Sorcinelli.net

This morning turned into another 2-hour commute from Salem, NH to Watertown, MA. 35 miles in 2 hours. Purgatory. Today was a little different, however, as the drive didn't seem quite so long.

Yeasterday, Microsoft released both new Zune devices and (more importantly) new Zune software (more information on the Zune 3.0 launch is over at BostonPocketPC.com). While there are a lot of cool new features, the one I was most waiting for was the ability to download and play audio books from Audible.com. For those who don't know, I've been using Audible for audio books since around the 2000/2001 time frame (I can't even remember for sure). I love to have the ability to select an audio book on demand and simply download it to my device. For a long time, that device was a Pocket PC/Windows Mobile device or phone. However, the move away from 2.5/3.5mm audio jacks to other standards made Windows Mobile a less than desirable solution.

By adding audio book content from Audible to the Zune's capabilities, I now have rediscovered an old friend. Last night, I downloaded the Audible Manager update for Zune support, pulled down a couple of book from my online Audible Library and quickly copied them to my Zune (by the way - the improved USB 2.0 Zune drivers are amazing; 80 MB in a handful of seconds). This morning, I pulled my Zune into the auxiliary input jack on my car stereo, fired up an audio book and away I went. I never thought I'd say this, but I was a little saddened when the commute came to an end; I was at a really great part of the book I was listening to :-)

While I've done it several times in the past, I feel compelled to again recommend to any avid audio book listener or book reader with lots of "non-reading" time to consider Audible.com. The Zune is only the latest addition to an amazing number of supported MP3 players and devices. 

Wow - where has the past month gone? It's time for our next monthly meeting. I was not sure if I would be able to be there myself, but now the answer is "yes", so...

The next meeting of the New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Groups will take place on Wednesday, September 17th starting at 6:30 PM at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA.

This month, we're having an "Open Mic" night. In other words - bring your questions, discussions and topics around Windows Mobile (and mobility in general). While Steve and I both have plenty of new news to fuel the conversation, I enjoy those occasional opportunities to have those really engaging conversations based upon what you are interested in. Don't forget - you're questions can be technical in nature as well, so any of you developers out there are more than welcome to join in.

As always, we will have lots of great items for our giveaway raffle.

See you there!

Those who know me well enough know that my sons and I are huge fans of EA and Criterion Game's Burnout Paradise for the XBox 360. As a matter of fact, the addiction level of this game for my 4 year-old son Drew can be quite frightening. 


Drew at play with Burnout Paradise, using the XBox Steering Wheel

Criterion Games is taking a great approach to keeping this game fresh and exciting and in doing so is making the Xbox Live platform live up to one my earliest expectations of the platform.

In addition of all of the great content that the XBox Live platform delivers (movies, TV shows, downloadable games), I always envisioned the platform as a means of delivering all levels of purchased game content on demand. While Xbox Live is regularly used for minor patches to games and some add-ons, I always have waited for a game creator to provide a significant content download that fundamentally creates something of a "new version" of the game without the need to purchase a new DVD. While there are always challenges for both the game creator and the consumer here (bandwidth and disk space come to mind), I still believed the value-add for both Microsoft and the game creator would be huge. All of this brings me back to Burnout Paradise.

I have been watching for months with anticipation in a planned release of Burnout Paradise that fundamentally takes the game to a whole new level. Rather than explain it all (which would require covering a full background of the game itself), I will instead point you to the Criterion Games web site for all the details. Once you look at this, I think you will agree that the scope of this update is huge. I could conceivably see many vendors considering this level of enhancement as an entirely new version of the game and requiring the re-purchase of the product. Criterion Games, however, has chosen not to go this route and I applaud it.

In an age where software updates are often readily available for download, the computer gaming industry is at times a little archaic in their thinking and business models. With gaming platforms now having access to the Internet and delivery mechanisms like XBox Live, my hope of breathing life into existing games beyond the simple add-on seems to be coming true. I hope more game software designers and publishers follow this model. For me, Criterion Games has an even greater loyalty from myself and my boys for what they are doing, and I assure you that future Burnout franchise titles will become members of our Xbox 360 library.

All you AT&T Tilt and Samsung Blickjack II owners - AT&T has finally released ROM upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.1 for your devices. The Tilt upgrade can be found on the HTC web site, while the Blackjack II upgrade can be found at the Samsung web site (be sure to download the correct installer - there is one for Windows XP and another for Vista).

An important note here - these ROMs lock your connection settings to the AT&T network. If you currently have an unlocked Tilt or Blackjack II, you will not be able to set up your device for another provider (like T-Mobile). At least, not without a bit of work. My good buddy, lifelong pal and fellow Mobile Devices MVP Mike Temporale (also a fine human being and great family man - are these platitudes enough, Mike? ;-) has put together an overview of what you need to do to unlock the settings for the Blackjack II over at his MobileJaw web site. This does involve some registry editing on the device, so as always use caution. While the location of the registry keys may be somewhat different on the Tilt, the general locations within the registry should be the same. If anyone out there tries this out with the Tilt, be sure to let us know!

Happy ROM flashing!

UPDATE: It appears that while the Blackjack II ROM shipped with the connection settings locked, the Tilt does not have any locked connection settings. Bottom line - Tilt users can bypass "registry hacking" :-)