In a recent post over at CNet Digital Home, Don Reisinger argues that Microsoft should make Xbox Live free. To an extent, I actually agree with him. Of course, I don’t think the situation is as clear-cut as Reisinger believes. Yes, Xbox Live will eventually be free, but that won’t happen until Microsoft has a legitimate reason to do so. And no, the current multiplayer implementations by Nintendo and Sony in no way compete with XBL.
Wii vs 360
First off, let’s just forget about Nintendo. It’s clear from their ridiculous friend code system that they have no interest in achieving the same sort of seamless multiplayer integration that Microsoft has done with Live. Nintendo is far too steeped in their irrational “family friendly” corporate philosophy–to the point where I don’t believe they want to help gamers connect with one another.
Case in point: Nintendo made a big announcement last year declaring that they were going to simplify Wii online play by using Gamespy’s technology. But for some strange reason, I can’t find any further reference to that partnership besides the initial press release. And even if they did secretly start implementing Gamespy’s technology, it’s still based on friend codes–the biggest part of Nintendo’s multiplayer failure thus far. Read the rest of this entry »
photo credit: markhoekstra
How sad it is that the biggest news to come from the Zune front in the past few months is anything but positive: Word is out that Gamestop has stopped selling Zunes.
Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long, not because the Zune 2 is a worthless player (despite what some other news reports seem to love implying), but because it was a dumb idea to sell the Zune 2 in a freaking video game store in the first place. I’m sure some genius marketing drone figured it was a good spot because 1) Gamestop fit the target Zune demographic, 2) they could easily market it as a companion product with the Xbox 360, and 3) they didn’t have any iPod competition. The rest of us saw the futility in that move from the very beginning.
I can only assume that the Gamestop deal wasn’t a large part of Microsoft’s Zune strategy, if only because it would be truly dumb if it was. And let’s not forget the fact that the Zune is still readily available in major stores.
But come to think of it, I haven’t heard much regarding the Zune 2 ever since Microsoft launched Zune Originals program, a service which lets you customize your Zune 2 with artwork by famous hipster types. While it’s certainly cooler than the bland metallic backside of the iPod, it’s certainly not a feature that will convert the iPod faithful or lure away first-time customers to the portable music player scene.
The Zune Store is finally beginning to shape up by adding some television content, but it’s still playing a desperate game of catchup with Apple’s iTunes Store. While MS has always had the $14.99 monthly music subscription model to lord over Apple, it’s simply a matter of time before Steve Jobs decides to implement something similar.
So I suppose the question to ask now is clear: What the heck is Microsoft doing with the Zune? Read the rest of this entry »
photo credit: DRB62
This morning I woke up to a Slashdot posting on Microsoft’s latest software project, the WorldWide Telescope (WWT). This is the rumored world-changing project that made Robert Scoble cry, and it’s something I’ve been waiting eagerly for since Scoble’s teasing posts. I’ve loved astronomy since I was a kid, so when I caught word that this uber-secret project had to do with collecting images from telescopes around the world, it quickly moved up to “must have” status.
In this preview from the most recent TED conference, Roy Gould, a notable science educator, and Curtis Wong, an MS Research employee who works on the WWT, demo the software and cover a few of the ways it would be useful. Most notably, it will significantly change the way astronomy is first taught, and makes a wealth of astronomical pictures and data available to the general public. Read the rest of this entry »
You may have noticed a lack of updates on this site lately. Fortunately, this time around the dry spell is not due to my laziness. I’ve actually been somewhat productive this past month, it’s just been for another site. For the past month I’ve been freelancing at Daily Bits, a recently launched technology blog by Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips fame.
Since Daily Bits is a technology blog, most of the work that I would have normally published here will be going there. I don’t see the need to abandon this blog entirely yet though. There are still many topics that I’m interested in that don’t quite fit the Daily Bits mold, so you can expect to see those here. Those include topics like the consumer technologies, the Singularity, and video games.
Here’s what I have at Daily Bits so far:
