Golden Developers World

As CES winds down, interest in Windows Home Server remains strong. Despite this being one of the last days of the show, it was still extremely busy and tons of people were on the search for the Windows Home Server booth. Windows Home Server Marketing Manager Nicole Berett shared with us some of the great stories the team heard at the booth today. Nicole said they had many customers talk about how they were using Windows Home Server in their small office/home office (SOHO).  One story that stood out in particular was a couple who owned a small IT consulting business in Wenatchee, Wash. and used Windows Home Server to connect to all of their customers and data. They recommend to all of their customers that they should use Windows Home Server in their homes as their “safe” for their digital content. Nicole said: “One thing that I thought was impressive was that this business also used Windows Home Server to back up their Microsoft Windows Small Business Server, which they use to run their company.”

These kind of SOHO stories also reinforce what we heard in our 2009 user survey; we saw the number of home-based businesses using Windows Home Server nearly triple in the last year. This week’s announcement from LaCie with its network storage server for small business based on the Windows Home Server platform, as well as HP’s new StorageWorks X500 Data Vault, are the first specific Windows Home Server based offerings targeting SOHO. It’s exciting to see the home server category and Windows Home Server quickly propelling into the SOHO market. 

With the news that Project Natal would offload the image processing to the Xbox console – as opposed to handling those duties in hardware on the device itself – and consume as much as 10 to 15 percent of the console’s overall “computing resources,” we became concerned that the potential for “supplemental” input in core games would be blunted. When asked what percentage of the Project Natal-enabled games in development would be Natal-exclusive as opposed to Natal-enhanced titles, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg told Joystiq, “Our focus is on most if not all them will fall into that category of completely unique, brand-new experiences for Natal.”

“We’re going to manage the portfolio very carefully and our focus is going to be on bringing completely brand new original experiences to the market when we launch Natal,” Greenberg said. “We’re not looking at just adding little Natal components to games, we’re looking at how do we actually bring an entirely new category of controller-free games and entertainment to the market so I think that’s where we will continue to focus.”

But that doesn’t mean that other developers aren’t able to supplement their game’s input with Natal controls. After the release this holiday, “developers will have that out there at their fingertips if they want to enable those features,” Greenberg told us. “But I can’t speak to what that means from a game development standpoint. As far as I’m aware, there’s no real sacrifice.” But Greenberg wasn’t just talking up “new games” and “new ways to navigate” the console, but Microsoft is mysteriously promising “new entertainment-like experiences that will be enabled” because of the new interface.

With the “focus” on “controller-free games” and not just adding “little Natal components to games” we’re left wondering how Peter Molyneux’s Fable 3 – which he confirmed will have Natal support – will implement that support. With a 2010 launch for both Fable 3 and Project Natal, we expect it will be one of the device’s bellwether games.

Project Natal focus on ‘brand-new experiences’ not ‘little Natal components’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Discussing specifics of the company’s forthcoming Project Natal, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg told Joystiq, “We think that there will be millions of Natals in consumer’s homes this holiday.” To put that number into context, Microsoft sold 2.3m Xbox 360 consoles and Nintendo sold 1.7m copies of Wii Fit with bundled Balance Board in the US during the months of November and December, 2008.

“Millions” of Natal units in a single holiday season is certainly an ambitious goal and one usually out of reach of most video game peripherals; however, Project Natal will be released with more than a year of hype behind it, not unlike the highly anticipated Wii Fit. With more than 39 million Xboxes worldwide, there’s certainly a large enough platform footprint, and Greenberg (re)assures us that Project Natal will work on every Xbox 360 released to date, whether a hard drive is present or not. “As far as I’m aware, there is no requirement for a hard drive,” Greenberg said.

There is a 50mb software package that powers some of Natal’s magic, which raises concerns that original Xbox 360 Arcade units wouldn’t have the storage availability to use Natal. Greenberg assuaged our concerns, reminding us of Microsoft’s NXE outreach, offering a free 512mb Memory Unit or a discounted hard drive. “It’s kind of like the digital TV conversion you know, [subsidizing] the box,” Greenberg said. “We did that with the New Xbox Experience because it did require some space and so we feel like now we’re in an environment where we feel like we’re fine.”

Greenberg: ‘millions of Natals in consumer’s homes this holiday’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amidst the handful of CES 2010 bombs that Microsoft dropped we found a small fact sheet and a smattering of new media for upcoming XBLA racer Scrap Metal. First revealed back in August with a trailer and a handful of screenshots from developer Slick Entertainment (the folks behind the XBLA port of N+, a game that we hold dear to our hearts), we now know that the title will be hitting Microsoft’s digital distribution platform sometime in “Spring 2010.” While we anxiously await it’s arrival, we’ll be furiously practicing with Rock n’ Roll Racing and Super Off-Road — two games that Scrap Metal clearly draws inspiration from.

Scrap Metal rolls onto XBLA this Spring originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canon was showing off their cameras and printers that have earned the Compatible with Windows 7 Logo at their CES booth. Mark stopped by to chat with Liyzette Ronga and Nicole Centrone from Canon. They also discuss how their cameras and printers take advantage of Device Stage. Check out the video:

I recently had a chance to check out their PIXMA MP990 printer. What’s great about having printers such as the MP990 support Device Stage is that all that you need for all your printing and scanning needs are all on one screen. It’s a one-stop-shop for managing your printer.

The PIXMA MP990 also supports Jump Lists in Windows 7 too!

Special thanks to Canon for giving me the chance to check out the MP990.

Mark stopped by AMD’s booth to talk to Bob Sison about what AMD was showcasing this week at CES. AMD announced their Mobility Radeon Premium graphics in laptop PCs – supporting DirectX 11. Check out the video:

Did you know AMD has shipped 2 million of its DirectX 11 capable graphic processors?

Three years after being unveiled at CES, Microsoft’s Mediaroom software is finally coming to Xbox 360 (in the form of Mediaroom 2.0) “later this year” thanks to AT&T’s U-verse service. But, that’s all the details we had. Until today, when we spoke with Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg as well as a Mediacenter spokesperson on the show floor who, between the two of them, managed to answer most of our questions.

First, we asked Greenberg to explain the three-year delay between the technology’s 2007 debut and this announcement. “Well, the technology that we showed [in 2007] was brand new and showing that it worked,” Greenberg said. “What we then did was we went out to the IPTV content providers and said, ‘Hey, now this is an option for you.’” And that option was, of course, to use the Xbox 360 to deliver IPTV content. Greenberg said, “So the technology works … the Xbox 360 can serve as a set-top box, be a DVR, and run Mediaroom.” But not so fast! We got a tour of the service and found a few disappointing shortcomings to that nominally appealing feature-set.

Continue reading Details, limitations of Xbox 360 Mediaroom 2.0 IPTV support

Details, limitations of Xbox 360 Mediaroom 2.0 IPTV support originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Entertainment Division President Robbie Bach revealed a tantalizing statistic at its CES presser today, highlighting the key fact that 39 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide. Out of the entire install base, 20 million have connected to Xbox Live. While a complete breakdown of tiers was not given, [...]

Peripheral manufacturer Razer is dipping its shaved toes in the console market, announcing “preliminary approval” from Microsoft to produce an Xbox 360 controller and headset. The $50 wired Onza — that’s the controller — will have Razer Hyperesponse technology that’ll “give faster actuation and a crisp, tactile feel.” What’s that now? Oh, oh, we pressy the buttons and they make the things happen? Gotcha! Why not just say that? That’s what we want from a controller.

The Razer Chimaera headset, which will retail for $130, features 5.1 channel virtual surround sound. The headset also allows “multiple Razer base stations to be connected to create a direct, private communication channel for in-game team conversations” — or the rest of us can just start a party chat? Best part, though, the “circumaural design of the headset allows for optimum noise isolation for long-hours of comfortable gameplay.” Thus allowing gamers to totally tune out their parents, spouse, or crying and hungry child.

[Via GX]

Razer wants cut of Xbox 360 peripheral business originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On the heels of its CES 2010 keynote speech, Sony released a chest-pounding press release declaring worldwide sales “exceeding 3.8 million” of the PlayStation 3 during the 2009 holiday season. According to the company, “during the five weeks following the last week of November 2009″ (ending on January 3, 2010), the console sold more than during any previous holiday season — a 76 percent increase over last year’s numbers.

Alas, the PSP and the PSP Go were neglected a mention in the presser, though Sony did reiterate the 38 million PSN user number we’d heard a bit earlier. We’ll have a clearer picture of what exactly the sales shook out to for North America when the latest NPD numbers arrive next week.

Sony PlayStation 3 sales ‘exceed 3.8 million’ worldwide over the holidays originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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