Xbox Second Screen Announced

kodiaktau writes "Microsoft has announced a feature called SmartGlass that provides a new set of features when viewing media on mobile or PC devices. Sources say that it will provide context focused advertising/product placement as well as metadata about the media you are currently viewing. Additionally the interface allows you to store viewing data and share between your desktop and mobile devices to continue viewing content between devices. From the article: 'SmartGlass also allows you to view the web on an Xbox 360 using Internet Explorer. The tablet or phone becomes the keyboard and you can easily browse web pages without having a physical keyboard in the living room.'"

Comments

"...using Internet Explorer"

[Anonymous Coward]

No, thanks.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[Billly Gates]

It is IE 9, not IE 6 or the crappy dumb phone nefront on the PS 3

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[SockPuppetOfTheWeek]

He said "no thanks". Did you not hear him or something? Maybe he should say it in all caps?

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[aglider]

Sorry mr. An Onymous Coward, I don't have any mod points to bring you to "+5 insightful".
Please, complain to mr. Slash Dot.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[tripleevenfall]

Why not use IE? Honestly, it sucks WAY less than it used to!

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[recoiledsnake]

Probably not even IE9 but IE10, since the update is coming in the fall and Windows 8/IE10 is expected to go RTM/Gold by Aug 1.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[SockPuppetOfTheWeek]

I'm afraid I can't tell if you're serious or not.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[Anonymous Coward]

Internet Explorer: It sucks way less than it used to(TM).

I'll pass.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[Anonymous Coward]

What, is he afraid he might get viruses on his super vulnerable Xbox 360?

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[gweihir]

Microsoft products. When "sucks way less" is the replacement for "good".

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[hairyfeet]

Its IE dude, it still yucky. I will give the IE guys credit for supporting low rights mode (Which FF STILL doesn't do, even though the feature has been out for 5 years now) but the Chromium based do too and they are frankly faster and suck less resources, at least from what I've seen. They also have a nice version of ABP and it seems like every malware writer on the planet aims straight for IE because that's what grandma uses, so I agree with the other guy, no thanks Billy.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[Billly Gates]

This is for the Xbox 360 and Windows Mobile devices. Let me know when Commodo Dragon or Chrome works on these?

I am not saying its the best browser in the world, cures cancer, lets web developers write an ajax site in one line of code (unless they know perl ;-), or anything.

Is it usable for the living room or the phone? Absolutely, and it is the only somewhat modern browser and can do an ok job compared to the competition.

Opera for the Wii is very very old and certainly wouldn't work well on modern sites. Netfront is netfront and is not even html 5 compatible and made for dumb phones from years ago. Even Andriod which uses webkit is crap as a mobile browser. Sure it supports html 5 tags, but its javascript is Netscape/IE 6 era interpreted and crashes my phone several times a day and freezes it up. IE 9, like FF, and Chromium has JIT javascript optimizations. Sure it's javascript is the slowest but 1/2 the speed of Chrome is better than 1/10th the speed. Can you run Google Maps with satellite view with the other other browsers? Hell no.

A lot changes in 10 years just as WinME is not the same as Win 7. I am not an IE fanboy, but I do wish IE users at corporations would upgrade to it to make web masters lives easier. As long as it is viewed as all versions suck there will be apathy to upgrade as what would be the point? I have no problem using it on a phone or from the big TV set. Also, after IE 6 MS separated the dlls for Windows and IE for security. Running it on a console makes it more secure as well.

I do find the comment above sucks way less as a replacement for good amusing, but sad. That is Windows my friend and how it beat OS/2. Windows 95 sucked so much less and people drooled.

IE 10 will be interesting when it comes out even though IE gets such a well deserved bad rap here. This one will be competitive to FF and Chromium browsers, but that is for the desktop.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[Antarius]

It worked for Coca Cola with their Mother energy drinks.

"NEW: Tastes nothing like the old one"
http://www.mysavings.com/img/link/large/17969.jpg

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[Anonymous Coward]

Dead serious!

It is the the best browser

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[shione]

The only thing made by microsoft that doesn't suck is a vacuum cleaner.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[rtb61]

M$ had their moment in the sun and M$ Office was good and at a fair price the 1997 version, windows 98 second edition was nearly there and XP professional edition was pretty on the money apart from the idiot sign up. They got greedy, totally choked the chicken on MSN, failed to retire Uncle Fester, when nuts trying to corrupt international standards, lame arsed in on music player and phones and are a real pain on data lock in and forced upgrades.

M$ here are a couple of thrown away hints about how table top can work, it's all about environment, you need to create table top venues, bars where every booth has a table top say 4 and 6 per table, a serving susan above the table top, not to far up. People want to see each other but not the opposing side surface. People can game and interact around the table, against others in the club and across the internet. Geeks/nerds/gamers need to go out too, create a franchised venue around your table top, tens of thousands of venues, lateral thinking means generating new revenue opportunity and don't let Uncle Fester touch it. Make Apple restaurant idea look positively goofy compared to an MSN table top Cafe.

Re:"...using Internet Explorer"

[hairyfeet]

Well if anything I'd say using IE on the 720 is even worse as every cracker in the world is gonna want to be the one to bust that nut wide open, just look at how quickly they swarmed over the X360. I still don't see cracked PS3s being sold anywhere but i can go to Criagslist and be up to my ass in cracked 360s by dark. By giving them a browser they already have experience in attacking this is just another dumbshit move by MSFT to try to up their pathetic IE uptake (which if you look at any chart it got fragmented all to hell after IE 6) at the risk of their new console. I honestly wouldn't be surprised in the least if the first crack in the 720 didn't come from IE, not surprised in the least.

But personally I don't know anybody that surfs on the things because as you noted its just painful. They are naturally locked down to a specific version that quickly becomes horribly out of date, don't support plug ins so many formats aren't gonna work, its just a mess. Everyone around here that has tried using the things as an all in one always end up coming to me wanting to know if I can 'fix it" and I always tell them just let me build them a cheap HTPC. While I'm sure MSFT will try to make IE10 state of the art it won't be 6 months before its badly behind the curve and it'll be the Wii all over again.

I'm just glad I finally got my kids off the consoles, because between the high price of games, the locked down hardware, network issues...sigh, they really aren't a good value anymore. If the specs are correct I could build something nicer than a PS4 for around $450 and that's without being picky about parts and less and less games are being made console exclusive so most of the triple A games my kids will be able to play a hell of a lot cheaper by just getting it off Steam. I ended up building three new gamer PCs that will play just about any game out there at medium or better and the whole smash including monitors set me back less than $1300 after MIRs. The consoles just aren't a good value anymore and now with two hexacores and a quad my boys will be able to game for years with nothing more than the occasional $50 GPU upgrade and the difference in games alone has saved me a ton, so I'm glad to say no matter what MSFT does with Win 8 or the 720 I'm just gonna sit this one out, thanks anyway.

Allready copying Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

They were late to the "rip off Nintendo" game last gen, so now they are on it before the Wii U is released.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it's certainly similar in concept, but there's a pretty big difference between "interact with this included piece of proprietary hardware" and "interact with otherwise unrelated standard hardware". I was expecting the "standard hardware" to mean Windows hardware, but there does seem to be iOS support, hopefully Android support to follow once Windows 8 tablets inevitably fail.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's be honest here. Wii U was not first. They did it with Gamecube / GBA.

But did they not rip that off from the dreamcast? I'm arguing a strong yes here.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[anss123]

They were late to the "rip off Nintendo" game last gen, so now they are on it before the Wii U is released.

LOL. Well, Nintendo copied them back this time (with the pro controller).

What they won't be coping is games that make good use of this feature.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[alen]

and alfred sloan copied ford? what's your point?

the second and third guy to do something is usually the successful one because historically the entrepreneur is stubborn and sticks to his narrow vision

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[anss123]

hopefully Android support to follow once Windows 8 tablets inevitably fail.

Android support was mentioned. (Though not in the linked article)

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[Captain.Abrecan]

Yeah because the kinect technology hasn't been in development since 1999 or anything, you friggin fanboy

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[X0563511]

Well, in this case both of them copied the Sega Dreamcast, assuming that Sega was actually the first one...

On a side note: that thing looks like it might make an original XBox controller feel comfortable!

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[ganjadude]

right and because ONLY that software was in development since than.... but no, your not a fanboi....

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[gstoddart]

the second and third guy to do something is usually the successful one because historically the entrepreneur is stubborn and sticks to his narrow vision

Except that nowadays the first guy patents it, and demands shake-down money from everybody else because somehow the patent office granted a patent on either an idea, or something which reads as "something well known, but with a computer".

Somehow, we call this innovation.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

It was... by Sony and called the EyeToy

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[jtdennis]

and the Dreamcast ran Windows CE, so it could be said that MS was the innovator originally.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[X0563511]

Erm, no.

Hardware != OS. Sega designed the Dreamcast, not Microsoft. Sega just implemented some of Microsoft's software within it.

If I made a revolutionary new virtual reality system, and happened to choose Linux to run it, would you say that Linus Torvalds was the innovator responsible for this virtual reality system?

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[ToastedRhino]

While I wholeheartedly agree that there is a serious problem with the patent system, I don't understand why everyone seems to think this is a new thing. Inventors, or should I say "smart" inventors, have always patented their creations in an effort to lock others out so that they can make as much profit as possible. In fact, that's why the patent system exists.

Right now the focus of patent complaints seems to be largely on software patents, which I agree are largely bunk, but that's not the point. In the past there have been numerous patent wars over a bunch of things that are widespread and largely taken for granted today.

It's well-known that Edison fought hard to keep others from making motion pictures using patents he was granted, for instance.

The story of the "inventor" of FM radio is full of patent disputes and mistakes by the USPO.

There was also significant conflict, with court cases going all the way to the US Supreme Court, regarding telephone patents back in the day.

The point of all of this being that the patent system has always been great for "inventors" and horrible for everyone else. That's kind of the point.

So in summary, are software patents bogus? In my opinion most (and maybe even all) of them most certainly are. But is the use of the patent system to "shake-down money from everybody else" anything new? Not at all. So can we please stop pretending that it is?

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[hairyfeet]

Yep I surfed on the old Dreamcast many a time back in the age of dialup, its really wasn't bad. of course web pages were a lot simpler then so they didn't take gobs of bandwidth and puke JavaScript everywhere, but for a console (I think it was based on WinCE IIRC) it really was ahead of the game. Its a damned shame it bombed, it was the only console that would run emulators that i know of without hacking. I still have my old DC put up for when i feel like breaking out some classic SNES or Genesis or NES, it was a great console.

As for TFA, has anybody announced the hardware specs on the 720 or whatever they are gonna call it? Because if the reports are to be believed the PS4 is gonna be an X86 that is roughly the same as your average $400 PC, so if MSFT doesn't push the hardware we PC gamers may be ahead of the curve even at release day. Personally I'd be fine with that, the current gen graphics look damned sweet to me and the price of development is getting so high trying to crank up the graphics that if they don't stop we'll be looking at hundred dollar games. Does anybody know if the Xbox is going AMD or Nvidia? because if they go AMD that will leave Nvidia without a console next gen, quite a coup for AMD.

So while I won't be buying one (or Win 8 for that matter) I always like to check out new hardware, so if anybody has a comparison of what the new hardware is gonna be I'd love to read it. I figure the Nintendo will be the weakest but finding out PS4 was going MOR X86 was kinda a shock, now all that's left is to see what MSFT brings to the table.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[hairyfeet]

Hell you can go farther back than that friend, there were injunctions and patent trials over the first steam engines and that case goes back to 1792. and Watt himself used a sun and planet gearing on his steam engines to get around a patent for using a steam crank design so even back then there were inventors having to work around patents, that's the way its been as long as patents have existed.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[shione]

I doubt Nvidia would go with microsoft for the 720 or whatever it'll be called. Nvidia got burned very badly on the orignal xbox.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[shione]

??

It ran wince but it is not a part of the console. The Dreamcast doesn't have an internal operating system. That came depending on what came on the game discs it booted from and only a tiny fraction of games employed wince. Interesting of note out of all Dreamcast's library of games (which is small already) there is not one top title which uses wince.

List of wince games here:

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/threads/43804-WinCE-games-List

You could easily build up a collection of A-B rated titles without having any that use wince.

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[Captain.Abrecan]

red herring

Re:Allready copying Nintendo

[hairyfeet]

While that is true if that is the case then AMD got a total shut out when it comes to consoles which sell in the tens of millions to hundreds of millions. That is a LOT of chips and will be a damned nice windfall for AMD, especially if it turns out that the PS4 is also using an AMD CPU which so far looks to be the case.

Frankly things aren't looking good for Nvidia where I'm sitting at, they've lost the consoles, the discrete market is a small niche compared to IGPs which they have been locked out of (which i still think Intel should have gotten busted for antitrust over), and while they may have a shot at Mobile without Apple its not a good market, all the high end pretty much belongs to iDevices and the low end has been using broadcom accelerators.

That is why I thought Nvidia should have bought Via. Their Nano CPUs would have not only worked great in low power nettops and netbooks but their onboard crypto acceleration would make it a hell of a low power server chip and paired with an Nvidia GPU in an APU like AMD is making and CUDA to program it would have made a good chip for multiple markets. now it looks like if they don't score big with ARM they are gonna be seriously hurting as AMD has been owning the lucrative under $200 discrete market for several generations now. Its just not a good position to be in for Nvidia right now, not a good position at all.

Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[crazyjj]

How about you work on a next gen console, and stop adding useless crap to your tired console from 2005?

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Samantha Wright]

To be fair, the summary is extremely harsh and implies the feature is primarily for advertising. The article gives an example of displaying a map depicting where all the action is happening during a TV show—a little like how the game Supreme Commander delegates additional resources to dedicated tasks (like a monitor just for a strategic view) rather than simply virtualising them all together as one big viewport.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Kaenneth]

Because the 360 (and PS3) are "Good Enough"

Just like DVDs vs BluRay, sure BluRays hold more detail, higher res, etc. but DVD is sufficient for most people. Many are even willing to get lower quality for more convenience, like crappy streams/ 'R5' torrents. I would say the main reason DVD's outsold VHS is the lack of Rewinding.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[zlives]

you are doing it wrong. " 360 (and PS3) are "Good Enough""

I stopped playing PS3 after last year's madden, the season progression took 15-35 minutes, the game start takes several minutes... time for new hardware...

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Richard_at_work]

"Stop adding value to my current investment and bring out a new platform so I can throw money at you all over again!"

Never thought I'd hear that on slashdot, the place that almost universally derides the upgrade train from LPs to tapes to CDs and then on into the downloadable content realm.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Jeng]

Why not graduate from consoles and move into PC gaming?

If it wasn't for the rumors that next gen consoles are being designed I would have expected the next gen consoles to be stripped down PC's with a content delivery system that works on consoles and PC's.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Nerdfest]

The summary doesn't mention it, and I winder ... by phone or tablet, do they mean *any* phone or tablet, or are they going to pull an Apple and lock it to their devices?

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[alen]

to me the non-game stuff was the best part of the show. the latest shoot everyone till they are dead game is getting pretty old.

getting rid of extra crap i have and using the x-box for everything is something i'm looking forward to. few years ago i thought sony was going to do this, but once again sony screwed up

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Missing.Matter]

At the keynote they said it will work with Windows 8, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android. Now to what degree of "works" is yet to be specified. I imagine iOS and Android apps might have access to a subset of features, but it's nice to see some attempts at cross platform functionality.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[cpu6502]

So it's like a Gamecube with the Gameboy attached..... the Gameboy displays extra info about the players or overall maps. Nothing new really.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[cpu6502]

Upgrading from LP to cassettes to CD don't offer new content..... just the same old stuff that you need to repurchase. But the 5-year-cycle for consoles provides better sound, better graphics, and new games. We want and are willing to pay for improved technology & the new game styles it permits. (Unless you're still sitting there playing your old Atari?)

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[P-niiice]

Because consoles are leading gaming now. There will be those few PC games I care enough about to have the right hardware for, but when a game is available on both platforms, I'll get the console version first.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Spaseboy]

Overhead of the OS. MS tried the "stripped down PC" with the Xbox...it's already been tried. Didn't work.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[cpu6502]

Microsoft altready tried the "Smash a PC into a console" with the original Xbox, and they lost a lot of money doing it. It is cheaper to design a console that is easy-to-assemble and save some cash, especially if it is designed to allow integration later on (such as the PS2slim with one single CPU instead of several independent chips).

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Cinder6]

The problem is that a lot of the stuff mentioned were already possible before this "technology". You can open IMDB on any phone or any tablet already. This sounds a bit more interactive, but why should I be reading about a scene instead of just watching it? There are some potential gaming applications with it, but am I supposed to juggle a controller and a tablet at the same time in order to get a "full" experience? Doesn't sound particularly fun. (Maybe they want me to use Kinect+tablet, but shouting at my TV is definitely not fun.)

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Samantha Wright]

Presumably the same reason Lost had plot-explanation captions in some broadcasts—to facilitate sloppy storytelling and information overload.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[gstoddart]

Why not graduate from consoles and move into PC gaming?

Because not everybody is interested in PC gaming?

It's just another machine to buy and keep up to date, and it is probably more effort than most people are willing to invest.

I don't play games often enough to want to do anything other than pop in the disk, play the game a while, and turn off the console.

I'd be willing to bet most people who play on consoles don't want to have a PC gaming rig, or they'd have done so. I for one have no interest in getting into the "which super awesome video card do I need now". A console is more like an appliance, plug it in and go, which is precisely what I want it to be.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Anonymous Coward]

Because consoles are leading gaming now.

if you believe that and buy into it... you're telling the console makers and console/pc game developers that

you're OK with one-time-use serials to prevent rentals and used game sales..

you're OK with paying a subscription (e.g. xbox live) on top of the top-dollar paid for a game, just to play it.

you're OK with paying for DLC or content packs that really should be part of the game (and in some cases is actually delivered on the game media but cost extra anyway)

you're happy with the high price of games today....

and you don't mind all of these things making their way to PC gaming (because you're used to it all on the consoles)...

in other words, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Dynedain]

I can think of a few examples why I'd want this in addition to simply watching.

My wife and I are working our way through all the Star Trek series right now on Netflix, we're in Voyager now. I can't count the number of times we've said "hey, is that the actor from such and such episode or other sci-fi series?" and pulled up IMDB while letting the show continue to play. Having that info auto-linked would speed up the time it takes to find and get us back into the episode that much faster.

Similarly, in a series like Game of Thrones, imagine if you had the full index from the books at your disposal. You could look up who a forgotten character is to remind you of the plotlines. The intro segment on an episode is usually insufficient if you don't watch them back to back.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Missing.Matter]

Better graphics and new games are something you get in the current cycle, without upgrade consoles. Games from 2012 look a lot better than they did in 2005 on the same hardware.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Anonymous Coward]

You're lying. Neither liking consoles nor acknowledging them as the current leading platform type in gaming imply any of those things. You're trying to use emotional blackmail to shame console fans into switching sides, which is stupid for many reasons.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Anonymous Coward]

Has nobody noticed that this is, essentially, the same idea as the Wii U from Nintendo?

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[crazyjj]

Why not graduate from consoles and move into PC gaming?

Oh no, I already spent way too many years of my life chasing THAT dragon, thank you very much.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[gstoddart]

Do you honestly believe that the PC gaming companies aren't doing all of this too?

They don't have one time serial numbers? They don't have additional DLC and add-on costs? They don't have DRM that requires an always-on internet connection? They don't cost a fortune?

I'm pretty sure I've seen people complaining about all of these things in PC gaming.

At least on a console I don't have to worry about what other crap they're doing behind the scenes.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Anonymous Coward]

other platform support will be

1) poorly implemented
2) deliberately gimped
3) late
4) all the above

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Dogtanian]

Better graphics and new games are something you get in the current cycle, without upgrade consoles. Games from 2012 look a lot better than they did in 2005 on the same hardware.

This has pretty much always been the case with most formats- the later games look better as they get to grips with the hardware and standards generally improve. Later Atari 400/800 and Commodore 64 games looked miles better than some of the first releases.

Conversely, while the first tranche of next-generation games may look marginally impressive next to their predecessors, it's often not that big a leap, e.g. I remember when my flatmates bought a PS2 in early 2001 and the games looked slightly improved over what you'd expect from the original PlayStation, but nothing that impressed me that much. (The Grand Prix racing game in particular looked just like a PS1 game with higher resolution). Similarly, the early PS1 game Road Rash looked pretty much like a Mega Drive/Genesis racer, just with a few added polygon buildings and some FMV slapped on.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[lexman098]

I for one have no interest in getting into the "which super awesome video card do I need now".

To be fair, these days it's more like "which super awesome video game is going to finally require me to upgrade my video card". If you get a decent one (less than 100 dollars) it will last a ridiculously long time playing all the latest games at close to max settings. My theory is that the games are designed in the first place for console hardware which hardly ever gets deprecated, even after a new console version is released.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[mattack2]

Umm, those were in *reruns* of shows. They were essentially the same as trivia commentary tracks on some DVDs.

It wasn't like these were in the initial runs of the shows, and necessary to understand the show. They were additional info, for fans. (At least a couple of them succeeded in getting me to watch a rerun, when I otherwise would't've.. But I skipped the ads as always, so it wasn't too successful on the network's part.)

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[mattack2]

Upgrading from LP to cassettes to CD don't offer new content

But the 5-year-cycle for consoles provides better sound,...

So you're claiming that LPs, *with the pops/clicks and skipping*, sound better than CDs? Especially "to normal ears".

(Unless you're still sitting there playing your old Atari?)

That's ironic, with your username. While I haven't played any of my Atari 2600 games in a long time, I do think some are "still" fun. Heck, I'll probably get a Wii at some point to play the various Mario games (from the Wii download store) I never played, which is the vast majority of them... as well as Wii games. (I wish the current PS3s were backwards compatible to play my PS2 games.. In fact, I'd pay probably as much for an emulator to then play ALL of my existing PS2 games as I would pay for the the PS3 "upgraded " [in some cases downgraded] versions. Unfortunately, I may hold my nose and 're-buy' a couple of the PS3 versions, esp the Sony published ones, since they will end up free after credit card points.)

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Samantha Wright]

Regardless, I get the feeling they'd've been useful in the initial broadcasts too sometimes!

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[mattack2]

I inferred that you were disparaging them in the original post I responded to. Now it sounds like you thought they were useful.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Anonymous Coward]

you're OK with one-time-use serials to prevent rentals and used game sales..

Wrong, that's just as much an issue with PC games.

you're OK with paying a subscription (e.g. xbox live) on top of the top-dollar paid for a game, just to play it.

Wrong, that's only XBox that has subscription fees and wrong again on needing to pay that just to play it.

you're OK with paying for DLC or content packs that really should be part of the game (and in some cases is actually delivered on the game media but cost extra anyway)

Wrong again, this is no different from PC games.

you're happy with the high price of games today....

Wrong again, games on consoles were no more expensive than those on PCs.

and you don't mind all of these things making their way to PC gaming (because you're used to it all on the consoles)...

Nope, they are already in PC gaming because they aren't something that was introduced in console gaming.

Your whole pathetic rant is just a long list of fail, you lose!

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[exomondo]

Why not graduate from consoles and move into PC gaming?

Because not everyone wants to be on the forums on launch day questioning why their drivers are crashing when they adjust their settings to get a balance between performance and visual quality. Look at the myriad of posts on the forums for AAA titles complaining of crashes with different hardware combinations and hurried releases of drivers to try and fix problems.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[exomondo]

How about you work on a next gen console, and stop adding useless crap to your tired console from 2005?

Yeah stop supporting your products dammit!

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Samantha Wright]

I bear no ill tidings toward the subtitles (although like any metadata for a show, they're distracting), I just don't like the show.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll be very disappointed if there's no Wii U tablet support. ;-)

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Billly Gates]

If you're ok as a game developer making 3d realistic graphics on crappy intel gma 915 mobile graphics with 3% of the power of a real GPU with a console, and no dedicated ram.

Seriously Intel killed the gaming market for the pc. I saw a statistic here several years ago that showed 70% of the pcs sold come with these graphics so horrible not even Aero can run properly. The same games all look fluid and awesome on the console and kids laugh at PCs because they are so slow, crappy, and over priced.

Go ahead and try to write a game for only those with cool graphics. Guess what? BestBuy wont carry it because 70% of the users will say it runs like crap and return and then the retailer will refuse to carry your product.

WIth these 2 problems it is easier just to write it for a console. Sadly, the PC is going this route too as Windows 8 approaches as stores, subscriptions, wireless plans, and renting become the new norm.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, just time for less shitty software. Plenty of good games have load times measured in seconds and not minutes.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[cpu6502]

You are correct (programmer skills improve over a console's life), but exaggerate a bit. The games you cite as examples were probably developed for the PS1, and then last-minute ported to the PS2. That happened with Final Fantasy 4 which is really an NES game, but was retargeted to Super Nintendo near the end of development. Ditto "Animal Crossing" and "Luigi's Mansion" which were originally N64 games, but released to the Gamecube since the n64 had been discontinued.

Final Fantasy 10 and Gran Turismo 4 were both released during the PS2's first year of life, and since they were targeted from the ground-up as PS2 titles, they were waaaaay beyond anything the PS1 could do. They had double the pixels (480i instead of 240i) and millions more polygons for a smoother look.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[zlives]

considering i only play a hand full of games, madden being one of them... i wish there was a way to update rosters for madden 2010 instead of a "new" game each year.

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Anonymous Coward]

You just need a couple of high profile reviews to complain about how bad the load times are, and they'll be forced to do a better job.

PS3 has a 2X BluRay drive, which means 72 Mbps. It also has 512 MB of RAM (if you count both the video and system, 256 MB each). To fill the 100% of the RAM with data loaded from the disc (which will never happen in practice, you need RAM for other things), it would require 57 seconds. Less if you've cached anything to the hard drive.

In reality, you probably only need half that in pure data, and you could have pre-loaded or kept a fair amount from the previously loaded data (your team's players don't really change game to game).

I'd argue more than 30 second load time on the PS3 is just sloppy work. Xbox 360's DVD drive is about twice as fast as PS3's BluRay drive, so generally Xbox 360 load times shouldn't be more than 15 seconds. Xbox 360 also dedicates a chunk of hard drive dedicated to automatic caching (If you want to use the hard drive on the PS3, you typically have to "Install" the game. For some games that is mandatory).

Re:Yay, something I don't need and don't want

[Patch86]

Not to mention Dreamcast and its VMU modules (or whatever they were called). Frankly, it's a shame we've had to wait until now (for TFA and the Wii U) for it to resurface as an idea again.

batting 1000

[rullywowr]

So let me get this straight. The XBOX360 console, which is more than capable of surfing the web by itself, needs an ad-fueled tablet or other controlling device to enable web functionality. WTH is wrong with the keypad they already have?

Wow. Steve Ballmer batting 1000 lately.

Re:batting 1000

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, because *I* want these features to interrupt the video I'm watching, or overlay, or do some other stupid shit instead of using a second screen I already have to do it gracefully...

Re:batting 1000

[alen]

the penetration rate of tablets and smartphones is a lot higher than proprietary x-box keyboards that will just add to clutter around the house

Re:batting 1000

[AliasMarlowe]

Steve Ballmer batting 1000 lately.

Remove the 1 and the remaining digits are on the money...

Re:batting 1000

[zoward]

Hmmm ... I have the little xbox keyboard attachment for my wired controller. I wonder if I'll be able to use IE with that? No mention of it in TFA.

Re:batting 1000

[Anonymous Coward]

Any USB keyboard works on the xbox, I don't think he was referring to that hideous chatpad thing.

Re:batting 1000

[toriver]

He did say "keyboards don't belong in the living room". So STOP IT!

Re:batting 1000

[Anonymous Coward]

Proprietary xbox keyboards... you mean any USB keyboard? Plug in a wireless dongle and you can have it floating wherever, or just plug in any keyboard and go.

Re:batting 1000

[rullywowr]

He did say "keyboards don't belong in the living room". So STOP IT!

I think the shareholders are saying that "Steve doesn't belong in the board room."

Re:batting 1000

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. Those proprietary, standard USB keyboards which are so expensive and totally hard to find at, well, anywhere.

Re:batting 1000

[shutdown -p now]

Does it actually say that you need a phone/tablet to enter text for web browsing? I'd expect it to just work with any existing Xbox accessories that enable you to type.

Re:batting 1000

[Anonymous Coward]

Using your iPad as a keyboard is the least important/useful/innovative feature of Smart Glass. You can already connect a USB keyboard to your 360 and that will probably work fine with the IE app they're adding to it. The interesting thing about Smart Glass is that they're implementing it as a platform agnostic way to use your tablet/smart phone as a generalized device to control all the products in your home (in theory), and, less importantly, to turn that device you already own into the equivalent of a Wii U controller or lower screen on a DS game without you having to buy another addon or device, or MS having to charge you to include a shitty tablet with the Xbox 720.

Wait, What Are We Doing Wrong?!

[eldavojohn]

How about you work on a next gen console, and stop adding useless crap to your tired console from 2005?

But but but, we can help you find products that you want to spend money on! Don't you want that? Don't you want to spend money? Don't you want to see the new shinies that are coming out on the expensive game system you paid moneys for? Are you some communist that is against buying stuff? And we can build a WEB SERVICE with the RIAA that helps you make sure that you're playing a REAL copy of your favorite movie or album and will make sure you're not some victim using victimizing bittorrent, horrible handbrake and the dangerous PS3MediaServer to enjoy your game system. We just want to give you more purchasing power and help you manage your digital rights. Don't you want power and rights? Huh?

2004 called....

[UltimaBuddy]

they want their ideas back.

Re:2004 called....

[Anonymous Coward]

they want their ideas back.

Two problems:

1. 2004 called. They want their cliche back.
2. That cliche might be appropriate if not for the very very lucrative truth behind the "IT PRINTS MONEY!" meme regarding the DS.

Re:2004 called....

[Anonymous Coward]

Regarding #1, it's actually closer to 1993. That joke came from (or at least, was popularized by) some stupid bit on Saturday Night Live where David Spade basically repeated it for ten minutes straight.

Giving the people what they want.

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

Finally, Microsoft has listened to it's customers and fanbase! People have been clamouring for years to have context focused advertising/product placement on their Xboxen and now these long years have loyalty have been rewarded. Bravo, Microsoft. Bravo.

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

its*

I hereby hand in my Grammar Nazi ID card and matching lanyard. Oh, the humiliation.

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[i kan reed]

I always have mod points when I want to comment, and never when i want to mod.

Anyways, I agree. Ads have pushed me away from the 360. Advertisements are literally among my most loathed concepts. I used to be a FAN of the xbox. Not anymore.

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[Jeng]

With a battle cry go forth which is
"Give the people what they want."
And what the people want could only be the senseless slaughter
of the gutter-slime that litters this nation for cash and prizes.
Yes, this is the show where people bet their lives to win something big.
'cause when your life is shit, then you haven't got much to lose on
Slaughterama!

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[Anonymous Coward]

lmao oh god

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[CanHasDIY]

Ads have pushed me away from the 360. Advertisements are literally among my most loathed concepts.

What, you think just because you spent several hundred dollars on hardware, and continue to pay a subscription fee to access online content, you shouldn't be bombarded with advertisements every time you turn the thing on? How else are they supposed to make money???

I swear, the selfishness of today's consumer...




.../sarc

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[AliasMarlowe]

I hereby hand in my Grammar Nazi ID card and matching lanyard.

Congratulations, comrade. You are now a Grammar Commie.
Your membership papers and code-keyring will be sent after you submit appropriately completed forms in triplicate.

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[EdIII]

This is why the marketers need to be dragged out in the street and gutted like pigs :)

You know that an engineer came up with the idea of SmartGlass, and it was really cool... in the lab. The awesomeness was then taken as a prototype to a bunch of executives who cooed and went gaga over their new money maker... and then the marketers came in and fucked the whole thing up by "giving" customers exactly what they don't want.

Good Job, Marketers, Hip Hip Hooray! :)

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[Missing.Matter]

Yes, because the only thing this does is display ads. From the videos and information released, that's probably about the *least* of what it does. A keyboard/mouse for internet browsing on the TV. A second screen for gaming that displays things like mini maps (a la supreme commander). Allows you to push video and audio around between devices (like airplay). It's even cross platform with Android and iOS support.

And like clockwork, Slashdot comes out crying "invasive advertising shenanigans"!

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[Anonymous Coward]

I just don't get it. I'm pretty invested in the MS ecosystem (Windows on my home PC's, huge Windows Phone proponent, Skydrive / Zune music subscriptions, etc) but this type of shit has me seriously considering walking away and going back to Apple. It's unfathomable to me how MS can show such complete disregard for user experience. Is the ad revenue from Xbox display ads really that significant in the big picture? Why not focus on making customers happy instead? NOBODY wants to see Mountain Dew ads in their game console menu but unfortunately a lot of people tolerate it.

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[dstyle5]

its*

I hereby hand in my Grammar Nazi ID card and matching lanyard. Oh, the humiliation.

You missed the second one:

"...these long years have loyalty have been rewarded".

Shred it! ;)

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[subreality]

It reminds me of Netscape Constellation. Netscape invented a pretty cool system where you could have a network-portable desktop - you could log into any computer anywhere, and all your stuff (programs, documents, desktop, everything) would come up for you. Think Chromebook, but more app-oriented, and in 1997.

One TINY feature of this was push content. Then the Netscape marketing department got wind of it and said "You mean we can use this to PUSH ADS?"

Then all the other stuff was ripped out, and the push content part of it got released as Netcaster, part of the Communicator suite.... And then was promptly ignored by everyone, because the only people interested in pushing content to you were advertisers.

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[spire3661]

I have to agree. I hate seeing video ads when i fire up my game console. Even my Tivo displays banner text strings when you pause and i PAY them for the privilege of them injecting ads into my OTA feed. I cant stand the hubris of modern electronics manufacturers. While i hate how my apple TV wont let me rearrange the interface a bit to put my content to be featured instead of stuff for purchase, it has never shown me advertising, EVER.

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't "stuff for purchase" advertising? Or do you mean it's ALWAYS a direct result of you searching for something?

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[mattack2]

It reminds me of Netscape Constellation. Netscape invented a pretty cool system where you could have a network-portable desktop - you could log into any computer anywhere, and all your stuff (programs, documents, desktop, everything) would come up for you. Think Chromebook, but more app-oriented, and in 1997.

Gee, kind of like NFS home directories? From 1984 (according to wikipedia).

Re:Giving the people what they want.

[spire3661]

yes yes, i knew someone would mention that. I figured it was obvious enough to not have to mention specifically. I dont mind movies being advertised to me on my movie box, esp in the way we are describing. What I hate is text ads for Woolite on my Tivo when i press pause while watching Big Bang.

As many have said before...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called "XBox 360" because after one look you will turn 360 degrees and walk away. Er...by walking backwards...I guess....

Typical Slashdot bullshit

[mystikkman]

Interesting. If they work only on the XBox 720 and abandon the 360, the typical Slashdot comment will be "OMG THEY WANT TO FORCE YOU TO BUY A NEW CONSOLE THAT YOU DON'T NEED TO GET NEW SOFTWARE FEATURES LIKE A BROWSER".

If you bought a XBox 360, all this is amazing value lasting years (minus RRoD issues which they fixed at their cost) and you can still use all the new features like using your existing iDevice or Android device with the new games.

Why is this a bad thing again, isn't it just more value for your money? They're not even charging the 5, 10 or 20 bucks for the big software upgrades that Apple used to charge for the iPod Touch upgrades.

Why is the summary so lame and talks mostly about ads? I don't even see the "Sources say... ads" line in the article... where did it come from? Now we're going to see that picked up in the comments and without even a proper source.

Again, since when is adding features to something you already bought a bad thing? And no, I am not new here. So I guess it's because we're talking about 'M$' on the Slashdot circle jerk inborn retardation channel. The saner people have left in disgust and the inmates run the asylum, right from the submitters to the commenters to the moderators, perhaps editors too.

Re:Typical Slashdot bullshit

[rullywowr]

.....and you can still use all the new features like using your existing iDevice or Android device with the new games.

Obviously you didn't RTFA because it says explictly that Android devices are not supported. Only iOS and Windows Phone/Tablets.

Re:Typical Slashdot bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

and yet the keynote explicitly mentioned it.

Re:Typical Slashdot bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

And the other kind of typical /. comment will be complaining about other comments.

Re:Typical Slashdot bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

Friendly reminder: the only correct spelling of Xbox is "Xbox." Until they change it again.

I see...

[The MAZZTer]

So this time Microsoft is looking to copy the new Nintendo console BEFORE it comes out.

Let me get this straight...

[zeroryoko1974]

They want you to connect your phone or tablet to your xbox360, and then use the phone or tablet as a keyboard to browse IE on the Xbox360? Why not just skip that and have an on screen keyboard? Or you know, actually connect a keyboard. They got these fancy wireless one now. Oh what does it matter, after my 6th broken Xbox360, I bought a PS3 and it has outlasted every single 360 I ever bought.

I hope it has Metro

[Anonymous Coward]

And skydrive-support! Awesome! Windows Phone Sync OMG!
Oh wait wait wait.. oh. jizz BING!!!
I cannot wait for this SmartAss! I want it rite nao!

wtf no android?

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's coming up on IOS and Windows Phones? I expected Windows Phones but IOS over Android? I just want a native browser on the Xbox so if I want to look something up quick I can. Why won't MS just give us a basic browser to use?

Re:wtf no android?

[negRo_slim]

so if I want to look something up quick I can.

If you would of used that same logic to goto YouTube and actually watch the announcement you'd know it is supported on Windows, iOS and Android platforms.

Re:wtf no android?

[exomondo]

So it's coming up on IOS and Windows Phones? I expected Windows Phones but IOS over Android?

Watch the presentation, he said Windows Phone, iOS and Android.

Finally!

[elabs]

I can't wait to get my hands on this! I can't beleive that nobody has solved this problem yet. Hopefully SmartGlass will deliver. i also hope it can talk directly to the XBox through your home router instead of going out to the cloud and back down. We'll see. Oh, and while I'm asking for stuff, let us develop XBox apps using Xaml/C# (or some flavor of Silverlight).

clutching at straws

[pbjones]

MS has missed the boat on just about everything. The bulk of disposable income wants gadgets, not PCs, sure a single PC is OK, but the money is in phones, tablets and consoles, and trying to turn the xbox into something worse through ads will only drive people away.