On October 10^th, Microsoft held a “Digital Entertainment Everywhere” event to announce and show the direction of digital entertainment services from Microsoft and partners.  The following is a list of quotes and facts that I found interesting from Bill Gates’ keynote transcript.  You can also see the video recording of his keynote.  I recommend watching this if you’re are new to the topic.

·        Small Devices

o       New Memory based players (various mentioned)

o       New Hard-disk based players

·        Ex. Rio Carbon

§        5 GB storage, 20 hour battery life

·        Creative's Zen Micro

·        Dell Pocket DJ

·        iRiver H320

o       Pocket PC Phone

·        Audiovox

§        Built-in Windows Media v10

§        Available from AT&T Wireless stores

·        Dell Axim X-50

·        New ones expected with 5Gb disk

·        Playing music at home

o       Roku Soundbridge

·        Supports getting media from Windows Media Player 10

·        PlaysForSure logo

o       Indicates compatibility for Windows Media Player services and devices

·        Centerpiece product that brings all of this together

o       WindowsMedia Center

o       Sold over 1M copies now

o       Next version, 2005 Edition

o       6 biggest PC OEM's are providing Windows Media Center PC's

o       "MediaCenterEdition is designed to be the best version of Windows for any room in the home"

o       Demo'd HP's new Digital Entertainment Center, includes support for audio/video and a variety of source devices

o       "we designed Media Center Edition 2005 to be the ultimate jukebox experience"

·        Photos

o       "So what we did was we added into Media Center Edition 2005 the ability to touch up the top five issues that consumer have with digital photos today"

o       3 different ways to share photos (print, burn a disc, video)

o       Dual tuner support (watch and record at same time)

·        High-Def TV

o       "we're very excited today to announce that Media Center Edition 2005 is the first consumer operating system with built-in support for high definition"

o       High-Def is a 3rd tuner

·        Movies

o       "we have a new service that's built into Media Center called the Movie Finder Service.  It's basically like having a video store built into your Media Center experience, and it intelligently looks at all the TV programs, all the movies that are available on your line-up, and shows you just the movies that you have available to you in that particular line-up."

o       Ability to purchase/rent movies, via partner Movie Link

·        Music

o       Queen Latifah does IM to Bill who sees the messages on Media Center

o       "Today we're announcing for the first time MSN Music is available from your living room, so we're making it easier than ever to download music"

o       Artist radio station – virtual site in the system with artist’s albums

o       "And there we have it, you can download music very easy, just the remote control, listen to radio stations, discover new music, download it with a click, and because of the really generous life of MSN Music, this music can now play on this computer, and in every room in your house, and on all of your portable devices as easy as that"

·        Utilizing services outside of the Living Room

o       "Media Center Extender from Linksys, which enables me to use my Media Center PC as a hub for whole home entertainment, and turn any TV in the home into the complete Media Center experience.  All of my photos, all of my music, all of my video, even live TV, all here via wired or wireless home network"

o       Involving XBOX

·        "This shows the way we're thinking about all the different Microsoft related products coming together.  What happens here is that the Xbox itself runs the Extender software.  So you just buy the add-on kit we've got here, it gives you the universal remote control, and as soon as you set that up, you're connected up to Media Center"

o       Involving Tablet PC

·        "I can take all of my content, my recorded TV, my videos, my photos, of course my music, and be able to experience it on the Tablet PC, both high-definition with certain models, as well as, of course, standard TV.  And I don't know about you, Bill, but when I'm taking long flights, it's great for me to be able to take my Tablet, flip around the display, and be able to have a personal viewing experience while sitting in coach"

o       PortableMedia Center

·        Smaller device

·        Connects to DVD entertainment systems in new vehicles today

·        Demo'd by a adolescent to show easy usage

·        Closing

o       "What we've got here is an ecosystem.  It's got a platform, it's got partners, and it's got lots of choice, it's not just digital music, but digital media.  It's not just one store, but lots of stores, with different capabilities.  It's not just one device, but all the different devices you might want to have now and out into the future with compatibility.  It's not just buying content, but also opening up the subscription, including being able to use that on the portable devices."

 

·        "In fact, some day these devices you won't just use the remote control you'll be able to talk to the Media Center, using speech recognition we're doing, or you'll have a camera with the Media Center that we'll know who in the family is there, and we'll use that to automatically suggest the things you might be interested in"