good, something without physical form that perceptually has less value than physical media such as DVDs. But... you're going to charge about the same as a physical DVD. Without the Bonus DVD content.  Oh and the 640x480 video quality people are downloading is going to be between VHS and DVD quality (which offers 720x480p).  Never mind that it will be potentially less for letterboxed content since the new iPod doesn't support 16:9 (widescreen) display.  In the time it will take most customers to download one of these movies, I could have gone to the store, bought the DVD, popcorn, a 6-pack of Coke, dinner, come home, cooked dinner, and be ready to watch. In a rental model, all of these issues can be forgiven for immediate gratification and a lower price, as witnessed by the popularity of Video On Demand and InDemand services.

The challenges in streaming TV from the PC aren't just the hypothesized need for higher speed wireless (802.11n) which should be provisionally approved in early 2007.  This might be delaying their launch, but streaming 640x480 video across the home has been possible with Media Center Extender for just about two years now.  A challenge is going to be convincing consumers to buy and set up yet another single-purpose device in the living room, another remote, another input on the TV for this thing.

Today, you can get an Xbox 360 that includes Media Center Extender at no additional cost. Over 16 million Media Center customers can use this today, no additional charge. Even if you don’t have a TV tuner in your PC, you can connect a USB tuner and record TV or HDTV (OTA today, Digital Cable with equipped PCs with Vista). No additional fees.  As announced at CES last year, multiple HDTV manufacturers are putting Media Center extender into their designs, something that costs less than a night at the movies to implement.

As for another box in the living room, the Xbox 360 does HD gaming, DVD/HD-DVD Playback, Music, Photos, Video, TV/HDTV playback, runs rich media apps from a multitude of providers, and delivers an increasing amount of media content via Xbox Live, including HD.   And it's going to get significantly better with Windows Vista Premium's Media Center features – automatically updating your Xbox 360 to support in the family room with the same level of animation and experience. 

Either way, a saying comes to mind: “A rising tide raises all boats” and for that I welcome Apple's foray.  But if Apple's iTV costs the same as an Xbox,  offers nothing more than a "simplified remote" and fewer mainstream features which really makes more sense when competing for  consumer dollars outside the Job's faithful?  With Sony and Nintendo's Wii also vying for that same space, it's about to get a bit more crowded. Or perhaps just noisy.  So begins the "Great Family Room Battle of 2007".

(Disclaimer: I used to work on Media Center, but haven't for over a year, and speak only for myself.)

BoomTown has a short How To article on using Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 to stream music to your Xbox 360.  Short of pictures, good on content.

Fortunately everything has propped early so I can tell you about the new toy to play with over the long weekend- Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 w/ MTV's Urge music service, just in time for the MTV Video Music Awards ;).

The Windows Media Player 11 team has just shipped Beta 2 of Windows Media Player 11 via the Web.  I've requested a changelist or at least the top 10 fix list but regardless, this is a must-have update for anyone running Beta 1, if even just for the performance improvements. A few more notes on what's changed:

• Fixing issues. Fixes have been made for issues that occurred in the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.
• Additional online stores are now available. More online stores are available in this beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP. For a listing of online stores that are now available, see Availability of online stores.
• Changes to sharing digital media content. The functionality of Windows Media Connect is now integrated into Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP as the new Media Sharing feature, which lets you enjoy the contents of your Windows Media Player library from anywhere in your home. If you have a home network (wired or wireless), you can use Windows Media Player 11 to stream the contents of your library to networked devices such as Xbox 360 or other digital media receivers. For more information, go to Digital Media at Home.
  Note that digital media sharing is targeted for home users; therefore, computers that are joined to a domain might experience issues when trying to share digital media.

Download Link (note: Genuine Windows Validation required for install)

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Amir Majidimehr recently took time to post in AVSForum on the new digital audio features in Windows Vista that haven't really seen much publicity yet.  Net-net is that when paired with the right audio drivers supporting the new features, you'll get customizable enhancements normally reserved for high-end AV receivers such as:

• System-wide Loudness equalization
• Bass Management (get the bass channel even on systems without a subwoofer)
• Better support for surround sound systems up to 7.1 channels
• Virtualized surround sound (Surround-->2 speakers)- mix 5.1 DVD's to headphones or standard desktop speakers
• Virtual Surround (Stereo-->Surround)- turn 2-channel into surround sound for your receiver
• Room Calibration - using a simple microphone, this profiler "listens" to the sound from each of your speakers to automatically adjust pitch and volume for where you're sitting in the room.  The better the mic, the better the results (My favorite for Media Center in the home theater!)

Now, not all audio drivers will support these features at Vista RC1- it's up to the sound card manufacturers to support it via in-box class drivers.  I know that HD Audio from Intel integrated into many new PC motherboards over the past 2 years does support it, but the currently available Beta 2 drivers from other card manufacturers haven't implemented yet.

Also worth mentioning is the work being done to really reduce latency and improve resiliency in the entire audio stack, both important to pro musicians and consumers alike.

You can also ask Amir questions about Vista Audio Processing here.

And a new whitepaper with more detail on Audio Innovations with screenshots is available here via the official Vista Blog.

I 'm a huge plane fanatic.  I saw the Blue Angels fly three days in a row.  My parents had to convince me to go to a traditional college instead of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University to become an air transport pilot.  I did reports and built models of the SR-71 Blackbird, Space Shuttle and more.  Getting at least my single-engine VFR rating is on my list of things to do before I die.  Last week, we got the Flight Simulator X demo to try out and WOW.  This week, Tina Wood  at On10.net has an interview with the leads of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner project - of the most comprehensive videos I've seen on the 787 project, including an interview with the head engineer.  Someday, I must get into the full-sized flight simulator there.

My boss made me do it.  Seriously.  My boss wants me to blog about the Aquagate, saying it's the coolest MP3 player he's ever seen.  It's annual review time at Microsoft so I will humor him.  Matteo Thun has partnered with Villeroy & Boch to bring this showering/steaming class cube that has been buzzing around the Internet. From their product material:

Thanks to the possibility of playing MP3-files or listening to your favourite radio programme, you can now relax and at the same time enjoy your favourite music during a refreshing shower or vitalising steam bath. Hot mist from above, cold mist at head-height, a ‘cool down’ programme that offers you coolness from top to toe, aroma and light therapy, a rain shower or a Scottish shower are all part of the extremely luxurious equipment level.

Aquagate™ is fitted with four delightful automatic programmes in which all functions are harmoniously combined. For a conscious and healthy life the Wake up, Relax, Fitness and Feel good programmes provide perfect relaxation at the right time of the day. The central gate of the Aquagate™ is available in the stylish materials teak-wood, pure Italian limestone and aluminium in a champagne-metallic colour. The cabin can be placed free-standing, but will also make an unprecedented impression as a design-icon in your bathroom against a wall or in a corner. The Aquagate™ is available in two spacious sizes: 90 x 100 cm and 100 x 130 cm. In our special Aquagate™ brochure you can read everything about the endless possibilities of the Aquagate™.

They had me at Steam shower, they lost me at Scottish shower.  But I like the way they spell "programme" so I'm happy enough.  An LCD display, USB port for loading MP3s.  Too bad there's no WiFi.  This thing would be bad-ass with WiFi enabled access to your music library.  Villeroy and Boch, I'm willing to beta test, just leave the Scotsman at home please. ;)

As the Sirius S50 continues to shine on the list of Top 10 Most Wanted on eBay, apparently Crutchfield has published details about the truly portable Sirius Stiletto 100.  Here are the latest details from OrbitCast:

• True Portability. The Sirius Stiletto will have a built-in antenna that allows reception of Sirius' signal without the need for an external car-dock or home-dock.
• Antenna/headphones included. For supplemental reception, you get a Sirius antenna strapped to your noggin - included with the Stiletto.
• 100 hours of Storage. The Sirius Stiletto handles MP3/WMA, and allows you to intermingle Sirius content with your own digital music collection. The Stiletto supports Microsoft's PlaysForSure protocol.
• WiFi Capability. The interface (pictured to your right) looks very similar to the Zing interface as SBS points out. I'd it's not too far of a guess to say that the Stiletto is using the Zing's WiFi technology - allowing you to stream Sirius online when you're in a hotspot.
• Battery Life. Two batteries are included with the packaging. One standard, and one extended life, which offers 4 hours of live SIRIUS reception, 14 hours of WiFi reception, and 22 hours of stored playback time. (The wording is a little fuzzy here - are these numbers from the standard battery? extended battery? or both?)
• Cost. The Sirius Stiletto will MSRP for $399.99.

I suspect this device, like the Sirius S50 may be based upon a PortalPlayer design. Portal also provides the innards for the iPod as well as other players on the market.  The implementation of course, is largely up to the end-manufacturer of the product.  To me, it looks like an S50 and a Sansa got sensual and forgot to wear protection. ;)

Update0: According to Anything but iPod, CNet reports this device is powered by Zing.

Courtesy OrbitCast and Sirius Backstage

Long Zheng from Australia was excited to win my little giveaway a few weeks back and finally recieved one of the first iRiver Clix players in his country.  His thoughts are posted here as well as pictures of the swank jacket we created for the launch team which I included as a bonus.

Now comes more good news for our friends down under. The Clix is now available officially at Dick Smith Electronics.

Sorry, I don't have any additional details on Clix availability in other markets- please contact iRiver and/or your favorite retailer directly for your region.

Nick White from the Vista team posts on their official blog more details on Vista changes coming in the Release Candidate or already seen in interim builds here on their official Vista Blog.  It's a good start but pretty wordy.  Thanks Nick - how about some shiny happy screenshots with John Madden-like chalk talk to detail the changes before/after?    :)

Todd Bishop of the Seattle P-I has updates on Zune and Vista from the Microsoft Financial Analysts Meeting (FAM).

Correction: Todd Bishop of the Seattle P-I. ;)

From the "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet" file, Anything but iPod is reporting has been relaying a rumor that an iRiver Clix 4GB version is expected next week.  The apparent source of said rumor is an hourly-wage employee at a major retail chain.  I've helped to train said types of employees in a former life and I can tell you these guys are the last ones I would trust to have inside skinny on product releases or even how to market them. 

Case in point: I was recently forwarded pictures of a major retailer placing multiple Apple iPods in the PlaysforSure section of one of their stores, in demo stations with security wire and PlaysforSure logos, all of which was likely an honest mistake by a sales employee/manager type, but is highly deceptive to consumers.

So is a 4GB Clix coming next week?  I checked with our friends at iRiver and while they don't normally speak about future product plans, I can tell you a 4GB version is not expected to be released next week.  What about the week after?  Come on guys, I'm not going to do that to you.  If you're in the market for a Clix, now is a good time to buy.  If a 4GB comes out, you can always put your existing device up on eBay or Windows Live Expo (which just launched) and sell it there.

I've expressed my desire for a 4GB as have many customers via forums and contacting iRiver and Reigncom (their parent company) directly, but there is no news to communicate at this time.  If this changes, I will report it here from a confirmed source. :)

Xbox Live's Major Nelson interviewed my VP, Amir Majidimehr for his podcast while I was out on vacation.  This is a frank and highly informative look at HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and DVD.  Even if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I still recommend you listen to this interview to learn more about why Microsoft got behind HD-DVD, and continues to supply technology that will ship in both formats.

Back in the saddle at work today after an extended vacation :). 

Billboard has a good write up about a new Microsoft project under the brand name, "Zune". I've received a few phone calls and emails asking for comment, but prefer to make my thoughts known here.  Let me first say I’m not a member of the Zune team and in no way speak for them or Microsoft in an official capacity on this topic.  With that out of the way, here’s my take.

From what I've learned, Zune is a new brand for Microsoft - Zune is about community, music and entertainment discovery.  You'll experience Zune with a family of devices and software that bring it all together. Yes, we all want more details, but we’ll have to be a little patient for more details. Check out www.comingzune.com and sign up if you want more details.

One question that gets asked here is the relationship to our existing PlaysforSure program. The Windows digital media team (of which I've been a member) has been focused on raising the tide for all boats, raising the experience for many partners through programs like PlaysforSure, giving sessions on 360 degree product design at partner events, offering frank feedback on product designs when requested and more.  We want Windows to be the best place to experience digital music and entertainment.  The Windows team will continues to work closely with service and device partners to make Windows a great platform for any digital media.

And one need only look as far as the MP3 player/portable media player market to find other examples of taking multiple approaches.  At least two of the largest consumer electronics manufacturers compete on not one, not two, but three levels:

• They supply memory for their own, and competitive MP3 players
• They design and sell MP3 "engines" (systems on a chip) for their own, and competitive MP3 device manufacturers
• They design, build and compete for retail space for their own, branded MP3 players

There are many other examples that can be drawn within Microsoft as well – for example, Microsoft Game Studios competes with independent game publishers for consumer dollars on the same platform (Xbox) also built by Microsoft. In all these cases, relationships of trust must be established independently between product groups or divisions.  The same holds true here as well.   It’s hard to understand unless you’re inside Microsoft but these groups have separate P&Ls (Profit/Loss metrics) and that sometimes means trying different strategies.  To quote Jonathan Sasse, President of iRiver America in a recent CNet News.com article:

“Microsoft is a great partner and we expect continued success moving forward. The potential launch of a device by Microsoft does not appear to threaten our relationship in any way.”

I personally hope, like Jonathan, that this new effort will help to raise the tide once again for all players as the so-called digital lifestyle continues to evolve.  PlaysforSure continues to be a Windows effort with some 140+ products in the market today and with the recently updated PlaysforSure 2.01 specification, the experience bar will be raised even higher.  Zune is a part of a different group and P&L,  but an integral part of Microsoft’s vision for “connected entertainment” that spans across offerings including as games, music and devices. So that’s my take on it. 

(To learn more about the Zune community, check out Cesar’s new site at www.Zuneinsider.com or the official teaser site at www.comingzune.com, which will offer more information when available. For more on PlaysforSure devices available today, see http://www.playsforsure.com)

Update0: Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times weighs in on my post here.
Update1: Richard Winn, a member of the Zune team and new to Microsoft is blogging at www.madisonandpine.com
Update2: Chris Pirillo says the post is a link worth loading and notes I'm one of the Microsoft employees he trusts - thanks Chris :)

In my totally unsanctioned but nice to poke have a little fun style, you might recall a month ago I announced a contest to win an iRiver Clix.  The winner is in: Long Zheng's "Feel the Beat" was selected based on its simplicity and spirit in line wiht the player+device+service combo.  Long's second design, "Press the Magic Number" was another top contender.

And for the heck of it, Austin wins the runner up "Nice try and yes, there's some truth there too Award" for his entry I call, "Usable".  Austin gets a cool WMP11|iRiver Clix launch team jacket (with tiny logos) for his entry because it made me laugh.

Congrats to both our winners!

Brier Dudley seems to agree about the Clix in his latest column in the Seattle Times:

"I'd argue that Microsoft has already developed an iPod challenger, and it's been on sale for a couple of weeks at Best Buy and Amazon.com for about $200... The device is called the Clix."

I was interviewed for this article and got a nice quote.  Brier has more details about the development experience over on his blog.  Just one correction- we didn't specify the silicon for use, but we did provide direct feedback as decisions were being made . 

I also want to call out the amazing work done by the iRiver America team.  The packaging is largely to their credit- we provided critical feedback and encouraged a new, more refined design based on existing packaging in Korea.  The iRiver team did all the heavy lifting and it shows.

At the end of the day, my job was two-fold: As UX (User Experience) PM, to play the part of the consumer end to end- to apply what I've learned working in this space for 7+ years and document our recommendations.  From there, we (the v-team as we called ourselves) agreed on relative priorities w/ iRiver up-front.  We acknowledged where we disagreed without ego or hubris, and worked together on a solution in the interest of the customer.  We were invited to provide input in every meeting on the UX, system flow and regular milestones on naming, branding, messaging, out of box experience and more.  

Shifting gears for a second.  Looking to the development process we used as a case study, Chris Pirillo is still largely right in my opinion about the "User". Except it's users vs. the traditional development process that's the issue- not the developers themselves.  PMs, Devs, Testers, and Marketing are still WAY too silo'ed from their customers and residing in the echo chamber.  I get irate when a PM or Dev tells me they're too busy to go on a customer visit or staff a booth and talk to customers about their product.  I look for these opportunities. But a better requires a multi-disciplined approach working together on a daily basis as well as talking to customers.  That's why we instituted a Scrum Model with "butts in seats at 9:30am accountability" on this project. Our mission statement, "Help our partner build a device we're proud to recommend to family and friends everywhere with WMP11 Beta".  In my opinion, that's what made it work so well this time around.  And the fact that with the U10, iRiver was already on their way to building a great product.  I speak for many within Microsoft when I say thank you to Reigncom/iRiver for the opportunity to work together.

P.S. I'm getting out of my echo chamber later this week at Gnomedex.  See you there.  And a question for the future- where else should I go to further get out of the echo chamber?

Scoble has bit the HD bug hard and he's coming out swinging against HD-DVD detractors.  While I disagree that there's more HD on Xbox Live than HD-DVD (in terms of minutes or available content), he makes a few pretty good points.

At the end of the day, it's about price.  Mainstream users aren't going to buy a PS3 for Blu-Ray, but for the cost they could buy an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii!  Blu-Ray players are going for $1000+, HD-DVD sub-$400.  Yes, they're first generation units but attactive to americans who have upgraded to HDTVs sets (happening at a rapidly accelerating rate).

Then there's the question of quality.  I have it on good authority that many of the initial Blu-Ray titles don't look very good, use MPEG-2, and suffer from issues in the mastering process.  I believe "asleep at the wheel during encode" was one comment heard from an industry insider. Yes, they'll improve, but HD-DVD went to the mat on quality up-front.

I have a Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player. It's ok as far as first-generation devices go.  I don't speak as a video compression expert.  But I've shown it to a slice of mainstream america in my home.  Is it a revolution? Not the way VHS to DVD was. But I have a 50in 720p Samsung HDTV and everyone can definitely tell the difference between it and DVD.  Perhaps if I had a 1080p system the difference would be even more striking.

What about HD cable?  Perhaps good enough for most who don't mind watching when it's on and the quality tests the lower limits of HD in order to cram as many channels in as possible. But even my premium HBO-HD craps out (macro blocking) on high action sequences because of a lower bit rate. And yes, I've checked my signal quality :).

But... I'm not an expert, I just have access to a few and you do too.  Spend some time in AVSForum (www.avsforum.com) and you'll come to see that key players, big and small, trusted engineers and even the developers of the formats are still at odds. 

I still say the cost vs. benefit for Blu-Ray is out of whack.  "Good enough" and "cheap enough" will win in the end.  And the funny thing is, HD-DVD just might also be the best in terms of quality of the final product too. Add to that the often-ignored fact that women in the household have a major say in these kinds of family purchase decisions. I don't know many wives who would buy or green light a $1000+ player for their husbands this coming fall having just spent $2000+ on an HDTV over the past few years. 

Another way of looking at this is, for the price of a "low cost" Blu-Ray Player coming next month you could get an HD-DVD Player and seven years of HD-DVD rentals at NetFlix. 

Who will win? Only the customer will decide and right now the decision factors are too complex and nuanced, the technology too new for anyone to say definitively. 

Geoff Harris leads the team responsible for Windows Media Player 11.  In this interview, he talks about the new player and the Urge Music Service.

Watch at On10.net

Last week I wrote about the new MusicGremlin portable media player.  An interesting concept, the musicgremlin is the first portable media player to incorporate music sharing via WiFi and the concept of community sharing.  Both are compelling ideas to me, but I have some fundamental issues with the implementation.  Net-net, musicgremlin in my opinion has a long way to go before it's ready for prime time. 

Out of the Box Experience
The "MG" (as it's called in the UI) has a premium enough cardstock box with matte finish. The front flap has the only other messaging on the box- "the record store in your pocket".  In an attempt to achieve Apple-like simplicity though, other essential details are missing- storage size (8GB), formats supported (WMA, MP3) essential features (Local and Network music playback, FM radio), battery life (reportedly could be better).

The unit is displayed right on top and protected with a spongy foam insert.  A "get activated now" card is placed on the top, another smart touch.  Pull the gremlin out of its nest and a bright orange backing can be seen, another premium touch.  There is no electrostatic or adhesive protector over the screen or the face which I would like to have seen. Underneath is the getting started guide and three items: An AC charger, a USB 2.0 (mini) cable, and headphones.  All three are in plastic baggies, the AC adapter bad was open-ended.  This was not a great experience- it felt like the item packaging was an afterthought.  A pang of buyer's remorse set in.

The headphones look and feel cheap- plastic and too big to fit in my ears.  What bugs me the most is that the left and right earbuds have different length of cable and are unlabeled.  This doesn't generally bother me since I use my Shure e-series or Sony studio headphones when listening.

Despite its chubby girth, the device fits nicely in my hand, but not nearly as well as my current two favorite devices - the Toshiba Gigabeat-S (HD) and iRiver Clix (Flash) (disclaimer- I worked on the Clix). The left-hand side control is a slider with neutral central position- up for lock, down for on/off.  The right hand side has +/- at the top for volume, Play/Pause, and Prev/Next from top to bottom.

The front D-pad is fine as well with good, tactile response.  During boot up, the d-pad lights up very brightly but not at all as far as I can tell during use. 

Ed. Note: I was intending to do a full review of the device, but have decided to wait and focus my time on providing MusicGremlin with a comprehensive list of all the bugs I encountered and in most cases was able to easily reproduce.

Pros

• Nice concept
• Simple browsing of other's libraries
• Can only download/play back subscription music on others' devices
• Supports PIN Locking of device

Cons

• Expensive
• Unstable firmware
• No Windows Vista support (yet)
• No Photo support
• Easily scratched
• No case for device
• Cheap headphones
• Poor audio quality w/ pops

Sample of Bugs/Issues Found during a 20 minute eval:

Bootup/Shutdown/Charging

1. Screen shows unpolished "Please wait" and firmware version over refined logo.
2. Audible "pop" on startup & shutdown.  A big no-no.
3. Returning from standby, saw pixelated, multicolor "static" across entire screen on multiple occasions
4. Turn off device while connected to power for charge and it blanks the UI, then entire screen is blank (white and lit)

On-Device Navigation

1. Music experience always prompts the user to search and peck in letters.  Even if you're searching artists and there are only two in the list. 
2. No menu option for "Now Playing" to take you back to album art and seek view, but volume and seek take you temporarily to the view?
3. Alpha entry & search navigation isn't consistent.  For example, Up/Down scroll for network security key goes backwards through alphabet as if centered on "blank" between "Z" and "0" vs. defaulting to "A" when searching music.

Sync Experience

1. The device reports itself as "MTP Device" when syncing with Windows Vista.  It should state the name, and present the Device Icon and Device Logo in WMP11.  Right now WMP can't even see it.
2. MTP-class devices shouldn't prompt the user for drivers.  Something is wrong here. After forcing a device reboot, it installed. Other devices sync no problem w/ Vista using MTP.
3. Device never reports status of sync relationship other than USB icon. The icon reports actual USB connect state instead of communications state with the PC.  It should tell the user if it's connected, busy, or if there's a problem.

Get New Music

1. If I choose Get New Music, why am I prompted for "New Search" when there are no saved searches?
2. Search on Genres returns Artists.  I want to browse by Genres>Albums.  This makes the feature unusable.
3. Gremlists NEVER worked.  Every song is unavailable, even when other tracks could be downloaded
4. Downloading no longer works at all. Even after factory reset.  No downloads are queued up.
5. Display of queued tracks to download isn't centered on icon when double digit value exists (e.g. 10 downloads)

Community

1. Device stopped playing back tracks downloaded from any users.  DRM-12 error when I went into the Download Manager which told me to contact MG technical support.
2. A number of users in the community could not be browsed.  After factory reset, no users could be downloaded from.
3. Device is now in a state where I cannot download any music from any users.  Nothing gets added to the Download Manager even after rebooting or factory reset.

FM Radio

1. You have to push up/down to tune. 
2. No visual notification of presets found during seek. 

Mailbox

1. It looks like on 06/08/06 the device was either flashed or tested and "Error getting root license" was found.  Why would a new user need to see this?

Settings

1. If the device is registered, it should tell you.  Right now if I go to the website it says the device is registered and will not give me a key.  The MG unit prompts me for a regkey. 
2. If you restore the device to factory defaults, this should wipe out your list of downloads in the download manager and your WiFi security keys.
3. There is No way to de-activate the device (e.g. if you wanted to resell it on ebay in the future.)

Conclusions

If you're going to give your product a name that refers to a mythical creature that destoys machines and is the subject of one of the scariest episodes of The Twilight Zone ever and two campy 80's movies, you better make darned sure you've worked your own Gremlins out of the system.  This was honestly one of the worst device experiences I've ever had. The fact that Walt Mossberg's column seems to like it so much tells me either someone over at the WSJ isn't really spending much time living with the device or perhaps I just have a bad unit.  Either way, it's time to put this one back in the oven and let it bake a bit longer. Here's to hoping there's a firmware update because right now, the device isn't working for me as-advertised and is about to get returned. I'm waiting to hear back from technical support.

Update #1: Well, it looks like MusicGremlin got my bug list because they sent me out a new device and a separate box to ship the "defective" unit in.  They did look at my connection and it does appear something was awry.  I still think many of the user experience points stand but will report back tomorrow on my experience with the new unit.  Big points to MG's customer service though.

Today the announcement was made that Bill Gates will be stepping down as Chief Software Architect and in two years will retire to his part-time position as Chairman of Microsoft. Instead he's going to focus on efforts such as battling tuberculosis, a topic near to our family. 

My "little" sister is a microbiologist for the CDC, running Tuberculosis projects around the world.  Yesterday she IM'ed me from Botswana-a surreal moment.  She was in Kazakhstan just a few months ago, it's amazing.  Regularly she talks about Bill Gates a reverence not seen (in my parts) in a while now.  Despite all the flak he received in years past, Bill is doing something incredibly worthy with his immense wealth.

I've had the opportunity to work with and talk with Bill on four separate occasions.  In each of these, he had the air of an elder statesman, on one occasion even sticking around for an extra hour to brainstorm a few ideas with a group of us.  It was energizing to have this kind of engagement with him, outside of a review, just like a group of friends and co-workers out of the office shooting bull about the industry.  He's human, we didn't necessarily share all the same ideals but could discuss and debate.  I enjoyed our time in this capacity.

Bill is part of the reason I joined Microsoft- the mystique inspired me like many; the desire to meet him "one day" was strong (checkbox filled plus pictures).  But in actuality his is just one person.  Microsoft is filled with bright and passionate people I learn from every day. He's not the only one.  The transition is bittersweet, but now it is perhaps my sister's turn.  I know she (like many other scientists) would like to one day work at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.  Perhaps she'll get her opportunity one day to meet Bill and the two of us can compare.

For now, we can all joke about how Bill is following Robert Scoble's lead :).

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. ;)

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.

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 :)

I've been playing with a few of the gadgets showing up on the Windows Sidebar gallery at http://gallery.microsoft.com.  It's a beta gallery and the SDK just went live but already I'm more productive with the Traffic Map showing flow on the main highways around Seattle.  I just wish there was more detail and an RSS feed available for new gadgets.  Great, now I really need to upgrade to a widescreen monitor at home.  Father's day is coming up...

You know what would make a killer gadget?   Flickr Uploadr.  I've been using the Uploadr to add pictures from my Windows Photo Gallery to Flickr this AM (sorry, they're pics for family).  But, Uploadr still works great with Vista.

Email from my Dad - he's loving Urge's collection of Rolling Stones and Benny Goodman hard to find tracks.  Mom, who I would consider a non-enthused computer user (they mostly frustrate her), just had jaw surgery and I suggested Urge as a diversion.  She says she, "can't stop!".  Now she wants an iriver clix.

For those here in Seattle area, the weather has been complete s*%# for the past week.  My son, (recovered from his cold) was inconsolable yesterday due to being cooped up. So I suggested going outside and splashing in some puddles which was exactly what the Dr. ordered.  The kid is just tired of being cooped up.  I don't blame him.

As for me, here's my Urge playlist for a rainy Sunday:

Chill and Serve: Pop

• Here with Me - Dido
• Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap
• Sail Away - David Gray
• Lazy Lover - Brazilian Girls
• Protection - Massive Attack
• Finally Woken - Jem
• Trouble Sleeping - The Perishers
• Breathe (2AM) - Anna Nalick
• Concrete Sky - Beth Orton
• Home - Zero 7
• Breathe Me - Sia
• Angels - Wax Poetic
• The Sea - Morcheeba

Mental note: Talk to Player team about copy/paste support from library to links in Urge ;).  Send email to a friend does one link per email.  Add playlist to MSN Spaces isn't working.  Grr.

By popular request, I created a video walkthrough of the out of box experience with the iriver clix and syncing Urge playlists using WMP11/Windows Vista.  Sorry for the fumbling, I was straddling a full-sized tripod to do this :).

• Streaming version (350kbps)
• Downloadable version (Uploading; Coming Soon)

The iriver clix should be arriving shortly in major retailers including Best Buy- until then, it can be ordered online at www.iriveramerica.com.

Created the video using Windows Movie Maker in Windows Vista and a Sony HDV Camcorder. Dogfooding Vista Beta 2 E2E.
Apologies in advance for the "one take" lack of polish- but it's the product that matters. 

Update: Another good video demo here: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/05/iriver-clix-review.php

I've been running an HD-DVD player through its paces the past few weeks and I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised at the picture overall even at a measly 720p, but perhaps not so much so the hardware itself.  If you don't mind the largest remote I've ever seen and a long boot time, it's a great solution and certain to get better with time.

Today comes news of the first interactive HD titles: Constantine, Firewall, and The Perfect Storm. 

Apparently Windows Vista will also ship drivers, the file system, and other components required to support HD-DVD playback as well. More here: http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/05/25/first_interactive_hddvd_released/

The interactive features portend the future of interactive programming.  When it's eating at your wife that she knows that actor but she can't remember what movie, forget having to pull out your lappy to look up an actor in IMDB, look it up on-screen.  I can imagine a world in the not too distant future where you can browse other titles starring the actor, and even start downloading an High Def movie to be stored on the home network for later playback.  Flights of fancy?  Windows Media Center does most of this today.

This weekend, I upgraded all of my PCs to Windows Vista (more on that later).  As a part of the experience, I've gone completely Urge - set aside my ~20,000 track library and am only listening to Urge music for a week. So far, so good.

Saturday AM - Gym time!
Friday I discovered Urge has added new pump-up Playlists for the Gym for each genre under the category "Work It Out: [Genre]". They have Rock, Alt, Pop, Electronica, Inspirational, even Classical.  These are great cheat lists for building your own ultimate Gym mix.  I downloaded them all to my Clix (now equipped with the optional armband) and was ready to hit the gym.  Then I realized I forgot my headphones and boy, was I pissed!  Still, it made for great compilations.
Suggestion to Urge:  Let the community rate your playlists and submit our own. 

Saturday PM - BBQing
This was guys weekend - Nickie was out at a cabin with her mom's club friends and that meant Ryan and I were open to do a "Red Meat, Red Wine" kind of night with a few of the local guys in the neighborhood.  Any time you open a bottle wine hand-carried from Australia called, "The Factor" from Torbreck, you know it's going to be a good night.  We eased into it listening to Urge's "Reunion" Radio.  All classic rock like K-ROCK used to play in NYC growing up.  Here's the hack not quite worthy of Philip Torrone.  I patched the Vista PC into the Aux In on a Sonos receiver and set up a party zone- instant sync'd music in the living room, family room, and patio (courtesy my 2-zone receiver) and we were jammin.  Later I broke out the guitar and Stephen played some U2 and Jimmy Buffett.  A nice way to cap off the weekend.

I thought going all Urge would be hard, but the more I download, the easier it gets.

C|Net's Top 10 Must Haves List: "You may be shocked not to find an iPod on the list below. Well, here comes some more shocking news. The iRiver Clix, thanks to its excellent compatibility with the revamped Windows Media Player 11 and MTV Urge music service, joins the party this week. Yup: no iPod, no iTunes...and no doubt about it."

As a part of our end to end evaluations, my team selected the only two music devices listed - the iRiver Clix and Creative Zen Vision:M, as the best "showcase" devices for each category- Flash and HDD.  This was a nice validation.

I am a little annoyed at how bad the screenshots are of the Clix device.  I may have to put together a short video of the device. Static screenshots don't do it justice.  

In the words of a good friend, "It's on like Donkey Kong". Go download WMP11 Beta and if you dare to enjoy hours of musical enjoyment, sign up for your free two week trial of Urge.  And this isn't just for those kids young enough to still watch MTV.  I've found some killer classic rock playlists - Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, and Pink Floyd to name a few.  Let me know your questions here and I'll try and do my best to get them answered.  Tell me what you like/don't like and I'll share it with the team.  Oh, and iRiver has the Clix available for immediate shipping at www.iriveramerica.com for a cool $199.  Father's Day is coming up!

Urge Tip: A little known feature of Urge is 700kbps streaming music videos for a huge swath of the library - look for the little film icon to the left of songs to see if a video is available.

• Learn more about WMP 11
• Download WMP11 Beta

Wow.  I thought the combo was good, but sometimes you zoom in and stare at the blemishes for so long you lose sight that you're looking at a Ferrrari. Even I didn't expect this kind of welcome. 

Read: CNet's, "Awesome: The WMP/Urge/Clix Combo"

And no, no one was paid off/schmoozed/invited to a poker game to get this review. ;)

Many more positive reviews today - Michael Gartenberg has his thoughts here.
In fact, they were all glowing of WMP/Urge/Clix in one way or another.
Today was a very good day. 

I'm happy to say I can finally talk about a project I've been involved in for the past six months.  As I've mentioned, I returned to the digital media space at Microsoft after receiving an opportunity to work for my old General Manager reporting directly to the VP of Digital Media at Microsoft on End to End Experiences (the other E3). Part of the job involves picking targeted oppportunities to go deep on digital media product development.

One of the first of these projects has just launched. The "iriver clix" - a new portable media player from iRiver.  Designed to work great with Windows Media Player 11 and the new Urge music service launching today from MTV, the clix may look similar to the award-winning iRiver U10, but it's so much more.  Our team worked closely with iRiver, providing feedback, usability resources, and assistance on interaction design starting with a complete "teardown" of the existing iRiver U10 product.   Here's a quick breakdown on what's new/improved with this release:

• 2GB and 1GB versions
• New faster processor
• New faster graphics engine
• All-new UI and improved interaction
• Now supports Now Playing with Album Art, next song preview
• Album Art, Ratings, Playcount, and Playlists sync directly with WMP11
• Improved power management w/ sleep mode
• Faster sync speeds
• Faster playback of clear & subscription content
• New "Smart Key" replaces display pivot button  (Home, Play/Pause, Shuffle All, Display pivot, Start/Stop Recording)
• Improved packaging for US market
• Easy Start CD with WMP11 and MTV's Urge in-box (for US market)

I'm going to be a little biased, so check out CNet's review  hot off the presses(Note: They have horrible screenshots). Over the next few days, I'll post my thoughts on different areas, and answer questions about the device.

First Looks
On first blush, the device keeps its popular black front with white backing design and clean lines.  Why mess with what's winning awards? The D-pad is built directly into the face of the device, creating a comfortable click sound/feel when you press it (part of the reason for the new name).  Hold a clix device and you'll notice something different. The backing feels smoother, almost like a polished stone. Flip it over and you'll see the device now has a clearcoat, like a freshly waxed car. Keeping the car analogy going,you'll also notice the simplification of logos on the back - this isn't a Nascar vehicle after all.  What remains is a clear logo and a few required details.

Power Up & Main Menu
Gone is the NTSC test pattern when you boot up the device, instead you'll see a fast, animated startup sequence that reveals the new main menu. The main menu has been reduced in complexity - going down to 7 main items: Music, Pictures, Videos, Settings, Extras, FM Radio, and Now Playing.  Now Playing is a new item- making it easy to get back to music playback wherever you are. Features such as voice recording and Flash games are available in the extras menu.   The main menu item appears to "glow" when selected.  Sharp eyes will notice some nice touches that build affinities in look/feel with Windows Media Player and even Media Center.

Connect & Sync
For the best experience in my opinion, connect the clix to a machine running WMP11. New polished on-screen status tells you the current state of the device, enabling you to disconnect at any point when the device isn't actively busy- something the iPod still doesn't have. Sync with this device is fast- much faster than the u10, and on-par with some of the best devices out there. Album Art, even playlists sync directly.  iriver engineers spent a lot of time on optimizations here.

Music, Photos, and Playlists sync effortlessly with WMP11.  I regularly load my device with "Feeds" from Urge - dynamic playlists that are auto-updated next time I sync.  The device even handles fringe cases such as a custom playlist with music and photos- select the playlist in Music and it will just play the music, but it will also show up in Photos for playback of photos as well.

Music Playback
This is the best part. You can do the usual things- build a quick list, play it back etc.  But the clix now supports album art, ratings, and host of other items sync'd with WMP.  You can rate songs on the device, and on next sync, "round trip" the rating back to you player library, effectively making it smarter.  EQ has been cleaned up and improved, and SRS WoW continues to be a bass-boostin feature. Fade in/out is turned off by default, but supported as well for a crossfading effect.

More to come...

About a month or so ago, cool new posters for Windows Media Player 11 started showing up around Microsoft's Redmond campus in buildings.  I thought it might make a good desktop wallpaper so I've converted it into a number of popular screen resolutions and aspect ratios.  The marketing folks gave this the go-ahead for release- hopefully you'll enjoy.  If you want additional sizes, just let me know.

Download: WMP11_Wallpaper_Set.zip (1.04MB)

This weekend, I tried to go to Best Buy to pick up an HD-DVD player.  I figured Easter Sunday I could sneak out.  I should have purchased and held online because in the span of 9 hours in the night, all the inventory was sold out pretty much throughout Seattle. I could have driven 4 hours to get mine, but that would have been overkill.

Ok NetFlix, time to start offering your HD-DVD movies because I'm ready and getting my player next week.  Details to come.

From a friend tonight:

"Just thought you might all be interested in this WMV HD demo of the next version of Far Cry.  The realism is above anything else I’ve seen in gaming…"

http://media.pc.gamespy.com/media/694/694190/vids_1.html - it’s the left clip; select the 1280x720 WMV option. 

One word: Outstanding.

Know of any other outstanding trailers in WMV-HD?  Let me know- personally I like the upcoming Miami Vice trailer in WMV HD (58MB of teaser goodness)

Here's a short video clip of Steve Ballmer and Suzan DelBene showing off a bunch of new phones announced at the keynote

• HP 6900
• Samsung i320
• Asustech's P305 3G Smartphone
• HTC "Star Trek"

Interesting to note there are now over 100 Windows Mobile devices on the market. Suzan described these phones as having "direct push technology".  This is exciting stuff- I have a phone with this enabled and I have to say, getting emails on my mobile phone as they arrive in my inbox on my Exchange server is pretty nifty.  While not earth-shattering (the device could poll every few minutes before if you wanted) for customers who need near-real-time access to mail, this is a good thing.

What's even more exciting though for digital media enthusiasts is that Motorola has announced support for Windows Media and PlaysforSure on upcoming mobile music phones with WMA and WMA Pro support.  Also included is support for MTP which will allow for a single USB-plug connection to Windows PCs and no need for additional drivers.  Benefits of this solution over a certain iMusic product I would expect: I won't be limited to 100 songs per device, I can use my own music collection, pay-per-download, or music subscription services such as the upcoming service from MTV/VH1/CMT, "Urge" (or Napster or Yahoo etc.)  What's more, Microsoft and Motorola are working together so that WMA Pro super-high fidelity music can be easily delivered over 3G high-speed wireless networks worldwide. More details in the announcement here.  Michael Gartenberg also weighs in on the announcement and it's impact here. 

With this announcement, Microsoft is actively working with two of the largest handset manufacturers in the world - Motorola and Nokia on mobile media solutions for their platform as well as ours.

Call it an ad or what you will, it's a bit european and quirky.  Check out the video the IE7 team put together as a teaser/commercial. 

IE7_Big.wmv       (7.8MB)
IE7_Medium.wmv (2.9MB)
IE7_Small.wmv    (1MB)

News.com is reporting this morning that Aeon Digital, a privately held firm specializing in IPTV-over the Internet has confirmed a licensing agreement with NBC Universal.  The service will be made available via a $299 DVR available at retail and will use Microsoft's Windows Media technology for delivery.

Upon further inspection, Aeon Digital has ambitious plans for their products. Two integrated LCD-TV and two set-top box products.  Features of the DV-220 STB-include:

• IPTV Support
• 200 hour DVR with ability to archive to your PC.  No mention of CableCard support though :(
• Streamed playback of music, photos, and video from your PC
• Component, composite and S-Video outputs
• Built-in 802.11g WiFi router with VOIP support,uPnP, NAT firewall
• Built-in EPG (Program Guide)

Movies such as "Ray" and the "The Motorcycle Diaries" will be made available as well as what looks like some tier-2 television programming.  No details were provided on pricing.

This is a good step in the right direction. For now, this looks to be a contender for stand-alone TiVo Series 2 competition at retail but for the serious enthusiast, without HDTV and CableCard support, it leaves me a bit wanting.  But it does signal an interesting trend- the logjam of IP-accessible content from big-name providers appears to be straining thanks to a lessening of fear (and interest in making more money) via these types of solutions by the content providers.

It's not daily I get excited about terrestrial radio, much less a latecomer to the Internet.  But, today is that day.  I just learned LA's own KROQ- the #1 Rock Station in the US is now broadcasting for free on the Internet in Windows Media.  It's a very solid 96kbps stream offering great fidelity and in-line purchase and the like.

Link to Embedded Player w/ Album art etc.

Announcement here in MediaWeek.

Orbitcast points to a funny article on a guy who discovers his Satellite Radio's FM transmitter is a bit stronger than he expected.  So what does he do?  Shares with his fellow commuters in a fun and viral way.

I've been a fan of Orb, but found it didn't run as stably as I like.  And with a bunch of international business trips coming up, I bit the bullet and am evaluating Slingbox as a way to control and watch my favorite shows recorded on our DVR.  I have to say, wow I'm impressed so far.  The UI could use some work, but the function is solid.

Underneath the hood, it's basically a hardware-based WMV Encoder that can easily be found across the Internet. Put in some quality of service (QoS) goo and away you go.  Lots of folks have been having fun with it including Scoble.  Hundreds of uses - some folks monitor their babycam using one. 

One idea I had was for Slingbox to build a Gadget for Windows Sidebar and Live.com.  They're already close-with the ability to dock the SlingPlayer on the left or right sides of your screen, but it leaves a lot of unused space.  What do you say SlingMedia? 

In the coming months I'll be blogging my experiences with Slingbox from Hong Kong and Japan.  Away we go!

Ok, I'm going to admit it.  I don't like DRM.  Shocked?  You shouldn't be.  But the reality is that without some forms of DRM, I wouldn't be able to legitimately download a movie to watch on the plane during a business trip.  Sure, there are other ways to get the goods, but the powers that be say DRM is necessary to give me a guarantee the 4 hours I spend downloading it off my $12.95/24 hr hotel cablemodem isn't going to end up being a handi-cammed video shot at the local multiplex.  I will personally never be a poster-child for DRM, but as long as the content providers keep coming to Microsoft (and Apple and Google) saying it's a requirement, then someone has to deliver. 

Second admission. I love BoingBoing.net - it's irreverent, often informative, and Cory, Mark, Xeni, and the crew have some really interesting things to talk about.  But sometimes, things appear to get misinterpreted.  I wasn't at the presentation in question, but based on what was said, there are a few common misconceptions about DRM I've heard over the years:

Claim #1: You have to be a "big roller" to license Microsoft's DRM.  Er, no. Big and small, hundreds of licensees and hundreds of devices have the platform.  Take a stroll through the electronics districts in NY, Tokyo, or Hong Kong, look at the devices that support WMA and services and you'll see what I mean. (Ok, or Dixons for Ian and my pals in the UK).

Claim #2: Windows Media DRM is only for Windows and isn't available on competitive platforms.  Not true.  ANSI-C sources are available for porting to any platform and have been made available for quite a while. What's more, they've been ported to many many platforms including <gasp!> platforms ending in  letters at the end of the alphabet. You'd have to ask the vendors building the solutions more about that though.

Claim #3: Licensing terms for Windows Media DRM aren't fair or accessible.  Visit www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia See DRM on left, click Getting Started. Or here's a direct link.  Device porting kits are available and continually updated.  Many DSP and SOC (System on a Chip) manufacturers offer support as well for anyone who wants to implement their chip into a device. 

So that's my read. No, I don't speak officially for Microsoft or any pricing policies, but let's give a little credit to Amir for willing to get up on-stage and take arrows on the topic.  (He's also by the way the only VP I know of who has such passion for his work that he frequents message boards to chat with other AV enthusiasts during his limited leisure time.) Charging a small royalty is a legitimate way to ensure interested parties are serious about building a business using the technology as a tool.  I don't like it either, but it's the nature of the business as it stands today.

ExtremeTech just posted results of their tests comparing CPU utilization across recent ATI (Radeon X1800 XT) and nVidia (GeForce 7800 GTX) cards for three codecs: DivX, H.264, and WMV9.  The results?

For 720p content WMV 9 plays back at typically 25-40% CPU utilization for the clips tested.  H.264 on the other hand takes 80% (using ATI's acceleration) and on other systems even spike to 100%.  Note however these are different clips than those used for WMV 9 testing. Playing back 720p DivX clips results in 50% or so CPU utilization

To quote:

"H.264 acceleration has a long way to go before it's ready for prime time. Even with ATI's hardware acceleration, it's way too CPU intensive. What's more, ATI needs to work to offer acceleration on basically all popular H.264 decoders, the same way their DVD acceleration works with DVD decoders."

Also interesting to note DivX playback performance of DivX player vs. WMP:

"The performance of the GeForce 7800 GTX when using the DivX Player is atrocious, at 75-80% CPU utilization. Under Windows Media Player 10, it's right around 50%."

One thing's for sure, there's still a lot of work to be done in this area. 

"The video landscape on the PC is still far too big a mess. There are too many codecs, and sometimes too many software providers making decoders (we found a dozen H.264 decoders and at least as many DVD decoders in 10 minutes of Google searching). Some are accelerated, some are not."

I have some ideas on how to fix this (that don't involve "destroying" the competition thank you) but I'm interested in your thoughts first?

Chris Pirillo says,

The ala carte iPod Video store is getting worse, not better. If you watch only one TV show per week (and you don't already have a cable subscription), I'm sure their efforts are a godsend. However, if you're like me, and already have three DVRs in your house to record all the shows you want to watch, this lack-of-subscription thing is an absolute nightmare.

...I'm thoroughly disappointed that I can't take my Napster subscription with me on my PSP or iPod. Instead, companies want me to spend even MORE money for LESS freedom - and to complicate my life even more than it was before. The sad thing is, many folks walk into it blindly thinking it... "looks like fun." Bullshit. It's all Bullshit, and Apple's leading the bullshit charge (albeit with style).

Bullshit?  Hmm.  Convenient?  Yes.  It's all about variety and viscousity.  Offer just enough variety with a low viscosity among the key moving parts (discovery, purchase, and download) and you're set. It's just another take on the path of least resistance.  Nature doesn't lie.

Perhaps we need a viscosity index for software experiences end to end?

There's been a bit of speculation over the past few weeks about what Microsoft's recent reorgs both company-wide and within Robbie Bach's org mean to the company's entertainment efforts.  While I certainly don't speak officially for anyone other than myself, I did want to share my perspective:

Reorgs happen at Microsoft.  They happen more often across the company than gets reported (or speculated upon).  Reorgs in my experience bring more focus.

So what does this mean for me in particular?  Not much really.  I'm as strongly committed to my job and my partners as ever.  More and more devices are supporting our technologies and PlaysforSure and they're getting better (look at my prior CES scorecard post).  Partnerships like those with MTV with Urge and Verizon Wireless's V-Cast are the result of significant investments on both sides.  What matters isn't speculation, but proof.

Audioholics did an interview with Sage Schreiner, HD DVD Program Manager which helps to clear up some misconceptions about the coming format.  Personally, I got one of the sample (production-ready) hybrid HD-DVD/DVD discs that was being handed out at the Microsoft booth at CES and can't wait to try it out.  It's literally a single-sided disc with both the HD-DVD and DVD formatted movies on it and plays in both types of drives.

CD Freaks, the self-ascribed, "World's Largest CD/DVD Community" recently did a poll which format would be the follow-up to DVD.  The results of over 500 respondents polled can be found here.

While this doesn't mean anything from a scientific perspective, it is interesting to see that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are effectively neck and neck with this audience, with a good-sized # of holdouts.

In other news, reportedly Blu-Ray drives for PCs will be ready in March. The drives can read CDs, DVDs but will not be able to burn until the second generation hits the market this summer.

Mano Clement has a great roundup here thanks to Robert Scoble. Items of interest to Digital Media enthusiasts:

- Many times the perf on Networking stack (and USB stack too BTW) ;)

- All new Audio stack with per-app audio and more.

- FAST search through tens of thousands to millions of tracks in WMP11 (I can't go back)

- Other features I just can't talk about yet...

I talked to Robert last week and we're going to line up a bunch of videos for Channel 9 on digital media efforts in Windows Vista in the coming month.  Stay tuned for more.  And congrats to Robert and Shel on their book- sorry I missed the party- had another party last night!

(Update: All my Beta invites are spoken for. If I get more, we'll have another runoff.  Thanks!)

I'm a huge believer in "dogfooding" our own products.  After my friend Harry (who runs the Windows Vista demo lab) moved his own home PC to the December CTP (Customer Technology Preview), I decided to take this integrated build thing for a spin.

You see, for "the field" at Microsoft (that's what we call the subsidiary offices), they also need to be able to show Vista to customers.  Of course, they have all sorts of different hardware, so creating a master demo image can be a pain.  With Vista, the drivers are "abstracted" from the core OS - the result is that you can build a single image and deploy it on multiple PCs of different types and in most cases, no additional drivers are required. 

In my case, I run an Intel D865PERL mobo and P4HT processor w/ a mix of SATA and IDE drives and the like.  Vista recognized everything, including the ATI Theater 550 and Hauppauge TV tuner boards.  It set up no sweat, off of the demo disc Harry gave me.  Sure, there is the occasional bug and performance optimizations haven't started yet, but it's looking pretty good.

I have a raft of feedback for my team on areas we can provide fit and finish.  Overall though, I'm finding it really hard to go back to Windows XP and WMP10 on my freshly installed dual-boot system.  WMP11 is sooo much better.  Sidebar is really coming along as well (I know I'm teasing- good things come to those who wait!)

Want to do a little dogfooding yourself?  I have 9 invites to Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) top 9 answers for why you'd make a good beta tester (pictures may be submitted  via email) will get the invites. 

Oh and in case you haven't noticed, I've switched my photoblog to Flickr - I'm sean_alexander there. Gosh I love that service, more on that another time.  Now we need a totally tricked out Flickr screensaver (I was unimpressed by Slickr, sorry).  We also need a general tag/cropping mechanism for display on 16:9/16:10 displays (most widescreen PC monitors are 16:10 <g>).

CNet has posted their Best of CES award winners and Creative has done it again with the Zen Vision:M. I've been playing with a Zen Vision:M for a few weeks now and I love it.  It has twice the video playback of the video iPod (4hrs vs. iPod's 2hrs) and frankly, I'll exhange a bit of thickness for being able to watch a full movie on a charge any day of the week.  The UI is familiar and friendly.  My only major complaint so far is the adapter needed for USB/charging and it has too many controls (4 discrete buttons + 2 rocker positions + touchpad.

So, this got me thinking about how Windows Media might have fared this year at CES. Here's a rundown of my report card:

• Best in Show: Creative Zen Vision:M - does WMV, WMA, and is PlaysforSure
• People's Voice: Pioneer Inno (aka Samsung Helix) - it does 50 hours of XM Radio recording, WMA and cool bookmarking feature for Napster so it's going to be PlaysforSure. Not bad- not bad at all.
  
• Cameras and Camcorders: Sanyo Xacti HD1 - a slick little HD (720p) camcorder/digital still camera that records to 1GB SD cards. Though no direct support for WMV, it records into MPEG-4 which Microsoft is a member of the patent pool.
• Home Audio: Denon AVR-2807 - supports playback of multiple formats including HDCD owned by Microsoft, but what's really stellar is the built-in WM Connect digital audio receiver in it's older sibling product, also called out in the article.
• Car tech: Pioneer AVIC-Z1 - This double-din unit is a multimedia powerhouse w/ 30 GB HDD, GPS, bluetooth built-in all atop Windows Automotive so it should be able to support WMA as well. iPod connector support coming too.
• Home Video: Pioneer BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player - noted to be around $1800 vs. $499 HD DVD players, this is still a win because Blu-Ray requires the SMPTE-standard submitted Microsoft VC-1 codec.

So how did Microsoft do? Both of the grand prizes support PlaysforSure services and WMA and 6 out of 8 winning products (in eligible categories) for awards include Microsoft digital media technologies.  Not a bad roundup at the end of the show and there's still a ton of work to be done.

I also just learned that all 3 nominees in the Best of CES: MP3 and Digital Video category support PlaysforSure and WMA (or WMV), including Windows Media Player 11 :).

Lots of big announcements that are ushering in the year of HD.  I would link but have to run to my flight.  A quick recap:

• CEA announces HDTV sales will beat analog TV sales in 06
• Windows Vista will have support for HDTV over digital cable, and DVR! I've tested it, it really works.  I can't wait.
• ATI announces HDTV Cablecard designs (note they aren't the first and only though ;)). 
• ViiV PCs from Intel will sport HDTV playback abilities.
• Buzz on the floor that retailers saw Xbox 360 as a key accelerant to HDTV purchases during the holiday season.
• Gates tipped us off that Xbox 360 will get an external HD-DVD drive :):):)
• HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were everywhere at CES, duking it out.  Blu-Ray demos focused on hardware demos, Microsoft on ability to copy HD-DVDs to your PC and really rich interactivity. It will be interesting to see how this goes.
• Oh, a consumer HD-DVD player will ship for $499 from Toshiba available this March! 
• TiVo announces their new Series 3 with HD over digital cable (OCUR/Cablecard) support and a SATA-based drive, sync to PMC, iPod, and PSP coming (does Portable Media Center (PMC) devices today.
• Tons of HDTV set announcements.  Excitement around 1080p - only place to get 1080p today is select WMV-HD discs, almost everything else is up-res'd 1080i but people like the buzz.

More to come...

Some of you may have seen my earlier thoughts on the Sonos Digital Music Player system. Today, Sonos addresses two of my big complaints with their ZP80 unit - Price and Audio Connectors.

The ZP80 ditches the built-in amplifier, allowing you to easily connect the device to your existing amplifier, home theater or the like using a optical or coaxial SP/DIF connector.  The casing for the unit has also been updated.

Unfortunately still no support for Windows Media PlaysforSure Music Services or iTMS, but it will play non-DRMd WMA and a host of other formats.  Both are specifically called out as "not able to be supported". You can still connect an external source such as a PfS or iPod device and stream it around the house.

Still, this is a great step in the right direction of affordability and connectivity.  Availability is slated for this Spring.
(Courtesy iPodNN.com)

You have to hand it to Intel.  Their runaway success with the branding of their Centrino mobile technology platform (basically a reference design/chipset for WiFi/Network/Video/Sound/Processor) has given birth to the Intel Viiv brand (pronounced "VIIVe" like Vibe with a "v").  Viiv PCs will offer Windows XP Media Center and bring new technologies like Intel's Quick Resume technology, 7.1 surround sound and guaranteed HD video playback in a dual-core processor design that will offer a quieter solution than many on the market today. One of my favorite features is the ability to put the PC into a low-power state, where it appears to be off, but can continue to record TV, with Media Center at the helm.

Those in the know have discovered the coolest Media Center designs come from europe. Kapsel's just-annonced Viiv-based Media Center is one such PC.  I affectionately call it the "Mentos Media Center" because the design straight-on looks like the mint confection, chipped away to unveil a black licorice center.  You can also position it horizontally, vertically, or even mount on a wall.

The picture is a bit deceptive- visit Kapsel's site for a more front-on picture. It is a bit on the thick side but it has promise. I would like to see at least a small TFT display on the front or side, but it's not a deal-breaker.

The Kapsel is slated to go into production first quarter of 2006, price has not yet been disclosed.

According to last night's NYTimes/CNet report:

Starz Entertainment Group is introducing a $9.95-a-month subscription service [Vongo] that will allow people to download movies from the Internet and watch them on their computers, portable video players and television sets.

The article goes on to note:

Since 2004, Starz has offered a movie download subscription service, called Starz Ticket, using technology from RealNetworks. But the RealNetworks software does not allow movies to be downloaded to handheld devices. With Vongo, Starz will shift to technology from Microsoft that will allow movies to be downloaded and watched on portable video players using Microsoft's software.

Feedback has been mixed on Digg.com.  Personally, if I'm a paying subscriber to Starz on my TV, I think a $2.99-3.99/mo add-on price to view TV programs on my devices would be more appealing.  Then there's the offering of movies- everyone knows the premium channels each strike their own high $$ deals to secure premium content.

Personally, I think this is a big step in the right direction, but ultimately it's going to take an NCO (Comcast?) or similar to roll these up into an, "OnDemand 2 Go" subscription service to broaden appeal.

As reported by BetaNews, "For the second year, MSN Video will provide exclusive non-stop streaming coverage of the New Year's Eve festivities in New York City, Microsoft announced Thursday. The coverage will last for six hours, and include views of performances and celebrations around New York City [including Hard Rock Cafe's Underground Garage Live performances]."

I need to confirm, but I believe this will be available in MSN Today in Windows Media Center as well for you 10-footer's out there. :)

The coverage will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time on December 31. Users can view the video, as well as highlights of last year's broadcast through New Year's Eve, on the event's Web site on MSN.

Back by popular demand, I've fixed the links for the Podcasting Auto Playlists for WMP download and updated the HowTo article slightly. I should also note that this solution also works great with Xbox 360 using the Windows Media Connect option for streaming playlists and music from any Windows XP PC ;). 

Link to How To: AutoSync Podcasts in WMP10
Download: MP10_Podcast_AutoPlaylists.zip (.97 KB)
Download: MP10_Podcast_AutoPlaylists.exe (30 KB)

Also of note is Doppler's new Beta 2 of DopplerMobile (pictured right) - a great podcasting and RSS feed client for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.  It's a shame that it requires .Net Compact Framework which takes up 2MB on my phone, a key reason I'm not running it full-time yet until I figure out how to free up more space on my SP5m.

DopplerMobile runs on devices with Windows Mobile for Pocket PC 2003, and Windows Mobile 5.0 (both Pocket PCs and Smartphones). A nice touch is the ability to sync your feeds with your NewsGator Online account.  Learn more here.  More to come on this one I expect.  Enjoy.

Catching up on news after the holidays.  My friend Shawn Morrissey who is a Program Manager on the project, writes with a quick update on Windows Vista Sidebar, named by BetaNews as, "Vista's most prominent new feature".

Some of you have noticed my job has changed.  I love Windows Sidebar and believe strongly in the platform the team is delivering. However, recently I was made, "An offer too good to refuse" to join the staff of the VP of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft.  While I cannot go into specifics of my job, my title is still Senior Program Manager, I'm still writing specs, and working on exciting things I cannot discuss right now. Departing the Sidebar team was very tough, but it does afford me the opportunity to return to my main passion- digital media and entertainment. 

I'll continue to write here about Windows Sidebar, Vista, and all things Digital Media.  Of course, the best place for details continues to be www.microsoftgadgets.com. But as I told a friend, I'm not going to rehash the same device reports you see elsewhere.  So... if there are specific topics you'd like to see me tackle, or questions you have, please let me know.

Update: Welcome Digg.com and Kotaku readers. Updated below w/ tips on only getting notifications when new Xbox inventory is available. Congrats to the many that have read this and purchased your Xbox 360.  Thanks to Bensbargains.net for their Xbox tracker service and Sightmax.com for sponsoring hosting for this site.

Here's a fool-proof way to get notified when Xbox 360's are available for online ordering- no online auctions required.  I've tested it personally- and I should receive my premium system in time for Christmas.  There may be other tactics, but I hope it works for you. Happy Holidays!

Step One: Bookmark Bensbargains Xbox 360 Tracker
There are lots of sites that purport to track Xbox 360 shipments.  Bensbargains is the best IMO.  They're tracking all the major and a number of minor sites that are carrying the Xbox 360.  The site is legit and updated about every minute. Even better is their history list so you can see who got what in and map our trend patterns.

This is great if you want to check every minute.  They also have convenient RSS feeds, but again this requires you to sit there and wait for an update.  There's got to be a better way- something that notifies YOU when status changes?  That's covered in step two.

Step Two: Download URLy Warning from Download.com
Get notified instantly when a Web page changes, and see exactly what's changed. With URLy Warning, a pop-up window appears when a Web page you're watching changes, and you'll see a visual comparison of what's been added and deleted. The trial allows you to track one site in demo mode.

Once installed, you'll need to launch the app and proceed to step three.

Step Three: Configure URLy Warning
I've tried a number of tactics, but this one works best.  Click on options and set the URL to http://bensbargains.net/xbox360/xbox360.php 

Configure the rest of the settings you see below or read onfor customizations:

Setting to when at least 3 words are added or deleted will notify you when items go in or out of stock. This can result in a high count, but ensures you don't miss anything.  There are other strategies here such as setting When page contains the phrase "In Stock".

Updated Strategy: Search for changes in history only

Kevin writes, "I added a test range to only ping me on changes to the Tracker History by entering ‘History’ in the first text box and leaving the 2^nd text box blank.  This way, I only get notified when something is in stock and not when a timeout occurs."  Nice addition Kevin- thanks for the tip!  Screenie below.

You can set the app to give you a popup, a chime sound, or even send email to you or a paging device.  I used the popup and chime.  If you use the settings I did above, you'll see when words change.  If the number is in the hundreds, that means multiple deals are popping up or selling out since your last check.

Just hit reset between checks.  Plan on checking multiple times as some bundles are ridiculously priced- I played the waiting game and won.

Step Four: Get up early, check early and often
I've noticed a trend from the east coast- many stores first update their inventory between 5 and 8 am Central time.  I've seen and let go a number of high priced bundles, before getting a reasonable (MSRP) deal at Circuit City. 

Good luck and happy hunting!

Unfortunately due to some other commitments (and getting a nasty cold),  I/we won't be able to host a Seattle geek dinner 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 suggesting you join our friends over at:

Neumo’s
925 E Pike St
Seattle, WA 98122

December 8th, 2005
7pm - 9pm

Sorry about the late notice! We promise to do another one to make it up early in 2006.

According to Crutchfield, my Sirius S50 is shipping as of Monday :).  That's a good sign- I'll post my thoughts on it as soon as I have it.  OrbitCast points to changes that were made to the functionality of the device :(. If you want one for yourself, your local Best Buy may have them in-stock. It still looks great in the photo shots- we'll see soon enough.

Speaking of which, I'm the proud new owner of the iMate SP5m - successor to the Scoblephone, complete with EDGE, WiFi, and a stunning QVGA display. After a week with the device, I'll post my thoughts (short version- T9 keys are WAY too small, screen is amazing, IE and WMP for Mobiles are ready for a refresh). Also I'll post my 2-week road test  of a new Sony VGN-TX670P Mini-Notebook with built-in Cingular EDGE on our cross-country test from Seattle to NJ to NYC and beyond.  Until then, happy belated Turkey day for our friends in the states.

Plenty of thoughts on the net on the Xbox 360 launch.  Me?  I was going to wait in line but realized I was going to spend 5 hours on a plane with a 2 1/2 year old and 2 hours of sleep before getting up for the trip was a bad idea.  So where is my Xbox 360?  I didn't order.  I beta tested Media Center Extender functionality but given the amount of time I've had lately to game, I haven't been able to justify paying a premium (no pun intended) over MSRP on a box- yet.  Now of course, I'm itching for one.  I call it the "Me Moo Mentality" - yep, the cattle call of a mob.  

First, the insanity around this reminds me of the Cabbage Patch Doll craze of the late 1980's. A guy reportedly held up an Electronics Boutique in Virginia for two Xbox 360s.  I hope they recorded the serial #'s off them so they can find the guy as soon as he logs onto Xbox Live and bust the jackass.  Sure, it's very very cool, but not worth this.  As for whether MS is withholding supply to boost demand- Robert Scoble has an interesting post about this. Did you hear about the guy who had his Xbox 360 stolen? An Xbox employee gave up his personal, unopened box to the victim.  But no, the conspiracy mill will roll over this fact (just as Bill Gates is evil despite the massive amounts of good he does via the B&M Gates Foundation- where are Larry, Steve, and others spending their wealth?)

Michael Gartenberg has a number of interesting posts talking about the end to end experience, Live Arcade (which seems to be custom-made for my wife's demographic of casual gamers) and of course the Media Center Extender functionality. 

One feature I'd like to see more mention of for the legions of Windows XP users is the Windows Media Connect 2.0 support in XBox.  You don't need Media Center to enjoy Music, Photos, and more streamed to your Xbox 360.  It even automatically adds new music to the index, something even the Sonos does not do. Of course, Media Center makes this experience even better but it's great if you haven't upgraded to MCE lately, Windows Media Connect does the trick.

So for me, it looks like I'll be Xbox 360-less for a while. I'll just be patient while legions of kids beg their parents for one this holiday season. You never know- there's always March and my birthday shortly thereafter (the earliest EBGames is guaranteeing).

Recently, I had an opportunity to review in my home a Sonos Digital Music System and walked away pleasantly surprised... and wanting more.  Sonos offers a flagship digital music receiver (DMR) which supports playback of non-DRM'd WMA, MP3, and AAC (iTunes) music among others on any set of speakers or any AV reciever in your home.  Often compared as the "iPod" of Digital Audio Receivers, the idea is that you can set these up wired or wirelessly in your home and they create a "mesh" network- enabling you to play music from your PC, Network-Attached Storage, or streaming Internet for starters.  All of this can be controlled with a dandy remote control.  Here are my thoughts.

Out of Box Experience
The device arrived mid-last week in three boxes- two contained speakers, the third contained both Sonor recievers and the controller. Packaging was natural cardboard with a muted Sonos logo. When you're using a $1499 system, you might hope for a bit more fanfare.  However the muted tones help to reinforce the simplicity the product is designed around.

A simple step by step guide starts with connecting the speakers.  Each Sonos unit contains its own amp, however you can connect via RCA jacks (3- Left, Right, Subwoofer-Optional).  I was a bit surprised to not find a S/PDIF optical or even coaxial digital connection but hey, at least I can pipe it through my home theater. Giant speaker termination plugs (spring loaded for your convenience) are on the back.

Software Setup
Software setup was among the simplest I've ever seen.  A simple 4-step process takes you through building the system index and pretty quickly.  It's a shame the device doesn't use Windows Media Connect as an option as well.

Pairing the device with the network couldn't have been easier. Press two buttons on the device within two minutes.  Even if your receiver and PC are in different rooms (as mine are) you can get there within two minutes.  (Unless you have an enormously large house in which case you get no sympathy from me).  Press two buttons and you're done- paired configured et al.  No entering key codes or anything, no WEP or SSID codes- it all just works... provided one of the units is wired.

Speaking of wired- the Sonos has a 4-port ethernet switch on the back which can be used when wired to connect other home AV components (Xbox 360 or MCE PC anyone?).  The switch seems to be of good quality as well.

Controlling from the Desktop

Once you're set up, the software is simple and easy to use, though does have a decidedly "Real" feel to it. Sonos relies heavily on the concept of a single queue of music in everything you do.  The equivalent of an order-list in a jukebox, this may be useful for some, but can get a bit annoying until you get the handle of how to dump a currently playing queue for new music.

The system does a good job also of bringing in your playlists.  It appeared to have a problem with Smart Playlists (perhaps doesn't query WMP for the results) but static playlists work fine.  Internet radio station listings were meager and left me feeling we're looking into the wasteland of radio stations that didn't die after the whole licensing debacle a couple of years ago.  You can manually add your favorite MP3 and WMA-streamed stations, but my favorites are behind evil popups and proprietary stream players. Ick.

I didn't spend a lot of time on the desktop interface however I did notice another nice touch- automatic updates of the software were seamless. 

The Sonos Controller
Take a 5G iPod, now go back to the 3G, turn it sideways, make it bigger than it seems, and you have the Sonos controller.  What a design.  Sonos has been around for a long time, and may actually pre-date the iPod in their design.  The device does an excellent job of displaying details and as if some twist of irony, the jog/scroll wheel is exactly the same dimensions of the iPod.  It contains a touchpad and center push button.  Three "soft-keys" appear below the display for context-specific control.  I did find myself wanting a bit more with the display and UI however.  The response rate is a bit sluggish, no doubt due to 2-way wireless so I'll give it some slack.

In some sort of Pavlovian response, I did expect the UI to work like an iPod which surprised me.  I found myself wanting to use the jog to control audio volume (a feature I detest in the iPod because if I dont lock it, I whammy myself on the audio when I pick it up). So it is funny that I would expect the same here.

Again, you have queueing as the method for audio control.  One big design issue I have with the UI is the warning dialog you get with DRM'd music in a playlist or individual tracks.  It splashes a grey rounded box on your screen, moves to next non-DRM'd song but the DRM notification still shows leaving you wondering if you committed some offense from which the device has wrested control and you have been shamed into the 5 second penalty box. The system should be smart enough to remove DRMd files from the index during first setup- just notify the user you're doing this so they wonder why certain beloved songs don't show up.

Multi-Zone Audio

Multi-zone audio is an interesting idea.  The concept is you have two (or more) Sonos receivers in multiple rooms and want to play music rather, the same music in multiple rooms.  Synchronized. Sure, you can get a receiver that supports this, but Sonos does it wirelessly.  I have one in the Living room, another in the Family room.  The whole first floor becomes wrapped in music- something I significantly discounted as a valued feature until I experienced it.  I'm envisioning Christmas morning, my son coming down in his closed-toe PJs to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" wrapping him like a blanket.  I also cheated a little and got three zones going - by plugging the Sonos into my home theater receiver (Denon AVR-3803) which supports multi-zone audio, I can pipe Sonos music outside on the patio via outdoor speakers, in the family room and throughout the living and dining rooms.  This would be great for next years' summer parties.

Line-In from other sources - a Real Geek Treat

A little-known feature I discovered is the ability to use the line-in source on the Sonos (again L-R RCA connectors) to pipe other music sources into the house.  This was a real benefit as I can pipe my Media Center in and I can listen to subscription music anywhere in the home. Another way I plan to use this is at our neighborhood Super Bowl party this year- live play by play will be piped around the house, much to my wife's chagrin. 

Each Sonos receiver supports an additional line-in so if you have other audio sources (ok LP and 8 track lovers, here you go) you can plug them in here as well. Of course, you can plug your Portable Music player in as well.  I could definitely see my father getting into this were the price point lower.

Final Thoughts

Sonos has built a fantastic product that could easily "own" the Digital Audio Receiver space with a few improvements.  It's in a class completely it's own vs. the Roku Soundbridge (which I also like quite a bit) but stumbles on basic playback for me personally due to the lack of support for subscription music from iTunes or PlaysforSure services (disclosure: I work for Microsoft). Technical support is fantastic and highly responsive- a Friday 7pm inquiry into why PlaysforSure wasn't supported was returned with a quick response by Saturday at 9am! (Net-net, technical issues I'm forwarding to the team who works on this). I'm not sure the price equals what's delivered in terms of the product experience, but I'm also not a hard-core audiophile.  But I would imagine Sonos will make some updates to their product line soon.

My biggest wish in terms of features would be for an add-in for MCE owners which would add another zone via the MCE PC for playback.  I have to imagine this is possible.

Pros

• Simple in setup, design and function
• Amp and DMR all in one, with ethernet switch to boot
• Multi-zone sync'd audio support
• Wireless, rechargeabe controller
• Line-in multi-zone distribution
• Supports Real Rhapsody service support

Cons

• Expensive
• No PlaysforSure DRM download or subcription support (or iTunes for that matter)
• Lack of S/PDIF output
• Controller could be updated with higher res screen, faster innards.
• No smart rebuilding of index like WM Connect 2.0 offers when new music is added
• DRM'd files show up but cannot be played
• No support for Sync'd audio add-in for MCE - this would be a big hit for me!

Have an opinion?  Share your thoughts on the Sonos below.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

In the immortal words of Thomas Hawk, "Hot Donkey!" Update here. Update Rollup #2 for Media Center adds the following features:

• Xbox 360 Extender functionality. Customers can seamlessly access digital music, video, photos, and standard and high-definition television and movies on Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs through any Xbox 360 game console in the house.  (Come on, you know you want one...)
• Away Mode. Away Mode will bring the convenience, quiet performance and instant on/off functionality of consumer electronics to the Media Center PC.   (BTW: This is a kick-ass feature that almost all new Media Center PCs will have. Now you can save electricity and still record in the background or serve out to devices.
• DVD changer support. Media Center now offers integrated support for external DVD changers, enabling consumers to watch movies and manage DVD selections (up to 200) from the Media Center interface. (Ok, we all want DVD ripping, but take that up with the MPAA.  This just shows the team's heart is in the right place)
• DVD-burning improvements. Updates to the Sonic DVD burning engine improve the performance and capabilities of DVD burning in Media Center. Now consumers can convert high-definition TV shows to standard definition and burn to a DVD all in one step.
• Additional HDTV tuner support. Update Rollup 2 provides support for up to four TV tuners. Users will now be able to utilize two NTSC (analog) capture boards and two ATSC (digital) capture boards. (I'm not positive but I think you can do more than two NTSC tuners here as well ;)).  I'll double check.
• Performance Optimization. This update enables a new feature to "clean house" like most PVRs do today, Ed Bott has a good write-up on what this does here. You won't see this advertised, but it's a great great feature IMO.

Go to Windows Update and get your update.  Also a good time to make sure you have the latest Video Card, DVD, and Tuner drivers for your MCE.

Looking for an add-on for Media Center?  Wondering what this whole Media Center thing is about, go check out the new Media Center Marketplace.  Too bad there isn't an RSS feed for the latest and greatest, but still pretty darn cool.  You'll find over 35 software add-ons, Extenders and lot more.  I'd like to see a more friendly home-page, but other than that, this site is functional and a great diversion.

If you're an ISV- submit your stuff here and get promoted. This is going into my list of permalinks tonight - nice work MCE team.

Update: You can also find the catalog of software for Media Center on C|Net's Download.com here.  Get your downloads rollin for the weekend- tell us what's best.

The Media Center service rollout continues.  While Apple announces FrontRow, Media Center puts customers front and center with big-name content from a slew of providers. Interactive TV?  Bah. It's already here.

Digital Interactive Systems Corp. (DISCover) My Games. Designed exclusively for Media Center PCs, DISCover’s My Games gives customers access to a wide range of PC games that they can digitally demo, buy and stream. Customers can view an in-depth game guide with screen shots, box art and descriptions for thousands of top games, and can purchase "boxed" games via top online retailers with the ease of a Media Center Edition remote control.

Game xStream. Game xStream’s now-live gaming-on-demand service for Online Spotlight connects users to its extensive catalog of video game titles from leading game developers, from which they can buy and stream games instantly. Within minutes of pressing the Buy button from a Media Center Edition remote control, gamers can begin playing graphic-intensive games from publishers including Merscom LLC, Global Star Software and Encore Inc.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Vern Gill sent me mail that he's working to organize a Geek Dinner/Drinks in the Phoenix, Arizona area.  Anyone who might be interested, please drop a comment here and Vern will get in touch with you. 

If others are interested in setting up Geek Dinners in your own areas, plinease drop a comment as well and we'll match you up. 

Joe Wilcox notes:

My wife's not much of a technobabe. She can use the Web and e-mail, but pretty much stops there. Oh, yeah, she listens to music on an iPod mini. So, she doesn't much tune into tech talk; those conversations she tunes out.

...I took her to see iPod nano last night, at Apple's mini store in downtown Bethesda, Md. My wife and daughter both gawked, while I showed just a ting more restraint. To say the device is small really doesn't describe the size. Best is to say that everything else is huge by comparison.

I think Joe's wife must be in the same circle as my wife.  My wife LOVES the Razr she asked for for her birthday.  My wife NEVER asks for any gadgetry for any event, nor does she generally use it.  Though she did love the Rio Carbon (RIP), she recently decided the Razr was her new technocraving. 

She has the Razr. The other day, I found my old Motorola StarTac from 1998 and put it alongside.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Which brings me to the iPod Nano.  I know this is going to be on her Christmas list (though she'll hate the lack of Yahoo Music support).  I'm looking forward to comparing the Nano to the Razr.

At that size, could an iPod Phone built and designed by Apple really be that far out of reach?

Creative- it's time to do something bold.

Geek Dinner for Media Center (and what I'm talking about tomorrow AM when my feature is announced) at:

Wilshire Grand Hotel (Bus Route 2 I believe)
Point Moorea Restaurant & Bar (reservation under "Alexander")
6:30PM Tuesday 9/13/2005

I have space booked for 10-15 people.  First round of drinks are on us. 
Please RSVP here if you're in so we know if we need more space.

Special prize for the geek with the loudest hawaiian shirt. ;) Come on, you know you have one- I'll be wearing mine!

About a year ago, I was prepping to do 50 minutes on-stage with Bill Gates at the Windows XP Media Center 2005 Launch.  I didn't think it was possible but I'm as excited, or possibly more for the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference and what's going to be shown.  I started in the developer org and with my new job, I'm a bit closer to my roots.

I can't go into details yet, but the hard work of my new team is going to be shown in keynotes. It's going to have a session that hasn't been made public yet. I'm going to be there to help see this all come together.  It's like watching your kid climb up the playground ladder the first time on their own. :)

I have nearly a dozen meetings set up and will be hanging out in the Track Lounge once everything becomes public.  But what the hell, Tuesday night- if you're up for joining us at the Media Center Geek Dinner (see last posting), I'm gonna chip in and first round of drinks are on my new team.  We'll be talking about what we're working on and answering questions.  But darn it, I can't tell you what it is yet! 

Any LA'ers out there have a recommendation on where to do our Tuesday Geek Dinner? Near the convention center, cheap food, lots of room, plenty of beer is my priority.ii

Charlie Owen and I are talking about doing a geek dinner on Tuesday night (Sept 13) in LA in honor of the PDC.  Who's in? Any suggestions from locals on a reasonably accomodating location nearby the convention center?

"Sales of Media Center PCs have skyrocketed since July 9, according to a recent study by Current Analysis. For the week ending August 20, 2005, Media Center PCs accounted for 43% of all desktop personal computers sold in the U.S. retail market, based on data from a sampling of U.S. retailers."

71% of the Media Centers sold in the week ending August 20 did not have a TV tuner. Maybe they're all with Thomas Hawk waiting for Digital Cable support ;) 

Charlie Owen will demonstrating XBox360 + Media Center Extender at his PDC presentation on September 15.  The Meet Me At Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2005 and Win A Media Center Keyboard has more details on place and time. 

Donate to Katrina via American Red Cross and win Media Center 2005

Media Center Show #25 is up. To me, Ian is the "Most Valuable Podcaster".  This is a guy who deserves MVP status- they're working on it Ian! :)

Embedded Automation made a bunch of Media Center app-announcments at CEDIA (that's the big pro AV/home installer show):

The products being showcased are part of tihe mHome product line and include a home automation software application, mControl; a media center PC solution, mTheater; a home automation controller, mServer; and a secondary display for media center PC's, mDisplay. For mControl, Embedded Automation will be demonstrating their upcoming release, v1.2, which offers new functionality. More here.

By now most people have probably seen this.  Just just in case, here's a good round up from Robert Scoble on coverage of the AppleMoto iPhone and Nano:

But not everyone was wowwed by Steve Jobs. TechDirt's Carlo Longino writes "iTunes Phone as iLame As iExpected." Ouch.

John Markoff in the New York Times has the details, although I doubt anyone missed these announcements yesterday since they were all over the blogs.

I like the ID of the new nano.  Pretty soon people are going to start complaining of papercuts from their iPods.  It's clear however that caged, unfed primates with soft drafting implements designed the moto phone.  I mean come on- stereo speakers?  On a mobile phone?  Will it kick like my 80's-style boom box?

iTunes 5 as a sync engine for Outlook.  Hrmph.  Someone please tell me what makes this iTunes worthy of a full point release?