Live TV Coming to Xbox

One of the biggest announcements for Microsoft at this year’s E3 gaming conference involved the launch of Live TV on the Xbox 360. This will allow users to enjoy a variety of different things including live TV streaming, built-in DVR capabilities, voice-powered Bing searches and YouTube content.

"Quite simply we believe TV is more amazing with you as the controller," said Marc Whitten, vice president of Xbox Live.

The amazing thing about these new additions to the Xbox is that users will be able to control them with motion. The Kinect will help to power Live TV with both gestures and voice controlled commands. Users will be able to control Live TV content without the need for a physical remote.

It was also announced by Whitten that Bing would be featured on the Xbox as well. Users will be able to conduct voice powered searches on Microsoft’s Bing search engine and different Xbox content like Hulu Plus, Netflix and Xbox Live marketplace.

Here’s an example of how this will work: Say you want to watch Lord of the Rings. All you have to say is “Xbox Bing Lord of the Rings.” Immediately, Bing will pull up any Lord of the Rings related games as well as any movies stored on your console. Then all you have to do to watch The Fellowship of the Ring is say “Xbox Play The Fellowship of the Ring” and the movie will start playing.

Whitten also announced the new partnership with YouTube that will give users access to the top YouTube content from the console. Microsoft also said that they plan to greatly increase the number of its Xbox partnerships this year.

Lastly, Whitten confirmed that Live TV will bring local channels live-streamed to your Xbox to your TV.

Live TV will launch in the fall, Whitten said.

"This is our vision for the future of TV—effortless, approachable, because TV is more amazing when you are the controller," he said.

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Xbox 360 Selling Like Hotcakes! Nintendo 3DS...Not So Much

According to data released Monday, June 13 by NPD, it seems as though for the month of May, the Xbox 360 has remained the top-selling console, and while the Xbox has flourished, the highly anticipated Nintendo 3DS’s sales are being described as “light.”

In relation to the year-to-date revenues of video game hardware, content and accessory sales, Xbox has grabbed 34 percent so far. The Xbox 360 and the PS3 combined sales are also doing well. They are currently up 28 percent for the month and 21 percent up from last year.

"The PS3, PSP, and the Xbox 360 all experienced unit sales increases over May 2010," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement. "The top-selling platform for the month was the Xbox 360, which has realized nearly a year and a half of month-over-month unit sales increases."

A little bit earlier this month, Microsoft announced that they have sold more than 55 million Xbox 360 consoles since November 2005, and they claim that “sales are accelerating.”

On the other side of things, as mentioned above, Nintendo’s 3DS is simply generating “light” sales; however, it is expected that those sales will shoot upward. On Sunday, June 19 “Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D” will be released, and Frazier seems positive that the release of the game “should help to significantly boost sales of hardware during the remainder of 2011."

Nintendo also showed off some more games at E3 that could boost the 3DS’s numbers in the next few months. Some of these games include: "Mario Kart," "Starfox 3D," "Super Mario," "Kid Icarus Uprising" and "Luigi's Mansion 2."

The Nintendo 3DS first made its debut in the U.S. in March of this year. It was originally sold for $249.99. By April 15, less than a month after the release of the device, Nintendo said that they had sold just under 400,000 units, but the president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata said, “Nintendo 3DS has not been selling as expected since the second week [of availability], and this is not just in the Japanese market but also in the United States and Europe…therefore, we recognize that we are in a situation where we need to step up our efforts to further promote the spread of Nintendo 3Ds."

Frazier said that the declines in the sales of console hardware are due to the Wii but that the platform "remains the best-selling of this generation at nearly 36 million installed in the U.S." Nintendo is expecting some more success in the form of its new Wii U, which was announced at E3. The next-generation console is scheduled to be released sometime next year.

"At the current rate of growth and decline (on a year-to-date basis) for each of the respective console systems, a year from now the Wii will still enjoy the lead in install base in the U.S., although both the Xbox 360 and PS3 will close the gap," Frazier said. "Of course, new details on hardware introduction could certainly change the picture."

It will be interesting to see how the numbers fluctuate once the Wii U is released. Microsoft is currently in the lead with the Xbox 360, but will Nintendo make up some lost ground with their next-generation console? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Power Point Projectors
Most business class projectors will do a good job displaying your PowerPoint presentation. If you have a small presentation group, a 2000 lumen LCD projector will be able to produce a nice and clear picture. For larger audiences you should consider a 5000 lumen LCD projector.

Xbox Live Plans to Go "To the Cloud"

Everyone seems to be wrapped up in “the cloud” right now, and Apple is not the only one who has recently made an announcement regarding the cloud. Microsoft announced on Monday, June 6 that it would be adding cloud storage later this year for its Xbox Live.

"Yes, cloud storage is coming to Xbox LIVE. Your profile and game saves available wherever you are," Larry Hyrb, the director of programming for Xbox Live, tweeted on Monday afternoon.

When this update occurs, it will allow all Xbox Live users to sign into their accounts with the service from any console at any time. This will give them access to all of their game saves and full profile. This includes items like Microsoft Points for purchases, Achievements and friends.

"Cloud storage will allow you to enjoy the same great Xbox Live gaming experience even when you're not in your own living room by giving you the option to store your 'game saves' securely in the Xbox Live cloud instead of on a portable memory unit or your console's hard drive," Microsoft said in a statement. "Gone are the days of 'gamertag recovery.' Now all you need to do is sign in, no matter where you are!"

Unfortunately, Microsoft has not given a definite timeline as to when they will be adding cloud storage to their Xbox Live. They simply leave hopeful users hanging with “later this year.”

Think the cloud update sounds like a great addition? Well, that is not even close to the only update that Microsoft will be rolling out in the near future. Microsoft also promises that they will soon be offering a simpler, cleaner, easier-to-use dashboard. "All of your favorite content is categorized in a way that is easy to browse and find what you're looking for, plus you can use voice anywhere in the dashboard to effortlessly navigate and get to what you want," the company said.

On the morning of Monday, June 6 at the E3 Expo, Microsoft unveiled its Live TV, which included the voice component as well. This new experience from Microsoft will allow users to add live television streaming, built-in DVR capabilities and voice-powered Bing searches. "Quite simply we believe TV is more amazing with you as the controller," said Marc Whitten, vice president for Xbox Live.

Microsoft also unveiled a variety of new games that incorporate the voice-control functionality when working in conjunction with Kinect.

"We want Xbox Live members around the globe to experience the magic of Kinect's voice recognition technology so we are committed to bringing voice to eight additional markets by the end of this year with a total of 13 markets that will have Kinect voice," Microsoft said. "We are also exploring some innovative new ways to enable the Live community to help us accelerate the refinement of voice models in new markets and look forward to sharing developments on that front soon."

Xbox will also be adding what they are calling Beacons. These will allow users to notify Xbox and Facebook friends whenever they want to play a game on Xbox Live. All you have to do is set a Beacon and choose which game you want to play. Xbox Live does all the rest. It will let you know when your friends are playing and whether or not they want to play the same game as you.

"With Beacons no matter what you're currently doing on Xbox Live, your friends know that it's ok to ask you to play your Beaconed games," Microsoft said. "Imagine sending out a Beacon to let your friends know you're interested in playing 'Halo' while watching a movie on Netflix."

Sounds pretty cool to me. I just hope that Microsoft gets the updates out soon. I don’t want to sit around thinking about how cool these updates would be. I want to see them in action!

Power Point Projectors
Most business class projectors will do a good job displaying your PowerPoint presentation. If you have a small presentation group, a 2000 lumen LCD projector will be able to produce a nice and clear picture. For larger audiences you should consider a 5000 lumen LCD projector.