Netflix has hired Anthony Park. Now, normally I wouldn't bother writing a post to let you know that a media company has gone and hired a developer. But Anthony Park happens to be the guy who created MyNetflix, one of the first Windows Media Center plugins that allowed you to stream videos from the Netflix web site on your TV using Windows Vista MCE.

Park says he'll be working on a research team "to build the next generation of the Netflix user experience." What that means is he'll be helping develop the user interface for accessing the Netflix service on a variety of different devices. If Netflix develops software for the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or AppleTV, Park could be involved in developing the GUI.

Park says he also plans to continue developing MyNetflix on his own time.

[via Ian Dixon]

MceFM is an awesome little plugin for Windows Vista Media Center that lets you stream music from Last.fm. If you're not familiar with Last.fm, it's an online music recommendation service combined with a streaming radio service. All you have to do is type in the name of an artist or song and Last.fm will dig up music by that artist and then find similar songs you might like and start playing one song after another.

In order to use MceFM, you'll need to have a Last.fm account, but accounts are free, so that's easy. The plugin isn't much to look at. You can enter an artist name and MceFM will connect to Last.fm, find your music and set up a playlist.

One of the coolest features of this plugin is that you can find music similar to songs and artists already on your computer. Just locate a track in your music library and then click the More button on your remote (or hit the Ctrl+D keys on your keyboard to bring up the context menu and select More), and you can search Last.fm for similar music.

[via Ian Dixon]

Yougle developer Steven Harding has released a major update to his Windows Media Center plugin which lets you access online video and image sites like YouTube, Soapbox, and Flickr. Yougle 0.4.0 includes a slew of new features including an improved menu layout, improved parental controls (and an option to enable adult video channels if you're not worried about that kind of thing), and a slew of other updates, including:

• Yougle 0.4.0 automatically saves your data more frequently so you don't have to worry about losing your saved filters or other information in the event of a crash
  
• New content sources have been added
• Google Video has been removed from the list of sources, due to problems with playback

Youtle 0.4.0 beta is available as a free download.

[via Ian Dixon]

One of the coolest things about Windows Media Center is that you can plugin a ton of 3rd party applications to add the ability to do things like read RSS feeds, check your email, or even make video phone calls. OABsoftware has updates its line of Vista Media Center plugins that do just those things.

All of the plugins have been updated to work with Windows Vista. You can also use Media Center RSS Reader and Media Center Mail on an media extender.

OABsoftware has also released a new Vista-compatible applications called Media Center Outlook. The plugin lets you access all your MS Outlook information including your calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, and emails.

[via Aaron Stebner]