According to an ex-xbox employee “consoles will be dead in 5-10 years”. The article says that this is because of the increase in convergence of technologies like set top boxes, media centers and mobile phones. He also says that virtualization and internet distribution will negate the need for physical distribution networks.
I think people will always want ‘dedicated consoles’ as otherwise the units would get cluttered up with unrelated ‘junk’ (like my laptop) which would inhibit the performance. I’ll always want the ’switch on and play’ console with performance that never dwindles. Otherwise it would be like playing games on my laptop… ok but not top.
Steam already release all their games via the internet as well as in stores and because a digital download costs less to distribute than a disc with loads of unnecessary (but costly) packaging, you get a great deal on the game. The downloads can be a bit slow sometimes, even if you have a big connection. I have a 20Mb connection and it still took too long. Using a peer 2 peer system might be more effective in the future and also might drive down the price as they won’t have large bandwidth and server bills.
While I agree that we will see physical distribution shrink in favour of ‘anywhere’ delivery systems over the web, the speeds needed to download entire HD films and games in an acceptable time will need to be much higher than they are at the moment. This is obviously going to happen as the speeds have been increasing steadily for years. The only way people are going to save on bandwidth however is to use a Peer2Peer style network. Not in the way that we see it today but it will definitely spawn a new generation of network for fast, easy global distribution with the emphasis on sharing ANY kind of media.
The use of peer 2 peer technologies is already seeping into the mainstream with this set-top box having a built in bitTorrent client as well as being able to play 1080i HD content – something which the Xbox 360 lacks (when playing from an external device).
To accommodate the new style of network sharing we will see the end to the traditional supplier/consumer financial model. With the high availability of ‘free’ music and films on the internet already using peer 2 peer networks I believe the answer lies in the death of the fixed price per media – rather a fixed price for access to unlimited media. Like with the internet, we started with a ‘pay for what you use’ but now we pay a fixed fee for unlimited access each month. Why couldn’t a service like this be implemented for media?
All it takes is someone to try and succeed, then others will follow. If you build it, they will come!
The legal Napster was doing this years ago but their selection of music was poor and their fees were still too high. Plus it cost extra to transfer the files to an external device such as an MP3 player or CD. I’m not sure what they’re doing now. Worth a look though.
This proves that it can be done people! Sit up and take notice!
Today I was invited along by a friend to Silverstone racetrack for his Exige Experience. I took my camera and here are some of the shots I got. There are some great shots of the sky and on the way home I did some long exposure shots which came out quite well I think.
Click the image to view the full set in Flickr.
I suddenly had the urge to watch a ‘Weeble and Bob’ cartoon and on their site they have some parodies of films with the help of Cadbury’s Creme Egg. Funny as hell!
Here is Goo-Lien.
Here is Raiders of The Lost Goo
Here is Pulp Goo
Here is nothing to do with Cadbury’s Creme Eggs but for all you Portal lovers out there!!
I recommend you watch them all!!
My Dad recently took delivery of his new Harley Davidson. I’m not sure what it is, I think he said it was a ‘Rocker C’ but I could be mistaken. Anyway I decided to take a few pics of it, not very much at the moment and only one of these I like but as soon as the weather picks up then my Dad wants me to take some more outside.
Click the image to view the full set in Flickr.
Have a look at this article on SlashGear. It details a guy who has made a custom 360 controller for people who are unfortunate enough to only have one hand. It is designed for use with the right hand at the moment but there is no reason why the design couldn’t be switched to the left.
No idea how long it would take to get used to but it would be interesting to see what people who need it think of it, or even people who don’t. I’d try it, to try and see how long it would take to get used to it.
Great idea. More people should be looking at things like this.
But the war is not between man and machine but between moths with machines… and other moths with other machines…?
Believe it or not there are companies experimenting with robots and moths that are very reminiscent of two very famous films.
Terminator-Moth
The idea of an internal robot occupying the space of the moths ‘entrails’ used for ‘bugging’ purposes in a military field capacity. The hopes are tobe able to camouflage surveillance equipment within the body of an insect. Remote control pet or Skynet in insect form?
Robocop-Moth
Scientists hoping to use people’s minds to control robots, have been using electrical impulses of Moths’ brains to move a small robot around. Similar to the exoskeleton in Robocop.
If the creator of the web itself, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, says he will change his ISP if they start to monitor his web activity then we are in a sorry state of affairs. In interview with the BBC he said “consumers need to be protected against systems which can track their activity on the internet”
Seriously, is nobody listening? Although it wouldn’t be the first time the creator of something has watched it turn into something terrible. Anyone remember the Atom Bomb?
The article from the BBC cites a company called Phorm to monitors user information etc but their site itself clearly states “Phorm technology dispels the argument that in order to make online advertising relevant for consumers you must use and keep consumer surfing behaviour or their personally identifiable information“
They also state they are “setting a new, higher standard on privacy and anonymity“.
So I fail to see what the company will do, and if it does will it violate it’s own set of guidelines?
I STILL feel this is a breach of our rights to have unmonitored communications. This is exactly what my contextual studies essay was about.
This would make me FURIOUS if this actually comes to fruition!
I was browsing TED Talks and came across this video.
The guy is basically designing new forms of life, at the level of bacteria but still he managed to transfer a chromosome from one to another and get the new chromosome to overwrite the existing one by making it think the existing one was foreign. He’s also written his own chromosome and is hoping to implant that and ‘boot it up’ in the same way. In case you wondered, its over 500,000 letters long. Thats 140 pages at size 10 type.
The first half of the video is amazing. The implications are far reaching. He even said the scientists working on the project ‘watermarked’ the genetic code (made of G A T C) by arranging different inert groupings of letters to sign their names in the chromosome. Biological Meta-data!
The second half is an interview style scenario and at the end, about 31 mins in, the interviewer asks “Aren’t you playing God?” to which he replies “We’re not playing”.
Theres also a question about security and new forms of bio-weaponry.
Amazing stuff I think you’ll agree.
Microsoft has confirmed that they will not incorporate Blu-Ray technology into the Xbox 360. They’re argument is that they can still deliver HD content through the ‘rental’ of media through their Marketplace.
Personally I think this is ridiculous. There were always rumors during the HD format war that Microsoft had deliberately invested in a failing format to draw out the battle so it could develop its online push for HD content. The news that this is now the ONLY way for Xbox 360 owners to watch HD content comes as no surprise to me. While I love the 360 I was (naively) hoping that Microsoft would be consumer focused for a change and release a Blu-Ray add on for it. They were even in talks with Sony about licensing their technology but nothing has come of it. Would be nice to see an instructable with a Blu-Ray PC drive connected to the 360. Even a 3rd party add-on would do VERY well. I know I’d buy it.
So love the 360, hate Microsoft.
There is a new application about to become a public beta that could change the way people sync data between machines but also the way people share data with each other.
Its called Dropbox and its a revolutionary system for syncing across multiple platforms and requires no sophisticated setup, in fact very little setup at all.
The way it works is by integrating itself into the system your using. So for example you have a folder called ‘Dropbox’ and everything within there can be synced across the web as long as you install Dropbox on the target computer and sign in. Rather than having to click ‘update’ or ’sync’ or whatever and have to wait while all the files are uploaded or checked etc. Dropbox simply uploads the changes in the file only, therefore saving on bandwidth and increasing the speed of the service.
Obviously there are limitations with this and only certain applications will supported (I presume) but the implications are wide reaching. A long with this, you don’t have to click ‘update’ or ’sync’ on the destination computer as it is reflected as soon as it detects changes to the online folder.
There are loads more features and I’ve already signed up for the public beta and I suggest you do the same. This could be THE way of sharing and syncing information.
Check out the video here.
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