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Microsoft's Handheld Codenamed Argo
The Seattle Times reports that details on Microsoft's handheld gaming/music device are finally slipping out. The Argo project looks to be Microsoft's hedge against angry analysts, upset that the next versions of Office and Windows have slipped yet again. From the article: "As reported last week, initially by Bloomberg News, the device is expected to go on sale by Christmas. It has Wi-Fi capability so it can connect wirelessly to home and public networks and other players. Wi-Fi sounds like a big deal if you're comparing the player to the wire-bound iPod. But this is more than just another MP3 player. It will also compete with game players from Sony and Nintendo that have long had Wi-Fi and work as media players, Internet terminals and communication devices. Argo is likely to showcase another Allard project — XNA, a new toolkit that helps game developers create titles for multiple platforms."
follow the offsite links, engadget has a picture
A lot of people seem to be completely missing the details of the product here...
1) Unlike Origami, MS is actually making the hardware and software here. They are not bound to the hands of a lot of crappy Consumer Electronics device makers and PC OEMs that historically make ugly hardware (and huge hardware)
2) This is coming out of the team that made the Xbox and the Xbox360. They have proven that they can write lean/mean software that just works and has pretty and good UI
3) This device is not (currently) a video game player. As pointed out above, MS is still obviously making games for the DS, and no respectable news site has stated that it plays games, just that it might at some mysterious point in the future.
4) The leaked pictures show a fairly small device with a small attenna on the top. It has some blurry UI that doesn't look like Portable Media Center software, which implies that they wrote something specially for the device to go head to head with the iPod
5) Its not just a device, but also appears to include an iTMS competitor. In light of this, it looks like they aren't going to use the horrid "Play for Sure" crap. Instead, they are doing what needs to be done. Make something that actually just works well together. Not something they somehow make work together (like WMP in general with media devices)
6) MS already has relationships with most record labels due to the old MSN music store. They also have relationships with most movie studios due to the VC-1 codec that is in both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
All in all, it sounds like MS did look at the market and realized that they had to make something that is small, is focused at just media (audio and video, no games). They also appear to be trying to innovate ever so lightly by adding WiFi and a lot of the potential that brings. One need only look at what MS did with Xbox Live and the 360 to think about what can be done with a permenant Internet connection on a Consumer Electronics device. There is a lot of potential here that if they live up to, could mean the next step in Portable Media Devices.
Worst case, MS shows what not to do with things like WiFi, then Apple comes out with the iPod WiFi and does it right.
Either way, it only benefits us, the consumer.
Yeah, music and video, that's it.
And text files. It shows text files. But that's it.
Yeah, and that breakout game. And the parachute game. But really, that's it. Music, video, notes, games... that's it.
Oh right, the photos thing. It does photos too. Music, video, notes, games, photos... really, I think that's it.
No wait, I forgot about the address book. Everybody forgets that one! Music, video, notes, games, photos, address book... is that it?
Hey, its got a clock too! It's a world clock as well. Music, video, notes, games, photos, address book, world clock... anything else?
Damn, it's got a calendar too. Music, video, notes, games, photos, address book, world clock, calendar... surely that's it!
I mean, we all agree the iPod is "so simple". The iPod "plays music/videos and that's it" afterall!
Yeah, stupid Microsoft, they'd do something complicated like put a stopwatch in their player!
PS: I remember 12 months ago, people just like you saying that the iPod would never play video because that would be "too complicated".