MTV 360 Here Is What We Learned

Creative Muvo N200

I told my wife I was in love last week. After she told me she loved me too I broke the news to her that it was my Muvo Micro N200 1 gig player that had one my heart.



This little player, and I do mean little (the size of a bong lighter), packs alot of features or at least all of the features I need except AM radio which would make it perfect. The player does have FM radio and the ability to record FM radio. There is a nice little EQ with pre-sets. I have to tell you this device sounds terrific. I do listen to talk radio and podcasts quite a bit which is perfect for this player as music library tend to get very large. The backlit display is very bright. Battery life is very good on 1 AAA battery.

What I do like the most about this player is how simple it is to get your files on to it. Plug it in via USB and you computer looks at it as being another drive. Open it up and drag and drop the files you want on it. None of this such and such's playlist. The device is simple not flashy and it just works. I love technology because it is supposed to make life simple not complicate it and this piece of tech is simple.

Run.....er..walk out and scoop one up. Dont forget the lighter.

Photography

Everyone is a photographer including me. I like to call this one

Where is the fucking train?!!!!!
Enjoy

Feel free to right click and save as background!!

Unfinished Business 1 Fishing

Figured I would catch up on some promised content. I know you guys/gals have been on the edge of your seat for this.
When I mentioned fishing I was referring to the type of fishing that results in the unintentional drilling of holes in the wall and big hits of Fiberglass dust. Not the type, of fishing, that leaves you smelling like ass from stink bait. Though I did exit the attic smelling like ass.

I completed the networking of my home. This major task was sparked by my need to have access to my MCE box in all rooms of the house and was not a result of constant threats by my wife the next time she trips over another wire.

I ran Cat5 to 4 rooms. A 2nd line of coax and a telephone line to the livingroom. I only managed to damage 2 walls but I quickly repaired them to a, better than new, state.

From this I have gained the confidence that I can do everything!!!! I am going to head over to Home Depot and get some bricks.....my foundation needs repairing.

Anybody Home?

Reuters reports that scientist may start concentrating their efforts towards finding a peaceful, loving race such as ourselves. Ok they did not say that, but they are looking for planets much like our own that will support intelligent life.....that we can blow up.

"Within a few years, we may be able to detect things like our own solar system," said Mario Livio, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute. That could help answer what he termed the most intriguing question in science today: is there intelligent life anywhere besides Earth?"

Reuters Reports Specs of 360

Reuters is even getting in on the speculation action. If these specs are not true, it sure makes a nice dream machine

"On Monday afternoon, gaming and technology Web sites including TeamXbox.com, GamingHorizon.com and Engadget began to publish identical-looking lists with detailed technical specifications for the console.

Among those details were a detachable 20 gigabyte hard drive, support for wireless networking, three 3.2 gigahertz central processors, surround sound and universal support for high-definition video.

The sites also said there would be two tiers of the Xbox Live online gaming service, one free and one with a subscription that would offer enhanced matchmaking and customization features.

Plenty of details remain to be revealed, including when exactly Xbox 360 will ship, what it will cost, what will be included, what games will be available at launch and whether it will be compatible with games for the original Xbox.

It was not clear if all of those questions will be answered on Thursday's MTV broadcast, or even next week at the news conference Microsoft will hold at E3, the annual games industry trade show in Los Angeles."

360 Prediction

This is not the next Xbox console.

Here is why I believe this is not the next Xbox console. MS has been pushing the idea of having one box that will do it all. Access stored music, video, photos, on demand content and finally play video games. MCE does all of these functions except play video games. So of course the next gen Xbox will be an extender. Now you have a box that will do it all.

Lets face it, Xbox was never about the aesthetics. It was all about what was under the hood. This 360 is about being the center piece of entertainment. Being as such it should integrate seamlessly with the rest of your A/V equipment. Now look at the picture.

Point 2, take a look at what has been speculated as being a camera. The thing is almost the size of a DLP projector,(exaggerating but it would be a nice add-on).
finally this is supposed to be a picture of what MS revealed at a launch party. I would expect a better display. I mean really, a Styrofoam head?

I think what we are seeing is one of numerous concept pieces. Yes I do believe the neXtbox was there but I also believe camera phones were not and security was tight around it. We shall see soon enough.

Flame away kids!!!

Update: Ok so I was wrong!!

Speed of Light

I happened to notice this sign about half a mile from where I live. Fingers are crossed that this sign will be in my neighborhood very soon. Verizon Fiber To The Premise Project
.

Update: I called Mastec, the company laying down the fat pipe (that just sounds cool)and they informed me that my neighborhood will not have fiber until next year. Shit!

Gear Photos

I can sit all day long and look at photos that people have submitted of their Home Theatre set up. I just happened to stumble across this one at cnet. Of course here is a personal fav at flickr.

Engadget Interviews Gates

Engadget has an interview with Bill Gates up on their site. Here is a bit, from part 2, that I found interesting.

Engadget: "That actually leads to my next question about home entertainment and the PC. Microsoft has a lot of behind the scenes initiatives right now, but what do you think the relationship is between the Media Center PC and then something like Foundation, Microsoft’s software for set-top boxes?"

Bill: "Let me try to be succinct about this. In the home you’re going to have a variety of devices. So you’ll have a set-top box which you can think of as kind of the simplest device. It will clearly be able to handle digital rights management and deal with high definition digital video. And then you’ll have something like a video game that will be a superset of that. And so, for example, Xenon is more powerful than any next-generation set-top box and it can be used as a set-top box, but obviously it can do a lot more than that; you can run the entertainment and other software there.

Then you have a Media Center PC that’s even beyond that in terms of storage and the kind of ecosystem that exists in the PC world. And so in the case of the set-top box you typically would store the video back on the server, either the Media Center server in the home, or the your video provider server back at the head-end. And that does have an advantage over sticking a hard disk on everything because you don’t even have to think about recording something [ahead of time]. The old shows are just there. There are various rights issues to work out on this, but we’ve got the user interface and IPTV gives you the ability to watch a show anytime you want without having planned that before the show’s aired or having this hard disk in your living room. You shouldn’t have to have that."



So here is how I am processing this. I am going to take my MCE machine and locate away in a closet probably with a traditional STB plugged into it. Now, and here is where it gets cool, Xenon will be in the living room being utilized as an STB. I will watch live TV, HD of course, through Xenon, which will also be recording in HD. I can access all of my media through Xenon. The reason why Xenon will not have a hard disk is because all of my game saves and downloadable content will be saved on my MCE server. So now the only box I will have by the TV is Xenon. Goodbye AV rack. Hello Simplicity.