At the November meeting we had a demonstration of the new Windows XP Media Center 2005 operating system by Richard Katz from Microsoft. The Media Center is a special version of Windows XP that is only sold with computers (youre not supposed to be able to upgrade your current computer, but it can be done). Richard, who got his start as
a user group leader and has appeared many times as a presenter
for Quicken, brought a Media Center computer and extender, and
gave us an interesting demo, even though he wasnt connected
to a television source. Microsoft is calling the Media Center the 10-foot experience, while typical computing is the 2-foot experience since they expect you to use the Media Center while sitting on the couch. Many developers are also creating applications to support the Media Center, and its a challenge since all of the applications that run on it must be controlled by a remote control. The most interesting feature we saw was the Media Center Extender, which is a small device that enables you to view your Media Center files on another television through a wired or wireless network. The extenders are relatively expensive, costing around $250 on the street, since you cant surf the Web with it (you can buy a cheap Dell for $400). There are millions of XBox gaming systems, which can be turned into Media Center Extenders for around $80 (plus the wireless network card, if needed). |
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