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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 wasn’t 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 it’s 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 can’t 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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At the November meeting we had a demonstration of
the new