A comparison of PS3 and 360 as media players

[JB9861]

Yeah saw that, so that's makes it easy Zune pass which I've been playing with is really good, in some ways better than spotify, but the lack of multiple machine support is a deal breaker for me. Now the challenge is to actually buy a windows phone. After going to 5 stores now I've learned that the worlds most difficult things to do are:

1) Cure cancer
2) Put a man on the moon
3) Buy a windows phone

Man I've tried, really hard, but every store is a sea of android phones, and if you even ask about windows phone they all try to steer you to android anyways. Some places like Best Buy never even heard of the HTC Titan, and literally no one has any clue about windows phone. One lady actually rolled her eyes when I asked about windows phones! Looks like I may have to just buy it online as I've just about given up on trying in brick&mortar stores, I'm leaning to the Titan but its not out just yet, the Focus S looks cool as well.

My kid works for the mobile BB. They generally have internet access on all their computers. Surprised they didn't think to google search the Titan or go to cnet/forum about windows phone. Why not stop by a MS store? I think they just started opening up some new stores to provide an Apple like experience.

 

[patsu]

I did a little search to find "WB-Drive" coz it looks familiar:

The Joysound Dive software includes advanced functionality for music and video playback. The program uses WB-DRIVE, through which PlayStation 3 units exchange data between one-another. This allows the system to retain 12Mbps average and 30Mbps max data transfer speeds for HD video. Additionally, the system's CELL processor is used for high speed encryption.

Here's the result:
http://andriasang.com/comg54/gundam_viewchives/

The studio's technical expertise appears to be coming into play here. The Viewchives uses a Cellius-developed video distribution service called WB-DRIVE. This service shares data between users in order to stream HD video of max 30Mbps data rate. The service also uses encryption protocols that make use of the Cell processor's computational power.

It looks like a P2P video distribution network built by Cellius for Cell. ^_^

 

[joker454]

My kid works for the mobile BB. They generally have internet access on all their computers. Surprised they didn't think to google search the Titan or go to cnet/forum about windows phone. Why not stop by a MS store? I think they just started opening up some new stores to provide an Apple like experience.

Best Buy (not mobile, their regular store) was the only place that actually tried to look for me, the rest seemed more interested in trying to steer me to Android phones after which I just left the stores. Closest MS store is a bit of a drive for me. I considered going to a Best Buy mobile but I just ended up buying the Titan online right from at&t. Absolutely love this phone! Their cloud support is nice, I just entered my hotmail email and bam all my contacts, calendar, XBlive account, etc, all synched perfectly. And finally proper email support, man my iPhone 3gs was far behind the times!

It's funny to see the power of marketting at work against this phone. True story, I was at a donut place and was using the phone while he was getting the donuts, then he saw my phone and freaked out. "Wow that looks amazing, can I see?". Then the inevitable..."Is this the new iPhone?". Once i said no it's a Windows phone it was basically like I told him he was holding the ebola virus mixed with leprocy. "Oh" was his one word reply after which he lost all interest and handed it back to me. Crazy stuff. Microsoft really has an uphill battle with this phone irregardless of how awesome it is.

 

[patsu]

My contract is up in mid December. Have a 3GS now. I am considering switching to Android 4 to keep all my media accessible from all my home devices (PS3, PC/Mac, iOS, Android), and also play with PS Suite. Also toying around with the idea of getting a Win phone just for thrills and be different. Then again, I might stick with 4S to check out Siri and iCloud. Will have to figure out how to "export" my media to Android and PS3 if I go that way. I guess someone will jailbreak the iPhone and expand the export options.

The recent Siri hacks may be interesting to hook up all my devices with natural language input too. I tried "I'm hungry !" on Siri 3 weeks ago. It didn't know how to respond. I tried it again this weekend, and it lists all the nearby restaurants. perhaps Apple is improving the voice infrastructure feverishly as we speak.

Because of the kid, we have also collected assorted building toys/tools (Snap Circuits, Lego MindStorm, Move Server, and perhaps Arduino soon). I feel we have to build our own smart toys next.

Decision. Decision !

 

[patsu]

I fired up the updated VidZone the other day, and the UI really has improved tremendously! It actually is very useable now.
A nice service if you like music videos.

I remember Shifty posted about it in early November, but I can't find his post. It seems VidZone 2.0 made a few feature additions.

New VidZone 2.0 – Unleashing The True Power Of Music Video!
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/11/09/new-vidzone-2-0-unleashing-the-true-power-of-music-video/

 

[AzBat]

Microsoft purchased VideoSurf...

Press Release: Microsoft Acquires Video Content Discovery Company VideoSurf
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/nov11/11-22XboxNovemberPR.mspx

Founded in 2006, VideoSurf offers a back-end computer vision technology that “sees” frames inside videos to make discovering content fast, easy and accurate. Over time, Microsoft will integrate this technology across its entertainment platform to augment the Xbox 360 ecosystem and evolve search and discovery of entertainment content on Xbox LIVE.

“VideoSurf’s content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform,” said Alex Garden, director of Xbox LIVE for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “This holiday we will launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox LIVE. Over time, as we integrate VideoSurf’s technology into our system, we are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results.”

Originally it was thought the deal was worth around $70million, but TechCruch is now saying under $100million in cash.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/23/wi...icrosofts-video-search-now-has-big-potential/

Tommy McClain

 

[tuna]

Namco Bandai Begins PlayStation 3 Karaoke Service
http://andriasang.com/comz2k/ps3_karaoke/

You need to have a jap IP to access this. Could anyone link to a guide on how to achieve this?

 

[joker454]

My contract is up in mid December. Have a 3GS now. I am considering switching to Android 4 to keep all my media accessible from all my home devices (PS3, PC/Mac, iOS, Android), and also play with PS Suite. Also toying around with the idea of getting a Win phone just for thrills and be different. Then again, I might stick with 4S to check out Siri and iCloud.

If you do consider a windows phone I'd suggest skipping the reviews and instead borrow one from someone and play with it. That's what ultimately got me to switch. Phone reviews are all iPhone centric, basically they look at how the iPhone does something, then if a competing phone does it then good otherwise it's a knock on whatever phone they are reviewing. That's why using a windows phone leads to such shock once you realize how much stuff it does that's not only better than iPhone, but stuff it does which iPhone doesn't do at all. Simple stuff like far better auto complete where it shows a selection of words to pick from instead of just one which helps me type much faster on this phone, built in msn messenger support seamlessly integrated into the chat client, being able to set push settings individually on each email account, etc, all stuff you'd never know from reading windows phone reviews because they never talk about any of it. Even cloud and siri type support. I've been editing a word doc on my phone which gets saved to skydrive, which I can then continiue editing at home on my office pc later. Or verbally asking the phone for something, that works as well, not as well as Siri but it's had voice support for a long time now. Even specs which reviews love to knock because it's a single core device, yet my phone make my iPad look like a slug, my iPad runs slow in comparision to my phone and is an app crash fest on ios5. Makes me wonder if Android phones are treated the same way in reviews. Ultimately it makes me feel like a dumbass for ignoring this phone for as long as I did because of what I read in reviews. Lesson learned I guess.

Oh yeah looks like my ebola experience may have been the exception. This phone definitely gets attention when I use it in public, had a guy walk up to me in Frys to ask what it was and he didn't run away when i said windows phone, instead he said "very cool". And as a fast food place another guy wondered the same and also didn't flee when I said it was windows, instead he said "cool". Who knows, maybe this phone does have a shot at becoming a contender.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

...yet my phone make my iPad look like a slug, my iPad runs slow in comparision to my phone and is an app crash fest on ios5.

I wonder if that's contrary to what people expect from an MS device? Thinking Windows here, and ten years of legacy that made MS the butt of Apple jokes, if/when MS can turn around and write better OS and apps, they still have a lot of people to convince. If I was going to pick a smart phone, MS wouldn't even be on my radar because I don't expect them to be any good. MS have a lot of serious marketing to do if I'm representative of the majority. (/OT)

 

[joker454]

I wonder if that's contrary to what people expect from an MS device? Thinking Windows here, and ten years of legacy that made MS the butt of Apple jokes, if/when MS can turn around and write better OS and apps, they still have a lot of people to convince. If I was going to pick a smart phone, MS wouldn't even be on my radar because I don't expect them to be any good. MS have a lot of serious marketing to do if I'm representative of the majority. (/OT)

Well I get that marketting may have worked on the masses, but I wasn't expecting review sites to be affected by it as well. I figured they would have at least been semi impartial but perhaps that was horribly naive on my part.

A wee bit more on topic more or less...anyone use the Dune Smart D1 or H1 media players perchance? Was thinking of getting one since it can play bluray folder rips from network raid, curious if anyone has toyed with it.

 

[Arwin]

I saw a girl (pretty, adult) play around with it the other day in the store, and it looked quite good. I agree that it looks very good, and I've already seen good reviews for 7.5 (Mango?) when that came out a while ago, noting a couple of good things it does.

Mind you, iPhone is now getting behind quite a bit feature wise, but that's not necessarily a good thing. It just has to be simple. Today, I would probably choose something else myself, Android or Windows Phone, but for my wife I still like iOS. It's a good integrated experience.

For myself, I prefer the Android setup of being able to actually have some apps on your main screen to switch between, or have buttons on there that enable/disable wifi/3g/bluetooth etc. And you always get better hardware / more screen estate (I'd prefer slightly bigger than the iPhone screens are) individually. But I'm hoping that Android 4.0 delivers in terms of upping the user interface to the next level, as that's what Android really needs most right now.

If you do consider a windows phone I'd suggest skipping the reviews and instead borrow one from someone and play with it.

 

[NavNucST3]

I saw a girl (pretty, adult) play around with it the other day in the store, and it looked quite good. I agree that it looks very good, and I've already seen good reviews for 7.5 (Mango?) when that came out a while ago, noting a couple of good things it does.

Mind you, iPhone is now getting behind quite a bit feature wise, but that's not necessarily a good thing. It just has to be simple. Today, I would probably choose something else myself, Android or Windows Phone, but for my wife I still like iOS. It's a good integrated experience.

For myself, I prefer the Android setup of being able to actually have some apps on your main screen to switch between, or have buttons on there that enable/disable wifi/3g/bluetooth etc. And you always get better hardware / more screen estate (I'd prefer slightly bigger than the iPhone screens are) individually. But I'm hoping that Android 4.0 delivers in terms of upping the user interface to the next level, as that's what Android really needs most right now.

My wife loves her Windows Phone much more than she loved her iPhone and we are an all Mac (.mac/mobileme/icloud) household. The people hub is all types of fantastic. Having Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and SMS in a single location with the history of each is extremely useful and live tiles is such a rapid method of just seeing what people are saying/doing. My only experience with smartphones in the last five years has been with iPhone through the 3GS and now the Windows Phone 7 and 7.5 (7 was missing way too much but 7.5 is really good).

 

[patsu]

The first gen iPad is slower than iPhone coz it has a bigger screen. iPad 2 should be noticeably faster. OTOH, battery life on iPad walks all over the phone.

Android on Sony and Samsung is still a little jerky for my taste, also a little too confusing. Will have to see more Android 4 demoes. Win Phone seems nice and simple so far. Anyway, I'll check out all probably later this week.

Have fallen ill because I stayed up and played too much over the break (Played soccer in the rain with my son, and I'm the one who caught a cold. That was lame !). Have a sudden swarm of work to deal with today too. 8^/

EDIT: While iOS UI may look less fancy, Apple seems to be gearing up for changes. The Siri infrastructure tells me that they have engineered a semantic based interface somewhere in the app framework. And then they "stole" my GT5 + Google map idea:
http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/29/apple...s-looking-to-take-ios-maps-to-the-next-level/

 

[joker454]

The first gen iPad is slower than iPhone coz it has a bigger screen. iPad 2 should be noticeably faster. OTOH, battery life on iPad walks all over the phone.

It's more because of iOS5. It ran fine on iOS4, version 5 killed performance, same on my wife's iPad 2, her's also runs slower and crashes frequently. I use my phone now more than my iPad just because it's so much faster and more reliable.

Android on Sony and Samsung is still a little jerky for my taste, also a little too confusing. Will have to see more Android 4 demoes. Win Phone seems nice and simple so far. Anyway, I'll check out all probably later this week.

I've generally avoided Android because it always felt jerky to me as well, and I've always been able to get apps to crash on it even when just playing with it in the store. Plus the whole Android os just seems confusing to me, I don't really get it. But I did try the Galaxy S2 and it actually seemed smooth, seems like that's the Android phone to get if that's your flavor of os.

EDIT: While iOS UI may look less fancy, Apple seems to be gearing up for changes. The Siri infrastructure tells me that they have engineered a semantic based interface somewhere in the app framework. And then they "stole" my GT5 + Google map idea:
http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/29/apple...s-looking-to-take-ios-maps-to-the-next-level/

They better be doing something, because from what I'm seeing on Win8 and how ubiquitous it will be, there will definitetly be a new challenger in the field in 2012.

 

[patsu]

Verizon Fios TV app bringing 26 channels to Xbox 360
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57332844-17/verizon-fios-tv-app-bringing-26-channels-to-xbox-360/

Starting in December, Xbox Live Gold members will be able to download a Verizon Fios TV application to their Xbox 360 gaming consoles. Upon doing so, and as long as they're both Verizon TV and Internet subscribers, they'll be able to watch live programming on 26 channels through Verizon's service. Verizon didn't say which channels will be offered, but it did acknowledge that the selection will depend "on the customer's TV package."

Microsoft announced a wide-ranging television agreement last month with a host of service and content providers. At the the time, the software giant said it had inked deals with approximately 50 companies around the world, including NBCUniversal's Bravo network and Time Warner's HBO, to provide their content through the Xbox. The move is part of a broader strategy on Microsoft's part to make the Xbox a key component in the living room, outside of gaming.

To help it achieve that goal, Microsoft is relying heavily upon its Kinect motion-gaming device. In fact, Verizon said today that Kinect owners will be able to control its Fios TV service with "voice and gesture commands" through the peripheral.

To sweeten the pot a bit for Xbox owners, Verizon is offering a special deal that bundles Fios TV service with Verizon Internet and phone service, starting at $89.99 per month. Customers who sign up between now and January 21 will also receive 12 free months of Xbox Live Gold service and a copy of the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary game.

 

[patsu]

It's more because of iOS5. It ran fine on iOS4, version 5 killed performance, same on my wife's iPad 2, her's also runs slower and crashes frequently. I use my phone now more than my iPad just because it's so much faster and more reliable.

I haven't updated my iPad to iOS5. In iOS4, it is already slower than iPhone on the same OS.

I've generally avoided Android because it always felt jerky to me as well, and I've always been able to get apps to crash on it even when just playing with it in the store. Plus the whole Android os just seems confusing to me, I don't really get it. But I did try the Galaxy S2 and it actually seemed smooth, seems like that's the Android phone to get if that's your flavor of os.

Yap, Android UI is confusing. Hopefully the new Android 4 UI framework fix it.

They better be doing something, because from what I'm seeing on Win8 and how ubiquitous it will be, there will definitetly be a new challenger in the field in 2012.

Windows for phone looks great ! The Mango UI is very intuitive.

The beta for Windows 8 PC is painful though. I couldn't even figure out how to quit. I think they have some distance to cover there.

Apple is likely going through growing pain. I expect their developers to help out. e.g., Their iOS5 Notification Center originated from a grassroot effort. I am guessing someone out there will add Siri, Android and Win8 niceness to iOS, and then get acquired by Apple. It's probably one of the easiest ways to make $$$ now for a shareware developer.

 

[patsu]

Harry Potter would be a good example:
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/research/potter-finale-casts-a-sales-spell-25648

Mr. Potter did it again with the help of $9.99

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=7829

Following up on two strong weeks of disc sales, the final Harry Potter movie was made very appealing to Black Friday shoppers. The one disc, movie only edition, was offered to deal seekers for the low price of $9.99 at major retailers Best Buy and Amazon. Deathly Hallows: Part 2 charmed 44% of its total disc sales from Blu-ray buyers, with Blu-ray 3D accounting for 4% of all Blu-ray/DVD discs sold.

Super 8 had a phenomenal bow in the home video market as it placed second on the dedicated Blu-ray sales chart. ... Produced with a budget of $50 million, the film ended its theatrical run with a worldwide total of $260 million. The Super Friends were an overwhelming success in their first week of Blu-ray release as they achieved 59% of their total package unit sales from the HD format.

Emerging at No. 3 on the Blu-ray sales chart was The Lion King. Simba and friends ruled the Blu-ray sales chart in their first two weeks of release and received 59% of its total disc sales from Blu-ray buyers in the biggest retail week of the year.

A popular catalog title laid claim to the number four slate on the Blu-ray sales chart. Pulp Fiction is considered a masterpiece by many fans of Quentin Tarantino, who should be very pleased to see his film remain a crowd favorite in 2011.

...

 

[patsu]

Disc-By-Mail Services May Face Delay Thanks to New USPS Plan
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...s_May_Face_Delay_Thanks_to_New_USPS_Plan/8252

Blockbuster and Netflix disc-by-mail subscribers may be in for some bad news - movies are going to be getting to you even slower. This isn't something you can blame on Netflix or Blockbuster though. This one goes to the USPS.

...

The proposal would put an end to next-day delivery of First Class mail, instead allowing up to 72 hours for your letter or disc to get to its destination.

I wonder how this will affect other families.

Don't think it's a huge problem for us since we are more concerned about prices and selection (e.g., ET is still not available anywhere except on DVD). We don't sit around waiting for NetFlix mail. We have VoD too.

 

[patsu]

Limited Time Offer: Music Unlimited 60 Day Premium Free Trial
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011...er-music-unlimited-60-day-premium-free-trial/

Here’s how to download your free 60 day premium trial now:
* Go to the PlayStation Store and click on Media and Apps
* Click on the Apps Icon
* Download the Music Unlimited 60 Day FREE trial app.
* Go to the Music Icon on the XMB.

 

[Gradthrawn]

They better be doing something, because from what I'm seeing on Win8 and how ubiquitous it will be, there will definitetly be a new challenger in the field in 2012.

Windows 8 looks like an Enterprise Platform (on paper, at least). Very much looking forward to trying it out, and seeing how well integrates with AD, GPs and SCCM.

I also want a freakin Tablet with OneNote, damnit (with full Sharepoint workspace syncing). Am I asking for too much? And while I'm ranting why the hell did MS cancel the Courier?!

Grrrrr......