Robert McLaws: Windows Edition : Xbox Live, Xbox 360, Zune

Zune Marketplace Coming To Xbox 360?

Robert McLaws — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:32:20 GMT

Rumor has it that Microsoft has bought 5 hours of airtime on G4TV on September 25th. According to Kombo, Microsoft will be announcing:

Free DLC for Halo 3, and paid DLC for Mass Effect and GTAIV
Six free Xbox Originals for download
A partnership with Sirius XM Satellite Radio
12 new exclusive titles, including 2 Halo games (supposedly the Peter Jackson Halo project, and the game Bungie was supposed to show off at E3)
A new music download service

The last point is the one I find most intriguing. I don't think it's a coincidence that Zune's new infrastructure is rolling out the week before this mega-relaunch. The new XNA Game Studio can target both the Xbox 360 and the Zune, meaning that the two will share a lot in common under the hood. Since Microsoft already has a game download service, it makes sense that the Zune would leverage it for the new Zune Games. It would make sense that the supposed Xbox Live Music Marketplace would use Zune's software as well. It would be really awesome if you could sync your Zune content with your Xbox 360... or even sync videos from Xbox Live Marketplace with your Zune by plugging it directly into the 360.

UPDATE: Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore confirms that the Zune Video Marketplace and the Xbox Live Marketplace are one and the same, so with the launch dates so close together, could the future Joe speaks of be closer than we think?

[via Xbox360Fanboy]

XNA Games Coming to Zune, Live & Live Marketplace Next?

Robert McLaws — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:04:00 GMT

At their GDC '08 Keynote, Microsoft showed off Zauri, a "top-down shooter" built using XNA Game Studio... running on a Zune 2. Microsoft's Chris Satchell did the demo, and he said that games would be portable across the Microsoft entertainment ecosystem, "from Windows to Xbox to Zune."

This is fantastic news, even though it is REALLY short on details. Hopefully it is only the beginning of the cross-platform Live news. I'm eagerly awating the day when Microsoft announces the Live Marketplace plugin for Windows Media Center, and I can either transfer Live Marketplace movies from my Xbox 360 to my Zune, or use the wireless functionality of my Zune to buy and download movies without having to hook up to my PC.

UPDATE: I've gleaned a bit more information from the blogosphere. Neil Hutson just posted a roadmap and overall featureset. It seems that this capability will come with the next version of XNA Game Studio (3.0) which will be previewed this April for RTM in the Fall. Other expectations:

Local ad-hoc wireless play with up to 8 Zunes
User can customize in-game music from whatever is on the Zune
Write-once, run anywhere... but cross-platform multiplayer is not supported (Zune users can't connect to Xbox 360 sessions, etc)

UPDATE 2: Dave "LetsKillDave" Weller has updated the XNA Creators Club site with an overview of the changes, and has also written a FAQ diving deeper into what to expect.

The Vista Daily #16

Robert McLaws — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:09:53 GMT

<sigh> I wish American Idol would let you vote to boot people instead of keep them. Then Sanjaya would have been sent home a while ago. That's why 13 year olds shouldn't have cell phones. But I digress. Anyway, here's what's been going on with Microsoft in the last 48 hours...

Second Life has traced their Vista compatibility problems to a bug in ATI/AMD's OpenGL drivers, and a fix will be available by the end of the month.
For all the crap Symantec dished out about Vista and security, it couldn't help but declare Microsoft the winner in addressing security threats. Windows in general only had 5 fewer vulnerabilities than OSX in the 2nd half of 2006, but Microsoft fixed their bugs 3x faster. [via Roger Halbheer]
And speaking of vulnerabilities, self-proclaimed Microsoft security guru Jeff Jones has compiled a report on vulnerability disclosures in the first 90 days of OS availability. Vista had 5 issues disclosed and 1 fixed, XP had 14 disclosed and 10 fixed. Red Hat 4 had 181 issues disclosed and 96 patched, while OS X 10.4 had 20 disclosed and 3 fixed. As Jeff so aptly puts it, "[Apple's] data just doesn't support their marketing." [via Jeff's Technet Blog]
David Lem wonders aloud what Windows 'Cloud' might look like. For those of you that don't remember, Ray Ozzie and Jim Allchin talked last year about more OS services moving into the Internet 'cloud'. No, he's not saying it exists, so don't read too much into it.
Remember Chris Pirillo's video about Linux's XGL? Chris Salmon has built Yod'm (Yet anOther Desktop Manager) that mimics that functionality on Windows XP and Windows Vista. I wonder if the Vista version uses the DWM. [via Laurent Duveau]
Microsoft has returned MSN SoapBox to private beta mode, to deal with copyright protection issues. A wise move in the wake of the Viacom-Google billion-dollar squabble.
Speaking of betas, it looks like Microsoft's not the only company that delays operating systems. Apple doesn't even have a launch date for Leopard. Says one of the sources: "I'd say it's barely beta, not Final or Gold Master." BTW, Leopard will also "break a lot of shareware and commercial software that currently makes use of [the InputManager] control. Looks like incompatibility in upgrades is not just a Redmond specialty.
Sure to be a hit with the ladies, Microsoft is releasing a Pink Zune in May. Maybe now my girlfriend will want that instead of an iPod.
Chris Pirillo has a bada$$ demo of a noise cancellation demo from Microsoft Research. The Windows Media Encoder team needs to get that in their product ASAP.
And finally, Microsoft has been blaming end users for Xbox Live account hijackings, but is Xbox Live Support to blame? Microsoft need to teach it's outsourced helpdesk that pretexting is now illegal. [via Krunker]

That's all for today. Another week come and gone. Dang it. See you next time!