Microsoft Freon

Veramocor writes "MSNBC.com has an article posted from the WSJ about MS's new plan for living room domination, codenamed Freon. Freon will be capable of 'playing games but also offering television capabilities, such as pausing live TV and recording shows onto a computer hard drive.' The article then goes on to explain future potential business plans for XBox incarnations. The system does seem to have some great advantages. I must question their naming question however, we all know what a disaster the actual chemical Freon was. Here's to hoping, Cheers!" We mentioned the Xbox's planned evolution the other day, too, but without the fancy codename.

Comments

funny names

[dago]

I think that some of the marketing/PR people of MS have been sick / on holidays / away these times.

Palladium : was originally the name of the statue of Pallas-Athenas, which was supposed to protect the city of Troie. Which was later invaded by greeks which used a subterfuge which will be known for centuries as trojan horses.

Freon : according to this web page, apart from evident utility in refigerators, "Only decades later did people realize that such chlorofluorocarbons endangered the ozone layer of the entire planet." and, even worse for MS : "The trade name Freon® is a registered trademark belonging to E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DuPont)."

Step carefully...

[weave]

Being quite an old flock()er, I can recallthe video game boom of late 70s early 80s. Atari was champ, then something happened. The market became too fractured. Atari 5200, Colecovision, and some others I can't remember. Then Atari announces 7800 shortly after 5200 was out and no one wanted to buy a 5200. Eventually, it all just died out.

It wasn't until the NES rose out of the console market's ashes did things kick back in gear. One thing that was great about the NES was it was stable and long lived. The same goes for the next market leader, Playstation.

Microsoft could very well risk killing the entire console market if it introduces too much confusion and churn into it. If they make consoles as complicated as PCs, a lot of buyers may just be turned off. Think of all the people, right down to the poorest you know, that have a console but no computer in their house.

Are they nuts?!

[prockcore]

This is really quite amazing to me. Microsoft truly is the most braindead company.

Why in the world would anyone buy an xbox now? We now know it's going to be replaced with "something much much better" in a little while.

Now instead of making money selling xbox's and xbox games, everyone will just hold on to their cash and wait for Freon(tm).

In the meantime xbox-exclusive game makers will bleed red, and drop support for the xbox.. when Freon actually makes it out the door, it'll have no games because the game makers aren't going to invest the time and money on a product that already burned them once.

Freon will kill all of MS's hopes in the console market. And you can bookmark me on that.

Where have I heard this before?

[fw3]

Though it is unclear whether such a product will ever be built, its core concept appears to have the backing of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who wrote in an internal memorandum in January

So much for other companies trying to raise funding to develop products in this market.

Oft-observed MS behavior:

• see a new technology;
• (sidebar: contact nascent developers of the new tecnology and express interest in 'partnership', get a feel for their approach);
• write press release announcing newest MS brainstorm, including vagues statements about timing;
• watch competition die off;
• maybe develop the technology, maybe not

Disaster

[ONOIML8]

"...we all know what a disaster the actual chemical Freon was."

Big assumption there cuz I don't know about any disaster. I do know that Freon had some very important uses in refrigeration and electronics which saved lives and improved the quality of life for millions.

How about just reporting the news without the emotional enviromental bullshit panic phrases. Thanks.

Re:Wont work, here's why.

[Mulletproof]

"...Freon box will need to be continually updated."

I wouldn't think this is a huge obstacle. Really. If the thing has a hard drive then updating is a issue unless it were something major. Um, I use my XBox (cue flaming) as my primary (read: only) DVD player and i have to ask why is it hype? Kind of a logical step if you ask me. Your console plays DVD games, why not movies in the same format. Damn useful if you ask me. Which you didn't. But if you did...

"So what happens if just one of the 3 components breaks?"

First, what 3 components are you talking about? The DVD, HD and..? Motherboard? But even without knowing what those components are, the answer is simple- Fix/buy a new one or do without. The more capabilities a unit has, the easier it is to stop up the plumbing, naturally. It goes with the territory of any technology and it's something you have to live with. Other technologies have this inherent problem yet they thrive. Go figure.

"Microsofts track record for defects with the XBox"

Huh. Source please. Link it. The only ones I know of was a small batch of the consoles were scratching disks in Japan and I had my friend mention one overheating as a display model, but that's all I've heard, and since I own one, I like to think I listen for that sort of news. And as much as I love the PS1 I have to mention that it had it's share of issues depite it's popularity, namely the laser assembly burning out or jamming prematurally (discounting hot-swapping of import CDs). I know /. is an MS haters club, but come on...

"because they didn't want a hunk of plastic that didn't work after 2 years"

If it's anything close to an Xbox, the damn thing is as close to a computer as it'll get. And unlike a computer, it doesn't nessisarily need to be at the cutting edge of technology. I don't see us moving away from DVDs anytime soon. Will TV be changing that rapidly to make this obsolete in 2 years? What, exactly, will make this hardware obsolete? I agree that ll technology has a finite shelf life, but PVR? As long as you can update the software, technology like this will have a long lifespan.

Maybe it won't work, but your "why" needs a few less holes.