Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Microsoft's New Mission for Windows Media Center
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 11:00 AM
"Microsoft Corp. is about to give Media Center PCs a new point of view. The Redmond, Wash., software giant is expected to unveil on Friday an update for its Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system that will boost the computers' abilities to tap online entertainment such as movies, access e-mail and even let users go shopping via the special user interface, designed to allow easy access to multimedia. The new features, which will come as part of a rollup or collection of updates dubbed Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition, will expand the capabilities of Media Center PCs and shift their focus from showing photos and videos to on-demand online entertainment and content services, provided by big-name outlets such as MTV."
The article goes on to talk about how Microsoft is broadening the scope of Media Center to do more with the 10 foot interface than just TV and pictures. There's an incredible amount of power in having a large-screen UI controlled with a remote rather than a keyboard, but so far most of the things I've seen have been really poorly done. :? There's also the question of how many monthly fees one wants to have for content...
The article goes on to talk about how Microsoft is broadening the scope of Media Center to do more with the 10 foot interface than just TV and pictures. There's an incredible amount of power in having a large-screen UI controlled with a remote rather than a keyboard, but so far most of the things I've seen have been really poorly done. :? There's also the question of how many monthly fees one wants to have for content...
