By now you’ve probably seen the announcement for NewsGator Media Center Edition – we’re very excited about this! There is a lot more info here, including lots of screenshots. Check it out! Here’s one as a teaser:
Yep, that’s a video stream from a RSS enclosure playing in the lower left corner. One more click of the remote, and it’s full screen. (And yes, it’s from Microsoft’s Channel 9 video feed)
I think by itself, reading RSS feeds on your TV is interesting…but I also don’t think anyone is going to use the TV as their sole source of text content – if you don’t have a HDTV, it’s a heck of a lot easier to read text on your computer screen. BUT…when you combine content like this on your TV, with the synchronization capabilities of NewsGator Online Services, you have a much more compelling story. Read/view some of your content on TV, including multimedia. Perhaps during commercials. :-) Read other (overlapping) content on your desk. Read some of it on your mobile phone. And the system keeps track, the whole time, of what you’ve read and where – so you don’t have to waste time.
Whew! That sounded like a marketing blurb, right off of my own keyboard. Sorry about that. But come on, I have to say cool things about our new products! But maybe others can say it better – here are a couple of quotes from this morning:
RoudyBob – “They are way ahead of the game here.”
Omar – “I’ve been using this for a few weeks and it’s damned cool.”
Matt – “This is very slick.”
And I’ll leave you with one more quote, from this morning’s press release:
“NewsGator Media Center Edition is a great example of cutting edge ISV innovation on the Microsoft platform,” said Sanjay Parthasarathy, corporate vice president of Developer and Platform Evangelism at Microsoft Corporation. “The deep integration of technologies like XML and RSS, combined with rich multimedia, and presented on a device as pervasive as the television, gives consumers access to the information they care about, where and when they want to view it, truly delivering on the vision of a connected home. We’re proud to work with NewsGator to help bring this innovative application to market for our mutual customers.”
Looks like I might need a new PC: Newsgator Media Edition….[more]
http://www.rassoc.com/gregr/weblog/archive.aspx?post=717…[more]
NewsGator Media Center Edition: Greg is such a bad a**. I’m jealous. Yep, that’s a video stream from a RSS enclosure playing in the lower left corner. One more click of the remote, and it’s full screen. (And yes, it’s…[more]
NewsGator announced, “NewsGator Technologies launched NewsGator Media Center Edition today, which allows users to read syndicated content feeds on their TV with Windows XP Media Center Edition. Both text and multimedia content is supported, with an interface designed to be…[more]
This is all well and good, but to be honest I would have rather have seen more features in the web based version first, as I would have more use for that product. Just my two cents.
Woody, not to worry…there’s a lot more coming soon for the web edition. We actually make incremental improvements there quite often, without any announcements or fanfare…
…[more]
Congrats on the new release Greg and crew. RSS on the telly… wow! I showed this to my wife (who does not really get RSS at all) and she “clicked”. She said it would be a vast imrovement over the same old rhetoric that passes for news on the big screen now ;^)
RSS Enclosures and PVRs…[more]
For those lucky enough to have MCE, here is a great way to view your RSS Feeds. Newsgator for MCE…[more]
Finally, RSS reader NewsGator now has a Media Center Edition. You need a Media Center PC to use it, but if you had one, it would be cool. Somehow I don’t think this is the way to get video to Aunt Tilly, or even GNN to me….[more]