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Microsoft Makes Xbox-Centered Living Room Push with SmartGlass Wireless Streaming and More

whiteboytrash said:
I repeat this “concept” is not shipping in the near future. It’s just a concept ala the “Courier concept” prior to iPad.
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It's not a proof of concept, genius. It's a live demo of what they'll be releasing 4-5 months from now. The courier on the other hand was never anything more than a concept. It was never demoed. No one ever played with a prototype. They didn't even bring it up in a keynote speech, as far as I know. It was quietly announced as something a small team within MS was banging out behind the scenes, and quietly killed when Bill Gates learned it wasn't capable of reading email or installing apps.
 
hirshnoc said:
In this news front, if it's another AirPlay copy...forget it.
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You can try and forget it, but it's an "AirPlay copy" that has a built in user-base of nearly 70 million. Place that against AppleTV (which is required to stream to a TV) with a couple of million sales per year? I think it would be something to worry about.
 
whiteboytrash said:
How did you deduce that from my post? What are you talking about.

The promo video is pure concept. The concepts shown are not shipping and will not be shipping for the foreseeable future.

To spin it any other way is purely obfuscation. I’d prefer if you thoughtfully discussed my post.

I repeat this “concept” is not shipping in the near future. It’s just a concept ala the “Courier concept” prior to iPad.
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What concept? Almost all of what it is shown works NOW in the Xbox.

Do you have used an Xbox?
 
Renzatic said:
It's not a proof of concept, genius. It's a live demo of what they'll be releasing 4-5 months from now. The courier on the other hand was never anything more than a concept. It was never demoed. No one ever played with a prototype. They didn't even bring it up in a keynote speech, as far as I know. It was quietly announced as something a small team within MS was banging out behind the scenes, and quietly killed when Bill Gates learned it wasn't capable of reading email or installing apps.
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It shows you don’t read. I was responding to the youtube video displaying the “concept” not the live presentation. I assume you have a link or a youtube of this presentation to substantiate the claim that they demonstrated the product “live”?

and

due in 4-5 months time? Got a link for that claim also?


Next question; long is a piece of string?
 
FoxMcCloud said:
Sorry bro, Xbox is PPC. Moreso than the PS3.
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Yup, the Xbox is basically a G5 (not really but lets be fast and loose). The PS3 is a cell processor (which they hyped up so much only for it to fail so much they will never mention the processor again...remember when everyone was all like "Apple is going to switch to Cell" only for them to switch to Intel...that was a weird time).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

Edit: I think the confusion might be due to the code name, "Xenon" which is close to the Intel chip name "Xeon"
 
The presentation was interesting. Microsoft does not intend to be caught flat footed by the Apple TV. Nearly all of the big features they've announced over the last two years have been TV-oriented -- voice command, search integration, content partnerships, and now wireless streaming via Smart Glass, a music service in Xbox Music, and we can assume easy integration with Windows 8.

What amazes me is how Google has apparently given up entirely on the living room when they were an early pioneer with the Google TV. I have to wonder if one day they won't end up buying Sony, Nintendo, or both. I don't think either of those companies have the resources to keep up with the innovation and ecosystems that Apple and MS are developing, but they certainly have technology and IPs that would help Google catch up and become a major player.

tmt345 said:
Where did all their first party studios go? They showed Halo 4 and that was it AFAIK (I couldn't watch the whole thing). Showing a bunch of multiplatforms never fooled anybody.
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Say what? All the biggest titles are multi-platform. Sony set the standard years ago when they let titles like GTA, Tomb Raider, and Resident Evil go. Development is too expensive to justify exclusivity, and exclusivity is bad policy from a money-making perspective. What MS and Sony do now is what you saw today: MS has first dibs on exclusive content for all the biggest titles--Tomb Raider, RE6, COD. And they still have their IPs. They showed new Halo, new Forza, new Gears, several XBLA exclusive titles, and lots of Kinect integration.
 
whiteboytrash said:
It shows you don’t read. I was responding to the youtube video displaying the “concept” not the live presentation. I assume you have a link or a youtube of this presentation to substantiate the claim that they demonstrated the product “live”?

and

due in 4-5 months time? Got a link for that claim also?


Next question; long is a piece of string?
Click to expand...

I bet you were one of those people screaming "more MS vaporware" when they demoed Windows 8 on an ARM tablet 7 months ago.
 
whiteboytrash said:
It shows you don’t read. I was responding to the youtube video displaying the “concept” not the live presentation. I assume you have a link or a youtube of this presentation to substantiate the claim that they demonstrated the product “live”?

and

due in 4-5 months time? Got a link for that claim also?


Next question; long is a piece of string?
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It is not a concept.

And I repeat, are you claiming that Xbox 360 doesn't have voice controls like the shown in the video?

Ah, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYvQu00t75w
 
baryon said:
On another note, Microsoft, please do the whole world a favor and stop developing Internet Explorer! Everyone wins: Developers can finally build websites that work the way they should, users get to experience the web the way it was intended, and Microsoft can fire all the idiots who develop Internet Explorer, and save huge amounts of money! The only reason anyone uses that idiotic browser is because they're too damn stupid to download another one, and Microsoft knows that very well…

The only positive thing I can think of about Internet Explorer is that one day, when it will cease to exist, the world will become a better place, all of a sudden.
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Well, on the other side, it runs in 64Bit - and that is available for Chrome and Firefox as well - Firefox' older versions that is. Keep in mind you have to install "Square" instead of "Flash" when you do that to see the still-existing Flash content. On the other had, I agree with you. Web pages are either running well on IE or on other browsers because MS is not complying strictly with HTML(5) and XML while others do. The work-arounds for IE on the other hand are not working with the other browsers. It's a nightmare. I once needed to open a certain page and fill in a form for a job and it took me two hours to find out while the Firefox and Chrome got stuck in the process: It was "optimized" for IE!
 
To be fare, MS has come along way with IE and it is very much so standards compliant and modern.
IE6 lets face it is 10 years old. Its not Microsofts fault people still use it. You try and use Chrome or Safari or Firefox from 2001 and theyll be as equally dreadful. At least they would be, if they existed.

Be thankful its likely to be Metro IE10 on the Xbox. The web will run great.
 
NAG said:
Yup, the Xbox is basically a G5 (not really but lets be fast and loose). The PS3 is a cell processor (which they hyped up so much only for it to fail so much they will never mention the processor again).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

Edit: I think the confusion might be due to the code name, "Xenon" which is close to the Intel chip name "Xeon"
Click to expand...

The Cell uses the same PPC core (or one very similar) that the 360's processor uses. The difference is the parallel processing options on the two. Microsoft, quite smartly, banked on the idea that developers just want more cores that they can shunt code onto. Sony / Toshiba banked on the idea of what amounts to programmable pipelines like you find in current generation GPUs.

The problem I think is more the developers than anything else (speaking as one). Retooling for programmable pipelines is a lot more work. I need to learn a new language, what the limitations of the pipelines are, etc. But throw in a couple more cores? Yeah, I can start running code on them in under a day. And I have more flexibility to do things like AI in parallel and so on. But in a way, it does make sense that generic programmable pipelines should be on the CPU die rather than the GPU die for speed reasons. But I think the reality is that many customers want them as discrete components... and that good CPU makers don't always make GPUs and vice versa.
 
Winni said:
The difference, as always, is that Apple requires you to completely lock yourself into their walled garden while others offer options to integrate third party products.

What still blows my mind is this "the AppleTV is just a hobby" bollocks. They charge 129 bucks for that "hobby" product and tell you straight in your face that since it's just a hobby you better don't expect anything for your money. I'm not sure if whether this says something about Apple or if it says something about their average customers.
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This requires an XBox to run, so while it can be any phone/tablet you still need it to stream. You could also stream from any computer without iTunes to an AppleTV as long it is Airplay compatible and on the same network(which sites such as Youtube and Vevo are).

On topic, this does look a lot like Airplay. I bought Real Racing 2 for my iPad specifically for it's ability to stream the picture via my AppleTV and have the map of the course in front of me. It's pretty cool.
 
Krevnik said:
The Cell uses the same PPC core (or one very similar) that the 360's processor uses. The difference is the parallel processing options on the two. Microsoft, quite smartly, banked on the idea that developers just want more cores that they can shunt code onto. Sony / Toshiba banked on the idea of what amounts to programmable pipelines like you find in current generation GPUs
Click to expand...

Yup. I was being a bit fast with everything because the main point was that someone thought the Xbox 360 used x86 instead of PPC. I was sniping a bit at cell but that was mostly because I remember the Macrumors forums way back when treating cell like a panacea. They're definitely useful, just not what people were looking for at the time.

Krevnik said:
The problem I think is more the developers than anything else (speaking as one). Retooling for programmable pipelines is a lot more work. I need to learn a new language, what the limitations of the pipelines are, etc. But throw in a couple more cores? Yeah, I can start running code on them in under a day. And I have more flexibility to do things like AI in parallel and so on. But in a way, it does make sense that generic programmable pipelines should be on the CPU die rather than the GPU die for speed reasons. But I think the reality is that many customers want them as discrete components... and that good CPU makers don't always make GPUs and vice versa.
Click to expand...

Wasn't that why all the GPU makers got bought out a while ago?
 
AirPlay wasnt exactly new technology either,Apple just managed to commercialise it. Windows 7 had DLNA built in. You can right click on a video file and Play To any DLNA compliant device (for which there are many available). Used to do it loads way back when, till I stopped using a laptop to watch stuff. Prefer pulling rather than pushing.
 
FoxMcCloud said:
AirPlay wasnt exactly new technology either,Apple just managed to commercialise it. Windows 7 had DLNA built in. You can right click on a video file and Play To any DLNA compliant device (for which there are many available). Used to do it loads way back when, till I stopped using a laptop to watch stuff. Prefer pulling rather than pushing.
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Apple also made it extremely simple. Clicking a button just made the AppleTV show the video, there wasn't much more to it. Using Vuze in the past was just a pain with my Playstation 3
 
apollo1444 said:
lol at the people minimizing Microsoft at this, Apple TV is garbage next to what the Xbox offers
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Exactly. Anyone who compares Airplay capabilities to SmartGlass hasn't see the Xbox presentation today.

SmartGlass is about turning the second screen concept into reality:

http://www.quora.com/Second-Screen-Experience

http://gizmodo.com/smart-glass/

Airplay only is streaming/viewing content wirelessly (at the moment), much like the DNLA standard.

PS: I'm not a fan of MS products, but what they achieved with XBox + Kinect/voice + Smartglass is way ahead of Apple's TV living room experience - for now. Let's wait and see what Apple comes up with at WWDC next week.
 
Peace said:
The XBox 360 shows what the PPC was good for.
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We've always known what PPC was good for. The problem with it wasn't that it wasn't powerful, it was that it used too much power and ran too hot to put in laptops.
 
NAG said:
Yup. I was being a bit fast with everything because the main point was that someone thought the Xbox 360 used x86 instead of PPC. I was sniping a bit at cell but that was mostly because I remember the Macrumors forums way back when treating cell like a panacea. They're definitely useful, just not what people were looking for at the time.
Click to expand...

Well, I think that the dynamic changed a lot when GPU makers started providing generic tools. Even Apple who was behind quite a bit managed to get CoreCL out the door ~3 years ago.

NAG said:
Wasn't that why all the GPU makers got bought out a while ago?
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The only company that can make 'current generation desktop-class' CPUs and GPUs is AMD. Intel is usually a couple generations behind on their GPU tech, and NVidia doesn't have any desktop CPU experience. NVidia's track record on portable SOCs says they care more about specific high-performance platforms.
 
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