[click to see full size infographic]
I remember when a video recorder first arrived in our home – it was met with much excitement, despite the fact that it was about the size of a modern day microwave. It brought with it a new era of entertainment and even had a (wired) remote controller if memory serves me correctly. Things chugged along nicely and our house became a storage unit for the world’s video cassette tapes – or at least that’s what it seemed. Not a great deal changed for a while, until DVD came along and satellite TV arrived in the UK. Not long after, we saw plasma and then LCD TVs take off and at the same time we started to see movie rental stores begin to shut their doors and Internet speeds to the home could sustain streamed video at a quality high enough that people would watch it. The world had changed, right while we were watching it.
This week, the world of entertainment will change again as the new Xbox 360 experience arrived in people’s homes. Remotes are a thing of the past in this world, as you search for and drive your entertainment with your voice. New applications from world leading TV and entertainment content providers arrive on Xbox LIVE (check out the full list of what is coming tomorrow and then later in December and early 2012) and Bing is integrated to enable you to search across games, movies, TV shows and music.
One of the benefits of my job is getting to play with this stuff early and I’ve been using the new system for over a month now. It’s effortless – I simply say “Xbox, Bing Barney” and my daughter’s favorite purple dinosaur is ready to roll. When dinner time rolls around, I simply say “Xbox, pause” and Barney stops in his tracks. It’s a magical experience that even my 2-year-old uses regularly. It really does begin to break down the 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On) barrier and also remove a barrier for many people who are baffled by the two or three remotes they’re struggling with.
It’s not just about getting rid of remotes though – this is getting me closer to a single box under my TV that does pretty much everything I want in the living room. Games, movies, TV, music, web chat, Twitter, Facebook and more. The Xbox has certainly grown up well from its humble beginnings and with Kinect a whole new landscape has opened up.
Xbox is certainly benefitting from the integration of services like Bing, and other Microsoft assets are being brought to bear too. The latest TV ads for Microsoft show the integration of phones, PCs and Xbox and starting tomorrow, anyone with a Windows Phone will be able to download the Xbox Companion app that brings together Xbox, Bing and Windows Phone beautifully. I’ve been playing with this too, searching the Xbox catalog for movies, TV shows, music, games and apps and with a tap on the screen of my phone, they appear on my Xbox. It’s another magical experience that’s actually quite addictive to play with. As Major Nelson explains, the app really is a companion – not just a remote control. You can learn more details about the movie, TV show, music or game that is playing on your Xbox and view friend activity to see who is online, achievements and additional info.
All of this comes in a beautiful new Metro interface. So get ready for tomorrow…it’s literally coming tomorrow.
