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Microsoft: Xbox One Won't Require Kinect To Function
UnknowingFool writes "Microsoft has reversed course on another aspect of the Xbox One. Though Xbox One will come bundled with a Kinect sensor, the console will work without it. Critics were had suggested that an always-on video and audio sensor could be used to spy on users. Microsoft's Marc Whitten said, 'Games use Kinect in a variety of amazing ways from adding voice to control your squad mates to adding lean and other simple controls beyond the controller to full immersive gameplay. That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn't plugged in, although you won't be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor.' This is the latest reversal from Microsoft since they killed the phone-home DRM and made it region-free."
Is it me or does it seem like Microsoft is between a rock and a hard place now? They've spent months telling us about how the Kinect was mandatory and that it would be used by all their games moving forward! Now developers are going to have to acknowledge that it is optional and that a substantial portion of the population won't use it. Furthermore, people are going to ask, if it's optional, why are you forcing me to buy it?
For every one of these u-turns they make (after touting the features that these things apparently relied on), they just seem more and more boxed in.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad MS has reversed course on all those items. They were bad decisions for the consumer. Ultimately though, it's coming in at a $500 price point. That's going to be it's single biggest hurdle when it's put on shelves (physical or virtual) next to its competitors.
Will it still not require always-on and Kinect-connected after a year? I'll wait to see.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Some more 180 and they might stand a chance in some skateboarding or snowboarding contest.
"Achievement unlocked: 3x180 in just two months"
I know everyone on here is going to be paranoid about a Sony style patch reversing all this but I don't buy that. I will however now be buying an Xbox One and look forward to ignoring all the stupid cable TV features that they seem to think are the main buying point. #Games
Sorry Microsoft, but it just doesn't matter any more.
You've told us where you'd like to go with this, you've as much as told us you don't give a shit about what it is that we want.
So, as much as I like my XBox 360 -- I won't be replacing it. Certainly not with this thing which is more about what Microsoft wants than what is good for consumers.
My XBox 360 got banished from a network connection when I started seeing ads in the home screen and in the games -- and as much as you keep trying to back pedal, the damage is done, and I am not interested in your shiny new toy.
Maybe if you hadn't acted like such arrogant assholes who said "this is what we're making, deal with it", consumers wouldn't be saying "well, we're not buying it, deal with it".
Instead, I can say quite heartily ... not buying it, don't care, and go pound sand.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Can we please stop posting news stories every time Microsoft announces some planned 'change' for their products? Can we not see that this is the cheapest method of advertising there is? Microsoft PR dept. " Oh, look. If we release another announcement about some change that isn't even final yet, all of these news sites and blogs and all of the shills will just repeat it. Then look at all of the people commenting on either how much they hate it or love it or are indifferent to it." And it doesn't even matter! Every time you read an article on XBox One, you are being advertised to. Positive, negative, no matter. The name gets bounced around inside your head.
Nope, another announcement in an interview yesterday said you'll be able to physically disconnect it so if you're really paranoid that they're watching you then just unplug the thing.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Nah... I doubt they ever wanted or intended to develop for it to begin with. Some MS first party titles will have it shoehorned into them; but most games, even the vast majority of games will remain multi platform, so putting in kinect functionality is a wasted effort. Just like PS Move, SixAxis or Wiiu Pad support.
What an enlightened and rational decision-making process you're using! I mean, I can understand not buying one because you literally just don't want a gaming console. I can even understand not buying one because you disagree with the way that the company has treated its customers in the past (I boycott Sony for the same reason). But in that case, you probably would either have specified such a reason, or just not commented at all. If you had a 360 and were reasonably happy with it, what has Microsoft done that is such a deal-breaker to you?
Seems like we should be *encouraging* these pro-customer policies (not that this one matters very much; you could always have unplugged the Kinect when not gaming; now you can also do it while playing non-Kinect games). Refusing to order, or canceling pre-orders, based on the initial restrictions it would have? That's totally reasonable. But when they reverse on those restrictions, before even a single customer was affected (you haven't bought it yet - you can't, it's not available yet - so by definition you are not yet a customer of this product), that behavior should be rewarded.
Acting like a petulant child isn't going to get you what you want, here. If your goal is to show that anti-customer policies hurt the bottom line, well, you need to show some distinction between how you behave with and without those policies in place. Specifically, you need to ensure that the amount of money they get for anti-customer behavior is less than the amount of money they get for pro-customer behavior. Paying them the same amount (be that zero, or the console price) in *both* situations sends no message at all.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
XBox One: NSA Edition
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
It seems that the drm will still be there in some form though.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/07/forza-5-requires-download-before-it-can-run/
though they've been backpeddling from that too.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/18/forza-motorsport-5-install-offline-details-clarified
best case i could give them is a wait and see approach.
when i look at these factors:
the xbone fiasco.
the windows8 mess.
consumers seem to like apple now.
ms' abysmal presence on mobile devices.
it's seeming very plausible that consumers will realize there just is no good reason for microsoft to exist anymore. about the only customer they haven't alienated is the ms office user.
Dont dismiss it as paranoid. Its not paranoia when you KNOW someone is collecting that data.
Good-bye
Seriously? I hate being one of those gramar nazi's, but....does anyone even proof read these submissions?
Moreso than you do.
Try this:
Seriously? I hate being one of those Grammar Nazis. But, does anyone even proofread these submissions?
XBox One is no longer a gaming console. Microsoft has reversed the policy about playing games on their upcoming console. The company has not revealed what it will do now, but given the amount of anger over every move they have made so far, industry analysts believe it may be their best decision now to just do nothing.
I know people wanted to slam Microsoft on everything about Xbox One, but I never suspected that it wouldn't work without Kinect attached. I throw this clearly into the FUD category. I think Microsoft was clarifying that idiots assumed it needed Kinect to work, not reversing a decision that it would require Kinect to work.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Refusing to order, or canceling pre-orders, based on the initial restrictions it would have? That's totally reasonable. But when they reverse on those restrictions, before even a single customer was affected (you haven't bought it yet - you can't, it's not available yet - so by definition you are not yet a customer of this product), that behavior should be rewarded.
This is ridiculous reasoning. Microsoft spent *months* willfully thumbing their nose at the public and declaring outright "my way or highway".
This is not some simply apology after the backlash, but Microsoft's understanding that the public's perception of the XBOne is fatally flawed, and *finally* after all the hue and cry, deciding to "tone down" some of those aspects. If you were going to buy one anyway, now you'll feel better about it. If you really cared about the privacy aspects of Kinect especially after the PRISM exposure, this would do little to sway your decision.
Reality: Kinect will be required for any decent games, otherwise, it's a waste of the hardware. When enough games require it, the console pretty much does as well. My guess is that when you turn on Kinect, it will stay on even when it's not needed. Microsoft can say it's not required when it essentially is.
Have fun at your friends' parties who own XBOne's where everyone in the room will have their skeletal structures scanned and sent to a microsoft datacenter for PRISM access.
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Nope, another announcement in an interview yesterday said you'll be able to physically disconnect it so if you're really paranoid that they're watching you then just unplug the thing.
It must suck to work in the XBox decision when marketing/PR mishandles this kind of information perfectly - I mean, WTF couldn't they have thought this through before spouting their mouths?
Perhaps it's because the real customers are the NSA and you are the product. Yes, you will pay to be a product as well - even sadder.
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You don't show companies you mean business by compromising. They tried to push crap that no one wanted. Always on internet checking validity of games purchased? 24 hours and it stops playing back games? Giving the ability to resell games up to publishers to decide what they want to do? these are awful business decisions that take control away from the consumer. How you respond to this is by saying no, i will never have this and you can keep your crap.
You stop this behavior by straight out boycotting.
I don't owe microsoft a purchase because of their back peddling. I'm not acting like a child because i stick to my decisions. You're ludicrous in even suggesting that i do. I do not have to reward businesses for good behavior. They're out to make money and that's it. The very thought of them being anti-consumer is like a cyanide pill to themselves.
*sigh* Great. We get the one time since the invention of tinfoil that the tinfoil hat brigade were even vaguely kinda-sorta right about something, and now we're going to hear about it until the goddamned end of time. We could fast-forward 5,000 years, all the governments, civilizations, and cultures involved will be long dead and nearly forgotten, but you'll still have these few twitchy assholes saying they "KNOW" someone is spying on them because of what happened in America so long ago.
The PS4 will not be backwards compatible either. As much as we'd all love backwards compatibility, the difference in processor architectures makes it pretty much impossible (at least without using a streaming service, like Sony has planned).
not gonna buy it... why? Because greed.
Form now on the console will be called Xbox Playstation
No, that was the Xbox 360, or rather, the X Square Circle.
I'm still waiting for them to reach the apex (nadir?) of these reversals:
"PS4, but with Halo"
This signature is false.
It seems like Microsoft is exploring what the public will let them get away with.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
the difference in processor architectures
I can see why it's not compatible with Xbox 360, but the original Xbox and Xbox One are both x86.
Always remember, Mr. AC.... ...shiny side out.
Yea, I got a feeling it'll sell just fine, maybe not flying off the shelves like the Wii was, but they'll make their money back' even if it is slow, all it'll take is a few CoDs and Halo games and problem solved.
This is ridiculous reasoning. Microsoft spent *months* willfully thumbing their nose at the public and declaring outright "my way or highway".
And then they kicked out the leader of that movement, Don Mattrick, when they began to notice just how out-of-touch he was with market conditions.
And back in the land of reality, *months* have come and gone and more *months* will come and go before the release. It's less than halfway from backlash to release date and they've gone out of their way to rework a system in a short timespan, a system they worked very hard to get where they felt it was just right, but a system in which customers simply didn't agree.
When Sony has done their customers wrong, how have they responded in the past? At least Microsoft laid it all out there and has been willing to compromise before release (which is a change from even the recent Windows 8 days). Sony put rootkits in PCs and the only way the public found out is that a security researcher found it and made it public.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Man. "X-Boxed In." does not sell well. So now they are reversing everything. X-Game Console. Get a PS4.
You mistake me. I'm not saying Sony is any better, in fact, I do think they're worse. However, both are offering shit sandwiches for sale. PC gaming is still where it's at, and for consoles, there's a whole slew of new possibilities coming to light (maybe the next Ouya, or the Amazon console, perhaps?).
Why should I pay to be thrown into a PRSIM?
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Steve? Is that you? *ducks to avoid flying chair*
Which is it's largest base of users: Outlook, Office, and Windows XP+7.
For sure, but MS Office is available for other platforms, and when a bussiness ditches Windows it weakens the MS Office foothold substantially. Should we upgrade to the new office, or try something cheaper?
Do you really want a world of only Apple (expensive), Google (full tracking), Firefox (developers know best), Ubuntu (ads, social media, fads) and Red Hat OSes?
No, that was a projection, not a desire. In any case better to have Google tracking me than the NSA, right?! Oh wait.
The world would get along better if Apple or Google disappeared than if Microsoft did.
I don't mind apple so much as its cultists. The world would definitely be better with out the macolytes. I don't really want MS to dissapear, but they've been making some very bad decisions lately, and I don't think they'll start making good decisions, fast enough, to reclaim their relevance.
But just because I defended them doesn't mean I like them any better.
I used to like them. NT4 and Win2k were pretty solid OSes. Now it's Linux for any work, and a win7 box for games and cross platform testing.
until you have tried it. Who knows it might actually be worth while! Not for games, of course, but perhaps for navigating the menus and marketplace.
The xbox should not exist.
The windows phone should not exist.
Surface should not exist.
All of these things should just be the PC in different shapes.
PCs can run games as well or FAR better then any console. Release an inexpensive standardized gaming PC that is of console form factor and with a customized GUI for living room use. Anything that works on the machine will work on any appropriately powerful PC. And nearly all games that work on PC will automatically work on that machine. Instantly better.
Windows phone should be a version of windows that is fully compatible with other windows software. There is no technical reason why it couldn't do that. We saw some people get windows XP to run on some android phones which means if MS tried they should get a slimmed down version of windows to run on the phone. Again, give it a phone GUI with a big emphasis on making calls and texting really easy. And boom. Android apps doesn't hold a candle to the full breadth of the PC application market.
Surface... same as above.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
You realize you're posting on a website that operates in the USA, right? If the NSA wants to know about you, they can do it already. You aren't even posting "anonymously"; your ID has probably already been correlated with anywhere else you used it, and any other accounts you used on other sites that you accessed from the same IP address while it was assigned to the same modem, plus a bunch of filtering to determine when you were using a shared connection what parts were or were not actually you.
Seriously, you use the public Internet, and you're worried that a camera (which can be trivially easily disconnected from its console, disconnected from power, disconnected from the Internet, or have a box put in front of it when you aren't using it) might record you in your own home, or worse yet, the home of somebody who you probably communicate with regularly? Oh, the horror!!
Seriously, that's tinfoil-hat-grade reasoning. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of PRISM or similar either, but the only way you're going to stay out of it is either to go completely off the grid (way, way too late for that) or get it ended via policy. That's the approach I'm taking.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
They should rename the new xbox "fail bucket one"
Out of curiosity, what PC/phone/tablet do you have? Does it have a camera on it? Does it have a microphone on it? Does it have a permanent Internet connection? Do you completely disconnect it from power when not using it?
How do you know it's not spying on you?
Do you have any idea what a paranoid idiot you sound like? If the NSA wants to spy on people through consumer electronics, they don't need people to buy a new $500 device that hasn't even been released yet to do it. Even if it wasn't built into your iPad or Android phone or Thinkpad laptop or whatever when you bought it, they could have slipped it into a software/firmware update years ago. Being paranoid about the Xbox's Kinect sensor, when posting to a US-company-owned site hosted on the public Internet by servers located in the USA, under a signed in account no less... how? How does that even *vaguely* make sense? Hell, we *know* there's spyware out there that uses the camera on your computer or tablet, without even showing an activity light. Why aren't you freaking out about that? Unlike the XbOne, it's actually something that's already happening!
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Because, you know, retroactively removing features from purchased hardware, suing people who try to work around those restrictions, and leaking your account details through absurdly careless security... that shows real love for your customers, right?
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
This makes it different from any mainstream desktop (and most laptops) with a webcam from any point in the past decade...
1) When my computer is off, the camera and microphone are off. Yelling at it or waving at it won't turn it on. Your welcome to try if you like.
2) The camera and microphone are not usually on even when the computer is on, and is certainly not a standard mandatory requirement for anything except recording/transmitting audio-video. I'm certainly not required to have the microphone and camera on to use my computer. And I am confident that when the camera light isn't on, the camera isn't on, which is most of the time. Contrast that to a camera that's on 24x7.
3) When they are off the network is off too. There is no network traffic. The DHCP leases expire. The unit does not respond over the network.
4) I have a lot more control over the software that runs on my computer in general than one does over an xbox. Sure its incomplete. But its also not designed and purpose built to be installed in my living room running 24x7.
5) My laptop is usually shut when in not in use making illicit video capture pretty worthless outside of when im using it. And when I'm using it, it tends to see me from the chest up and the back of my couch or chair, vs having a permanent unobstructed view of my entire living area.
They just aren't the same thing.
Seriously, this whole "Kinect is spying on you for the NSA!" meme is, and I will not mince words, idiotic.
I agree with you here. I don't think its happening. I'm sadly not at all confident it will remain that way. And here is why -- and its not because I think the NSA is pressuring microsoft to do it.
Lets take a look at some of the new SmartTVs. These are a security and privacy nightmare. Like the xbox one they are cameras / mics in the TV in your living room, connected to the internet, and always on.
What do we know about them:
-- They are always on.
--They are ALREADY sending all kinds of audio/video data to the internet:
-- for innocuous reasons: such as usage trends for product development, product improvement, etc
-- video calls etc which is fine
-- for other value added features (home security / monitoring in particular ) *
And in the case of Microsoft, they have already boasted that it will be also be using the data captured by camera for advertising / customer profiling features.
So do I think the NSA is in bed with microsoft recording everyone through kinect? No. I really don't.
But do I think we're a baby step away from the NSA handing Microsoft or the smarttv vendors a secret warrant to watch people through their own TV or xbox on the thinnest of pretenses? Yeah, I do. In fact I would be surprised if it isn't happening already.
*Especially with the home-security stuff. I don't think xbox one has actually advertised the ability to use it as a home security system, but i think its inevitable. I mean, its already further ahead than anything else. There's even a documented use-case where the the console will scan a room with facial recognition and ask anyone it doesn't recognize to identify themselves so it can create a user profile for them. This was in the context of gaming / user (advertising) profiles.
But anyone who doesn't see an xbox one security monitoring app coming that combines always on/always connected, facial recognition, and cloud access to audio/images/stored and live video has their head deep deep in the sand.
We already know we have no legal expectation of privacy on anything we send to a 3rd party via the internet. So we shouldn't be surprised if the NSA is watching.
To paraphrase you, Not to mince words, but only an IDIOT would think the NSA wouldn't be able to put their hands on that feed if they had the slightest desire to.
And hell, given the security record of the smart TV makers, the neighbors kids could watch you through your TV too, never mind requiring the deep pockets and boundless authority of the US government security apparatus.
The only reason I don't care much about smartTVs as the xbox, is that I personally don't have any need to attach it to the internet in the first place. Whereas an xbox all but requires it to do anything useful.
Yeah, my computer has neither microphone nor webcam. Where's your misplaced rage now?
Why are people so hell-bent on saying MS will spy on you masturbating in your living room with this Kinect, when Microsoft has been making an operating system, webcam hardware, drivers that connect the two for many, many years? Really, if spying on everybody is what they're out to do, they would have far more options doing it via Windows rather than the small percentage of the general population that has an Xbox.
PC gaming is still where it's at
Yeah because PC games don't have DRM...
Why should I pay to be thrown into a PRSIM?
huh?
Because, you know, retroactively removing features from purchased hardware, suing people who try to work around those restrictions, and leaking your account details through absurdly careless security... that shows real love for your customers, right?
No, but spending the next two years figuratively kissing gamers' asses does.
I bet you once the Xboner has at least half of the userbase of the PS4, they will turn back on the DRM
People once told me 68K ram was all we needed,
your analogy is invalid and childish. Your reasoning is poor. You're suggesting that i retain no memory of what led up to that poor decision and treat them like a child who's learning. Saying that backpedaling and half assed apologies should make up for the fact that it was a PR nightmare. None of those features is what anyone wanted except publishers and advertisers, both whom which the console was never marketed for. Because they sacked one guy doesn't mean that the culture of screwing over the customer doesn't still exist, or should i recall a boatload of recent windows products? How's RT and win 8, windows phones doing? yeah same crap. Over-marketed, poorly thought out and stuff that no one wants. Did you even pay attention to the attitude of the people who pushed this crap? I don't care if they were sacked, that doesn't make up for the fact they told people who don't have consistent internet to buy a 360 instead. That stays in my memory as a reason to never give then any money in the future. It's not my fault you don't have the ability to recall events such as that.
Seriously, that's tinfoil-hat-grade reasoning. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of PRISM or similar either, but the only way you're going to stay out of it is either to go completely off the grid (way, way too late for that) or get it ended via policy. That's the approach I'm taking.
Nice strawman - since PRSIM exists, you assume all information is being gathered, and just assume that getting off the grid is the only way out. That's highly simplistic - while I agree that my pseudonym here on /. is probably tied to my profile in social networking sites easily which may have a good representation of me, I pretty much draw the line at privacy invasions directly in my home.
It's not paranoia or tin-hat territory if you already know they're profiling you (and everyone else).
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You're factually incorrect in one very simple example: families who have multiple gamers who like to play different games at the same time were pretty happy about the ability to share purchases across multiple consoles for simultaneous play. Even Steam - generally considered the "least DRM-ish" DRM platform, doesn't allow that (unless use offline mode, at which point a lot of stuff will stop working for SteamWorks games). I have no personal use for that feature, nor do I feel it was worth the always-on requirement, but to some people it was a mighty fine carrot. XBOne pre-orders were bad, they weren't zero.
I'm really curious why you think that people getting sacked from a company doesn't make up for the fact that those people said stupid things, in terms of that company's (still pre-release) products. I mean, what was MS supposed to do, fire them out a cannon into the sun?
Oh, and Windows Phone is third place in global marketshare, beating both several OSes that were there before it and several that have come since its release, and is still climbing. Yeah, it's still in the single digits; I'm not claiming it's a huge success. But it's not the colossal failure you imply, either. In fact, I'm not even sure what part of it supposed to be "screwing over the customer" like you claim. Win8 has it's Start screen, RT has its lockdown and inability to run legacy apps (the general opinion among people who own one, at least on XDA, seems to be that the Start screen makes sense on a tablet; I therefore assume you're complaining about the lockdown), but I'm not sure what your beef with the phone is...
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
There's spyware out there that turns on your webcam (without turning on the indicator light, incidentally) while the machine appears to be in sleep mode. It would be entirely possible for this to happen while the machine appeared to be off entirely too, unless you unplugged it. Hell, there's been stories about such spyware right here on Slashdot; laptops and iPads that were issued to students and then used to spy on them in their bedrooms, for example. Just because it doesn't wake up when you wave at it doesn't mean it *isn't* watching you...
Don't get me wrong, I think that the NSA would love to get their hands on that data. If I ever buy or receive an Xbox One (I have never yet bought myself a console, even a handheld; my 360 was a gift, as was my old GameBoy) it will be a potential concern. On the other hand, I already have that concern about my phone. I can't stop it from acting as a tracker (tower triangulation) short of disabling the cellular radio, and it doesn't even have indicator lights for when the cameras or mic are in use. I use it anyhow (while digging into its guts in an attempt to ensure there's nothing in there that I dislike too much) because it's too damn useful. I haven't turned on my 360 in weeks, so clearly I don't find it to have an equivalent degree of usefulness, but I do turn it on (and connect the Kinect sensor) at times. Oh, and it's only occasionally connected to the Internet (for example, at the moment, it is not).
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
There's spyware out there that turns on your webcam (without turning on the indicator light, incidentally)
Not of the LED for the camera is on the power circuit for the camera. I don't dispute that there are some (many?) really terrible hardware implementations out there though, but a good design cannot be defeated by spyware.
Hell, there's been stories about such spyware right here on Slashdot; laptops and iPads that were issued to students and then used to spy on them in their bedrooms, for example.
And in those cases they snapped pictures, and the camera light flicked on briefly when it happened which is part of the reason they got found out.
Just because it doesn't wake up when you wave at it doesn't mean it *isn't* watching you...
Fair enough, but you are speculating on the theoretically possibility that a large number of factors all have to line up just so for the vulnerability to be useful. You need a user using suitable hardware, with his laptop left open, facing of value, and you have to get the spyware onto it. All of this is potentially doable with a cooperative enough target, but it sets the bar relatively high.
The xbox by contrast is standardized hardware that the end user will setup in his living room for you, and that the end user expects to be always on and always connected to the internet.
It's the difference between speculating that you could murder someone if you could hack someones remote starter, and they happened to leave the vulnerable car in the garage, with the door closed, and they happened to sleep in a room that wasn't well ventilated attached to the garage. Sure you could do that. And that's what the 'laptop' scenario amounts to.
The xbox scenario amounts to the end user loading a shotgun pointed at his bed, with string attached to the trigger dangling out the window. All you have to do is pull.
On the other hand, I already have that concern about my phone. I can't stop it from acting as a tracker (tower triangulation) short of disabling the cellular radio, and it doesn't even have indicator lights for when the cameras or mic are in use.
All true. However, phones without cameras are available, and there are camera removal / disabling services available. ($20-$50 bucks for a tech to open it, cut the wire/remove the lens...) The phone doesn't require a camera to operate. The military and other security conscious environments have mandated this. You can also buy an iphone 4S without a camera (with some effort).
For the rest of us who are less drastic there are plenty of cases with physical lens covers. Not to mention the battery life would suffer dramatically if someone remotely enabled the camera and streamed the video.
The microphone obviously is more problematic.
But again, it all ties back to the default mode of operation. For the NSA to 'hack my phone' they'd actually have to put some effort into it. I don't beleive, at this point that there is some built in function the NSA can flip to turn on camera and mic and start recording me. I'm sure if they went to enough to trouble they could pass my phone some targeted malware update to do this, etc, etc. But they'd need to develop that malware for my device, coordinate with the ISP to get it onto my device, etc. There'd -probably- be some sort of warrant/ oversight etc. I'm distrustful of the government, but I'm not full on tin-foil hat.
The xbox one and smart TV security monitoring functionality on the other hand, would already be setup to capture and stream everything always on, always connected, 24x7. The NSA doesn't have to do squat except contact whoever that data is already being sent to, and ask for a copy. This is already something they can do. =Data sent to 3rd parties is extremely weakly protected legally.
Millions of xbox one owners, standardized platform, end users do all the setup, all streaming to the same place... no hacks required. All they have to do is ask for it.
Its a spy agencies wet dream.
.... different games at the same time? ... windows ME had a market share too. Windows phones having single digit market share doesn't mean success in the least. It's late to the market, has no features that people want. Even the marketing was so obtuse. Being able to post a facebook picture faster was the main marketing advertisements for it. How is it better than android or iOS? Because microsoft created it? And what are the competitors anyways? Symbiant? RIM os? Third party dumbphone os? They failed to make any case for why consumers would want it. Besides operating in their standard "lets just con manufacturers that this will take off" and only netting nokia as a gullible failure.
Because it's so difficult to pass a cd/dvd across rooms in a single house since they're all playing different games? I don't see your point.
Because those weren't the decision makers. They were just the fall guys. The directors and management who allowed them to do what they did need to be sacked too. Unless you really think microsoft operates in completely isolated silos and some manager in the xbox division has complete product control as well as the ability to make public statements to enrage the market he's trying to convince to buy the console. I'm willing to bet his decisions and statements were approved beforehand. Something maybe you haven't considered?
Win 8 added features to PCs that pc users did not want and actively try and remove. To me that's a bone headed move that will hurt in the long run. It's not even some evolution that people are resistant to, it's just plain dumb. How many win 8 users on a pc get rid of the start screen? Probably most because it's not made for a mouse and keyboard but a touch screen. It just tells me that the company has some really bad systematic decision making problems. Maybe they think they're too big to fail, but at this point with their current lack of success people are going to notice and laugh them off the map.
That's why you wait at least a year to buy any new console. Well, it's one reason. You also wait so you don't pay five hundred fucking dollars.
steve jobs doesnt have to (unfortunately for him yet i dont know which one he would have preferred)
the megacorp is dying unless it provides raw shit
i dont think any of the oil companies are in trouble yet since the base resources are necessary for any of the others to function
the old powers were all in the west with maybe the exception of japan, china used to be cheap scum stuff but is a major player now and this is only the start which has nothing to do with it
imo , the console battle for ms has been lost already, sony launches earliers and microsoft will launch later AND in less places
the drm story hurt them beyond repair before it even started so if sony comes through with the promises i dont see how microsoft could top this in any way except for the groupies which you have with all brands. Im on my second xbox but i think if i go to the next console this time it will be a ps4 (if i had the option i would stick with my pc but that dont come with tekken or soulcalibur)
its games OMG (big business in 2014, euh 2013)
since console gaming is something for the privileged who have daddy & mommy pay for it or people like me who would rather buy a console to play tekken and a monster magnet ticket than a car or kids i dont know if it will be the grand saviour BUT
as far as my limited business mind can see the global battle for this generation (hardly next-gen anymore by now) is already over. Not that ms will lose money on it (depending on development costs) probably but we do all get the picture here.
no?
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?