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A great update.

I think the whole idea of Microsoft Points is dumb.

I mean, what's wrong with regular national currency? Much more easier than try to add up the 80pts. = $1 calculations in your head, when it should be as simple as $1 = $1.

To most people, it would seem like Microsoft controlling an unnecessary thing, when they don't need too.

Suppose something cost 6 cents. How many MS Points is that? Most people don't know off the top of their heads. It's dumb. Something people don't have to hassle through.

That's one of the things that stop me from buying more music from Zune Marketplace. I just don't trust the way it works. Is 79 points really equal 99 cents? That stops many people.

It's at least good to see Microsoft trying to entice developers to make gadgets, but maybe offering real prizes for the best gadget would be more interesting. Like win a copy of Vista, a Sony Vaio, etc.

Points is a small step, but an ok step.

Other new gallery features incude the ability to rate reviews (e.g. "2 of 3 people found this review helpful") and the ability to display more than 30 reviews (a limit of the last build).

I'd still like to see more information in the personalized RSS feeds, however. Like a comments URL, number of downloads, etc.

Also, I asked the gallery folks and they told me that storefronts are NOT available to Silver level developers, such as myself.

In any case, kudos to the gallery team on this new build!

I think this is great. Obviously, as a consumer I prefer things to be free, but it can only make more people take the Gallery more seriously. As you said, Chris, I've been disappointed by gadget development so far, a few great exceptions aside. So maybe that'll change now.

On a separate but related note, I think that more MS teams should put out gadgets for their products. I mean, Windows Calendar and, say, Calculator gadgets seem like no-brainers. Encarta Dictionary/Encyclopedia gadget? Official Xbox Live gadget? Official Halo 3 stats gadget? Skydrive click-and-drag-to-upload gadget? Maybe even a Minesweeper gadget! For everyone else to see the Sidebar as a must-have mini-application repository, I think maybe Microsoft has to see it that way internally.

As for points--I don't really mind them. Besides, they're pretty firmly entrenched now. But yes, it is a little silly. Especially the bit about selling points in multiples of 500, and then selling content (at least on XBLM) in multiples of 400.

Agreed tophtucker. I'd love to see a decent Windows Calendar gadget. As for a Skydrive one, I think we'd all love an easier way of uploading files to skydrive, and a gadget would be one such way. If they open up a few more APIs, then it might not even need to come from Microsoft, it could come from a 3rd party developer. But we need the foundations there first.

(Oh, there are already *lots* of calculator gadgets ;))

@ quikboy

There's a world outside the US. MS Points mean that everything is one standard price for the world rather than varying prices in each country.

For example, on the PlayStation Store last night, a Ninja Gaiden addon went on for $2.99 in the US or £2.99 in the UK. That kind of BS would not happen with MSP.

@Espiox: Than in other countries outside of the US, such as England, Microsoft can adopt the currency in that market.

Pounds in England, Yen in Japan, Dollar in America.

I don't think there's any guarantee that MS Points remains consistent for every country in the world.

Scott--

Well yeah, I know there are plenty of calculator gadgets, I have one that I'm quite happy with. :) It just seems like an obvious gadget to ship with Vista from the start.

Also--

How about adding other categories to the Gallery? Like dreamscenes? Or games, like these ones: zone.msn.com/.../vistagames ? They could integrate it with the Windows Marketplace--although, maybe they want to keep them separate...