It’s been revealed by unamed sources that Beta testing of Windows Fiji, the next version of Windows Media Center Edition, has been underway for a few weeks now.

At this stage it’s not clear just how many beta testers are on the program at the current test phase and if the program will expand into a larger audience any time soon. But one thing is for sure is that Microsoft are trying to keep this under wraps by putting all beta testers under a strict non-disclosure agreement, eventually something will leak it always seems too (all companies have the same problems), but until then, we just have a comment delivered via a corporate spokesperson:

“Microsoft has many ongoing betas, however at this point we do not have any announcements to make related to any future version of Windows Media Center.”

Windows Media Center Fiji is expected for October 2008.

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The first, MCE Tunes, is a new plug-in that lets you play your iTunes music library, for free, through Media Center, as well as sync your library with Media Center’s. If you pay for the $29.99 full version, you can even play purchased DRM iTunes music.

The second, Big Screen Headlines, runs only under Vista Media Center, and it takes advantage of new graphical technologies in Vista for a great look. It is an RSS reader that can read from Internet Explorer 7′s common feed list, or the OPML of your favorite RSS reader, and display them in a great 10-foot interface. It even shows video, podcast/audio, and picture RSS feeds in the typical Media Center interfaces for those types of content.

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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