Erik Porter's Blog

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    Portable Media Centers

    Seeing these at the Summit this year was awesome!  Now I'm seeing more about them coming up here and there.

    This week I bought the Microsoft Blue Tooth Mouse.  Very cool and I'm looking forward to getting more devices that use Blue Tooth.

    So I'm reading about PMCs and come across this...

    <quote location=“Portable Media Centers: Frequently Asked Questions“>
    Q. How do I get my music, videos and pictures onto the device?
    A. Your entertainment will be easily and automatically transferred to your Portable Media Center using smart sync technology delivered in a future release of Windows Media Player. Smart sync technology will enable automatic, intelligent synchronization of music with next generation portable music players as well as synchronization of music, photo, TV content, and movies with Portable Media Centers.
    </quote>

    That's really cool, but will they have blue tooth or something in them so i don't even have to think about syncing it?  If I just carry my PMC around in my bag everywhere I go, when I get home and set it down in the same room as my MCE box, I think it should stay in a “standby” mode using only battery to listen for a blue tooth signal (I am so not a blue tooth expert so I don't know what I'm talking about with regards to the details of how it works).  In MCE 2005, I could set that certain TV shows or certain photo albums or music albums, artists, etc should be automatically sync'd with my PMC is it detects that it's in the room.  This synchronizing I think would be immediate (maybe based off of how busy my main MCE box was or not).

    Basically what I'm saying is, “I want to have my PMC sync'd automatically without ever thinking about it or remembering that I need to sync it before I go on a trip.”

    Whatever technology is necessary (again, I'm not blue tooth expert so I don't even know if that's the appropriate technology), make it happen, Microsoft...that would be so freakin' cool!

    Posted: Apr 29 2004, 05:22 PM by HumanCompiler | with 4 comment(s)
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    Comments

    Dustin Mihalik said:

    I agree that wireless syncing is really cool, but Bluetooth is about the slowest medium you could use. It would probably take over a few hours to transfer a TV show. It would even be pretty slow over 802.11b. I think the best method is still the cradle. When you put it down to charge, it auto-syncs the newest stuff.

    However, I think it would be great if these PMC's could act as a "remote" for an MCE box using Bluetooth. You could select things to play, build playlists, etc.
    # April 29, 2004 9:05 PM

    HumanCompiler said:

    Absolutely, that would be fantastic (some people have done it with PocketPC's, so I'd imagine they will).

    Thanks for the education on blue tooth, again, I'm a n00b ;) But still, there has got to be something. The biggest thing I see with syncing is I have to remember to do it. It's fine if I'm already at my desktop and thinking of it, but when I'm getting ready to go on a trip I have a lot more on my mind than "hey, i need to sync my PMC so I can watch TV on the plane".

    i hear what you're saying and you're right about the speed, but if it's something I don't have to think about and just happens in the background, is speed that big of a deal to me?
    # April 29, 2004 9:14 PM

    Adam Porter said:

    Perhaps 802.11G would be a bit quicker? The only sure-fire quick way to do it would be USB 2.0 or Firewire. Heck, over Firwire I downloaded 18.5GB of music to my iPod in 45-50 minutes. Simply AMAZING!

    http://www.windowsfordevices.com/files/article012/sld005.html

    mmmm. sexy.
    # April 30, 2004 12:08 PM

    HumanCompiler said:

    Yes, very nice, Adam, thanks for the link! :)

    I just think we're all still thinking way too much like super geeks. If it takes an hour to sync all my TV and music, I wouldn't care if I didn't have to think about it. I'd never notice! That's all I'm saying, because technically with speed an all that, you're all right.
    # April 30, 2004 2:29 PM