Nextbox infinity anticipation station

[HaemishM]

If the One is popular enough you might need to buy a kinect for your PC to play popular titles for example.

That would be the inspiration for a Redmond road trip stabby fun time vacation.

[KallDrexx]

As much as I thought the Kinect was a waste (my roommate bought one for his 360 and I played it for a few days), I must admit that the technology in the new kinect is pretty sweet.

[Margalis]

Kinect is bad and is going to stay bad for the foreseeable future. It has so many problems on so many different levels from conceptual to technical. No cross-platform games are going to use it for more than 5 voice commands or wave your arm to throw grenade, so the impact on PC gaming will be minimal.

[Kageru]

Apparently microsoft believes the magic cloud will triple the power of the xbox1. Which is either self-delusion, advertising based on the public having no real idea of what it means or a good justification for the console needing a beefy internet connection.

"We're provisioning for developers for every physical Xbox One we build, we're provisioning the CPU and storage equivalent of three Xbox Ones on the cloud," he said. "We're doing that flat out so that any game developer can assume that there's roughly three times the resources immediately available to their game, so they can build bigger, persistent levels that are more inclusive for players. They can do that out of the gate."

I also look forward to seeing if quantum break is a modern re-discovery of the FMV game... it sounds suspiciously like it.

[Chimpy]

It will be much easier for Microsoft to provision processor cycles and RAM in their Azure cloud for XBox One games than it will be for them to sell more than a small amount of the consoles (comparative to the Xbox and XBox360 platforms).

[Quinton]

Kinect is bad and is going to stay bad for the foreseeable future. It has so many problems on so many different levels from conceptual to technical. No cross-platform games are going to use it for more than 5 voice commands or wave your arm to throw grenade, so the impact on PC gaming will be minimal.

I used to believe you couldn't get worse than touchscreens for horrible lack-of-tactile-feedback input devices.  Then they built Kinect.  I'm not sure the problem of fine manipulation without any tactile feedback is solveable, but if it is, there's still much work to be done..

Voice is interesting in some cases (say good enough hotword recognition for simple squadmate commands), but for most cases it's going to augment, not replace other input, and it can be accomplished with a standard mic or headset on a PC either way.

[Quinton]

The idea that cloud computing is going to magically improve local gaming is pretty absurd.  There just isn't that much processing that makes sense offloading to the cloud where latencies are utterly enormous (even over a fast internet connection -- something not everyone has) compared to latencies to other cores on the same box.  Software developers have enough problems making effective use of local multiprocessing resources (where capabilities are symmetric, bandwidth is high, and latency is low)...

[Lantyssa]

What are you talking about?  It worked fine for SimCity...

[Jeff Kelly]

Why do companies still insist to push control schemes on us that are awkward or don't work most of the time?

Voice commands have never worked for anything more complex than turn on or turn off.

Siri and Google voice were  marketed as breakthough technologies and both are basically just punchlines now, the Kinect demo managed to control and switch off the XBoxes of people at home watching.

The whole Kinect presentation on stage was faked to not fuck up any demos (the presenter used a clicker device hidden in a suit pocket) and we don't even know if the new Kinect actually works as advertised until people had a chance to get their hands on one at E3 or after.

Even if it works it will probably be awkward to use and people will stop using it after the novelty factor has worn off or adter they have gotten annoyed by how crappy it functions. Just like they did with Siri, Google voice, the Wii and everything else.

I expect the new XBox One Kinect + Voice control scheme to work as crappy and awkwardly as previous incarnations with the added benefit of not being able to deactivate it. Expect legions of animated gifs and tumblr blogs making fun of it for the next years.

So why keep pushing those technologies on the public?

[Sky]

Executives like magic.

[Merusk]

Because the current thought is that this is the way innovation lies.  "Freeing-up" people from having to learn new tools/ interface modes for something more natural.  Human instinct is to touch something or talk to it to interact, not to use a secondary tool and interact in an abstracted fashion.

Tactile screens get marked-up and smudged as any tablet user can tell you, which becomes an annoyance in itself, so the next school of thought was motion control. Of course, motion control ignores the fact that you have no tactile feedback, which is why you want to touch it in the first place.

As to why they keep pushing it: You never know what the public will want.  We don't even know most of the time, so you push a new idea, see how it's adopted and go from there.  The problem we're in a hyper-consumer-economic-slump society. We're distracted by a ton of gadgets but have little disposable income to try something kitschy and see how it catches-on. So big companies have to make these gambits on big products instead of little ones, hoping the public will swallow it as 'innovation' instead of rejecting it entirely.

[KallDrexx]

*shrug*

I have heard good feedback about the voice commands in mass effect 3 from people who use them on a regular basis.  Mostly that it helps the flow of the game so you don't have to constantly pause to issue commands. 

[luckton]

Word is that MS PR is claiming today that the One "can" be turned off all the way (you know, short of unplugging the bitch), the kinect sensor can be disabled, and you can modify a lot of privacy settings.  Details are still forthcoming 

[Ingmar]

Google voice ... basically just punchlines now

When you say shit like this it really throws into question whether anything you're saying has any merit at all. Google Voice is incredibly useful.

Perhaps you mean Voice Search, and not Google Voice, but Voice Search works extremely well for me at least.

[Jeff Kelly]

Damn, I meant the voice command and voice recognition features not the voice over ip and telephony thing, forgot for a minute that Google Voice was an entirely different app.

Sorry but since Google Voice is - and probably never will be - available in my country I forgot that it even is a thing.

Yeah Google Voice would be incredibly useful if they ever decided to launch it outside the US. I meant the voice recognition, voice command and similar features which work all the time 60% of the time.

[Jeff Kelly]

BTW just to proactively prevent further comments, technically Google Voice is already available in Germany but only with a small subset of the features available for US users.

[01101010]

Google voice ... basically just punchlines now

When you say shit like this it really throws into question whether anything you're saying has any merit at all. Google Voice is incredibly useful.

Perhaps you mean Voice Search, and not Google Voice, but Voice Search works extremely well for me at least.

Google Now voice search is incredibly useful for me, esp for scheduling appointments and checking stuff out. However, my friend in Louisiana can't use it because it has no clue what she is saying half the time. Accents don't really work out too well...right Chekov? 

Google Voice I used to use for free texting. Loved the use on either the smartphone app or the browser on my desktop. However, it was rather restricted. No MMS and the calling was rather spotty.

[luckton]

Voice has incoming MMS support now.  The photo/vid gets sent to your Gmail inbox 

[naum]

Next Generation

Last generation, Nintendo did something crazy—and it worked. This generation, everyone is taking big risks.

Nintendo tried to play the same hand that it won with in the last round, but now finds itself stranded with previous-generation hardware in a next-generation market. Like Apple in the 90s, Nintendo is a sentimental favorite. But it took more than just the iMac and the iPod to transform Apple. The Wii U still has the potential to be an excellent platform for Nintendo’s beloved first-party games, and a low-cost alternative to the PS4 and Xbox One. Nintendo should milk it for all it’s worth, and get busy on the next great thing.

Sony is betting that the market for game consoles made by and for hardcore gamers has not yet peaked. If it’s right, Sony is well-positioned to dominate this generation. If it’s wrong, the PS4 could be Sony’s Spruce Goose: the ne plus ultra of game consoles, remembered in equal parts as a technical marvel and a cautionary tale.

Finally, there’s Microsoft, offering us a brief glimpse of the boundless hunger that once defined the company. But as Microsoft knows all too well, the living room is littered with the bones of past suitors.

I applaud the technical prowess of the Xbox One’s software, particularly the focus on responsiveness. The demonstrated performance when switching between live TV, gaming, and other apps puts all previous efforts at “smart” TV interfaces to shame.

That said, I seriously question the public’s appetite for displaying any additional content alongside a TV show or movie. The “second screen” experience is already well established, and it happens with a device that’s in your hand or on your lap. Grabbing one third of a large, communal TV screen to look up an actor on IMDB isn’t just unappealing and cumbersome, it’s downright rude.

There are other contexts where the Xbox One’s unique abilities might shine: jumping in and out of a game to check a sports score, for example, or quickly hitting the web to watch an extended version of an interview after finishing an episode of The Daily Show. Yes, I can see that.

But will it be enough to crown the Xbox One the king of the living room? As with all TV-connected devices, content is the key. The Xbox One has games, live TV, and video streaming services covered, but it appears to lack any form of time-shifting functionality. Given how much popular content remains locked up in broadcast and cable TV packages, there’s no way any box without DVR-like functionality can ever be the One True Interface to “watching television.”

Luckily for all three companies, things change quickly in this industry. If a critical mass of programming becomes available on streaming services a few years down the road, the Xbox One could finally fulfill its destiny.

On the other hand, Microsoft’s new focus could be a giant turn-off to gamers who were expecting an “Xbox 720,” not a Kinect-powered “media center.” However brief and anecdotal it may be, a Wii U sales spike accompanying the Xbox One announcement has to have Microsoft at least a bit worried. If the gamers who bought the Xbox 360 don’t show up in the expected numbers to buy the Xbox One, I have a hard time believing this monstrous, sensor-festooned device will pull a Wii and capture the imaginations—and dollars—of non-gamers on a grand scale.

No matter what happens, I don't envision a future where the market is evenly divided between these three very different products. Game on.

[Samwise]

Voice has incoming MMS support now.  The photo/vid gets sent to your Gmail inbox 

Whaaaat?  When did that happen?

[Ingmar]

Google Now voice search is incredibly useful for me, esp for scheduling appointments and checking stuff out

Yep. I use it several times a day, and my estimate of its success rate at understanding me is around 95% or so. It really is quite rare for it to choke on something I say to it. I do have to turn the radio down (oh no) if I'm talking to it in the car.

[Paelos]

Voice recognition technology is a great thing if it can catch up to the speed of human speech consistently. It's getting a lot closer. It will revolutionize the way we interact with text/interfaces instead of typing.

That still can't replace the touch aspect, or control from a sensory pad. The idea of Kinect is still foreign to me because I don't want to flail around like a moron to game.

[luckton]

Voice has incoming MMS support now.  The photo/vid gets sent to your Gmail inbox 

Whaaaat?  When did that happen?

Sometime in the last few months.  On my phone right now....too lazy to find the news post about it.

[Jeff Kelly]

Maybe it's a cultural thing as well. Are any of you comfortable with talking to your device in public or while other people are present? In Germany for example people are still weirded out by people talking on the phone in public.

The biggest concern I've heard from people (well apart from the 'this probably won't work anyway') is that they don't want to talk to their phones especially in public because "that's just weird".

Also since it's being developed by US companies maybe speech recognition works best with english.

I'm not getting a 95% success rate with any technology when I'm talking to my iPhone or Android device in German, most of my friends and acquaintances don't either and we're mostly talking in 'proper German'. I can't even imagine how this would work with a person talking in a German dialect or accent.

Not even die hard technophiles I know use voice recog. any more because it just rarely works as advertised.
YMMV obviously but after a decade of 'now voice recognition works, promise' claims and the state it's still in, people remain skeptical.

I've remained a fan of the Star Trek TNG like 'computer, earl grey hot' Interface and I'd be happy if it actually works this time. I'm skeptical though since even five digit professional voice command suites as e.g. used by phone hotlines still mostly tell you that they are sorry but they couldn't understand what you just said.

[Paelos]

Voice integration with phones is one of the hardest adoption things imo, simply because there are so many times where you want to text so other people don't know what you're saying. Also, if you're going to the trouble of talking to the phone, why not just use the call function. 

[luckton]

The answer is Google Glass, obviously.

[MrHat]

I've had great success lately with voice search.

A huge YMMV though.

That article indicates one of my biggest peeves about XB1 which is why would I slide in a distraction onto my beautiful 16:9 1080p screen to look up an actor when I can do that on my phone, using less commands and less movement.  It seriously makes no sense.

[KallDrexx]

Maybe it's a cultural thing as well. Are any of you comfortable with talking to your device in public or while other people are present? In Germany for example people are still weirded out by people talking on the phone in public.

Isn't this thread about the XBox one?  Being wierded out by giving voice commands to your phone in public (which I am a part of) is completely different than giving voice commands to a device in your living room. 

[Paelos]

I don't really want to talk to my TV. I'm crazy enough yelling during football and baseball games. I'm sure it wouldn't know how to go fuck itself.

[Lantyssa]

I'm not getting a 95% success rate with any technology when I'm talking to my iPhone or Android device in German, most of my friends and acquaintances don't either and we're mostly talking in 'proper German'. I can't even imagine how this would work with a person talking in a German dialect or accent.

Eleven.

[Ingmar]

I don't really want to talk to my TV. I'm crazy enough yelling during football and baseball games. I'm sure it wouldn't know how to go fuck itself.

Maybe you can configure it to go on Twitter and say mean things about Ed Hochuli?

[Azazel]

Voice recognition technology is a great thing if it can catch up to the speed of human speech consistently. It's getting a lot closer. It will revolutionize the way we interact with text/interfaces instead of typing.

It'll be pretty interesting to see if this kind of technology can start to consistently recognise accents beyond "middle America". "English" really runs a gamut of regional accents within a single nation like the US, let alone the UK and Ireland, or adding in us Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans or people who speak English as a second language with an Asian or European accent...

[Morat20]

Voice interfaces: Useful if people can be trained to do it subvocally. Otherwise? Never gonna catch on.

I work in a cubicle. The LAST thing anyone wants is everyone talking to their damn computers. (And that's assuming your computer is smart enough to ignore any voice that isn't yours). Hello to slow, loud, distracting interfaces for everyone!

Gesture based stuff? That's got possibilities. But people are still social. We're not all living alone in pods. We gather in groups, and your primary interface is never going to be vocal. Because it interrupts everyone else.

[Merusk]

If there's voice interfaces, I can't work while talking on the phone.  That's a killer right there. No more productive time during conference calls, where I always hear at least 2 other folks typing away as well.

[UnSub]

Why do companies still insist to push control schemes on us that are awkward or don't work most of the time?

Because some catch on and become the standard. I remember all the bitching around controllers moving away from d-pads and to dual analogue sticks right up to the point people got familiar with analogue sticks.