Web Buzz » Zune http://www.web-buzz.info What's the Buzz right now? Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:31:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 Zune HD taking to the skies with United Airlines in-flight entertainment trial http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/09/04/zune-hd-taking-to-the-skies-with-united-airlines-in-flight-entertainment-trial/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/09/04/zune-hd-taking-to-the-skies-with-united-airlines-in-flight-entertainment-trial/#comments Sat, 04 Sep 2010 19:31:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/04/zune-hd-taking-to-the-skies-with-united-airlines-in-flight-enter/
Microsoft and United hooked up back in June for a hardware-less Zune partnership, which seems to have turned out pretty sweetly for both parties. Dave McLauchlan, chief Zune HD evangelist, has dished the news that the two companies are stepping up their relationship with a set of 500 Zunes being provided for long-haul flights to Hong Kong and Australia. Before you cry foul and say you never get on a flying tin can without your own media, Microsoft's angle here will be to preload those OLED-sporting babies with exclusive content, including flicks that haven't yet made it to a DVD release. Dave himself has been running around movie studios and closing deals, while the Zune HDs in question have now been encased in rubber, had their screens protected, and batteries charged. See them in a group shot after the break.

Continue reading Zune HD taking to the skies with United Airlines in-flight entertainment trial

Zune HD taking to the skies with United Airlines in-flight entertainment trial originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Neowin  |  Zune Insider  | Email this | Comments]]> Microsoft and United hooked up back in June for a hardware-less Zune partnership, which seems to have turned out pretty sweetly for both parties. Dave McLauchlan, chief Zune HD evangelist, has dished the news that the two companies are stepping up their relationship with a set of 500 Zunes being provided for long-haul flights to Hong Kong and Australia. Before you cry foul and say you never get on a flying tin can without your own media, Microsoft's angle here will be to preload those OLED-sporting babies with exclusive content, including flicks that haven't yet made it to a DVD release. Dave himself has been running around movie studios and closing deals, while the Zune HDs in question have now been encased in rubber, had their screens protected, and batteries charged. See them in a group shot after the break.

Continue reading Zune HD taking to the skies with United Airlines in-flight entertainment trial

Zune HD taking to the skies with United Airlines in-flight entertainment trial originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Neowin  |  sourceZune Insider  | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/09/04/zune-hd-taking-to-the-skies-with-united-airlines-in-flight-entertainment-trial/feed/ 0 Zune HD could have all-new model in the works http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/09/01/zune-hd-could-have-all-new-model-in-the-works/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/09/01/zune-hd-could-have-all-new-model-in-the-works/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:53:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/01/zune-hd-could-have-all-new-model-in-the-works/
The Zune HD continues to rank among our all-time favorites in terms of industrial design, so it's good to hear that Microsoft isn't entirely abandoning the PMP sector for its new Windows Phone 7 hotness. Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet has consulted her tea leaves (and in-the-know tipsters) and emerged with the strong feeling that some new Zune hardware is brewing up in Redmond. Little specificity is available, beyond the obvious postulation that a new ZHD would probably be driven by an ARM CPU and take some software pointers from WP7, but we're told to look toward to the early 2011 horizon and see if we can't spot any sexy new media players emerging. A mirage is as likely as the real deal right now, but it's always fun to look to that horizon, no?

Zune HD could have all-new model in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  ZDNet  | Email this | Comments]]> The Zune HD continues to rank among our all-time favorites in terms of industrial design, so it's good to hear that Microsoft isn't entirely abandoning the PMP sector for its new Windows Phone 7 hotness. Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet has consulted her tea leaves (and in-the-know tipsters) and emerged with the strong feeling that some new Zune hardware is brewing up in Redmond. Little specificity is available, beyond the obvious postulation that a new ZHD would probably be driven by an ARM CPU and take some software pointers from WP7, but we're told to look toward to the early 2011 horizon and see if we can't spot any sexy new media players emerging. A mirage is as likely as the real deal right now, but it's always fun to look to that horizon, no?

Zune HD could have all-new model in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceZDNet  | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/09/01/zune-hd-could-have-all-new-model-in-the-works/feed/ 0 Switched On: ZuneForSure http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/08/07/switched-on-zuneforsure/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/08/07/switched-on-zuneforsure/#comments Sun, 08 Aug 2010 01:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/07/switched-on-zuneforsure/ Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The moon has only four major phases, but as the Zune -- that satellite around Microsoft's gravitational pull -- enters a familiar fifth phase, what some consider a pale reflection of the iPod has made few waves despite inspiring its share of romantics. Zune began as a new salvo against the iPod as Microsoft grew frustrated in its attempts to make inroads versus Apple's soaring digital media device with its abysmally named and convoluted PlaysForSure rights management scheme. PlaysForSure had actually achieved some level of acceptance on digital music players and even handsets, but as Steve Ballmer has explained, devices that sell in the tens of millions of units per year -- as opposed to hundreds of millions like PCs and handsets (Kin notwithstanding) -- can be a good opportunity for vertical integration of hardware and software.

And so was born Zune, welcoming us to the social with its chunky profile, brown color option, "double shot" facade and the quirky and later abandoned WiFi-based song-squirting sharing feature. Its next major iteration introduced the "squircle" -- a rounded square clickable trackpad that surpassed the click wheel just as Apple was gearing up for the game-changing iPod touch: strike two.

Continue reading Switched On: ZuneForSure

Switched On: ZuneForSure originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Aug 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The moon has only four major phases, but as the Zune -- that satellite around Microsoft's gravitational pull -- enters a familiar fifth phase, what some consider a pale reflection of the iPod has made few waves despite inspiring its share of romantics. Zune began as a new salvo against the iPod as Microsoft grew frustrated in its attempts to make inroads versus Apple's soaring digital media device with its abysmally named and convoluted PlaysForSure rights management scheme. PlaysForSure had actually achieved some level of acceptance on digital music players and even handsets, but as Steve Ballmer has explained, devices that sell in the tens of millions of units per year -- as opposed to hundreds of millions like PCs and handsets (Kin notwithstanding) -- can be a good opportunity for vertical integration of hardware and software.

And so was born Zune, welcoming us to the social with its chunky profile, brown color option, "double shot" facade and the quirky and later abandoned WiFi-based song-squirting sharing feature. Its next major iteration introduced the "squircle" -- a rounded square clickable trackpad that surpassed the click wheel just as Apple was gearing up for the game-changing iPod touch: strike two.

Continue reading Switched On: ZuneForSure

Switched On: ZuneForSure originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Aug 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/08/07/switched-on-zuneforsure/feed/ 0 Microsoft reports $4.5b in profit, a record $16.04b in revenue http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/22/microsoft-reports-4-5b-in-profit-a-record-16-04b-in-revenue/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/22/microsoft-reports-4-5b-in-profit-a-record-16-04b-in-revenue/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:14:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/22/microsoft-reports-4-5b-in-profit-a-sizable-increase-over-last/
This time last year, almost to the day, Microsoft saw its first annual sales decline in history. Things are looking much better now, with the company reporting a record $16.04 billion in revenue, a 22 percent year-over-year increase for its Q4 revenue ending June 30th. In fact, revenue is up across all divisions, with Windows and Windows Live seeing the biggest uptick (43.5 percent to $4.55 billion) followed by Entertainment and Devices (27.3 percent to $1.6 billion). Operating income, on the other hand, paints a different picture of E&D, showing a $172 million loss for this quarter (compared to $141 loss in Q4 last year), but looking over the entire fiscal year, the home of Xbox and Zune this year did $679 million in operating income -- a sizable jump to the $108 million from 2009. The overall operating income for the company is $5.93 billion this quarter (net income $4.52 billion), a 49 percent increase over last Q4, and $20.36 billion for the year (18 percent compared with fiscal 2009).

We know you're interested in comparisons, so we'll just go ahead and break it down for ya: the gang in Redmond is still beating Apple in both revenue ($16.04 billion vs. $15.7 billion) and profit ($4.52 billion vs. $3.25), but that margin feels smaller than it used to. Enough to keep the rumored pressure off Ballmer? Frankly, we don't even think biplanes could knock the man off the top of a tower, but Windows Phone 7 has a lot to prove, and fast. Microsoft is hosting a webcast of its report later today -- usually much ado about nothing, as far as we're concerned, but we'll listen in and let ya know if anything interesting pops up.

Update: Some interesting Xbox 360 statistics. 1.5 million consoles were sold this last quarter. Xbox Live has 25 million members, and for the first time since its inception, the revenue from the Marketplace exceeded subscription revenue.

Microsoft reports $4.5b in profit, a record $16.04b in revenue originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Microsoft  | Email this | Comments]]> This time last year, almost to the day, Microsoft saw its first annual sales decline in history. Things are looking much better now, with the company reporting a record $16.04 billion in revenue, a 22 percent year-over-year increase for its Q4 revenue ending June 30th. In fact, revenue is up across all divisions, with Windows and Windows Live seeing the biggest uptick (43.5 percent to $4.55 billion) followed by Entertainment and Devices (27.3 percent to $1.6 billion). Operating income, on the other hand, paints a different picture of E&D, showing a $172 million loss for this quarter (compared to $141 loss in Q4 last year), but looking over the entire fiscal year, the home of Xbox and Zune this year did $679 million in operating income -- a sizable jump to the $108 million from 2009. The overall operating income for the company is $5.93 billion this quarter (net income $4.52 billion), a 49 percent increase over last Q4, and $20.36 billion for the year (18 percent compared with fiscal 2009).

We know you're interested in comparisons, so we'll just go ahead and break it down for ya: the gang in Redmond is still beating Apple in both revenue ($16.04 billion vs. $15.7 billion) and profit ($4.52 billion vs. $3.25), but that margin feels smaller than it used to. Enough to keep the rumored pressure off Ballmer? Frankly, we don't even think biplanes could knock the man off the top of a tower, but Windows Phone 7 has a lot to prove, and fast. Microsoft is hosting a webcast of its report later today -- usually much ado about nothing, as far as we're concerned, but we'll listen in and let ya know if anything interesting pops up.

Update: Some interesting Xbox 360 statistics. 1.5 million consoles were sold this last quarter. Xbox Live has 25 million members, and for the first time since its inception, the revenue from the Marketplace exceeded subscription revenue.

Microsoft reports $4.5b in profit, a record $16.04b in revenue originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMicrosoft  | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/22/microsoft-reports-4-5b-in-profit-a-record-16-04b-in-revenue/feed/ 0 Zune Pass for UK gets briefly teased, priced? http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/18/zune-pass-for-uk-gets-briefly-teased-priced/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/18/zune-pass-for-uk-gets-briefly-teased-priced/#comments Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:24:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/18/zune-pass-for-uk-gets-briefly-teased-priced/
If the above picture is to be believed, it looks like Microsoft's Zune Pass is gearing up to make its UK debut. An across-the-pond tipster via LiveSide apparently stumbled upon (and was able to successfully score the 14-day trial) a Subscription page with pricing tiers. In addition to the tryout period, there were also options for a £8.99 (about $13.74) one-month pass and £26.97 / $41.23 for three. Further details are just barely hinted at in the sidebar, but if it's anything like the US progenitor, we're looking at an all-you-can download music service and ten DRM-free MP3s each month, playable on Windows, Xbox 360 (soon), Zune devices (still not available outside US), and Windows Phone 7. We know Microsoft is planning to move its "challenging" music service into every country its phones will venture, but that little tidbit doesn't absolve this image of scrutiny. Try as we might, our UK editors are unable to find this screen anywhere. According to the original tipster, even though he has access to the trial, he still can't use it. We'll keep digging and will let you know what we find.

[Thanks, Ian]

Zune Pass for UK gets briefly teased, priced? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Neowin  |  LiveSide  | Email this | Comments]]> If the above picture is to be believed, it looks like Microsoft's Zune Pass is gearing up to make its UK debut. An across-the-pond tipster via LiveSide apparently stumbled upon (and was able to successfully score the 14-day trial) a Subscription page with pricing tiers. In addition to the tryout period, there were also options for a £8.99 (about $13.74) one-month pass and £26.97 / $41.23 for three. Further details are just barely hinted at in the sidebar, but if it's anything like the US progenitor, we're looking at an all-you-can download music service and ten DRM-free MP3s each month, playable on Windows, Xbox 360 (soon), Zune devices (still not available outside US), and Windows Phone 7. We know Microsoft is planning to move its "challenging" music service into every country its phones will venture, but that little tidbit doesn't absolve this image of scrutiny. Try as we might, our UK editors are unable to find this screen anywhere. According to the original tipster, even though he has access to the trial, he still can't use it. We'll keep digging and will let you know what we find.

[Thanks, Ian]

Zune Pass for UK gets briefly teased, priced? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Neowin  |  sourceLiveSide  | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/18/zune-pass-for-uk-gets-briefly-teased-priced/feed/ 0 Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/11/entelligence-time-for-microsoft-to-once-again-embrace-and-extend/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/11/entelligence-time-for-microsoft-to-once-again-embrace-and-extend/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/11/entelligence-time-for-microsoft-to-once-again-embrace-and-exten/ Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

A core part of Microsoft's strategy from days gone by was known as embrace and extend. With a reboot of their mobile platform due later this year, is it time for Microsoft to think about moving some of their services and applications to competitor's platforms? To some degree, it's already happening. Microsoft licenses the ActiveSync protocol which allows Android, iOS and other platforms to wirelessly sync with Exchange. It's developed Bing and Live Messenger apps for iOS and also done a deal to bring mobile Office apps to Nokia's platforms. One could argue that in some of these cases Microsoft has given competitors access to what could have been key differentiators for its own mobile efforts. I'm not sure I disagree with that analysis, but now that it's happening, I think Microsoft should think even more broadly about porting some applications and services. Here's what I'd like to see made available for other platforms.

Office Mobile: Sure, there are other solutions for viewing and editing Office documents on almost every platform, but none of them carry the Microsoft Office brand. A version of Office for mobile (including a touch-enabled version of OneNote) would be an instant best seller on every platform and a become the de facto standard for mobile office applications. A combination of free document viewers and a suite of applications at a reasonable cost would put Microsoft at the top of mobile productivity and at the same time help continue to drive Office sales for PCs and Macs.

Continue reading Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend

Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

A core part of Microsoft's strategy from days gone by was known as embrace and extend. With a reboot of their mobile platform due later this year, is it time for Microsoft to think about moving some of their services and applications to competitor's platforms? To some degree, it's already happening. Microsoft licenses the ActiveSync protocol which allows Android, iOS and other platforms to wirelessly sync with Exchange. It's developed Bing and Live Messenger apps for iOS and also done a deal to bring mobile Office apps to Nokia's platforms. One could argue that in some of these cases Microsoft has given competitors access to what could have been key differentiators for its own mobile efforts. I'm not sure I disagree with that analysis, but now that it's happening, I think Microsoft should think even more broadly about porting some applications and services. Here's what I'd like to see made available for other platforms.

Office Mobile: Sure, there are other solutions for viewing and editing Office documents on almost every platform, but none of them carry the Microsoft Office brand. A version of Office for mobile (including a touch-enabled version of OneNote) would be an instant best seller on every platform and a become the de facto standard for mobile office applications. A combination of free document viewers and a suite of applications at a reasonable cost would put Microsoft at the top of mobile productivity and at the same time help continue to drive Office sales for PCs and Macs.

Continue reading Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend

Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/07/11/entelligence-time-for-microsoft-to-once-again-embrace-and-extend/feed/ 0 Bing Entertainment integrates Zune Marketplace purchases, improves Microsoft’s media swagger http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/23/bing-entertainment-integrates-zune-marketplace-purchases-improves-microsofts-media-swagger/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/23/bing-entertainment-integrates-zune-marketplace-purchases-improves-microsofts-media-swagger/#comments Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:54:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/23/bing-entertainment-integrates-zune-marketplace-purchases-improv/
Bing, Microsoft's "decision engine," is wading into the entertainment realm today with the revelation that searches for music, lyrics, games, TV shows, and movies will get a new special sauce treatment from here on out. You'll now be able to play 100 basic games right in your search results, along with full-length streaming of songs (first time only, 30 seconds thereafter) from a 5 million-strong catalog. The latter is augmented with "one-click" purchases from the Zune Marketplace (directly through the web, no need to launch the app), Amazon, or iTunes music libraries. Movie tickets are promised to be similarly easy to buy, though the biggest new feature might well be the Bing.com/entertainment page, which acts as a portal into your media consumption with a selection of the most popular content in each category. It doesn't look terribly different from the iTunes storefront, but given its partnership with Apple's digital music shop, we doubt Bing's Entertainment section is perceived as much of a threat -- not yet, anyway. As to that other search giant, Google's been said to already be putting together a music store of its own. Man, all this integration and interconnectedness -- just where will it end?

Gallery: Bing Entertainment

Continue reading Bing Entertainment integrates Zune Marketplace purchases, improves Microsoft's media swagger

Bing Entertainment integrates Zune Marketplace purchases, improves Microsoft's media swagger originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> Bing, Microsoft's "decision engine," is wading into the entertainment realm today with the revelation that searches for music, lyrics, games, TV shows, and movies will get a new special sauce treatment from here on out. You'll now be able to play 100 basic games right in your search results, along with full-length streaming of songs (first time only, 30 seconds thereafter) from a 5 million-strong catalog. The latter is augmented with "one-click" purchases from the Zune Marketplace (directly through the web, no need to launch the app), Amazon, or iTunes music libraries. Movie tickets are promised to be similarly easy to buy, though the biggest new feature might well be the Bing.com/entertainment page, which acts as a portal into your media consumption with a selection of the most popular content in each category. It doesn't look terribly different from the iTunes storefront, but given its partnership with Apple's digital music shop, we doubt Bing's Entertainment section is perceived as much of a threat -- not yet, anyway. As to that other search giant, Google's been said to already be putting together a music store of its own. Man, all this integration and interconnectedness -- just where will it end?

Gallery: Bing Entertainment

Continue reading Bing Entertainment integrates Zune Marketplace purchases, improves Microsoft's media swagger

Bing Entertainment integrates Zune Marketplace purchases, improves Microsoft's media swagger originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/23/bing-entertainment-integrates-zune-marketplace-purchases-improves-microsofts-media-swagger/feed/ 0 Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/15/kinect-optimized-xbox-360-dashboard-preview/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/15/kinect-optimized-xbox-360-dashboard-preview/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:27:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/15/kinect-optimized-xbox-360-dashboard-preview/
We just got a look at the new Kinect Dashboard-lite for the Xbox 360. In some ways, it's pretty charming, with fun, jazzed up icons (when you hover over them they tilt and show off depth), a simplistic layout, and some great voice controls. The downside is this all comes at the cost of a brand new, fairly redundant interface for accessing functions that are already available with your Xbox 360 controller in the regular Dashboard. Still, there's no denying the joy of waving a hand to log in, hovering over icons to select channels (though the wait-to-click mechanism strikes us as eventually frustrating), and scrubbing through media with very intuitive gestures.

The best part is the voice control, however, allowing you to speak "Xbox" and then a command like play, pause, back, forward, stop, Zune, etc. It's ripe for abuse (pausing your S.O.'s seventh Netflix screening of The Constant Gardner ad nauseam), but Microsoft says it's working on eliminating random commands that might seep into conversation. Our biggest worry is that we're going to see confusion and fragmentation of functionality with the divergent UI requirements that Kinect apps and regular Dashboard apps require -- we can't imagine the Facebook or Last.fm folks being super thrilled at creating an all-new app just to support Microsoft's whims, but we're told just such apps are in the works. Is the existing Dashboard really so complicated that Kinect couldn't control it? Check out a video of this puzzling Kinectasticness after the break.

Gallery: E3 2010 - Kinect Interface preview

Continue reading Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview

Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> We just got a look at the new Kinect Dashboard-lite for the Xbox 360. In some ways, it's pretty charming, with fun, jazzed up icons (when you hover over them they tilt and show off depth), a simplistic layout, and some great voice controls. The downside is this all comes at the cost of a brand new, fairly redundant interface for accessing functions that are already available with your Xbox 360 controller in the regular Dashboard. Still, there's no denying the joy of waving a hand to log in, hovering over icons to select channels (though the wait-to-click mechanism strikes us as eventually frustrating), and scrubbing through media with very intuitive gestures.

The best part is the voice control, however, allowing you to speak "Xbox" and then a command like play, pause, back, forward, stop, Zune, etc. It's ripe for abuse (pausing your S.O.'s seventh Netflix screening of The Constant Gardner ad nauseam), but Microsoft says it's working on eliminating random commands that might seep into conversation. Our biggest worry is that we're going to see confusion and fragmentation of functionality with the divergent UI requirements that Kinect apps and regular Dashboard apps require -- we can't imagine the Facebook or Last.fm folks being super thrilled at creating an all-new app just to support Microsoft's whims, but we're told just such apps are in the works. Is the existing Dashboard really so complicated that Kinect couldn't control it? Check out a video of this puzzling Kinectasticness after the break.

Gallery: E3 2010 - Kinect Interface preview

Continue reading Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview

Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/15/kinect-optimized-xbox-360-dashboard-preview/feed/ 0 Kinect, the new Xbox 360, and ESPN: highlights from Microsoft at E3 2010 http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/14/kinect-the-new-xbox-360-and-espn-highlights-from-microsoft-at-e3-2010/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/14/kinect-the-new-xbox-360-and-espn-highlights-from-microsoft-at-e3-2010/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:13:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/14/kinect-the-new-xbox-360-and-espn-highlights-from-microsofts/
My, what big showing you have there, Microsoft. We're still recovering from today and yesterday's big Xbox 360 Kinect unveiling party, but let's take a brief trip down short-term memory lane. First, Project Natal became Kinect, unveiled a handful of interesting / guaranteed-to-embarrass uses, and solidified its November release date. Then ESPN3 made an impressive debut on Xbox Live. Finally, the piece de resistance, a slimmed down Xbox 360 250GB that came (almost) out of nowhere and hits retail as soon as physically possible. Everywhere Microsoft was this past 24 hours, so were we:

Liveblog
The new, slim Xbox 360
Kinect
Other news of import
Galleries

Continue reading Kinect, the new Xbox 360, and ESPN: highlights from Microsoft at E3 2010

Kinect, the new Xbox 360, and ESPN: highlights from Microsoft at E3 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> My, what big showing you have there, Microsoft. We're still recovering from today and yesterday's big Xbox 360 Kinect unveiling party, but let's take a brief trip down short-term memory lane. First, Project Natal became Kinect, unveiled a handful of interesting / guaranteed-to-embarrass uses, and solidified its November release date. Then ESPN3 made an impressive debut on Xbox Live. Finally, the piece de resistance, a slimmed down Xbox 360 250GB that came (almost) out of nowhere and hits retail as soon as physically possible. Everywhere Microsoft was this past 24 hours, so were we:

Liveblog
The new, slim Xbox 360
Kinect
Other news of import
Galleries

Continue reading Kinect, the new Xbox 360, and ESPN: highlights from Microsoft at E3 2010

Kinect, the new Xbox 360, and ESPN: highlights from Microsoft at E3 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/14/kinect-the-new-xbox-360-and-espn-highlights-from-microsoft-at-e3-2010/feed/ 0 Zune music heads to Xbox 360 http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/14/zune-music-heads-to-xbox-360/ http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/14/zune-music-heads-to-xbox-360/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:17:00 +0000 admin http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/14/zune-music-heads-to-xbox-360/
Digg this!
It's not all games and motion control for Microsoft at E3 this year-- the company has just announced that the complete library of Zune music is joining the video options already available on the Xbox 360. Details are still a bit light otherwise, but you can rest assured that it's both Kinect and Bieber compatible.

Update: Microsoft has now at least revealed a few more details, confirming that Zune Pass subscribers will have on-demand, instant streaming access to a full seven million tracks, and that the service will "seamlessly" integrate with the 16,000 music videos already available on Xbox Live -- if you own a video, it'll automatically start playing during the corresponding song.

Zune music heads to Xbox 360 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> Digg this!
It's not all games and motion control for Microsoft at E3 this year-- the company has just announced that the complete library of Zune music is joining the video options already available on the Xbox 360. Details are still a bit light otherwise, but you can rest assured that it's both Kinect and Bieber compatible.

Update: Microsoft has now at least revealed a few more details, confirming that Zune Pass subscribers will have on-demand, instant streaming access to a full seven million tracks, and that the service will "seamlessly" integrate with the 16,000 music videos already available on Xbox Live -- if you own a video, it'll automatically start playing during the corresponding song.

Zune music heads to Xbox 360 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.web-buzz.info/2010/06/14/zune-music-heads-to-xbox-360/feed/ 0