Microsoft Corp. is hard at work on the next generation of its Xbox video game console, even as the current version starts to show its full potential as an entertainment hub, founder and Chairman Bill Gates said on Wednesday. In an interview ahead of his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Gates told Reuters the company would look to extend the functionality of the Xbox, the only game console to ship with a built-in hard drive and Ethernet connection. "We are pushing the boundaries in terms of expanding what people think of as what the device can do," Gates said.
Last year, Microsoft released a title called "Xbox Music Mixer" that allows users to download music and photo albums from their PC to the console. Later this year, Gates said, Microsoft will release a kit for the Xbox that will extend the functions of its Windows XP Media Center Edition to the console, turning it into a set-top box that allows the playback of live and recorded video, music and photos. "You'll see us keep pushing the boundaries there," Gates said. Microsoft has lately been active in recruiting staff to work on gaming hardware, although Gates declined to talk in much detail about the company's plans for the next generation of the Xbox, which is widely expected to come in 2005 or 2006. Market leader Sony Corp., which has dominated the current generation of consoles with its PlayStation 2, has been similarly circumspect about its plans for a PS3.
News source: Reuters
Last year, Microsoft released a title called "Xbox Music Mixer" that allows users to download music and photo albums from their PC to the console. Later this year, Gates said, Microsoft will release a kit for the Xbox that will extend the functions of its Windows XP Media Center Edition to the console, turning it into a set-top box that allows the playback of live and recorded video, music and photos. "You'll see us keep pushing the boundaries there," Gates said. Microsoft has lately been active in recruiting staff to work on gaming hardware, although Gates declined to talk in much detail about the company's plans for the next generation of the Xbox, which is widely expected to come in 2005 or 2006. Market leader Sony Corp., which has dominated the current generation of consoles with its PlayStation 2, has been similarly circumspect about its plans for a PS3.
News source: Reuters
Features:
- fast video decompression using optimized MMX, SSE and 3DNow! code
- support for different codecs: XviD, all DivX versions, MS WMV, MPEG-1 and - MPEG-2
- image postprocessing for higher playback quality
- automatic quality control: automatically reduces postprocessing level when CPU load is high
- hue, saturation and luminance correction
- experimental sharpening filter
- noising (of course if you want it)
- presets
- completely free software: ffdshow is distributed under GPL
- support for various subtitle formats
Hmmm i hope they push the boundaries and make it so the box can do my homework and cook my food....How about flush the toilet for me...You gottz to love Micro...>>>
but also, I bought it at best buy, and for $30.00, they have this program where when the NEXT Gen. X-Box comes out, they refund the purchase price of your system + tax, and put it to the new X-box! Saweet.
That's Microsoft's typical thing that annoy people and make their products suck, cuz they don't concentrate on mail thing but they work on everything around it. It's a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE, people want it to PLAY VIDEO GAMES, that's why it's called a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE. No one wants it to cook coffee, no one wants a damn messanger nor some crap to be able to surf the web and check e-mail. We have another devices for that, called PCs. Why don't they just make it really fast, some normal and smaller joypads and most of all, don't make it look like some old 1980's VCR. It's not what Microsoft or some research company think people want, people decide what they want.
LOL!
:sigh: Why doesn't Microsoft just call it a Media Center PC? ...that's what it sounds like their doing anyway with the XBOX2.
Microsoft Media Center PC - XBOX Edition v.1.0.
:sigh: Stupid microsoft.
GameSpot - Xbox Next takes off a few inches.
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