You could wait for Windows Update or download it here, right now.

Update: Direct download link changed overnight. I’ve edited the link above to point to the correct page. Be sure to read the info page first!

Update 2: I’ve got a summary of what’s included – and why most existing Media Center owners won’t see any change – here.

I do hope the people who were so outraged about Microsoft ripping off Apple “innovations” – the Windows Vista interface, Microsoft Gadgets, etc. – are slamming Steve Jobs right now for Apple’s blatant (and frankly pretty lame) ripoff of Windows Media Center Edition, Front Row. After all the buzz earlier this year about what a cool media platform the Mac Mini would be, this is a big letdown.

Peter Near and Thomas Hawk both say, “Eh.” And Microsoft’s Charlie Owen has a similar first reaction:

Frankly, I’m underwhelmed — I really expected Apple to have much more to brag about, especially given their momentum with iPod over the last couple of years. Based on everything I’m seeing, Front Row doesn’t even have feature parity with the first version of Media Center released back in October 2002. No hint of a developer platform either — that’s a shame — I was really looking forward to dusting off my Mac coding skills again.

But don’t get me wrong — I do think this is a good thing. The halls here in Building 50 are buzzing with excitement (and yes, it’s positive excitement — we love this stuff). It’s classic Microsoft vs. Apple, and we haven’t really had that for a lonnnnnng time, and some of us miss that competition.

So, welcome back Apple, it’s good to see you again!

Yes, and the killer feature Charlie didn’t mention: There’s nothing from Apple that offers anything like the Media Center Extender.

It appears they’re going after the dorm room, not the living room.

[Cross Posted at Ed Bott’s Media Central]

The update you’ve been waiting for is coming on Friday. Details at Ed Bott’s Media Central.

Over on Ed Bott’s Media Central, I’ve answered a reader question: Can you upgrade from MCE 2004 to MCE 2005?

The short answer is no, although there’s a workaround that might interest you if you’re an MCE enthusiast.

I’ve put together a full list of what Media Center users can expect from the big Rollup 2 update due later this month. Check it out at Ed Bott’s Media Central

Market research firm Current Analysis says sales of Media Center PCs have skyrocketed since July 9:

For the week ending August 20, 2005, Media Center PCs accounted for 43% of all desktop personal computers sold in the U.S. retail market, based on data from a sampling of U.S. retailers.

Accounting for this phenomenon was a decline in pricing for Media Center systems, with the average price dropping below $900 for the first time ever. In addition to the more affordable price points, Microsoft has lead [sic] the charge to promote Media Center PCs at select retailers in an attempt to generate a higher level of interest for the platform.

More than 70% of the PCs sold had no TV tuner, which suggests that Media Center features are being incorporated into Windows as a basic feature.

(via Mavromatic)

No doubt about it… The Robb Report is a magazine for rich men. I say “men” deliberately, because this magazine is aimed at gadget freaks with lots and lots of disposable income, the “boys and their toys” crowd. I was pleasantly surprised to see this review of Windows Media Center Edition 2005 in the (digital) pages of the Robb Report’s Home Entertainment Design:

[T]hanks to Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition computer operating system, PCs have begun invading our home theaters. They assume the roles of DVD player, TV tuner, digital video recorder, music server, digital photo archive, online portal, and so much more—all in one box with a unified control screen.

It’s a well-balanced look at Media Center, with a focus on the high end and a willingness to acknowledge the problems with the platform:

Versatile and promising as Windows Media Center may sound, our initial experience with it raises more red flags than a military parade in Beijing. In its current iteration, WMC is more of a Band-Aid than a fully integrated, well-thought-out system. While Band-Aids work great if you prick your pinky with a paring knife, they don’t work well for severed limbs. And given the wide range of hardware WMC attempts to control, the severed limb analogy seems appropriate. Obviously, I’m overstating a bit—but severed limbs are often reattached in less time than it takes to get many Windows Media Center machines running properly.

I hope the developers in the eHome division at Microsoft have seen this article. If so, they know exactly where the challenges are to win this audience over.

On Saturday, I wrote briefly about a post that Chris Lanier published on his site, which speculated about the ship date of Windows XP Media Center Edition Update Rollup 2.

So … did that code actually ship as scheduled last week? The Neowin article that Chris used as his source was a couple months old, and it was actually pulled from Neowin’s site a few weeks later. In addition, it referred to a proposed schedule, not actual events.

Anyone on the eHome team want to take advantage of the anonymity of the Internet and clear things up? (I didn’t think so.)

Chris Lanier asks the rhetorical question, When Will Media Center Update Rollup 2 Ship?

If Chris is reading the tea leaves correctly, Microsoft is going to sit on this update for nearly two months. I think this timeline might be off a little bit, however, because this rollup is not like its predecessors. For the past three years, each fall has seen the debut of a completely new edition of Windows Media Center Edition. In 2002 and 2003, the OS was sold only through OEMs, and no upgrade path was available. In 2004, with the release of MCE 2005, Microsoft finally made the OEM version available for white-box makers and hobbyists in addition to big OEMs, but there was still no upgrade path. This year, for the first time in four years, there won’t be a new MCE version number. Instead, anyone who owns MCE 2005 can upgrade to the latest code by downloading and installing a rollup package, and OEMs who sell MCE computers can incorporate the rollup into their new machines as well.

The files in the MCE 2005 system folders have date/time stamps of August 10, 2004. That’s when last year’s code was locked down and the process of making it ready for OEMs (and for retail sale) began. As Chris correctly notes, MCE 2005 wasn’t officially released until October 12, and it was followed a few days later (Chris says October 17, but the download page is actually dated October 15, 2004) by a rollup package that added over-the-air HDTV support and a few bug fixes.

It made marketing sense to hold the release of MCE 2005 from August 2004 until its official launch in October. MCE 2005 wasn’t a downloadable product, and the rollup was useless to anyone running a previous MCE version. But it doesn’t make any sense to delay this year’s rollup for two months. OEMs can continue to sell MCE 2005 from now until then, and they don’t have to worry about customers getting stuck with an obsolete OS version. Meanwhile, Media Center customers (a million of them as of April, with perhaps another half-million since then) can benefit immediately from whatever features are in the update. So why delay it? Microsoft has already determined that it makes no sense to change version numbers this year. Anyone who buys MCE 2005 can download the update, and OEMs can slipstream the rollup package when they’re ready.

Holding the Rollup 2 package for weeks or months isn’t good for anyone. Microsoft, if this update is ready to go, release it!