Xbox 360

After 6 months of bothering Microsoft they finally agreed to fix my defective Xbox 360 for free. They sent me a box, i shipped it to them, and they shipped me a new 360 instead of fixing mine. I was like, that’s cool.. So I plug it in, and I start checking out the Vista MCE feature on it then I go to bed at some point. The next day I wake up and the 360 is giving me the 3 blinking red lights of death. Long story short, my new 360 worked for less than one day, and then had a hardware failure.

 

I am waiting for the next box to show up still.

Microsoft to start its own chip design lab for new xbox

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/21/microsoft-to-start-its-own-chip-design-lab-for-new-xbox/

Microsoft is opening it’s own hardware outfit that will design chips for future 360’s or 720’s??. I wonder how much crucial knowledge they gained from working with IBM on how to create chips that run games smooth. I know they won’t be able to make their own GPU’s and with the consolodation happening in the chip outfits they are probably trying to avoid future price hikes.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Microsoft start producing other items like it’s Zune music player if it doesn’t flop.

The Microsoft Hyper Release Schedule is Speeding Up

First of all, great job to everyone on the Live.com, both Windows and Xbox, we are starting to see some major output from both teams, and more importantly, it’s all coming at faster release cycles and is forward thinking than some other offerings. (not to mention the delays in some units.)

 

Crossing the two messenger services together are a logical but very important step for the Live Network to be the social networks. By combining messenger and xbox live you’re making a nice gimick for gameplay (finish the game on the cell phone later) and by leveraging two existing services, you’re adding value to both future customers and only doing a bit of work.

 

The Social network of tomorrow consists of people paying a monthly fee to Microsoft for premium live services which has so much cross platform value propositions, making it more attractive. SOE is going to be dwarfed by the Microsoft Platnium service of tomorrow. I always hear about how leveraging products together with a monopoly proven product is illegal, but never the logic behind it–that ads value to the customer. The important part here is that by combining two services together you are creating twofold value which is convient to the customer

 

All inegrated in one account you will get:

Xbox Platnium: An all Access service package.  Think SOE Premium Station pass.

Xbox Live: Access to the core services and many free upgrades.

Messenger Live: Connected with Xbox Live

Conferencing and social network enhancements for the personal and work from home type. (VPN support someday?)

Xbox is going to have some Cross platform MMO offerings. Vanguard just left, most likely because they were going to force Sigil to launch Vanguard Saga of Heros on Vista only machines. (not good, Microsoft should be thinking MMO station type pass that ads value to it’s live chane, and not worried about adding more value to Vista which–let’s face it–is going to fly off shelves and be the top dollar maker for you next year. Office will be next padding pockets.

Xbox-MTV-WMP offering. I don’t know much about Urge yet but this will be wrapped up with Xbox at some point and WMP on the desktop.

 

/o, this is Microsoft’s answer to Google-Apple Ipod/Itunes-Sony-SOE

 

Two quick words of advice:

Make a light version of live for older laptops that some of use still have. Load time freezes my browser some times.

First easy step for Xbox-Windows service merge is to get my user pic’s combined. I still have the dog face on Windows and the Xbox live service has my Oblivion hero logo as my user pic. (I know you don’t want to undercut web cam sales but do it after.)

 

Back to the good stuff, the web cam is not the perfect tool that adds value especially for the work at home types who might have a low key conference they want to have with a possible business partner or customer. These Dad’s will be "getting their kids" an 360 for Christmas.At any rate, get the darn Vista on time and looking great, get live.com tweaked out more in time for it’s vistor boom and keep it up. HD-DVD will defintely be on my list if it’s at 200. At 250, you’ll be losing my business in new games.

 

Time to get back to work!

 

 

360voice.com lets you blog from your Xbox 360! Sweet!!

Just an update on this, Microsoft’s most read blogger, Robert scoble blogged about me calling him, and it’s a shame I was blogging too late at night, because if I would have investigated the service a bit more, I would have noticed that the blogging is limited to just a log of what you have done on your 360. Technically, it’s a web log directly from the 360, but it’s not a great way to discribe what’s happening.  I’d love to see the ability to do Podcasts from your 360 and then link them from your blog, or on it’s own blog, or voice-text engine would be sweet. I’ll keep an eye on future improvements and hopefully there are some nice announcements around the xbox 360 starting Monday. (E3 starts) 

 

 

Who cares if Vista is going to be delayed, I’m going to be blogging with my feet kicked up on the couch soon!! I just now found this:  I’ll do a lenthy review once I learn more. I am so pumped about this! This is going to take podcasting to the next level! Or maybe we can call it 360casting! I am pretty sure Scoble hasn’t seen this yet, so I am going to drop him a line and see what he thinks!

 

Here is my 360blog. I have been wanting to blog about gaming for quite some time, now I will.  This falls in line with some stuff I suggested the live team a while ago. I can’t wait for the ability to consume RSS on the 360, without MCE 2K5. Imagine learning that Scoble or another favorite blogger of yours just posted a new message when your 360 gives you a popup letting you know, much like it currently lets you know about friends signing on. The possibilities go even further if you give it thought..

 

Get the feed to my 360 blog here: http://www.360voice.com/rss.asp?tag=mystopas

 

Update: I just called Robert Scoble to let him know about this, I told him I was waiting on a reason to actually call him.  (I think it’s cool that he has his phone number on his blog) He didn’t know about this ability yet so I am glad I did! He says he will be blogging about it when he gets home (iin an hour)

 

One last thing… I can’t wait to see what will be born at xbox.live.com. If you combine the talents of these two teams I think you come up with something so great, you have to turn your computer off.

 

Update 2. Oh, the service doesn’t look like a full blown blogger–more like an activity log-I am really sleepy so I’ll check it out tomorrow.

Microsoft says they will sell a million Xbox 360’s a month for the next three months.

Cnet:

"We think through the first 90 days of launch…we expect to have sold 2.75 (million) to 3 million consoles worldwide," said Bryan Lee, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s Home and Entertainment unit. Lee’s comments came as part of a speech at the Harris Nesbitt Media & Entertainment Conference in New York. Lee said the prediction should translate to about $1.5 billion in sales of Xbox devices, games and accessories during that period.

Microsoft plans to launch the Xbox 360 in the U.S. on Nov. 22. The company will follow up quickly elsewhere in the world, with the goal to have devices on store shelves in Europe on Dec. 2 and in Japan on Dec. 10.

I simply have to wait until they get their next gen HD into these units before I buy one. There is nothing more annoying than yet another component, in my living room. I can’t wait though, and I hope it’s soon. Bah, who knows, maybe I’ll get one if they come down in price.