Although a lot of people are drawn to Microsoft’s Media Center Edition by the DVR capabilities, for me, one of the most exciting features is the “my pictures” area. With a 43″ plasma in the living room connected to my MCE machine I am able to put amazing slide shows on with my very extensive .jpg library (about 55,000 images at present). MORE »

Popularity: 5% [?]

Chris Lanier nails it right on in his post “Why Can’t the WMP Team Be Like the MCE Team.” I’ve really enjoyed reading Michael Creasy, Matt Goyer and Sean Alexander as they blog about MCE. They create, to borrow from the perhaps overused Scoble reference, a human face for the MCE product. They provide a means of communication and are a very valuable resource to the product. Hat’s off to them for their important work. MORE »

Popularity: 2% [?]

Love all things Microsoft? Chris Lanier’s Blog reports, via an email sent to all previous beta testers, Microsoft Beta is looking for people to test out upcoming digital media experience technologies. MORE »

Popularity: 5% [?]

According to Think Secret, Apple is going to make an announcement of a headless (no monitor) iMac at MacWorld San Francisco and I am very excited at the prospect. The idea is to get a machine below $500 to attract Windows users currently using iPods who might buy Macs if the prices were just a bit lower. This machine certainly would achieve that goal, feeling like an iBook, but looking more like a white XServe / or closed laptop. To me, this type of box represents a machine most Mac users would want! MORE »

Popularity: 3% [?]

I don’t know about you, but I can’t help being impressed by all the innovative freeware 3rd party plug-ins being developed for Windows Media Center 2005. Case in point: Web Media (via Chris Lanier’s Blog), a plug-in that allows you to bookmark and categorize your favorite Internet Radio / TV stations for on-demand streaming using your remote and the MCE TV interface. MORE »

Popularity: 4% [?]

One Voice Technologies, taking a cue from science fiction novels, is set to introduce a Windows Media Center 2005 plug-in at CES 2005 called Media Center Communicator that will enable users to send and read E-mail, SMS text message mobile phones, Instant Message your buddies, place PC-to-PC video calls, and place PC-to-Phone calls to any phone within the U.S. and Canada (monthly fee required). And if that wasn’t enough, Media Center Communicator will let you voice navigate your MCE 2005 PC! MORE »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Drooling over the Italian made OnCinema TEATRO D1 A/V component sized, aluminum encased MCE 2005 PC with a built-in 7-inch touch screen? Well, make your way over to A-Tech Fabrication and checkout the U.S. made enclosure that is sure to steal away some of TEATRO’s thunder and put a pretty sweet PC in your living room (that’s if you have the time to build one). MORE »

Popularity: 9% [?]

Michael Gartenberg: “I’ve taken a little time off but have been spending it looking at some new technologies. One of the most interesting has been from Orb Networks. Orb promises to turn your PC, PDA and Smartphone into a mobile entertainment portal. Promising to deliver your music, pictures, video and live TV, Orb delivers quite well. The service is currently in beta and currently needs Windows Media Center (04 or 05) and a broadband connection. Remote clients include all MS Smartphones, PocketPC Phones, most connected pocket PCs and Symbian Series 60 and 70 phones. In short if it has a web browser and either REAL player or Windows Media it will work. Setup took less than 10 minutes. No sophisticated network knowledge required. One you get it configured, work it does. Using a WiFi enabled PocketPC I had no problem getting to a live TV stream, all my photos and all my music. Quality was surprisingly good. I was also able to connect over a smartphone using GPRS. Music streamed fine. Amazingly video worked as well but was hardly a quality experience but better than I have seen on other TV/Phone solutions. Using a 3G network would have worked much better I suspect. The Orb folks have done something amazing here and there are lots of uses. Like setting up Doppler to get my podcasts and streaming them from my phone in the car or watching local TV or recorded shows on the road. No sync needed. Service is 9.99 a month or 79.99 a year. Not cheap, but better than the price Sprint offers for their TV service and much cheaper and easier to use than things like Sony’s location-free TV. While the current version is enthusiast only for the moment, it easily could be mainstream over time. If you use Media Center PC and have a Smartphone or connected PDA, check this out. I suspect there will be more services competing with Orb in the future. For now Orb is here and it works.” MORE »

Popularity: 3% [?]

Andy points to a report on Pacific Epoch which says that there might be 2 million users of Skype’s chinese version. And then asks the most important question: “Everyone looks at Skype’s impact on telephony, but what about on IM? Of late I personally have been having more chats with people using Skype, than on the other services. While some of my ‘buddies’ seem to still be tied to older IM clients, the rest of the people I have been chatting with seem to be appearing on Skype.” Oh Oh… it is time for Yahoo, MSN and AOL to get their VoIP groove on, fast!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Broadband and the presence of always-on connections is changing consumer behavior. From making phone calls over the Internet, to buying clothes online and downloading songs for 99 cents a track, the always on lifestyle is finally become pervasive. “People are more able and willing to just walk up to the Internet to get a quick snippet of what they need, send a quick e-mail, read a quick news article, check a sports score,” Jim Bankoff, executive vice president for programming at America Online told the Associated Press. (Ironic, considering that death of dial-up is smacking AOL pretty hard in the face!) Nearly 69% of Broadband users go online every day and stay there for 107 minutes, versus 51% of dial-up users who barely manage 21 minutes, I am guessing mostly to check email. MORE »

Popularity: 2% [?]