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Xbox 360 To Have IPTV, 10 Million Sold
The news from CES, from Bill Gates' keynote, is that the 360 will have IPTV rolled out in an update later this year. They've also now crossed the 10 Million units sold mark, spurred on by Gears of War in the U.S. and Blue Dragon in Japan. The implications of IPTV for the 360 (DVR on a 20 gig HD, essentially) are interesting, but are hardly the only news to come out of the event. Robbie Bach gave Gamespot an overview of Vista and 360-related announcements for the near future, and there's some great stuff in there. Likewise, Mr. Gates sat down for an interview with several journalists, including Dean Takahashi from the Mercury News and Brian Crecente from Kotaku. He gives some additional insight into the company's announcements at the CES event.
Okay, which press office submitted this? No body on Slashdot would address Bill Gates as "Mr. Gates", it's just not in our style at all.
I like muppets.
It's a little frustrating to live in Canada sometimes. I understand that 360 owners in the US can already download movies and TV shows. Whether or not that service is great (or about to be replaced by this new thing or something) I'd like to try it. Canada is full of "early adopters" - I wish we merited a little more attention in terms of new features. I'm sure those in Europe/elsewhere have it worse. At very least, they could make this stuff a little clearer. Looking over the official sites (for the 360) it's hard to tell which features are actually available in your area.
(MS is hardly the only offender here - when will I be able to get TV shows off iTunes?)
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
http://www.vgcharts.org/
http://nexgenwars.com/
With the announcement of DVR, a larger Hard Drive is practically confirmed. Microsoft has been on a roll lately as far as the Xbox 360 is concerned, I doubt they would forget something like that. They are probably waiting until the last moment to announce it to prevent a drop in sales.
I'll put $10 down on Microsoft releasing a "media center" edition of the 360, similar to their operating system version of Windows.
It will include a larger hard drive, universal remote, and possibly the HD-DVD player. The 65nm chips could be included also, but it should not have performance implications.
Whatever Microsoft does, they will be very careful not to alienate the 10+ million current 360 owners.
Micro Center has been offering a $100 rebate on Xbox 360 units since early Autumn, if not before that. I got my 360 premium system for $300 sometime in September I think. Anyway this was definitely not a case of increasing incentives in time for the holiday season or in response to a sudden desperate need to meet some projected numbers.
So, there was no "BIGGER" loss. It was the same as usual, Micro Center just increased its advertising during the holiday season, much like everyone else.
I like basketball!!1!
OK. So I have a 360, and I've used xbox live to try some of the iptv content available. Content is split between 480p EDTV and 720p HDTV. An HD movie is about 6GB large and cannot be streamed real time. Further, there are access restrictions for viewing, plus a one time fee paid in Microsoft Points (thanks for creating your own private currency, Microsoft... that helps).
Anyway, the difference in available content between OTA, Cable, or Satellite vs. Xbox live is so large as to be laughable. Right now, iptv on the 360 is a toy. And I doubt that will change over the course of this console's lifespan, due to licensing and distribution agreements the media conglomerates have made with television networks.
If the Xbox was so hot, then why was it being offered with a $100 rebate during the Xmas buying season?
So I'm considering waiting for a PS3. The Blu-Ray aspect is semi-enticing, as I have an HDTV widescreen TV, and I'm mildly interested in Gran Turismo HD. I'm not a fanboy of either variety.
Then along comes Gears of War, and I'm suddenly reconsidering my decision. And then, boxing day, I discover I can get an XBOX360 for $100 less than before, with 'Ghost Recon', 'Live Arcade' and 'The Outfit' included.
The result? I now own an XBOX360, two additional controllers, and the following titles:
Madden '07
Gears of War
Burnout Revenge
PGR2
Ghost Recon
The Outfit
Tiger Woods '07
Live Arcade
Need For Speed Carbon
Test Drive Unlimited
So what did they gain from dropping the price for Christmas? Clearly my business.
Why in heavens name would I buy the PS3? Certainly not for the lousy launch lineup.
There was a ton more announced than what is listed in the headline...
From http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/07/live-from-the-b ill-gates-keynote/
6:20 (PST) - The connection is spotty as hell, but Ryan and I are here at the Bill Gates keynote, which should be starting shortly. Stay tuned for updates -- at least barring a failure of our EV-DO lifeline.
6:22 - They're asking us to take our seats
6:25 - Over the PA: "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote is beginning in five minutes."
6:33 - Eight minutes later: "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote will begin in two minutes." See, even Microsoft's keynotes can't launch on time... We kid, we kid!
6:36 - Lights are dimming, looks like we're about to get going. It's starting. A visual history of CES is playing on the giant monitors next to the stage.
6:39 - Gary Shapiro, President of the CEA is on stage. He's giving the usual spiel about all the industry leaders who are speaking this year.
6:41 - "It is my great privilege to introduce Bill Gates as a featured speaker."
6:44 - They're showing highlights from past Gates keynotes - this is the 10th year he's spoken.
6:47 - Another video, this one showing hip young people using Microsoft technology. Zunes a-squirting!
6:49 - Bill Gates is walking out on stage. "Good evening, I've always loved coming back from Xmas to go right into the most manic environment ever. Are you going to keep giving the keynote, but not sure about after that, might be talking more about infectious diseases."
6:50 - "It's amazing to see the progress over the course of the year. The digital decade is truly happening. 65% of homes have digital cameras. More broadband penetration. 40% of homes have multiple computers."
Portable devices proliferating, growing part of the PC market, connections with WiFi and 3G, getting information wherever you go."
6:52 - "What are some the metrics we have here. Devices with high fidelity. Six megapixel cameras and up. high definition screens that make you drool. Now it connects up to high def cable, PC, games. All taking advantage of that capability. Network bandwidth has gone up. Processors opening memory capacity up to 64bit."
Graphics revolution let's us represent reality on screen. Seeing in games, VR, presentation richness that all these great devices deliver. It's really quite phenomenal. Storage space, people are talking terabytes, or even petabytes of storage."
6:53 - "We have amazing hardware, love walking the floor, who has the biggest LCD, the biggest hard disk. But we need to deliver on promise of digital decade. Delivering means more than just great hardware. CE defined as much broader industry."
6:55 - "An enviroment where people want to do things across multiple devices with many different people. Delivering on connected experiences, where people are productive, where they're mobile, playing games, that's key element that's missing. For Microsoft, it's a big big milestone, foundational products are moving into the marketplace. First of that is Vista, lots of hard work. Most important release of Windows ever, highest quality, we've ever done."
6:56 - "Vista and the PC continue to have a central role, all these devices have to work together. Vista is a big project, rather than talk about features, rather talk about what we've been through."
6:57 - "Process we've been through, Beta 2., out to 2 million people, RC out to 5 million, in depth went in and interviewed people in seven different countries. Biggest investment ever into a piece of software, by the far the most used piece of software, any improvements can save time and enable people to do amazing things."
With Office, new UI, connect up to Office Live services, richness improved by UI. Features users couldn't find, now they can find. New UI was a risk, but it's worke
That's video on demand.
IPTV is essentially cable over the internet. You flip channels, record programs, pause live TV, etc.
I've got the 360, Gears, Live Gold, and I'm a developer (not for Microsoft), so I've had Vista for a little bit now, and I have to say, I keep hearing a lot of nay-saying, but it's pretty damned slick, it's integrated and for the most part it works rather well...by "it" I mean the 360 (on 65" 1080i) for both games and media center...it automagically picked up my media that I shared through vistas new local area media sharing and allows me to play all my stuff through the xbox (with the normal wireless controller, no way I'm spending $125 on a remote control). I have 3 complaints...
.net 1.0 (hello? I have 3.0 biatch) I have yet to get this working and it sounds like my options are: convert all my movies to an acceptable format (thats way too much porn), or find an on-the-fly conversion streamer that installs on vista (all 3rd party and ghetto at first glance)...alas I have yet to be able to watch porn, only my buddy's wedding :(
#1 Divx movies do not stream to the 360 without some 3rd party add-ons to media center edition...unfortunately they're geared towards xp media center 2005 edition, not vista...the installer for what is touted as the best (MCEEncoder?)won't install on vista because it claims I don't have
#2 Did I mention the remote control is is a Buck Twenty Five? You've GOT to be shitting me. Not only is that ridiculous, it's IR only, sure you can probably program it to run your stereo, but it should work via radio to interact with the 360, from what I hear it does not...not really inspiring me to shell out $125.
#3 I can't link it to my Comcast DVR and playback my media from there...I know it's a stretch. This new solution is great and all, if it works good, I haven't converted my income to Microsoft Money yet, so I couldn't tell ya.
Anyhow, I'm totally impressed, I LOVE the way media extender works (except for porn so far), the games and graphics kick ass, and if Zune was more of an origami device that extended games from the 360 to a vista umpc...cream dream.