April 2007 - Posts
David Becker of Wired posted some of the lamest technology mascots of all time. To quote:
Creatures such as Tux the penguin have become bizarrely treasured icons, while others, such as recent roadside-autopsy subject Jeeves, are better off in the hereafter. And some, such as the freakishly terrifying jester touting Adobe's new Creative Suite 3, are an indication that vector-based illustration software should probably come with consumer warning labels, just like those found on drugs, circular saws and guns. From the charmingly pixelated to the hideously misguided, join us on a tour of the good, the bad and the ridiculously lame of technology mascots.
Clippy is a natural, but I have to say my favorite is Apple's Clarus the Dogcow:
Apple introduced this comically bitmapped mammal in 1983 as a way to show paper orientation before printing. The unholy hybrid has since inspired a loyal cult following with numerous web shrines, movies and signature cries of "Moof!"
Go Dogcow!
Some interesting news on the net this weekend about Walmart apparently placing a two million unit order for HD-DVD players (worth USD$100 million). Assuming those numbers are correct, Walmart's cost per player is about $50 each. According to the articles, a possible retail price for this holiday is $299, but there's a lot of speculation that it could be as low as $199.
Assuming all the above is true, the news is a pretty significant blow for Blu-Ray. When you look at stand-alone player sales (excluding PS3), Blu-Ray and HD-DVD unit sales are roughly equivalent. Sony likes to tout every additional PS3 as being yet another Blu-Ray player on the market - while there's some truth to that, it's also extremely unclear whether or not those PS3s are being used primarily for movie playback, or for games. Even if you posit every PS3 in consumers' hands is being used as an HD movie playback device, the price point is still incredibly limiting. And with stand-alone Blu-ray players still costing around $800 today, it's hard to imagine the price dropping to below $400 by holiday. A $299-$199 stand-alone HD-DVD player could well be what tips the masses to one format over another. (The availability of pornography may well be another.)
I've said before that I believe HD-DVD will end up "winning" this particular format war (pyrrhic victory it well might be). When we look back at the end of the year I suspect this will be one of the major inflection points.
[Edit - looks like there may be translation confusion - so we need to wait for clarification. From Engadget:
Pull back the reigns [sic] HD DVD fanboys, Akihabara now says that they've made a "huge mistake" with their translation: the original source called it "藍光 HD DVD and 藍光 means Blu-RAY." In other words, Blu-ray HD DVD. Huh? Word to the wise: since both formats use blue lasers, it's best to wait for an English press release before either camp celebrates.
Thanks to "ericdrum" for the catch!]
Saw an update from Compete (a company that tracks and analyzes online store searches to understand consumer demand). This time they're focusing on the Elite SKU, and asking the question of whether there's market demand for it. The whole article is interesting, so head over and take a read. But I'll pull a couple of interesting charts.
The first shows that Wii continues to be most sought after console, though its launch numbers have come down (as would be expected). It also shows that PS3 demand is declining month to month (also confirmed by the latest NPD numbers). Makes it all the more likely we'll be seeing a price cut this year. In general, all the platforms (including the 360) are holding relatively steady as we'd expect for spring months.
What's more interesting to me is a chart showing online retail demand for the Elite system as compared to different 360 SKUs/bundles. Remember, the Elite isn't even out yet, so this shows pre-order demand only - we'll need to see how that translates into real sales once available.
Most interesting to me is that it appears the Elite may be driving incremental shoppers to 360. To quote:
Interestingly, the Elite launch has driven incremental shoppers to the 360 brand. Looking at the aggregated** total shoppers, there has apparently been very little overlap elite shoppers and bundle or “lesser system” shoppers.
** Aggregated 360 demand measures the total number of shoppers for a 360, regardless of overlap: If someone shopped both a 360 Elite and a Bundle, they would only be counted once.
Although we'll have to see how many Elite purchasers are upgraders vs. people who have been waiting on the sidelines, the idea that the total market might be expanding is exciting. That's good for everyone, whatever platform you might care to hang your hat on!
Wanted to point you to some interesting new Microsoft technology - a high-capacity color barcode that can hold up to 3,500 characters of information. The BBC has a good summary, but I'll give you a quick quote here:
The code is made up of up to eight-different coloured triangles which are aligned left to right with each shape placed from point to base or vice versa.
That combination of colours and orientation of the triangles creates distinct patterns which can be read by piece of software which deciphers the data.
ISAN, the voluntary numbering system for the identification of audiovisual works, is the first organisation to license the technology.
By the end of the year the colour barcodes will appear on DVD disks and on Xbox 360 videogames.
Up to 3,500 characters of information can be held in the code.
Because the barcode can be read by mobile phone cameras it can be used to connect the packaging to the online world.
What's interesting about this is it's a way to tie physical objects to your online world. Nintendo has done similar things before with the Game Boy Advance e-Reader that allowed you to scan barcodes (which in turn unlocked game content). What's different about this new barcode is that we can store a lot more information (almost 3.5 Kb of data), and you won't necessarily need special hardware to read the code. A simple cell phone picture uploaded to the LIVE cloud might be all it takes to enable all sorts of new game scenarios.
You can imagine rare objects or limited edition content that comes with your game (with one-time use codes). Or games that allow you to trade physical objects but be able to take advantage of them in game scenarios. I love that the sample art is of Viva Pinata - imagine getting rare pinatas and trading them across LIVE.
I know there have been variants of this concept before, but I'm hoping a combination of the amount of data that can be stored and the ubiquity of connected devices like cell phones means this actually takes off and enables some new game scenarios. Oh, and don't mistake the data size as being too small - you're not going to be storing huge textures in that, but developers are very familiar with tokenizing their data and you'd be surprised how much you can do in ~3.5 Kb.
Just saw this over on Kotaku - a flashback to the Atari 2600 days when you'd have to document your video game successes with a camera (film, no less!) and send off a picture to prove it. Activision used to send out patches as a reward. Obviously different than Achievements today as it's not integrated into the gameplay experience or system, but pretty cool nonetheless!
Just a quick post to
share a link to a guy who took the guts of a PS3 controller and somehow made them fit in an Xbox 360 controller. In other words, you end up with a PS3 controller with Xbox 360 controller ergonomics. Not sure why people just don't want to wait until the rumored PS3 rumble controllers come out, but it's nice to see someone who really, really likes the 360 controller.
Yep, as you probably saw around the web we have a new Dash update coming down the pipe for the Xbox 360. Lots of new features - I'll point you to Major Nelson's link for all the in-depth details, but will crib a bit of his text below:
- The redesigned Achievement notification pop-up (toast) will show the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value. You’ll see this information the moment you earn an achievement. No more popping open the guide and interrupting your gameplay. (screenshot)
- Enhanced family settings features for Xbox LIVE communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
- A new Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade lets Xbox LIVE members access the content they seek - whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States) - from one place.
- Updates to Xbox LIVE Arcade allow owners to see which Xbox LIVE Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox LIVE members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. The Tell a Friend capabilities have been expanded as well.
- A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox LIVE Arcade games.
- New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
- Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.
Probably the most exciting aspect to me is the Live Messenger integration (the artist formerly known as MSN Messenger), as well as the release of a TID (or Text Input Device - we're nothing if not clever when it comes to naming peripherals!) Remember my earlier post on "Live Anywhere?" With this Dash release and the upcoming release of the first titles using Games for Windows - LIVE, we're well on the way to delivering this vision. Looking forward to what you all think!
Oh, and before I go, a quick pic (again, with thanks to Major Nelson). For what it's worth, the TID looks just like the picture and feels great - light but solid, with great tactile feedback on the keys. I'm also able to type on it pretty easily, and I can't say that for other mini keyboards (as I have fat fingers). I think you'll like it.
Just had to share, especially as a co-worker forward it along with the following embedded image:
My favorite quote? 
Each Achievement earns you a little icon and a number of points to add to your Gamerscore, which is visible to everyone on Xbox Live.
So, in essence, a Gamerscore is a numeric indicator of how you've squandered your life. When you're on your deathbed, instead of having to agonize over each poor choice and missed opportunity in your life, you can just check your Gamerscore. "199,970 points," you'll scream, gripping the bed frame with the last of your strength. "I lived a hollow pastiche of an existence!"
Of course, at the same time you'll be wishing you'd fixed 50 zippers in Sewing Cop 4023, because then you'd have an even 200 grand. Such is the honeyed agony of Gamerscore.
Sony is threatening to go one further with the game awards on the PlayStation 3. The awards will take the form of virtual trophies you can put on your shelves in your online 3-D gamer home.
So, follow along here: There's going to be an imaginary world in which I have an imaginary house where I will put the imaginary awards I won performing imaginary tasks as an imaginary person in a completely different imaginary world. So if you're wondering what separates a hobby from psychosis, the answer is "about 600 bucks."
Just wanted to pass on some Xbox 360 warranty enhancements that have been recently made. We previously announced that the 360's warranty had been expanded from 90 days to one year in the US and Canada. What I had been bummed about was that we were charging for shipping a broken 360 back to MS. My personal opinion was that that was a bit of salt in the wound.
All hardware has issues (and I know there's a vocal group on the net who believe the 360 has its share). While I actually don't believe the issues are any greater than average, I did think we should take care of shipping. Looks like we're doing the right thing there now.
Other niceities from the link above - a commitment to repair and return within five business days, and a build out of customer service representatives to handle handle calls. The most interesting aspect in my eye is that we're also hiring a customer care champion who will be evaluating the end-to-end experience of customer service and support. Don't underestimate this - from working inside Microsoft I can tell you that this is an attempt to have completely focused resources on the problem, including tracking, reporting, and eventual resolution. Time will tell, but I think people are going to be a lot happier in the coming months if they have any issues.