Xbox Live returns with Message Center integration
Looks like no other fancy-pants updates with yesterday’s downtime. Damn…I’m falling into Xbox 360 fanboy hype. On the other hand, I’ve got a really fancy answering machine for Xbox 360 now.
Microsoft Buys Seattle Top Spot In Gaming Cities Poll
Glad to see my epic Oblivion playing last week might have helped our fair city gain some notoriety.
Btw, if you are on Xbox live and want to play head to head, my gamertag is stewtopia.
As in tomorrow. Xbox Live will be down for 13 hours tomorrow for what many presume to be a major update. Many are speculating that this update will include background downloading for Marketplace content.
For those of you that don’t have an Xbox 360, one of the cooler features is demo and content downloading on the unit. Demoing a new game before purchase is pretty wise on almost any gaming system, but before Xbox Live, demos were for PCs and game magazine subscribers only.
Microsoft has said recently that E3 will have lots downloadable coverage on Xbox 360 and this update makes sense before such an update occurs. What makes this interesting to me is that this new feature and a deluge of HD or SD content could really test a video download system. Oh, ya, and Xbox Live is free to non-subscribers next week.
If Microsoft wanted to start a video download service, the Xbox 360 could be a perfect Trojan horse to get them in a lot of living rooms. Apple might own the portable content, but no one owns the living room just yet.
Serious side bar aside, don’t plan on playing Burnout Revenge between 2am and 3pm tomorrow morning.
As promised a few weeks back, ABC launched their experimental streaming television shows today. Launch shows include Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias and Commander in Chief. All shows come with 4 30 second ads from a single sponsor (reload if you don’t want the first one they give you. I’ve seen Tylenol, Toyota and Cingular) and the video is in Flash, so don’t worry Mac users, it works fine. Video is running at around 533x300 resolution, so not only is this free, it runs at a decent, near-tv-quality resolution.
The downside? Besides ads, you can’t take it with you and you can’t go full screen. I think that ABC really intends this for occasional, “oops-I-missed-Deperate-Housewives” viewing and not for the gym or for family viewing. But if you are a feeling like a total slacker in your cube or you missed last night’s Lost, free might just be better than $1.99.
(Via Zatz Not Funny)
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New blog post: !$title$! http://blog.stewtopia.com/2008/07/22/title/ FYI, "Hey I know this. This is Unix," was a ridiculous quote from Jurassic Park. ok, goofing off on google, I discovered that I am the number 1 search result for, "Hey, I know this. This is Unix." http://bit.ly/1LXfkx btw, thanks for all the well wishes Twitter friends. I've been reading them all to Heather and our still unnamed son. Noticing the little differences between having a baby in Seattle vs San Francisco. I don't remember an espresso bar at Cal Pacific. I think I forgot babies' schedules are completely topsy turvy. Wasn't party all night and sleep all day the motto for the Lost Boys? hangin' out at the hospital waiting for breakfast to be delivered. our son was born at 11:20 pm pdt. mom and baby are healthy and doing well. we're still working on a name. waiting for some food at the hospital cafeteria.
