This is the best top ten list I've seen in a while. After you read it you would think it was common sense, but spend a few hours on the web and it's obvious these principles could ultimately become unwritten laws.

The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption

Sadly, some items are easier said than done. For example in #8 I completely agree that it is unacceptable to require users to enter email addresses of friends in order to share content. Yet, there is no central address book standard to allow for universal access such that users only need enter email addresses once, ever.



So, to anyone who's ever signed up for a web account of some kind, feel vindicated as Guy Kawasaki offers a voice for your online frustrations!

I just returned from a trip to Shanghai (the location of one of our offices), which happened to coincide with the Windows Vista launch. The old joke is that you can always sell at least one copy of software in China (after which it will be available in countless "discount merchandisers" shops). But Vista helps sell computers and manufacturers pay to license the OS, so Shanghai was not spared from the list of major launch marketing programs for Microsoft Vista. (Stunts like this also create buzz, which helps the overall product launch of course).

As we walked out of the office along the river along the Bund and looked up, one skyscraper was prominently labeled "Windows Vista" with what must have been the world's largest text projector, covering at least 50 stories. It alternated between the Chinese and English logos on occasion.






I also heard (but didn't see) that Vista was featured on some of the super-HDTV boats that cruise along the river. These boats are essentially small barges with a massive, oh say, 20' x 50' TV on them, displaying commercial loops and logos.

Updates on the Labs downloads page...

A new build of Digital Media Archive was posted February 1st. It includes a fix for an intermittent crash when closing DMA running in Kio.

A new build of DV Capture was posted January 9th. It includes a fix for auto-detection of PAL signals on some EU version of Windows, and adds a UI control for manually selecting the video format. For existing users, and update is available on the product page using your registered serial number.

Tivo and Amazon announced today that they have created a partnership to provide movie downloads over the network directly onto Tivo boxes. After reading the FAQ on Tivo, I'm actually excited about it. I've been waiting oh so long for something like this, especially since the Tivo / Netflix partnership never formed.

According to the Tivo FAQ, there's a one-time setup to hook up an Amazon Unbox account to a Tivo box. After that, any movie purchased can be flagged for Tivo usage. Here's the nice part: rather than downloading the movie onto your PC and streaming it over the network to the Tivo, the movies are downloaded right onto the Tivo itself. The purchase of the movie must be done on a PC, but after that, no PC is involved.

Another benefit is that Amazon will keep a library of purchased content so that movies can be deleted from the Tivo and re-downloaded at a later time. That's a step ahead of Wal-Mart's newly announced service, which only allows for one download.

Once the service is out of beta, I'll be in the front of the line to give it a shot. If the reality is anything like the description then this is a download service that I might actually use.

From the BBC this week...

Vodafone users can now access YouTube, eBay and MySpace
European mobile phone firm Vodafone is to enable users to access and update video website YouTube via their handsets, in its third internet tie-up this week.
Following similar deals with social networking website MySpace and auction site eBay, Vodafone customers will now be able to view and add videos.

The YouTube service will initially be available to Vodafone's UK customers before spreading to other countries.

Adding such interest services allows mobile phone firms to boost revenues.

Vodafone is Europe's largest mobile phone company, while YouTube was bought by search engine giant Google for $1.65bn (£883m) in October last year.

No XBox 360? You can still use the XBox HD DVD drive with your PC if you're willing to get your hands a little dirty. You may still need to fight DRM battles to playback content once you get it hooked up, but teamxbox reports that a hack is available that allows PC connection to the Toshiba HD DVD drive.



http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/12232/Legal-Hack-Makes-Xbox-360-HD-DVD-Drive-Work-on-PCs/

So this year I finally took the plunge and upgraded to HDTV. I really didn't have much choice. My 3-year old spit juice into the front control panel of our old TV, so you couldn't change the channel or input. (I thought those things only happened in commercials!) My wife thinks I told him to do it so I could get a new TV. That's not true of course, but I was thrilled at the news of his misdeeds. What guy doesn't need any excuse he can get away with to upgrade the home entertainment system? (Note: several of my coworkers are now also planning TV sabotage with their young'uns - I think I've started something.)



I went with plasma technology for a few reasons:
1. Viewing angle - I just don't like the inconsistent lighting with rear-projection.
2. Quality for the price - LCD still just looks harsh to me. I know it's the technology that's taking over, but the current plasmas look fantastic.
3. Size & weight - two people can easily lift a 50' plasma, unlike the 32" CRT I was replacing, which nearly requires a crane to lift.

I went with the Panasonic TH-50PX6U, available at Costco for under $2k. The buying experience was paradoxically exciting and mundane. Costco had a stack of the Panasonics on the floor the same way they have 8 lb boxes of Chex cereal or 4-packs of all-season tents in bulk available. Just throw it on the palette, pull up to the checkout counter, and as you roll it out to the car enjoy those Siamese twins of post-consumption emotions - environmental guilt and unapologetic Christmas morning glee!

I then went and paid for my grossly overpriced HDMI cable at Radio Shack and had the HDTV up and running just 3 minutes before kickoff for the Superbowl. The Superbowl is, of course, where HDTV shines. Broadcasters and cable operators practically use it as a technology driver every year to set the benchmark for the HDTV experience. The picture was superb. You could see people, grass, everything. Jawed were dropped. Eyes were popped. Yadda yadda.

XBox 360 looks great so far as well. Halo 2 is beautiful. Media Center photos look incredible. I've yet to play around with 1080i vs 720p, or visualizations, but there's time for that yet.

Flash is the video format used for streaming video playback on sites like YouTube, GoFish, and others. So it's no surprise that Adobe wants to capitize on that and get that content control to the mobile space. Flash has become the defacto standard for video sharing on the web due to it's cross-platform availability, small install footprint (compare that to the QuickTime install process), and royalty-free playback capability.

Divx, Windows Media Video and perhaps other formats are making quiet attempts to get a foothold, but today even the MSN Soapbox service runs Flash.

Cnet.com is offering a new blog called Crave, focused on all things techy-shiny. We like it already, and I must admit I don't miss the Cnet yellow yet. Get the scoop on phones, cars, shark repellent, robots and other glorious gadgets.

A new version of MediaTicker is available (free). Version 2.1 includes:

• Vista support
• Search the web for digital media directly from the ticker toolbar
• Use F5 to refresh your RSS feeds
• Several bug fixes, including one where some text feeds were not updating properly

You can also search for digital media with the new Roxio search portal, roxio.pixsy.com.



Get the best photo and video results with roxio digital media search!

What I want to know is, will I automatically get all those XM channels on my existing Sirius receiver!?

So, are Sirius and XM merging because they can't survive in a competitive situation or because their real competition is the diversification of audio programming entertainment sources (podcasts, internet radio, digital radio, mobile phones, etc)? The Boston Globe offers some thoughts.



On the lighter side, the Onion gets the opinion of the local passerby.

Who says you should only buy one player? Hedge your bets and get both if you love high definition. ; )



The new models from Toshiba and Sony are faster, quieter and offer better picture. MSNBC (via AP) reviews...

Our engineering and design teams have been busy working with Microsoft and envisioning a totally new user interface for our next generation products. Using the latest technology built into Windows Vista (and also supporting Windows XP), the all-new Roxio Central experience is unlike anything you've seen in digital media software.

Read the press release here.

Download the technology preview here!

If you're not already doing this, you're not getting the most out of MediaTicker! Check out our feeds page here for information on how to add RSS feeds, as well as one-click addition of popular feeds directly from the web page.

What interests you? Politics? Sports? Nature photography? People? Go to our feeds page and scroll down to the Flickr photos entry. Type in a key word or two about your interests (ie: ocean underwater) and click the +MyRoxio button. Watch as the photos stream into your ticker and change hourly or daily. (Works with Internet Explorer only right now).

Use MediaTicker as your YouTube channel browser. Thumbnails appear for each video in the feed. It's like channel surfing on your computer! Here's the list of available YouTube RSS feeds.

FYI: What does the yellow star mean in the upper left hand corner? It means the RSS item is less than 3 hours old. It makes it easy to spot new content.

Have fun!