Tag Archives: Microsoft

With Microsoft’s Zune Gone , Here Comes Woodstock!

26 Apr

Microsoft will offer a sneak peek at its Zune replacement during E3 2012, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The new music service, codenamed Woodstock, will continue Microsoft’s shift away from the Zune brand towards the well known Xbox one. Insiders have revealed to us that Woodstock will be a cross-platform play, available to Windows 8, Android, iOS, and Xbox users — playable from a browser.

Previously described as “Spotify-like”, the service won’t require any browser plugins and is said to integrate deeply with Facebook, allowing friends to build group playlists and share tracks. An additional “scan and match” function, similar to iTunes Match, is also being tested as part of Woodstock to allow users to identify their existing music collection in the service. Although Microsoft will preview the service at E3 — barring any last-minute changes in its plans, of course — it is not expected to launch until later this year alongside Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices.

 

via Exclusive: Microsoft to preview ‘Woodstock’ Xbox music service at E3 | The Verge.

What Do You Get When You Combine A Kinect With A Shopping Cart?

28 Feb

Kinect Shopping Cart

This.

The quest for a high-tech “shopping cart of the future” is nothing new, but Whole Foods is planning to test a new spin on the concept, using Microsoft’s Kinect sensor for Windows. The motorized cart identifies a shopper with a loyalty card, follows the shopper around the store, scans items as they’re placed inside, marks them off the shopping list, and even checks the shopper out in the end.

Microsoft showed the very early prototype, being developed for Whole Foods by a third-party developer, Austin-based Chaotic Moon, during an event on the Redmond campus today, hosted by Craig Mundie, the company’s chief research and strategy officer.

The company says the project is literally weeks old, and that was apparent in the demo, which included a couple of false starts where the sensor didn’t precisely the shopper. The technology will need to be ironed out before it’s deployed, lest our shopping trips turn into destruction derbies.

But it’s an interesting application that shows what outside developers can do now that a Kinect software development kit has been released for Windows, expanding the sensor beyond the Xbox 360 game console.

via Whole Foods prototype puts Kinect on shopping cart, follows people around store – GeekWire.

Xbox Boss Starts New Game Company

5 Feb

Xbox

Seamus Blackley, the co-creator of the Xbox, passionately believes that gameplay will triumph in the game business. That is why he and his new startup are relying on a team of famous designers from Atari to make a series of games for the Apple iPhone and iPad.

The idea that he and his partner, chief executive Van Burnham, have dreamed up is to use the creators of the best arcade experiences from the golden age of Atari in the 1970s and 1980s to create games for the “new arcade” on iOS devices.

“We are looking at the new arcade, and 99 cents on the iPhone is the new quarter,” Blackley (pictured above), president of the startup Innovative Leisure, said in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “People are playing on all these new devices and are finding the joy of the arcade games.”

via Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley launches mobile-game startup with Atari arcade veterans | VentureBeat.

Next XBox May Not Be Available Until Late 2013

25 Jan

Next XBox May Not Be Available Until Late 2013

According to IGN, sources close to the next Xbox project have told them the new console will have six times the graphics processing power of the Xbox 360, and will have 20 percent more performance than Nintendo’s Will U.

Sounds pretty awesome right? Too bad it’s not expected to ship until October or November of 2013.

via The Next Xbox Could Be Six Times As Powerful.

Don’t Feel So Bad For Microsoft – The Xbox Ruled In 2011

13 Jan

Don't Feel So Bad For Microsoft. The Xbox Thrived In 2011

Microsoft dominated the videogame industry last year, with the Xbox capturing nearly half of all consumer spending from physical sales in 2011.

According to NPD data released today, about $6.7 billion, or 40 percent of consumer retail spending, was spent on the Xbox, breaking down into two categories: $2.1 billion on consoles and $4.6 billion on games.

The figures take into account U.S. retail sales of new physical videogame content, including portable and console hardware, games and accessories.

In all, those sectors generated revenue of $17.02 billion in 2011, an 8 percent decline over the $18.6 billion generated last year. (Yes, I repeat, Microsoft got 40 percent of that in 2011.)

via Xbox Accounted for 40 Percent of All Videogame Sales in 2011 – Tricia Duryee – Commerce – AllThingsD.

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