Xbox Dashboard Update

Microsoft announced at E3 this year that the Xbox Dashboard would be getting revamped, more than that, it would be getting replaced by a newer supposedly better user interface. There are two parts of this that I am interested in, one being what the new interface will be, what new features it will have and how I will feel about the console I have come to know and love changing. The other is the fact that Microsoft is updating millions of Xboxes all over the world with nothing more than a download via the internet - something that I find staggering as the Xbox Live system will only be down for 24 hours.

Judging from the keynote speach at E3, the change will be a big one but not necessarily a good one. The new interface is drab - grey and black, not the colourful one that greets me currently. Lovely oranges, reds purples, greens and blues will be banished in favour of a more PS3 meets Wii style menu.

Next is the introduction of avatars. The most annoying creation of recent years in my opinion. You can spend half an hour creating a virtual character that is ridiculous and looks nothing like you. Designed so you can share more of your personality with the online community. No thanks. With the new interface when I sign in to Xbox Live and go to my ‘buddy list’ , god help me the American influence, I will now see stupid characters standing around on the screen instead of a list of friends. Is that better user experience? I think not.

This new interface is designed to make the Xbox more family friendly and in doing so will alienate many of its fans. I much prefer the existing Dashboard and even that of the PS3 which is clean, slick and easily navigated. In changing this, the most basic of functionality, Microsoft is trying to take some market share away from the family friendly Wii but will inevitabley dilute it’s niche market and will gamers struggle to identify with the console.

Best Feature: The ability to rip your games to your hard drive for faster loading times and reduced lag.
Worst Feature: Avatars. Trying to compete with second life, PS3’s HOME and the Wii means once again Microsoft have shown they have no imagination or creativity of their own and are simply copying the other guy.

In other words i think Microsoft have shot themselves in the foot with this one, but the technical skills involved with doing so are so mindboggling that I can;t wait to try it out.

Micorosft Ad…

I found this ad on YouTube. Its pretty lame really but Microsoft has spent $300 million on a new ad campaign with the ‘…and I’m a PC’ guy from the Apple ads in a similar style. I’m looking forward to seeing those.

What Do You Mean?

Microsoft has recently purchased Powerset, a small company that deals in semantic search engine technology and released a proof of concept through Wikipedia. The principle is inline with other Microsoft Live Search goals, which is moving searching beyond matching mere keywords and phrases but actually understanding the meaning and the context of the search terms.

The possibility is that people will be able to ask a question and get a list of results based upon what the question relates to even if the best match doesn’t contain the keywords. This would probably never happen but it gives you an idea as to what can be accomplished. It means people get results more in common with what they are actually looking for and not just a bunch of web pages that happen to have the same keyword. This could revolutionise the internet but I fear that Microsoft’s proprietary attitude will undoubtedly lead it to be less than it could be.

The reason Google is so successful is that it is simple and quick. More recently Microsoft has attempted to emulate this with its Live Search which I must admit is quite good, but is no where near as good as Google’s. One good thing about the semantic search might be the removal of search results that are just putting your search query into another search engine… VERY ANNOYING.

Will this sematic searching bring them to the next level? Possibly, but I am left wondering what the next level for the Google search will be. It seems as case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it’.