Many may bad mouth Microsoft, usually driven by a mob mentality, but Microsoft has done more for the computer industry than any other company on the planet! Now, Microsoft is doing it again! Doing what? Bringing excitement back to the industry and raising the bar of computing!
Back in the early 80s, the computer industry was moving so fast with new advancements, the excitement just could not die. Every other month seemed to be a new announcement from someone that your computing experience would change and never be the same again. This happened on the consumer, business and even game industries as the companies battled for your attention.
Well, it is looking like the 80s are here again but with fewer players. The gaming industry has come alive with advancements since Microsoft entered the ring with their Xbox system. Now that Microsoft has locked in a foothold, they continue to raise the bar on gaming consoles. Their latest step will finally make me purchase one, as it will support an IPTV protocol bringing the Xbox to a media center / game console / TiVo type system. Not only will your Xbox play games and act as a media center allowing you to play media files off your PC, but also now will record shows at the same time. It looks like Video on Demand is at last becoming a serious market!
Some said Microsoft would never be major player in the gaming industry and concluded that Sony had too great of lead to ever worry about the Xbox, but now, years later, Microsoft has raised the bar in the gaming industry and Sony struggles to keep up. As a side note though, I love the features of the WII system controllers allowing people to become physically active in the games, but I figure Microsoft will have some form of similar features in the near future.
For more than a decade, I have wondered why the industry seems to have fallen to sleep. Advancements only came every few years instead of months and penetration of the computer industry into everyday life was almost non-existent. The Internet providing a method of communications, entertainment and educational resources but that was about the only major advancements over the past decade. I would have thought by now we would have our homes under complete computer control with all our media in a central location pumping that out to every room, not to mention video phones, voice recognition and home security surveillance all to be commonplace.
Well, it looks like the following decade will finally deliver on this and more! And where is the moving coming from? Yep, Microsoft will play a key role as usual. Over the last few years Microsoft has tried to get people to look at computing as more than merely sitting in front of a computer staring at a screen with Windows CE and Tablet PCs, but people are slow to get moving. Microsoft has kept the drums pounding and now people are in for a big move into the future. The time has come, get ready for an invasion of your home, office, and on the road with a fresh look on technology!
From the sounds of it, this year’s CES is one of excitement as Microsoft announced a torrent of new products and technologies. Of course, the coming Xbox advancements and the new “Microsoft Windows Home Server” caught my eye, but there are many other products and services focusing on unifying your computing experience at home, the office or on the road.
It is no secret, I fell in love with Windows Vista from the first beta, even though I was expecting more advancements, it has proven to be the most complete version of Windows yet. I know it will quickly replace the majority of Windows machines and pull in some people from other platforms. Again, others have to play catch up with Microsoft.
Over the last year and a half, Microsoft has announced new technologies one after the other and a few times several new technologies at once. For developers like me, it is hard if not impossible to keep up with the advancements. While developers such as myself have watched for some time now, the culmination of those new technologies are soon to be released into homes and businesses everywhere.
Around the New Year, there is always a flood of predications, but this one has nothing to do with the New Year, it is all about new technology and here is that predication:
“The next few years will see a saturation of computer technologies into almost every aspect of our home, office and mobile areas of our world. This move will dwarf those early years of technology and will open a vast marketplace! Our lives will never be the same again”
Wow, all that just from Microsoft releasing a few things? No, it is due to a shift in the technology focusing on vast area that has been mostly ignored for more than a decade. This could very well be the last frontier for the computer industry!
Here is a few things released at CES:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jan07/01-07CES2007PR.mspx
A few more things about WIndows Home Server:
http://www.stopdigitalamnesia.com - Must have flash enabled
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/whs_preview.asp
http://kindel.com/blogs/charlie/archive/2007/01/07/3602.aspx