The future of Xbox One: early access gaming, Cortana and more
Since the Xbox One launched last November, Microsoft’s latest game console has changed pretty dramatically. From “going all-in” on Kinect to offering a camera-less $400 model; from focused on TV and home entertainment to appealing directly to “core” gamers. The last year for Microsoft’s Xbox division has been one massive pivot. The future sounds brighter.
You’ve already read about the updates coming to Xbox One this fall. What about beyond that? Head of Xbox Phil Spencer offered us some possibilities in an interview this week at Gamescom 2014. What about, say, a version of Steam’s massively popular Early Access program, which enables developers to release games still in development and gamers to participate in the development process? “I think it does make sense. I think we have to land it the right way on console,” Spencer told us. That’s certainly a start!
On Valve’s hugely popular Steam service, people can buy and play games that range from barely playable to nearly done. It’s a system that works especially well on PC — Steam’s main customer base — because PC gamers are more used to dealing with technical complications. On game consoles, there’s an expectation of ease of use. There’s also a guarantee of functionality. “There’s a certain bar that we want to keep on consoles because of the nature of who plays on a console,” Spencer said. “The model itself I think does make sense. I think we probably just wanna model it a little bit differently.”
So, what would something like Early Access look like on Xbox One?
“The fact that we exist on both Windows and on a console could make it a strength of ours in the long run,” Spencer said. In so many words, because of the Windows side of Microsoft, the service and its games could first exist in the PC world before making the jump to Xbox One in a more stable state. “So it starts in one space and kind of graduates up,” Spencer said. “Maybe early access starts on PC, but it’s targeting the main console customer.”
It’s also a question of Microsoft depending on its relationships with game developers to know which games are more likely to succeed in such an environment. I offered the example of Vlambeer’s Nuclear Throne, a game that’s been available on Steam’s Early Access for months, with weekly updates and development livestreams demonstrating the impact the game’s community has had on the game itself.
“Vlambeer is different. We know them,” Spencer said. “But it could be ‘Vlambo,’ and we don’t know them. And you’re like, ‘Okay, is this real; is it not real?’ I think there’s a certain bar that we want to keep on consoles because of the nature of who plays on a console.” The company’s indie game program, ID@Xbox, could help in the vetting process; dozens of indie devs and their studios are already registered through the program.
CORTANA
Phones, tablets, computers and even televisions all offer a basic level of day-to-day information: weather, traffic, stock info, news headlines, etc. Despite Xbox One’s intention to act as a living room hub — from “waking” the console with your voice to including an HDMI-in port for television viewing — it’s still missing the vital, basic information that far older technology delivered long ago.
It still feels magical every time Google Now tells me (without asking) about an upcoming flight, or the traffic on my commute, or some other helpful life information. Why doesn’t that exist on the Xbox One dashboard? Hell, why isn’t Windows Phone personal assistant program, Cortana, on the Xbox One? It’s even named after a character from Halo!
“I think we get permission to do that as we succeed as a gaming console,” Spencer said. The Xbox pivot isn’t over, clearly, and Spencer and co. are still worried about alienating the Xbox “core” audience in favor of the general public. “It makes sense that I can get up in the morning and say ‘Xbox, what’s the traffic’ and it brings up something that shows my commute in the morning,” Spencer said. “That all makes sense to me in the long run.”
That last bit — “in the long run” — is important. He repeatedly stressed that, despite already having discussed a variety of additions to Xbox One functionality (from Early Access-like games to alternate voice control inputs to Cortana), time is the primary lacking resource. “I think there’s a ton of opportunity,” he said. “Time is in precious quantity when we’re talking about those scenarios.”
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Microsoft
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Amazon’s quietly doubled the storage on its Paperwhite e-reader
Head on over to the Amazon product page for the Kindle Paperwhite and you may spot the message telling you that there’s a newer version of the glow-in-the-dark e-reader available. That’s because the retailer has quietly doubled the internal storage of the device from 2GB on the 2013 model to 4GB on this year’s edition. In a statement to our friends over at The Digital Reader, the bookseller admitted that the storage had increased, but that it doesn’t consider this new Paperwhite to be a new product. So, if you were finding that 2GB simply wasn’t enough to hold your enormous e-book collection, you know where to go.
Filed under: Amazon
Via: The Digital Reader
Source: Amazon (Kindle Paperwhite 2013), Amazon (Kindle Paperwhite 2014)
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Sprint CEO: New rate plans will be “simple, attractive, and very disruptive”
New Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure is ready to hit the ground running. Speaking at a company town hall meeting yesterday, Claure said his first step will be to slash prices for its rate plans as soon as this coming week. Reportedly, the new plans will be “very disruptive” and will give consumers pause when considering another… Read more »
The post Sprint CEO: New rate plans will be “simple, attractive, and very disruptive” appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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Barnes & Noble teases its Samsung-made tablet
In order to save cash, Barnes & Noble decided to kill off its homegrown line of Nook tablets, and just asked Samsung to rebrand a Galaxy Tab instead. We’ve already seen images of the elegantly-named 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, but in a new video, discovered by The Digital Reader, the bookseller asks Nook-owning customers to give the device a spin. The company even recruited Grumpy Cat to glare disapprovingly at the hardware, albeit with the caption “I don’t hate it.” Given that it’s less than a week before the company’s glitzy New York launch, it won’t be long before we can get the slate into our testing labs and work out if it’s as good as those passionate Nook fans — who were paid with a new Nook for their time — say it is.
Via: The Digital Reader
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This app does pillow talk so you don’t have to
Just for a second, let’s imagine that your ultimate sexual fantasy is to be doused in custard while standing on a salmon as you hum the Timesteps symphony from A Clockwork Orange. It’s left-field, we admit, but we won’t judge. The question is, how would you go about telling your partner or partners about such a fantasy? After all, unless you’re very confident about their reaction, telling them during a Saturday morning lie-in might cause howls of anger or derision. That’s why a German startup has built UnderCovers, an app that is designed to help couples who, for whatever reason, might struggle to communicate their innermost desires to one another.
It’s designed to work a little bit like Tinder, in so much that there are 99 special interests grouped beneath headers such as group sex, voyeurism, BDSM, roleplaying and “Gimmicks,” an odd list that includes making love on a washing machine during a spin cycle. At the presentation of each fantasy, you can say that you’d like to try it, you’d do it for your other half, or drop a big “X” onto it if it’s not your bag at all. Once both of you have entered your fantasies, it’ll list only the ones where you’ve both agreed to it, which should serve as something of an icebreaker in a delicate situation. The creators have also thought about privacy, so rather than asking for your phone number or Facebook profile, a randomly generated unique identifier code is all that’s stored on the app. It’s available for both Android and iOS devices, although we can’t guarantee that the fantasy mentioned in the first paragraph is on the list, we’re sure the developers could add it in a future update.
[Image credit: Alamy]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software
Source: App Store, Google Play, Undercovers
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Hackers transform a smartphone gyroscope into an always-on microphone
Apps that use your smartphone’s microphone need to ask permission, but the motion sensors? No say-so needed. That might not sound like a big deal, but security researchers from Stanford University and defense firm Rafael have discovered a way to turn Android phone gyroscopes into crude microphones. They call their app “Gyrophone” and here’s how it works: the tiny gyros in your phone that measure orientation do so using vibrating pressure plates. As it turns out, they can also pick up air vibrations from sounds, and many Android devices can do it in the 80 to 250 hertz range — exactly the frequency of a human voice.
By contrast, the iPhone’s sensor only uses frequencies below 100Hz, and is therefore useless for tapping conversations. Though the researchers’ system can only pick up the odd word or the speaker’s gender, they said that voice recognition experts could no doubt make it work better. They’ll be delivering a paper next week at the Usenix Security conference, but luckily, Google is already up on the research. “This early, academic work should allow us to provide defenses before there is any likelihood of real exploitation.”
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: Wired.com
Source: Stanford University
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EE lets queue-jumpers pay 50p for faster customer service
If it didn’t already feel like mobile operators were squeezing you for every penny, EE’s new customer service charge could certainly help drive that notion home. BBC News reports that the carrier has introduced a new option on its support lines, allowing you to pay 50 pence to jump to the front. Think of it as the opposite of net neutrality, but for support centres.
Callers will now be greeted with an automated message offering the chance to move them up the queue. If they don’t accept, they’ll be left to wait it out with the other pennypinchers. As expected, customers aren’t happy with EE’s decision not to treat all customers equally and have taken to Twitter to voice their frustrations. The company argues that the 50 pence premium will help to improve customer service operations and allow it to open more UK-based support lines — full of people asking why they had to lay down half a pound to be told to turn their phone on and off again.
Source: BBC News
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Pilots banned from acting like Uber drivers in the sky
“You’re going to Napa in your Cessna? Me too! If you let me hop in, I’ll pay my share of the gas!” That arrangement is legal, but the FAA has declared that connecting brave passengers with amateur pilots for a fee is definitely a no-no. The ruling came from a request for clarification by a company called Airpooler, a small plane equivalent of UberX. That service and others like FlyteNow let private pilots post listings for flight dates and destinations, along with a corresponding fee. Thanks to a 1963 decision, such sharing is legal if done by word of mouth or a notice board, provided the pilot only asks for a fair share of the expenses. However, in a rather confusing letter, the regulator told Airpooler that its service violates the spirit of that ruling. Instead of offering a bonafide “joint venture with a common purpose,” participating pilots are “holding out to transport passengers for compensation.” That means unless you have a commercial ATP or CPL license, using those services is DOA.
[Credit: Brianc/Flickr]
Filed under: Transportation
Via: TechCrunch
Source: FAA (Scribd.com)
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Even the Oxford English Dictionary can’t resist adding amazeballs, selfie and YOLO
Throughout 2014′s great dictionary refresh, one publication remained above attention-grabbing fripperies like adding YOLO, amazeballs and selfie to their lists. That’s why we’re disappointed to report that even the venerated Oxford English Dictionary has now sunk down to this level. Oxford Dictionaries has announced that you can now find words like — audible sigh — side boob, baller, hate-watch, adorbs, amazeballs, mansplain, humblebrag, douchebaggery and clickbait to its online records. The august tome has also gone heavy on the acronyms, adding YOLO, ICYMI and WDYT, the latter standing for “what do you think?” We won’t ask all of you out there what you think, because we’re fairly sure you’ll join us and say SMH, FML.
Oh, and still no love for Chumbumble? It’s a farce, a farce I tell you.
Via: RollingStone
Source: Oxford English Dictionaries
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Apple Now Using China Telecom as Data Center Provider in China
Apple has officially added China Telecom as a data center provider in China, reports The Wall Street Journal. The move comes after 15 months of “stringent tests and evaluation” by the Fuzhou city government, as Apple states that all data stored on the servers is encrypted. According to Reuters, Apple says the new data center will help improve the speed and reliability of iCloud and the iTunes Store in the region.
“Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously. We have added China Telecom to our list of data center providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our customers in mainland China,” it said.
The move could also help ease tensions between Apple and China as of late, as the country recently deemed iOS’ location tracking services a “national security concern.” Apple responded to those claims reiterating its commitment to privacy and stating that its Location Services exist to aide navigation features.
China has become an important market for Apple, as the company has looked to improve its presence in the country as of late. Late last year, the company started selling the iPhone on China Mobile, the country’s biggest carrier, and opened more retail stores throughout the region. CEO Tim Cook has also made a number of visits to China, meeting with Bejing’s mayor and the Chinese Vice Premier to discuss opportunities.
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