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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.'"
No, thanks.
Wow. Steve Ballmer batting 1000 lately.
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.
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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?
My work here is dung.
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.
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.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
"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.
hopefully Android support to follow once Windows 8 tablets inevitably fail.
Android support was mentioned. (Though not in the linked article)
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.
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.)
If you can't convince them, convict them.
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.
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.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
So this time Microsoft is looking to copy the new Nintendo console BEFORE it comes out.
other platform support will be
1) poorly implemented
2) deliberately gimped
3) late
4) all the above
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.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
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.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
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?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...