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UK telecom company BT Group first to use Xbox 360 as set-top box
Having previously announced its intentions to have the Xbox 360 as a set-top box (STB) at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates told the audience at this year's keynote that British telecommunications company BT Group will be the first company to use the console as a set-top box, whose interface was most recently seen by accident in a repaired console.Said Gates, "The final announcement, last year we talked about the 360 being an STB -- this year we're excited to announce that BT will be the first to provide that capability. Buy a 360 and use it as an STB for your TV." No other details are given (what about DVR?), but we're hoping to hear some more soon. Check out our hands-on with the service from last year's show.
Despite Guitar Hero skills, Bill Gates can't join U2
So what's Bill Gates going to do now that he's retiring? As noted at in Engadget's liveblog of his CES keynote, Gates produced a video showing his final day in office. Said U2 singer Bono to Gates, "Bill, we've talked about this before. We're full up in the band. All positions are filled. I know... I know... I can't just replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero."Bono is seen talking in a confessional akin to NBC's The Office. "Bill's always had a passion for music... and as long as it's not my music, I'm fine with that." So much for that. How about setting your sights a little lower - say, Coldplay?
Bill Gates: live at his final CES keynote
We're less than a half hour away from Bill Gates' 12th and reportedly final keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (at least as Chairman of Microsoft). Hoping for some Xbox announcements? So are we. Our friends at Engadget are liveblogging the presentation and we'll keep you up to date on any pertinent (i.e. game-related) announcements. Stay tuned.
Bill Gates to deliver CES 2008 keynote, possibly his last
It looks like Bill Gates is set to enthrall the masses at CES once more, as the Consumer Electronics Association announced today that he'd again be one of the featured keynote speakers, joining Panasonic's Toshihiro Sakamoto and Intel's Paul Otellini. Given Bill's upcoming retirement from day-to-day duties, it's also being speculated that this keynote could well be his last, making it an even ten following speeches in 1998 and a non-stop run from 2000 to 2007. What could he possibly have to announce on such a momentous occasion? We'll find out January 6th, 2008.[Via TG Daily]
Bill Gates wants to play some kind of tennis simulator
Imagine, if you can, a game where you swing a tennis racket and an onscreen character swings a tennis racket. That's the bold new future Bill Gates wished for at the D5 conference. We love to see the prophetic mind of a business genius in action.Oh, what? There's already something like that? No, the Wii doesn't count, because shut up it just doesn't: "No, that's not it. You can't pick up your tennis racket. And swing it." We guess motion controls are only cool when there's some kind of camera involved.
Nintendo Wii takes Engadget Awards
Nintendo Wii Fanboy is related, in an odd sort of second-cousin once-removed kind of way, to the hyper-popular Engadget, which like totally everyone reads all the time forever. As such, their annual Engadget awards are nothing to sneeze at, and so we look with great pride (we helped, after all) at their selections for 2k6. Let's take a glance at the honors: Reader's Choice: Most Innovative Peripheral Reader's Choice: Game Console of the Year Editor's Choice: Game Console of the Year Reader's Choice: Gadget of the Year (!!!) Editor's Choice: Gadget of the Year (!!!) Yeah, that's right. That means the Wii pretty much wins at life. It's quite a series of awards, but which console will take home 2007? It may come down to one showdown: Halo 3 vs. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Which will suck up more of the average gamer's free time? Bring it, Chiefy.
SMU's Guildhall awards game design degrees
The Guildhall, Southern Methodist University's video game design graduate program, has awarded the world's first master's degrees in video game development. Twenty-four graduates received "Master of Interactive Technology degrees" in "Digital Game Development" on March 24. Commencement speaker Randy Pitchford of Gearbox said, "The granting of advanced degrees from accredited universities is crucial to the future of our industry... You never know how important someone will become in time. Bill Gates was nobody [30] years ago." Gates probably shoudn't be the poster boy for higher education, since he dropped out of school to start Microsoft, but whatevs, right?
Bill Gates headed for Daily Show on Monday
Just in time for the launch of Microsoft's new game enabled operating system, Windows Vista, Bill Gates will be on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday. We imagine Billy boy will take a little time to tout the success of the Xbox 360 as well. Who knows, if we're lucky, we might even get to hear a little corporate mudslinging. That's always fun. We have to wonder if Bill will have a few choice words for John Hodgman though.Check out the show (or set your TiVo) Monday 11:00/10:00 Central on Comedy Central.[Via Digg]
Gates: PS3 will never have graphics advantage
digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/Gates_PS3_will_never_have_graphics_advantage'; Speaking with journalist and Xbox guru, Dean Takahashi, Bill Gates offered several jabs to both Sony and Nintendo in the wake of CES. Speaking on Nintendo, Gates expressed concern that the novelty of Wii could wear off without good graphics to go with it, and that he still considered Sony to be MS' biggest competitor (O RLY?). Regarding the PS3, Gates notes that the 360 has the advantage in every area. According to Gates, the 360 has good games, is easier to program, and is cheaper to produce. Because of the 360's head start, it also has the advantage of undergoing cost reduction at a much faster rate than the PS3 with its more costly components. Gates also stated that the PS3 has no advantage in terms of graphics and that it never will. In his words, Sony "burned a year" trying to get graphics out of the Cell processor, only to have Nvidia provide a chip at the last minute. Add to this the fact that the PS3 has no unified memory and that programmers have had longer to learn the intricacies of the 360 hardware, and the PS3 is caught in a cyclical game of catch-up.Finally, Gates managed to squeeze in one more denial of a larger 360 hard drive on the horizon. When asked about the need for more space -- especially with IPTV and DVR functions on the way -- Gates responded that much IPTV data is stored on servers and storage is unnecessary. To wit: "We don't have to change the Xbox 360 at all." Uh huh, and 640 kilobytes is all we'll ever need, right?[Via 1UP]
Microsoft announces the HP TouchSmart PC
In its zeal to take over your living room, Microsoft announced the HP TouchSmart PC at the Gates keynote -- a desktop machine with a touchscreen interface designed to be an easy to use entertainment hub in the home. We caught wind of this unit back at the end of November, and the thing looks raring to kick the iMac's ass. It's coming loaded with a 19-inch touchscreen, AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core TL-52 processor, 2GB SDRAM, 320GB drive, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, WiFi, Bluetooth, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, integrated FM and ATSC HDTV tuners, a DVD±RW / DVD-RAM burner with LightScribe, Pocket Media Drive bay, wireless keyboard, mouse, stylus, front media reader, and more ports than the Dutch coastline. The TouchSmart will of course be running Windows Vista and be available January 30 to coincide with Vista's street date.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part IX - Gates watches pirated videos
We fell hard so in love with all these wonderful execu-quotes, we're giving them a series here on Engadget, ala Keepin' it real fake, etc. We doubt there's nary a person in our millions-large audience who hasn't occasionally partaken in a copyright-infringing YouTube clip (must we mention Lazy Sunday?), or a even a bad no-no Torrented film; we certainly couldn't dodge the accusation ourselves. But you've kind of got to hand it to the world's richest man -- someone known for his fine-tipped views on intellectual property and piracy -- admitting to, then backing out of, then copping to watching pirated video content. Peep this tidbit from Mr. Gates to Mossberg and Kara Swisher in a recent WSJ interview:Mossberg: Talk about YouTube. What do you think about that? Why aren't you doing something like that?Gates: If we did YouTube, we'd be in a lot of trouble. First of all, people would say, "How do you make money?" Second, they'd say, what about all that copyright violation taking place up there. It's a neat site. I saw a bunch of old Harlem Globetrotters movies up there the other night, it's great.Swisher: You watch physics lectures and Harlem Globetrotters?Gates: This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places.Swisher: But those were stolen, correct?Gates: Stolen's a strong word. It's copyrighted content that the owner wasn't paid for. So yes.Look, we aren't here to point fingers, and we do think they kind of backed him into a corner there. But call us crazy, maybe it's just time to face the fact that legal attacks to this and that video sharing site for short clips just ain't the way to get people to pay a hundred some-odd bucks for crappy cable service, y'know? Gates, we salute your candor, hypocritical though it may seem.[Via The Raw Feed]
Let's face it: Steve will have to step down sooner or later, too
With Gates' bombshell announcement last week that he will be stepping down from his full-time role at Microsoft in 2008 to spend more time with his Gates and Melinda Foundation charity org, I finally came to wonder: how much longer does Steve have at Apple? Both companies were started around the same time and have helped shape the industry as we see it today. That has to be exhausting work, especially for someone like Jobs whose design and management obsessions are now the stuff of legends. Steve already stepped down from his other company, Pixar, so he could spend more time at Apple - but I'm wondering how long that's going to last, and what it means for Apple's future.Plenty of articles are analyzing the impact of Gates leaving Microsoft, as it's a slightly different situation. Bill is their Senior Software Architect, not the CEO - that's Ballmer, and he'll apparently be staying on and doing the same, shall we say, 'bang-up job' he's been doing since he took that throne. But Steve Jobs is Apple's CEO, and famous for the amount of control he exacts over bringing his the company's visions to life. So what would a two-week's notice from Steve mean to Apple and its burgeoning market?Honestly, I don't know, and since I am but a lowly blogger, I'll leave it up to those six-figure analysts who 'are people who know people' to pen those pieces. But before those analysts start earning their keep, TUAW wants to hear your thoughts, dear readers: what do you think it will mean for the future of Apple and their products when Steve needs to call it a day?
Stringer: The Xbox 360 is an "obsession"
Well, you know what they say about what to do when you have nothing nice to say ... erm, say that the competing gaming platform (in this case, the 360) is an "obsession"?That's exactly what Sony CEO Howard Stringer had to offer in an interview with Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal recently. While sharing how The Da Vinci Code from Sony beat up on "X-Men 3" (aka The Last Stand) over in Europe, he seemed to mistakenly throw in "Xbox 3" in the stead of Fox's great summer blockbuster hope. Following Mossberg's correction, Stringer is reported to have retorted, laughing, "There's an obsession!"We don't know if he's referring to the media's obsession with the corporate gaming rivalry, his own obsession with the console that would dethrone the PlayStation, or some combination of the two (irony really doesn't help here), but he does seem to at least outwardly admire Bill Gates' salesmanship (as well as his hypocrisy in delaying Windows Vista while lambasting the PS3 delay). Of course, a lot of supposed compliments could go both ways, so we've provided a few handy links below to check out what other "nice" things hardware execs have had to say about their competitors lately. We're sure it's all in good fun.[Thanks, JC & SickNic; also via GameDaily BIZ]See also: Nice words -- "Thanks," "flattered," and "flattering." Not-so-nice words -- "Plagiarism," "no need for PC," "not mainstream for most games," and "same old experiences with new graphics."
The Clicker: The conversation that never officially took place
Every week Stephen Speicher contributes The Clicker, an opinion column on entertainment and technology:You could all but see the gears turning in his head as he pondered the statement. "Clearly," he thought to himself, "I've misheard. He can't seriously be saying what I think he's saying." "Excuse me?" Bill replied assuming that he would hear something different the second time around. "That's right. Apple wants to build a Media Center PC." There was a brief pause as Bill closely inspected his colleague. Blue Jeans, check... turtleneck, check... half-soothing / half-arrogant smile, check... This was the real deal; this was Steve Jobs. "Let me get this straight…" Gates, now a little bit confused, continued, "You want to build a Windows Media Center Edition PC?" "That's right." "Apple?" "Yes. Apple!" "Let me come at this from a slightly different angle. You're telling me that Apple wants to ship a Media Center PC?" "That's what I'm telling you." "You do understand that Media Center is part of the OS?" "Yes, I understand."
Footage of the AQ Gates Opening on Medivh
You'll need at least a basic (free) Gamespot account to view the footage of the Ahn'Qiraj Gates opening for the first time on the Medivh server, but it's worth watching. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go mine some Thorium on Gorefiend so we can get the gates open there. Long ways to go still...Thanks to RighteousDork for the link.
The story of Xbox
The birth of the Xbox almost seems like prehistory to us now, with the 360 the most coveted console this Christmas. This chapter from book Smartbomb delves into the inside story of the Xbox's birth, from Bill Gates' desire to dominate the living room, to Seamus Blackley's airborne epiphany: "Suddenly, Seamus wanted to jump out of his seat. Microsoft could, if it chose, make a console that would kill the PlayStation 2. It was all so painfully obvious. Of any technology company, Microsoft was uniquely suited to build a console that gamers and game developers would die for. All Microsoft had to do was design a reasonably powerful Windows-based PC that could be packaged and marketed as a videogame console." It's an interesting read for anyone who wasn't there at the time, and sheds some light on Microsoft's motivations. Fear was a big part of it; fear of the Playstation and its impending dominance. As a valid business motivator, fear is right up there with profit, and fear may well have been the driver for the 360's early launch. Microsoft as scaredy-cats? It seems so.
