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Xbox Upgrade Is One Step Closer To The Future

// February 2nd, 2012 // No Comments » // Family, technology

I’m firmly convinced that when my daughter is old enough to play video games, I’ll hand her a controller and she’ll look back at me, baffled, asking ‘What’s this, Dad?’ The controller – with buttons and joysticks and the like, will be relegated to nostalgia, similar to Nintendo’s ‘Virtual Boy’ or the trackballs of yore. To further this, Microsoft recently released an upgrade to the Xbox 360 dashboard that redesigned the whole thing to be Kinect-enabled. Kinect, as you’ll recall, is Microsoft’s controller-free control system for the Xbox – it includes motion-tracking, such as gestures, as well as a microphone and voice recognition, for speech control.

The motion-tracking portion of Kinect is OK – it’s not superbly accurate, which makes the games more of an entertainment piece than something that serious gamers would be interested in. The system needs to get much more accurate to be able to take on real gaming. However, the voice control is phenomenally cool. I kid you not – the following situation actually happened. Aside from pressing the button to turn my Xbox on, I was able to talk the system all the way through from the main dashboard to watching an episode of Modern Family, entirely from the couch without ever touching a remote control. 100% voice. That’s amazing.

The news that Microsoft is now requiring its partners to make their apps ‘Kinect-enabled’ is no surprise. The improvement in experience is so significant that I wouldn’t expect anything less. In fact, the few apps, such as Last.FM, that weren’t updated, are now noticeably painful to use – even though they’re the same as they were a few weeks ago.

Now, imagine that when you buy your next Xbox gaming system (entertainment system, really these days), it doesn’t come with a controller. You simply plug it in and talk your way through the rest of the setup. Now, imagine that for a family, it recognizes not only commands, but VOICES. It would know that Reese (at age 10 or so) was the one who gave the ‘turn on’ command, so it would present a kid-friendly version of the dashboard. None of that scary Modern Warfare 10 business, just all butterflies and sunshine. The possibilities are endless.

Just plain crazy.

My Top Tech Toys Of 2011

// January 30th, 2012 // 3 Comments » // technology, toys

I firmly believe that technology should enrich and enable our lives, so it’s no surprise that I use a lot of technology in my life. Some of these gadgets are for personal use. Some are for work, and others are just for fun, but here’s a list of the top tech toys that I discovered or started using in 2011.

1. T-Mobile G2 – I got this phone in November of 2010, and it’s been an awesome device. After I rooted it, overclocked it, and put HTC’s Sense user interface on it, it’s been a killer phone. The slide-out keyboard is really what makes it for me, plus having a real camera button.

2. Apple iPad 2 – I tried desperately to use a few different Android-powered tablets, but I just couldn’t. Honeycomb might’ve been built for tablets, but it sucks to use full time. The iPad can’t do half the things I did with my Android tablets, but what it does do is miles better.

3. Apple iPod Classic – I tried for literally years to duplicate two simple functions with various software solutions on various smartphones, and I just couldn’t. Given the size of my music library, I needed a portable solution that can sync playcounts/times and star ratings from desktop to mobile and back again. I finally broke down and bought an iPod Classic and couldn’t love it more. It doesn’t have apps or all that nonsense, but it does precisely what I need it to, and it does that well.

4. Xbox 360 w/ Kinect – after a few years of not even having a TV in the house (no kidding), I finally got one, along with an Xbox 360 w/ Kinect. The media experience with this thing is awesome, especially with the dashboard update that came late in 2011 and brought speech recognition throughout most of the software. I can literally tell my TV that I want to watch Modern Family without ever touching a remote control. Awesome.

5. Nokia BH-905i – these headphones are just plain awesome. Most of the time I use them wired to my iPod or iPad, but they also have stereo Bluetooth, which connects easily to my laptop. They also have active noise-cancellation technology, so I can watch a movie while Reese screams her brains out (or plays noisily with her toys….) and not miss a thing. Even when the house is empty, I’ll put these bad boys on and just disappear into the music.

6. Bose In-Ear Headphones – I got my first pair of these at the Nokia: Go Play event and bought a replacement pair two years later. These are my everyday earbuds, and I love them because I can have my music as loud as I want and no one around me can hear it. They’re brilliant for listening to music in public, as well as at my desk at work. They’re pricey, but I haven’t found any other headphones that fit as good.

7. Angelcare monitor – I lost a cousin to SIDS when I was a kid, so having a good nighttime monitor with the heartbeat pad is priceless. This unit also has video, which is cool. I have a full review coming soon.

8. Enercell Portable Power – this is similar to the Proporta units that I’ve loved for years, but it’s available at any RadioShack, and it’s a bit smaller. Other than that, it’s the same – huge battery cased in plastic with USB-out. I don’t travel with less than two in my bag.

9. Chumby One – I don’t remember how long I’ve had this, but I know I got it off Woot. I didn’t really use it until I talked with the Chumby guy at the NY Maker Faire, who told me I could get it to automatically change ‘channels’ if I used alarms. So brilliant, it now automatically loads Pandora in the morning and Groove Salad when I get home from work. Excellent.

That’s it – I originally started this with the idea to do ten, but I could only come up with nine, so it’s your turn. Let me know your top tech toy in the comments below.

Nokia Should N-Gage With Xbox Live

// November 29th, 2011 // 5 Comments » // Mobile

Now that Nokia has finally launched a Windows Phone device, they need to begin making inroads in that ecosystem. One of the first opportunities that comes to my mind is gaming. Nokia has a weird history with mobile gaming. They were one of the first companies to put games on phones (Snake) and one of the first to try building gaming-specific hardware (original N-Gage). Nokia also tried to kickstart the mobile multiplayer gaming with the second coming of their N-Gage platform, though eventually it failed, due to a number of reasons.

So, where’s the opportunity now? Xbox Live is one of the largest gaming communities on the planet today, and with its deep integration to Windows Phone, Microsoft has a huge potential to really grab a significant portion of the mobile gaming industry, as well. The Kinect is one of the fastest selling consumer electronics of all time, and Windows Phone is also poised to get some integration with Kinect on the Xbox 360 soon, as well.

Despite its many flaws, one of the things that Nokia really had going for it with N-Gage was the in-house produced titles. Games such as the launch title Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, System Rush: Evolution, ONE, and Reset Generation were completely awesome and a perfect fit for the mobile device. Unfortunately, these games are no longer available, even on the Ovi Store (or whatever they’re calling it these days).

Windows Phone and its Xbox Live integration is a great opportunity for Nokia to generate some additional revenue from pre-existing projects, and might be motivation to finish some of the N-Gage titles that were previously in development. I know I would love to play Reset Generation with my Xbox Live buddies. Would you?

The Gaming Industry’s Missed Opportunity With Mobile

// June 19th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Mobile, technology

I have an Xbox 360 with Kinect, and have a few games such as Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, and Halo Reach that are very character-driven. The Xbox Live profile includes an avatar that you can dress up and buy things like pets and accessories for. It’s an entire ecosystem within the overall Xbox ecosystem, and it’s tragically left as a wide-open door, specifically when you look at the mobile opportunity.

I have an HTC HD7 that I sometimes use, which is powered by Windows Phone. There is an Xbox Live application that lets me see my avatar, messages, and manage a few other things around my profile. I can also buy games that often have achievements for me to unlock, and this all builds up my overall Xbox Live profile. However, there’s still something missing (and I’ve talked about this about 4 years ago)

There are many games, such as Kinect Sports or EA Sports’ golfing games where you start with a rather basic character and you build their capabilities the more you play. With Kinect Sports, it’s your avatar – you increase their capabilities as you complete more and more challenges or win more matches. With EA Sports’ golfing game (such as PGA Tour: The Masters) you have a golfer who starts out rather humbly, but gains more power, greater accuracy, and a better wardrobe as you play through various courses. Racing games are another great example of this.

When will the gaming industry see the opportunity to connect the console and mobile experience through these ‘buildable’ characters? What if when I bought EA Sports’ Tiger Woods ’12, it came with a code to download ‘Tiger Woods ’12 Trainer’ to my Windows Phone device? This side-app would download my character from EA’s servers and let me practice my putting game while standing in line at the grocery store, or hit the driving range while my wife drives us to her mom’s house for dinner. The improvements gained on my phone would then sync back to my player when I fire up my Xbox 360, so the whole experience is complete.

It’s such a simple solution, but I have yet to see a console game ship with a code for a free mobile download. Most of the big development houses like EA have mobile divisions – is it really so difficult to get them to talk to the console team? The benefit for the developer, too, is that they’re creating additional ways for me to interact with their product, in different ways than I have before.

If Windows Phone is going to take over the world the way Nokia and Microsoft hope it does, they’re going to have to get creative and tie the whole experience together. Just keep the N-Gage folks out of the room and you’ll be fine.

Welcoming Microsoft Into Your Livingroom

// June 13th, 2011 // No Comments » // technology

I bought an Xbox 360 with Kinect a few months ago, and have done my best to fully embrace the idea and technology. The Kinect is definitely the future of how we interact with our in-home entertainment – gestures, voice command, facial recognition, it’s all there. Music and video content is readily available, too, with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Zune, and Last.FM (I don’t have a Zune account yet, to be honest). In fact, we were able to disconnect our TV service, saving nearly $70/month. The only time thus far that we’ve noticed is when there were bad storms around and we didn’t have reliable news – a problem that could be fixed with a $30-40 antenna from RadioShack.

At E3 last week, Microsoft revealed quite a bit of information about the future of Kinect – TV service is coming soon, as are additional video content providers. Microsoft also introduced a new feature, called Kinect Fun Labs. It’s an experimental area where you can simply play around with the Kinect sensor through a number of different random minigames. For one of these, you can create a bobblehead of yourself, adding some fun costumes, stances, and voice recordings. Once you’re through creating, the game gives you the option of uploading your creation to KinectShare.com, which I thought was rather interesting, so of course, I opted in.

KinectShare.com is themed similar to the Kinect part of Xbox, and seems to be a web-based storage area for your creations, as well as your photos/videos from other Kinect games, such as Kinect Adventures or Kinect Sports. Annoyingly (albeit unsurprisingly) the site is built on Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, which means I wasn’t able to use it from the iPad (yes, I have an iPad, more on that in a different post).

The first thing I wanted to do was share my bobblehead creation with my friends on Facebook and Twitter (because you know, I’m a social guy). Sadly, the only sharing button I saw was for Facebook, and it was a bit clunky to share. First, you have to use the KinectShare app – no use of the bookmarklet here. Obviously, I can really easily let the app make the post and then go through and remove the app from my approvals list (which I often do), but most consumers aren’t going to go through that hassle. Once it did post, you can see below that it wasn’t even optimized to really give good details:

I wanted to share my bobblehead with my friends because I’m still convinced that many more of my Facebook/Twitter friends have Xboxes, but somehow, I can’t seem to find a way to confirm that. I’ve posted my Xbox Live username several times on my stream and only gotten a few requests as a result, so my friends list is rather small, and therein lies my biggest problem with the Xbox thus far. I’ve owned it for months and have only played online twice, and only one of those times was with someone I actually knew (the other was a random online matchup).

I have a few friends, but to be honest, half of them I’m not sure precisely *who* they are. There doesn’t seem to be a way to find out someone’s *real* name through Xbox Live, so you have to either have them tell you their Xbox Live name (through some means other than Xbox Live), or you have to guess. My name is ‘rcadden‘, so I’m pretty easy to find, but I’ve noticed most people have completely random usernames that have nothing to do with the rest of their online presence.

If Microsoft is really going to take over the entertainment duties for my household, they’re going to have to do better than that. I have an HTC HD7, which is powered by Windows Phone, so why can’t I let the phone scan my contacts to see if there are any matches? Why can’t I tweet or update my Facebook status automatically when I unlock achievements? If I have a game that one of my Xbox friends starts playing, there should be an option to let me know that, either via email, SMS, or an in-game alert, so that I can decide if I want to invite him/her to play.

The Xbox with Kinect is easily one of the most fascinating, entertaining technology purchases I’ve made in a long while, but I’m disappointed to see that it’s so disjointed still. I can’t wait until Microsoft takes full advantage of the opportunity they’ve created and makes the experience more social and connected.

(Of course, as I request these social options, I should also make it clear that I also need granular access to toggle these settings. Let me be in control and you’ll find that I’m much more likely to share.)

Cutting The Cord

// May 19th, 2011 // 2 Comments » // technology

A few weeks ago, shortly after Hulu Plus came to the Xbox, I called AT&T and had them disconnect the TV portion of my U-verse account with them. I’ve been a U-verse subscriber for a long time, but was paying nearly $90/month for the service, with the U200 package, two DVRs, and one HD receiver.

My video solution now includes my Xbox, which offers Hulu Plus and Netflix access. I went from paying $90/month to paying $24/month ($15.99 for Netflix 2-disc account and $8 for Hulu Plus). So, I’ve got an extra $90 in my pocket each month, but what did I lose?

The biggest thing that I’ve lost is the ability to watch shows as they air, or shortly thereafter. We only have a few TV shows that we watch (Modern Family, Cougar Town, Family Guy, etc), and had somewhat gotten comfortable with when they came on, so that we would watch them within an hour of the original air date. Hulu Plus gets these shows within 24 hours, so we’ve had to adjust a bit.

The only other loss we’ve really suffered is sports, which neither Christina nor myself are into. We also get left out of some conversations with friends about TV moments that might have happened the evening before, but a quick search on YouTube usually gets us up to speed.

The biggest caveat that we have yet to encounter is AT&T’s new data caps. Our data plan will eventually have a 250GB/month limit placed on it, with fees imposed for going over. As it stands, AT&T is apparently still building the tool to measure this (when I tried to look it up, I landed at a page showing this message:

Of course, streaming all of my video through Netflix and Hulu Plus will push that 250GB limit, so this is a wildcard in my solution.

Have you cut the cord? If so, how’s it working out for you? If not, what’s holding you back?

Microsoft Kinect Is The Future Of Media Interaction

// May 3rd, 2011 // No Comments » // cool, toys

A few months ago, I joined the video game elite and picked up a 250GB Xbox with Kinect bundle. I grew up with PlayStations, but the controller-free part of the Kinect (as opposed to the PlayStation Move and Wii) really appealed to me.

The system came with Kinect Adventures, which is actually a pretty impressive game, to be honest. But really, Kinect is the impressive part. For starters, you can setup your profile with Kinect, and the system reads your face. This means, when we have friends over, as soon as I step in front of the screen to play my turn, the system ‘sees’ that it’s me, and uses my profile. I’m not kidding.

The other impressive feature is the accuracy. Even little things like scratching my nose or drinking a beer during play – my on-screen avatar mimics the action perfectly. It’s a completely new way of thinking about video games. This past weekend my buddy was over and brought his 15-month-old son with him. As we were playing Kinect Sports (I just got it, it’s sweet, too), I realized that it’s entirely possible his son will grow up not knowing what to do with a video game controller. It will feel foreign in his hands. Of course, it immediately reminded me of this scene from Back To The Future:

Of course, currently, the Xbox isn’t entirely controllable via Kinect. You still have to use buttons to turn it on, and most parts of the system still require that you use your controller. However, the Kinect capabilities are being included in more parts every day.

It’s also not just motion sensing. Kinect also listens to you, so that you can control your system by voice commands. Here’s a quick video demonstration of this from my friend James Whatley. Speaking of, Kinect also does video calling – James and I have done a couple video calls, on our TVs, through Kinect. It’s brilliant.

If you have an Xbox, get a Kinect. If you don’t have either, go get one. They’re sick.