My co-worker, Todd, is down in Florida and demoed a new feature we have coming. CE Pro has picked up the story, Microsoft Demos SideShow for Media Center Remote:

Well, SideShow isn’t just for laptops anymore. During the Media Center Boot Camp at the Electronic House Expo here in Orlando, Fla., Todd Rutherford, Microsoft Program Manager for eHome Control, demonstrated the technology implemented in a handheld remote. Just because it is a product of Microsoft’s mobility group doesn’t mean the solution must be tethered to a laptop.

They also have a picture:

This probably isn’t something I’d add to my relatively simple Media Center setup but I imagine those of you with custom home theatre installations will find this very compelling.

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It was a crazy week last week. Especially for those of us both on Vista and in eHome. Michael Gartenberg seems to be one of the few to notice that in the Windows Division Re-Org eHome, the group that works on MCE and MCX has moved:

Other notable move is the eHome group moving out of the Windows group entirely and now reporting into Robbie Bach’s organization. Good alignment there in terms of consumer efforts regarding digital entertainment and the role of the PC in the digital home.

I can’t, won’t, speculate here, but you’re free to.

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Sony has just released their standalone 1394 (iLink) DVD changer for $799, Sony® VAIO® VGP-XL1B2 Media changerVGP-XL1B2 that works with Windows Media Center Edition 2005 (Update Rollup2).

It’s also available on Amazon for $699 (with a mail in rebate) (thanks ChrisL).

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CNET, Microsoft sees rapid Media Center sales

• Sales will reach 10 million by end of month
• Run rate of 1 million units a month
• 59 percent of desktop PCs sold through retail outlets in the U.S. were Media Center PCs

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OSx86 Project, MCE on a iMac

Wow! How long before someone gets it running on a Intel Mac Mini?

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CE Pro seems to have some sort of scoop on what could be our HD DVD plans, Vista May Not Support HD DVD at Launch:

A Microsoft spokesperson says, “Vista’s architecture will recognize both HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD; however, current plans for Media Center support of either of these formats is unknown at this time. We do know that there will be a great HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD experience for Media Center either at Vista launch or soon after as either an extensible application or natively in MCE.”

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My friend John’s latest project, Amazon Simple Storage Service launched today (presumably a few other folks worked on it too).

Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers.

I’d love to see someone develop some software that automagically backs up all my personal media (photos & videos) to this cloud in the sky.

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ArsTechnica, Sony decides against downsampling on analog HDTV:

With the imminent war over which format will be the successor to the much-loved DVD about to get underway, Sony is throwing a bone to owners of some older HDTVs. At a technical briefing last week, Sony said that it will not use the Image Constraint Token to downsample the video output on analog HDTVs.

This is great news for consumers.

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In this past weekend’s NY Times Men’s Fashion Spring 2006 Magazine Alice Rawsthorn penned, Record Losses and article about the changing nature of album cover art:

Those same nostalgics are even angrier about digital downloading, claiming that it has destroyed the visual side of music. And while it’s true that an album cover will never mean as much to the generation of kids for whom buying music is just a virtual trip to iTunes, luckily for them, the visual aspect of music is about to be reinvented.

In Media Center we place a lot of emphasis on album cover art. For instance the default view for my music is (Dec CTP screenshot):

Are we correct to put so much emphasis on cover art? Can users really identify an album solely based on it’s cover? I know for me that album covers have lost a lot of meaning in recent years as I listen to music solely through my Media Center or my iPod. Sure the album art comes up while the song is playing on either device, but there is no longer an emotional connection to it.

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Plugin to create video playlists at 10′ (via Tim). Very cool!

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