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This week marks the end of a very busy month or so, which started with a number of big annual project reviews, our worldwide internal event on improving customer & partner satisfaction, and then this week we are in the midst of our Engineering Excellence and Trustworthy Computing Forum, as noted in blogs this week and as others have blogged about in the past. The Forum (as it’s affectionately known) is an internal event where we share best practices and network across the product groups. (As an FYI, a little more insight on Engineering Excellence can be found in this issue of MS Watch.) 

This year, summer can not come fast enough. But enough about me.

As we near the end of the school year (which coincides with our fiscal year end), my son recently decided to start his first web-based business (following his successful and profitable weekend lemonade stand of a few weeks ago). This is all an effort to fund his college tuition… or rather if he has his way, pay for a few new Xbox 360 games. Being the good kid that he is, he started off using MS products to launch a fancy web site on the Office Live beta site. A very cool first start, and much more advanced (and certainly easier) than when we put up our first personal web sites and weblogs in the mid 90s.

While looking for help on line, it was nice to find the Office Live Community sites. I found the following message from Filiberto Selvas, who has been quite active on the boards answering user questions and providing feedback (as several employees do):

A couple of weeks ago I installed the beta for Windows Media Player 11 which has proven to be a solid release. I agree with much of PC Magazine’s review, though I’d rate WMP 11 a 4 1/2 rather than 4 out of 5. I like the interface, but found that authorizing accounts on more than one computer can take a while and the album art database is not complete. From PC Mag:

“This release represents a major departure from the feel and navigation styles of WMP 10 and iTunes. With many other media players, you scroll through a list of files; WMP 11 lets you browse your library by cover. Some other players, like Yahoo! Music include the capability, but none do it as well. Bringing art to navigation makes the process much more appealing visually—your music collection no longer looks like a spreadsheet.”

I wish I could say the same for MTV’s Urge: so far, it’s a 2.5 or 3 out of 5 (oh, that’s right, the numeric review is on the way out). Let’s just say it “needs improvement.”

Initially, I’ve found the service frustrating, as signing up for the free trial of the Urge “All Access To Go” service was somewhat difficult: I first went to register for the 14 day free trial off of the WMP11 sign up page and after downloading the 9MB installer for Urge, was able to get through the sign up. But then I found that I was unable to proceed: I was presented with a “please wait” that never went away. After generating a new password for my account a couple of times followed by a few notes to their customer care email address, I was still unable to get on the free trial. Given the activities over the past few weeks have been at work, I’ll try again this weekend.  

After installing WMP 11, I have found that syncing with my WMA player (which is PlaysForSure subscription compatible) is easier that it was with WMP 10, and I prefer the new sync experience over Rhapsody… and I can now load my Rhapsody tunes to devices through WMP 11. A good thing, as I found that after I installed WMP 11, Rhapsody is no longer able to transfer to my device. Perhaps there’s a setting or check box I’ve missed, but this was a bit of a surprise.

Personally, I prefer the user experience and layout of Rhapsody: MTV’s new Urge service is a little more chaotic and not as refined as Rhapsody, but that should change as they get more customer feedback on the service UX.

If you’re interested in a new review on the Urge service, the Seattle Times posted one online today (in the Saturday paper). Unfortunately, the reviewer wasn’t impressed…

“Like every other Windows Media-based store, Urge suffers from the Not iPod problem — its downloads don’t work on Apple’s elegant music players. Instead, you can choose from a wide assortment of other devices that all seem to fall short of the iPod’s high standards.

“Not only has MTV failed to match iTunes, it has repeated some of the worst mistakes of earlier iTunes challengers.”

I expect that more will come from the version 1.0 of the Urge service. As soon as I get on to the trial, I’ll give it a fair shake.

I really like the information provided on Office Online, and the Office Tips & Tricks site is no exception.

“…you’ll always find the latest and most helpful pointers for the Microsoft Office programs you use every day. Need help with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003? Shortcuts in Microsoft Office Word 2003? Whether it’s powering through your Inbox or breezing through complex spreadsheets, you’ll find easy-to-learn ways to save time.”

As I’ve written previously, I’m a fan of the new crop of Windows Media music players, in particular the Sandisk Sansa m240, with a gigabyte of storage, USB 2.0, an FM radio and long battery life from a rechargeable AAA battery. (Bonus feature: when you dock with your PC via USB to move new content on to the Sandisk player, you also recharge the battery! if you have installed a AA rechargeable.) Now, PC Magazine has a review of the new Sandisk Sansa e260 player…

“Why make MP3 players in an iPod world?  According to a SanDisk rep I talked to over a year ago, it’s because they can do it cheaper and better – because they make the memory chips themselves!  Now, finally, that boast has become true with the new e260.  This amazing new player offers great features, wonderful style, and good ease of use.

“The SanDisk Sansa e260 is a seriously sexy MP3 player that represents a very strong effort on SanDisk’s part to compete in the premium market against Apple’s iPod nano.”

This new PlaysForSure compatible device received the same high rating (4 1/2 out of 5) as the Apple iPod Nano, yet it didn’t garner an Editor’s Choice award.

IMHO, that is an oversight.

I had a chance to play with one of these players over the weekend and found it easy to use and very high quality. In addition, Sandisk provides a photo viewer and an FM radio, both features I would use in a multifunction device. It’s available in 2GB and 4GB models, and also as a 6GB model: the first time we’ve seen such a configuration. Unlike PCMag’s findings, I found the playlist to be straight-forward and the buttons providing a good feel and response. As for WMA lossless support, that’s not something I look for in a portable device as I’m usually in less than a critical listening situtation (car, airplane or even the office). I will agree that having a single app to handle loading of music and photos would be best, perhaps either via a drag-and-drop folder interface or through the more comprehensive Windows Media Player 11.

I’ll venture guess that it’s not long until we see a video viewer in this small form factor: my hope is that one will be available for end of year 2006 holiday gift giving. With many one hour shows (44 minutes edited) transcoding down to less than 100MB to my Smartphone and PPC, I could just about fit a season’s worth of primetime shows from my Media Center to a 4GB device like the Sansa… and still have room for more than 100 hrs of music in Windos Media Audio format. If this type of a product were to come to market — perhaps with a larger battery — that would be a 5 out of 5 in my book.

Tags: Microsoft, Sansa, Sandisk, digital music, MSN Music, PlaysForSure.