Xbox One: Future Tech In Your Living Room

Howdy everyone!  So today the tech world and gaming world is abuzz about the new Xbox One.  Not that it's the first, but that it's the only ONE product you'll need to manage your entertainment in your household.  We've been inundated with media for years: netflix, amazon, dvd, dvr, bluray, cloud streaming, on demand, etc...and we all have our own solutions.  Some of us use multiple ways to an end...some of us are a bit more focused...but in the end, we all want our media and we want it easy.  In my opinion, the Xbox One may have nailed this.

On the reveal date, they didn't talk about new games.  No cutsey cartoon characters, or shoot-em-up heroes to make people go oooh and ahhh over.  No...this time it was about how the Xbox One (The XO? Sounds too huggy & kissy for me, and the X sounds too much like alimony is involved) will be the heart and soul of your living room.  Why?  Because it integrates with your cable box/satellite box and internet to provide a managed experience.  Coming home, you walk in the door and say, "Xbox, On" and your entire entertaiment system comes on, and is ready to go.  After watching the event, and seeing all that the new software could do, it confirmed what I've been saying the past year...that Microsoft wants to own the device that will aggregate all of your media through the television set...and now they can.  Split screen viewing (the Snap function from windows 8) is possible, as well as using Xbox's Guide, which is tagged into your cable/satellite provider...and you can seamlessly switch between games, movies, tv and internet...it's almost creepy.

The biggest whine/flack/junk from gamers that I'm seeing, and 50% of it is based on unfounded news reports, is the belief that MS will not allow you to trade games, or buy/sell used games.  They do have a program for this, but as they're not able to talk about it now, it's still in the planning stages.  But, the games actually install from disks, and are registered to you through your account.  (Attention big brother nuts.)  What I think MS, and the game manufacturers want, is to know who is playing what...when you trade games to friends, they have no idea who is playing their product after the initial purchase.  So with a system (that will not cost you money) being built to trade games and sell used games coming, that should take care of that.

Really, if you own an Xbox, take the time to watch the event...this product can do amazing things.  Heck, my wife who is a sort-of-gamer, immediately saw the usefulness of the product, and commented that it would be good for folks like us to get back into shows we want to watch because of the ease and integration of media to the console.  Lastly, I've often found that the negativity being spouted by people when something like this is revealed, only stems from the want to be right if it does turn out bad...which is a bad way to look at life.  I have high hopes for the Xbox One and what it's going to do to bring media together.  Thumbs up so far, Microsoft!

Smartglass is the future...

I had a chance to see a little bit of Smart Glass when I was a special guest of Microsoft's Expert Zone at E3, and the more I read about it...wow, just wow.  This isn't just a piece of MS software that lets you manage tv and gaming.  This is really a companion for everything to do with your Xbox, computer and tv set.  It works with all devices, iOS, Android, Windows...and is going to likely change the way you watch TV and play video games in the future.

When I say companion that's pretty much what it is.  One of the examples was while watching an episode of Game of Thrones, the unit displayed a map of the show's world, and relevant information.  A character comes on screen, their background becomes available to read.

This is what Microsoft wants...the Xbox console to be the center of entertainment in your living room.  For many of us it already is, and even they've started announcing that more movies and music are downloaded and played on the Xbox than games.  I know, I remember when Tivo was cool and everyone got one...but I've always said that first gen tech while being neat, always gets blown away the second time around. :)

It's the End of Windows As We Know It...

...and I feel fine.

We all should feel fine actually, because the launch of Windows 8 is just around the corner this year.  "But Herr Leader," you ask, "Windows 7 was just released?  Why is Microsoft trying to hurt our brains?"   It's easy Skippy, they're not.  Windows 8 isn't going to be replacing Windows 7 as a desktop/laptop OS.  It will however be replacing them on Tablets and making Windows Phone 7.5 look even better.  This article over at CNN reminded me that I needed to talk about it with y'all. :)

For those of you who haven't seen, there is a beta for Windows 8 available to test, and all reports come across well.  I've yet to pull this and set it up myself (as my tablet is an ARM tablet and I can't get it on there yet), but as an Xbox user and Windows Phone adopter, I'm already quite used to it.  Knowing Microsoft, they're not looking to replace Windows 7 yet either, because they've been driving so hard to get it adopted by businesses...as well it should be, it's probably the best OS they've come up with in a very long time.

Rather than force an OS to conform to two distinct platforms (touch units and traditional units are NOT the same thing), and having a crappy experience on one or the other, they've sidestepped that nightmare.  This sidestep allows MS to put out for both platforms as it perfects both.  This, in my opinion, will then lead to Windows 9...a hybridization of both Windows 7 & 8...but that's several years off.  Here's a link to a great article at Forrester about Windows 8 and adoption.  It's nice to know my thoughts are on the level with the guys who get paid to think about these kinds of things. :)

If you get a chance, grab a copy of the beta and test it out.  I think that most folks will enjoy it...and it's good to see Microsoft taking a leap forward instead of playing "Three Stooges" with the rest of the companies in the IT Space.

Have a great weekend!