XBOX One Revealed (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Re killing Gamestop:
http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/totalbiscuit-argues-against-used-games-and-explains-why-gamestop-are-knobsa

 

[Sam Posten]

+1, insightful:

 

[Sam Posten]

Holy cow, hypercritical Siracusa actually sounds like a flipping fanboy here:

The PlayStation 4 aims to repent for the sins of both its father and grandfather—and then some. Unlike its predecessors, it was designed in close cooperation with game developers. During the design process, new revisions of the PS4 architecture were presented to developers along with a challenge: find the bottleneck. Every aspect of the system was put through a similar gauntlet, from the shape and travel of the controller triggers to the accuracy of the gyroscopes.
All game consoles go through some version of this process, but the PlayStation 4 is defined by it. The hubris of the PS2 and PS3 is nowhere to be found in the PS4. This is a product of a newly humbled and rededicated Sony.
And the thing that Sony is rededicated to is gaming, plain and simple. Sony was the first console maker to really push the idea of a gaming system that does much more than just play games, but now it’s returning to its roots.

and not so much for the Xbone:

On the other hand, Microsoft’s new focus could be a giant turn-off to gamers who were expecting an “Xbox 720,” not a Kinect-powered “media center.”

http://hypercritical.co/2013/05/28/next-generation
Interesting list that Marco put together, it's amazong how much has hit since the 360 launched:
http://www.marco.org/2013/05/28/younger-than-the-xbox-360

Ruby on Rails: December 13, 2005
Amazon S3: March 14, 2006
Twitter: March 21, 2006
HD-DVD: March 31, 2006 (died in 2008)
Blu-ray: June 2006
Snakes on a Plane: August 17, 2006
Windows Vista: November 8, 2006
....

And even he got exhausted once he got to 2010....

 

[Edwin-S]

Why is it being referred to as the XBone? Is everyone concluding that MS is about to repeat the "mistake" that Sony did with the PS3?

The PS4 sounds promising for gamers, but not so much for people who like to use their PS for other things. I primarily use the PS3 as a BR player with gaming being the bonus. PS4 sounds like it is just going to be a gamer box.

Edit: Forget it. I must be sleepy. Everyone is just shortening XBOX to XB. I keep reading that as X-bone and then extrapolate to X-Boner, as in big mistake. Forgive my over active imagination.

 

[Edwin-S]

Ha Ha. That was an interesting article. XB1 is going to be MS's version of the PS3, except this time it is going to be all the XBOX "fanbois" trying to convince everyone else why the XB1 is "more than just a gaming system".

After reading about the PS4, I have to say I'm leaning toward it if I decide to replace my PS3. Who am I kidding? I'm such a bloody gadget freak, I'll probably end up buying both just like I did with the last gen; although, I find that I use my PS3 far more than the XBOX360.

The bit on NIntendo was interesting too. Talk about stubbing your toe. They created a box that sucks for hardcore gamers and sucks for the average user that bought the Wii. Guess they should change the name from Wii-U to Wii-PYU.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

EdwinS - I think you will be able to do on the PS4 everything you do on the PS3 and then some, in terms of non-gaming stuff. Maybe it won't control your TV with voice commands and have integrated fantasy team updates, but all the other major multimedia features will be there.

 

[Edwin-S]

I suspect that it will. I'm definitely leaning toward the PS4, rather XB1.It may be tbe one to beat if developers have been consulted as much as Sony says they have. However, Sony has a rep for not delivering on their hype, so it is a wait and see game as to how good the system is.MS is the one I can't believe. You'd think they would have learned something from Sony's PS3 experience, but they seem to be determined to commit the same errors. People into movies and TV shows do not want to pay extra for a gaming function they'll never use. With gamers, it is all about the games. They couldn't care less about turning on their TVs and channel surfing via voice command.

 

[DaveF]

I liked Siracusa's take. His breakdown of current impressions was helpful: PS4 is the more powerful, game-centric system. Xbox one is intentionally taking an always on, media centric path. And I think Xbone is derogatory, as in MS boned the decision. It's up there with M$.

 

[mattCR]

I've got to admit, until someone mentioned it was derogatory, I didn't imagine it as such.

IGN worries about Visual DRM via the Kinnect

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/24/xbox-one-will-kinect-2-use-visual-drm

Microsoft has responded to fresh privacy concerns over a patent from 2011 that suggests Kinect 2 may be used as a form of visual DRM, should the company decide to implement such a measure in Xbox One.

ExtremeTech discovered the filing back in November, which is labelled as covering "content distribution regulation by viewing user." Theoretically, if the Kinect establishes there are more people in the room than is permitted according to the licence that users agree to when renting of purchasing content, the movie won't play.

"The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken," it reads.

Today, however, the company has responded to speculation with the following statement: "Microsoft regularly applies for and receives patents as part of its business practice; not all patents applied for or received will be incorporated into a Microsoft product."

That appears to be all the information the company is sharing for now. While there's no guarantee it's true, if it is then it's latest instance of a potentially concerning encroachment into privacy. Seeing as we already know that the Kinect 2's microphone will always be on and the new console won't function without the device, such a measure isn't out of the question.

Microsoft's handling of PR on this whole thing has been terrible. Give firm, solid answers. Don't weasel. If you weasel, people immediately assume the absolute worst. They are digging themselves a gigantic hole here which may be completely untrue and unfair to their console, but since their rebuttals are non-existent OR really weak sauce, it is not hard to see why people think badly.

 

[Hanson]

XBONED!

 

[Edwin-S]

....the microphone is always on.

Well, so much for XB1. I won't be buying anything that doesn't allow me to shut off audio and visual devices. I'm not paying MicroSoft to put an internet connected bug in my house.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Well, so much for XB1. I won't be buying anything that doesn't allow me to shut off audio and visual devices. I'm not paying MicroSoft to put an internet connected bug in my house.

But.... But... You can TURN IT ON! Just by talking!!

 

[Edwin-S]

It sounds like it is always on and listening, without any capability to shut it off. I don't want an active listening device in my house, especially hooked to the internet which is rife with hackers and spooks.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

It sounds like it is always on and listening, without any capability to shut it off. I don't want an active listening device in my house, especially hooked to the internet which is rife with hackers and spooks.

I agree with you about the XB1 but I have to ask, do you have a cell phone or a laptop computer with built-in camera? Both can be activated remotely without your permission as part of their built-in functionality.

 

[mattCR]

I agree with you about the XB1 but I have to ask, do you have a cell phone or a laptop computer with built-in camera? Both can be activated remotely without your permission as part of their built-in functionality.

While this is true, in general, your cell phone (if tapped) would grab a lot of noise out of your pocket, the camera could get a picture in a holster, or in my house when in a charger it would get either the ceiling or the dresser it's on. And, while they can be accessed (to some extent), on a laptop the functionality can be totally disabled (device disabled) which would prevent such an action, and in the case of a phone, if it's physically off (the same with a computer) then there isn't much you can do.. it's not like either has Wake-On-Lan support that would actually be viable for this purpose...

 

[FoxyMulder]

I agree with you about the XB1 but I have to ask, do you have a cell phone or a laptop computer with built-in camera? Both can be activated remotely without your permission as part of their built-in functionality.

Nobody is remotely accessing anything on my laptop, first thing i do when i get a computer is switch remote access options off and i have also switched the inbuilt webcam off, if a video game console requires all this stuff on to work then to me it's a potential privacy risk and i wouldn't buy it, it will be interesting to see if Sony do the same as Microsoft or not.

 

[Sam Posten]

The dumbasses have scheduled their media brief as exactly the same time as Apple's WWDC keynote (actually they start a half hour ahead). Monday June 10th at 9:30 pacific.If you wanted to hide bad news there would be no better time.Not much new here but semi interesting:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BlhvX0D6ow&feature=player_embedded

 

[Sam Posten]

Used laws are a mess:

What may be the most important aspect of this debate is the fact that legal precedent may not necessarily be useful. “Truthfully, the way that copyright law ends up getting written in this country, neither consumers rights nor the health of the industry are taken into account. It's usually a handful of rights holders and whatever they're able to push through.”

TRUTH.
http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/xbox-one-and-the-first-sale-doctrine-there-is-no-silver-bullet-for-protecti

 

[Chuck Anstey]

It wasn't long ago when there were no copyright or patent laws but some very wise men realized this wasn't in the public good. So for the public good they created these laws to encourage invention and creation that benefited society and the mechanism was to allow the inventor/creator to have a limited time to make money from their creation. These very wise men were wise enough to recognize that unlimited total control by the inventor/creator was not in the public good. The give and take was the time was limited because the first creator / inventor was given full rights even though it is likely many other people could have come up with the same idea.

It will take some very wise men and women in the future to restore balance now that we have gone way overboard by allowing patent and copyright holders virtually unlimited time to absolutely control their creation to the detriment of the public. My simple and obviously stupid engineering brain, as opposed to those smart lawyer brains, thinks that if a patent / copyright holder isn't trying to make money with their creation, they don't by definition need or are entitled to protection. So in the case of Microsoft, if they don't include a feature for which they were given a patent, they can't have the patent because it is then a case of simply preventing the public from having access to an invention, which is exactly the opposite of why the laws were created in the first place.

 

[Sam Posten]

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