With new offerings in home entertainment, wireless hardware and productivity software, Microsoft is changing the way we use our PCs.
TORONTO (djc) – Microsoft Canada’s Home and Entertainment division brought its holiday media tour to Toronto last week, at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel’s penthouse. Based on Microsoft’s new offerings, it looks as though their long-held vision of PCs as family entertainment hubs may finally come to fruition.
Microsoft occupies a niche that no other company could reasonably fit; basically, to be everything, to everyone. Computer technology used to be about the individual components and features, when savvy geeks prided themselves on manually forging top-of-the-line systems. However, with the advent of user-friendly programs like XP and cheaper parts overall, that kind of self-determination is no longer necessary. MS’s new campaign is to rein every conceivable media/entertainment function into one box — and just about every manufacturer in the world worth its salt wants to provide that box.
Microsoft’s Media Center has been around for a while now, but its newest incarnation will probably be the first to really take off, once people notice just how powerful it is. Sporting an XP-like interface, Media Center is simple, fast, attractive and effective. Basically, it puts users in control of their music, video, DVD, television, pictures, and now, buffered FM radio. It’s all mediated through one simple interface, and a universal remote.
New features include a built-in TV recorder and a searchable 14-day database. And with a big enough hard disk, it can provide hundreds of hours of entertainment — more than any human being could possibly need. Microsoft has optimized its TV tuner for monitors so it looks clear and sharp, though still not quite as good as a television.
Also, the picture editor now has an automatic red-eye detection technology that works amazingly well. Another improvement: the My Music feature lets you instantly copy a CD as soon as you pop it in. And it will even automatically display the CD’s cover art for you.
Surprisingly, the RIAA isn’t howling over this; perhaps because Media Center will soon include a music-buying feature that will also let you download the original art. However, as of yet, there are no security features that disallow you from playing a burnt CD.
Media Center will also offer spotlights on more than 100 third-party developers such as Napster and CinemaNow (Canadian details have not been released), as an added-value service (MS says it makes no money from it).
Media Center will ship with various PCs with a wide scope of power and price. It will ship from companies such as Dell, Toshiba, HP and Sony. Although most PCs will come standard with a Pentium 4 chip, the prices should range anywhere from $2,600 for the highest-end model (including a flat-screen monitor) to $1,200 for the most basic unit.
Microsoft’s hardware division is celebrating its 20th anniversary and has accordingly come out with some exciting new products to celebrate.
MS has a new line of 802.11g wireless routers, including the Wireless-G base station (about $159) and a wireless adapter specially designed to fit into Xbox (about $200). Seeing as how Canadians are increasingly setting up home networks for business and entertainment, these routers should help dispatch Microsoft’s overall vision.
MS has reinvented its line of IntelliMouse peripherals, adding a toggle button and a horizontal scrolling capability to the scroll wheel. Simply tilt the wheel to either side, and you can navigate through databases and particularly huge graphic files. The novelty of it is so cool, you’ll probably want to turn off Word Wrap.
Microsoft’s mice have improved greatly over the past 20 years. In 1991, the company sought the advice of Canadian ergonomist Edie Adams and she continues to work for MS today. The new IntelliMouse includes five customizable buttons on the side, and comes in an expanded range of colours, textures and styles to fit any taste (there’s even a black patent leather mouse for the multitasking Hell’s Angel).
Microsoft is offering a new keyboard as well. It has plenty of cool, handy buttons including multimedia controllers and buttons for favourite documents and URLs. The scroll wheel with horizontal tilting is also included.
Rounding out Microsoft’s holiday offerings is its updated productivity software. They call it a “productivity” suite, but you don’t necessarily have to use it that way — much of it is just a fun way to waste time.
Take, for example, the new version of Microsoft Plus! for XP, which has become much more sophisticated than the Windows 95 version I remember uninstalling almost immediately after getting it. It now lets you produce cool photo stories (essentially short slideshow videos set to music, with automatic pans and zooms to keep things interesting), features an alarm clock and a fade-out sleep timer, and an audio converter that can decode vinyl into MP3.
There’s also a Party Mode, in which house guests can pick and arrange songs from your playlist, play around with visualizers and write little guestbook entries, without gaining access to the rest of your system. More and more, it seems the computer is rapidly evolving from the sterile tool of the antisocial, to the life of the party. Plus! also features tiny dancers that will bump ‘n grind across your desktop, if you so desire.
The new Digital Image Suite looks like a worthy competitor to such Adobe programs as Photo Album or even Photoshop Elements: It has smart sorting tools that let you search through photos using your own keywords, or with a star-rating system. Alternately, you can use the “Find Similar” function to let the program sort your pics out automatically.
Another cool feature is the “Smart Erase,” which can neatly take out elements that aren’t supposed to be there — perfect for bitter ex-lovers. Also, there’s a clever straightening function, in which you simply draw a line that corresponds to the horizon, and the program quickly rights it for you. New editing tools such as Gaussian Blur, Unsharp Mask, Rule of Thirds and Blending Brush help you touch up your photos like a pro.
Finally, Microsoft showed Encarta Encyclopedia 2004, now featuring tons of Discovery Channel videos (109 minutes total), detailed homework guides with quick facts and essay-writing tips and a simpler visual interface. Encarta 2004 will go for about $100, including online upgrades.
