SuperSite Blog Daily Update: December 23, 2010

Good morning.

It's Christmas Eve Eve, if you will, and that means it's Friday even though it's really Thursday, which means I need to work up a Short Takes this morning. (Update: It's available now. )Ah, the holidays.



DVICE has an interesting look at gadgets for people who "frickin' hate Apple." There are some interesting choices in there, but I don't really subscribe to the "hate Apple" thing. The point is to choose those solutions that makes the most sense for you, and the appeal of the Apple stuff is understandable. My problem with Apple's products is that they're often Windows-unfriendly, not agnostic, but downright hostile. And if you're tired of being treated like a second class citizen, this list isn't a bad place to start. That said, I think the Samsung Focus is a better choice than the HTC HD7, and is in fact the single best smart phone experience in the world right now. I also feel that the WD TV Live Hub is the superior offering to the current Boxee Box, though that could change over time.



Leo and I will be recording the Windows Weekly podcast today at 2pm ET, which is the usual day and time. But this is the last original episode of the year; I guess TWiT is off next week for the holidays. 

More soon....

Discuss this Article 3

chuckb84
on Dec 23, 2010
On those Windows 7 phone "sales", Mary Jo Foley clarifies:

"Update: This number represents sales of Windows Phone 7 phones from phone makers to carriers. It is not the number of phones sold to customers by the carriers."

So, per the piece on wininfo, MJF is part of the "iCabal". Who knew?



oiler_head@yahoo.ca
on Dec 23, 2010
After having gone through the whole experimenting with cutting the cable cord, I have to disagree with your opinion on using a PC as the digital hub. All the other streaming devices are great but the all seem to have compromises (online content only, good with flash, not good with flash, sucks with Silverlight, poor interface, can't play content on home network, etc.). I initially bought a 360 think it would solve my woes but alas the MCE interface isn't fully capable like a PC. I found that with a dell 580s, I can play any type of media, use a USB HD stick for live TV and consume any type of content I wish. It doens't have to stay on, can be backed up with my home server, if needed and is an all-around versitale machine. The nice thing about MCE is a plugin community so I can work on making an interface that suits my wife and I can control the whole lot with my 4 yr old harmony remote (still working on that).

After all of this, I also think that MS should look at MCE as the main interface for a tablet interface. If this is mostly a device for consuming content, then MCE is it. Using MCE plugins and the modular windows embedded OS, I can see MS building a platform that developers can easily build apps for and that can be used through the MCE interface. Come On MS....

Backup77
on Dec 23, 2010
Hi Paul

Thanks for all the great stuff (articles\posts) you have put up on the supersite this year. Best wishes to you and your family for a merry xmas and a happy new year in 2011.

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