Microsoft : Project Natal Is "The Endgame"

What is Project Natal? Is it a fancy motion controller? Is it an easy way to talk to your TV? Is it a new way to use the 360 or Live? No, to Microsoft, it's much more. It's the goal.

Talking to Marc Whitten, Microsoft's Xbox Live General Manager, he's happy to show you last.fm, Sky, Facebook or Twitter, the latest services to be announced for Xbox Live. But these are just updates, part of Live's slow evolution to...something bigger. And you can see that in Whitten's body language when he hears "Natal." He goes from somewhat stiff and professionally cordial to shifting restlessly in his seat with sparkling eyes, like a kid who just wants to get back to his favorite toy.

As it happens, Natal is precisely what Microsoft's Xbox 360 Live team is and has been working toward since at least the development of NXE (though surely earlier, especially from a pure hardware perspective). And according to Whitten, it's the last step of Live.

You can have an amazing Live experience without Natal and you can have an amazing Natal experience without Live. But the magic, the endgame, the place that we're going in this social world in the living room is [Natal and Live] tied together. We spend a ton of time on how we're going to reimagine the future with this idea of controlerless gaming and Live together.

To be fair, "endgame" was my word originally, but Whitten, a man ever so careful with his diction, couldn't help but to use it. He sees entertainment and communication converging on Live, and he sees Natal as the way to assemble it all in your living room.

Indeed, if Natal works as well as advertised it's hard to see the technology, the idea, as anything less. You know, at least until we get the holodeck.

source : gizmodo.com
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Sony lifts curtain on tinier PSP games device

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp unveiled on Tuesday the latest in its Playstation Portable line of hand-held devices, the PSP Go, as it races to catch rival Nintendo in the mobile gaming arena.

Sony's gaming chief Kaz Hirai displays the new Sony PSP Go at the Sony E3 media briefing in Los Angeles June 2, 2009. The gadget goes on sale October 1 in North America and Europe for about $249, before hitting stores in Japan November 1.

Executives at the E3 videogames conference in Los Angeles said it will be half the size of Sony's current PSP 3000 and 40 percent lighter.

Sony aims to sell 15 million units of the PSP -- which competes with Nintendo Co Ltd's DS -- in the financial year to March, up from 14.1 million units a year earlier.

Nintendo's gaming consoles and hand-held devices have in past months outsold its rivals' products. Its DSi, released in the United States on April 5, sold roughly 800,000 units in the month, far outpacing Sony's PSP handheld.

The DS franchise overall sold more than 1 million units.

Nintendo's core "Wii" console was also the top-selling platform in April, even though sales fell by half to 340,000 units alongside a dive in consumer spending, according to research group NPD.

source : reuters.com
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Palm Inc's Launchs The Palm's Pre

NEW YORK (June 2) - It's no iPhone-killer, but the launch this weekend of Palm Inc's "Pre" could well become the brightest event this year for a gloomy industry.

Palm Inc's smartphone may not attract lines around the block like past Apple Inc iPhone launches. But its launch will be seen as a badly needed shot of adrenaline for Palm and exclusive provider Sprint Nextel Corp.

Plenty could go wrong. Executives have warned of shortages. Scathing reviews could smother not just Palm's hopes, but also Sprint's. And investors might have to wait a long time for the device to boost Palm's financials.

But the hope is Pre -- with touchscreen control, a slide- out keyboard and an operating system designed for trendy Web services such as social networks -- wows consumers enough to stem Palm's loss of market share and customer defections at Sprint.

The Palm Pre has a touch screen like the iPhone, but also has a slide-out keyboard and runs on Palm's new webOS software, which can run several applications at once, unlike an iPhone.

The original Palm Pilot was all about organizing the user's personal information, and the Pre will take that idea further by synchronizing contacts from Facebook, Gmail and Outlook into a single list — something else the iPhone can't do. The Pre will connect with Apple's iTunes software and download music and photos as an iPhone or iPod can, which may be a first for a device not made by Apple.

Since the Pre made its debut at the Consumer Electronics show in January, excitement over the device has intensified. Even arch rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc both say they want to sell it after Sprint's exclusivity runs out at the year's end.

If it takes off, Palm may even be an acquisition target.

"If you're buying (Palm shares) now, definitely what you're looking at is that they're going to have the most valuable asset in the industry. At some point, somebody will want to pay a premium for that," Pacific Crest's James Faucette said. "From a products perspective, the impact on the market is probably as important as iPhone."

Sprint and Palm are David to Apple and AT&T's Goliath,

with some casting Pre as the first credible iPhone rival.

Some analysts had fretted about the timing of Pre's June 6 launch, days before Apple is expected to unveil a new iPhone. But several now see Apple announcing an iPhone that is not radically different from previous models.

About 623,000 Pres are expected to move in Palm's fiscal first quarter ending August, five analysts polled by Reuters said. Estimates ranged from 500,000 to 865,000 phones.

That would be a fraction of Apple's launch-quarter sales of 6.89 million for the iPhone that started selling around the world last July. But it's still an ambitious estimate for one phone at Palm, which had third-quarter phone sales of 482,000.

"My sense is that there will good pent-up demand," said Avian Securities analyst Matthew Thornton. "(Palm) is a company that's really gearing up for a complete product refresh."

source : reuters.com
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Windows 7 Will Launch by October 22

Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is planning for Windows 7 to hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs on October 22.

To reach that milestone, Microsoft plans to wrap up development of the operating system by the middle or end of next month, Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview. "The feedback from the release candidate has been good," Veghte said.

Microsoft made the near-final release candidate version available last month. Shortly after its release, Microsoft finally confirmed that it was aiming Windows 7 for a holiday 2009 release, something that was widely anticipated, but not confirmed by those in Redmond.

In an interview, Phil McKinney, chief technology officer of Hewlett-Packard's computer unit, said that he feels good about Microsoft's launch date.

"We're locked and loaded for the launch," McKinney said. "The quality of code is just absolutely stellar."

The software maker also confirmed, without giving details, that it plans to offer some sort of "technology guarantee" giving those who buy Vista machines close to the Windows 7 launch a free or discounted copy of the new operating system. As with past similar programs, details on pricing will be up to individual computer makers, although Microsoft did say the upgrade program will apply to Vista Home Premium and higher-priced editions (meaning not Windows Vista Basic).

The tech guarantee program is not beginning immediately, but Microsoft did raise the possibility it will offer some sort of lower-cost upgrade to those who are already using Windows Vista.

I've gotten a lot of e-mails suggesting Microsoft do something along those lines, but its comments this week were the first time I had heard it acknowledge that it was considering such a move.

As for the technology guarantee program, it likely means that Microsoft will do some deferring of Vista-related revenue, though Microsoft again did not spell out details.

"Depending on when we do it there will be the associated accounting for it," Veghte said.

Microsoft has said that Windows 7 will come in five different editions in most markets--Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate. A "Windows 7 Basic" will also be sold in emerging markets, Microsoft said.

source : cnet.com
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