Microsoft's vision of future living rooms

Published 18 August, 2011 Duration 2:00

Starring Kinect and Bing.

Comments (34) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bullet_Tunnel #1 9 months ago

    Deluded corporate tossers... living rooms of the future are either going to be piles of charred rubble, or exactly the same, but without bing or kinect, as they will have found some other shit for us to buy by then.

  • Inmediasress #2 9 months ago

    Does M$ also give a living room for me with Kinect?

    @Bullet_Tunnel
    You know they have to sell it since they made 10 million of the thing and people start to notice that it's not all sugar and spice.
    Edited by Inmediasress at 18/08/11 @ 16:14

  • barkertron #3 9 months ago

    Bing is absolutely haemorrhaging money for Microsoft, so I can see why they would want to expand its reach. I've got to say though, the thought of using my Xbox to search in this way is fucking horrendous.

    Also, "I could watch a Premier League game in the UK, it would almost be like us all being in the pub together." Yes, that bit totally didn't smack of [INSERT CULTURALLY SPECIFIC EXAMPLE HERE], you total bellend.
    Edited by barkertron at 18/08/11 @ 16:18

  • Nithron #4 9 months ago

    I think something like Kinect is the way forward, instead of having loads of remotes lying around all the time.

    However, the rest of the video - I can see how that would work. It wouldn't. Periodically their search engine wouldn't find what you're looking for, or worse, would filter it out deliberately based on your past habits. And then, you'll be stuck using some kind of back-up interface which is just a PC.

    Even worse than that, they might pull some Apple-esque shit and remove the "advanced" interface - and you'll just never be able to find anything their predictive system doesn't think you like.

    I've tried stuff like this before. It only has to go wrong once, and then you're back to using your original system - and there's little point in returning to the more "intuitive" one.

  • Xardan #5 9 months ago

    What has this got to do with living rooms and the future? This is just a preview of kinect and the new dash for gods sake.

  • Utopolitan #6 9 months ago

    His face is so friendly.

  • Anciegher #7 9 months ago

    If by future they mean the next 2 years and only for xbox 360 users then....maybe. But it's still a farcry from what users really want. (All movies + series since forever) i.e today it's a lot better to use piratebay than anything commercial.

  • The-Bodybuilder #8 9 months ago

    "xbox bing bbc 1".
    A button would be faster.

  • FogHeart #9 9 months ago

    "XBox play Sigur Ros."

    (Blondie singing) "One way, or another, I'm gonna find yer..."

    "Xbox STOP."
    "XBox play Sigur Ros."

    (Blondie singing) "One way, or another, I'm gonna find yer..."

    "Xbox STOP."
    "XBox play Sigur Ros."

    (Blondie singing) "One way, or another, I'm gonna find yer..."

    "Xbox STOP FUCKING PLAYING SUGAR RUSH!"


  • Jamaway #10 9 months ago

    Horrendous marketing guff.

    "Pub" - "Premieeeer League" - Nice try yanks.

    If me and my mates somehow all magically manage to get permission from our girlfriends to sit on the xbox and watch a match 'together' at the same time then we might as well all go down the bloody pub. At least then we can get some fish and chips or pie 'n' mash (or some other stereotypical English foodstuff) on the way home.

  • FogHeart #11 9 months ago

    Actually the above isn't that much of a joke. Plugged into my router is my TV, my PC, my PS3 and my network hard drive. The latter holds all my music and photos and any videos I've converted from TV recordings done with Media Center. Now the TV and the PS3 play very nicely with the hard drive's DLNA capability. Windows Media Player will use it as an external media library, and refuses to make the content searchable. Microsoft appear to have this policy that only when you store media on an MS system (a PC with Windows, a home server with windows etc) will the content be searchable by MS systems.

    So in the above case the search will be limited to recordings on the PC hard drive, and it will ignore content on the DLNA device. Hence you look for Sigur Ros and its closest match is a TV recording of Sugar Rush...

    Throughout my career in IT, I find it's like that with MS. They try really hard to make you need to buy another MS product to make things work smoothly with the MS product you already have, and pay lip service to the standards (like DLNA) set up by manufacturer consortiums. You end up installing Silverlight just to use their websites.
    Edited by FogHeart at 18/08/11 @ 17:10

  • aidan1994 #12 9 months ago

    I think xbox should have some free movies to make up for 7 euro a month for only a bit better than ps3

  • kupocake #13 9 months ago

    You know, I don't think gaming sites have enough platform wars, so I'm going to put this one out there:

    Haha... Bing.

    Edit: Also, I totally came to this video expecting them to explain how everyone was going to remodel their home to actually accommodate Kinect.
    Edited by kupocake at 18/08/11 @ 17:09

  • Spanky #14 9 months ago

    Zig Serafin? Yeah... my name is Spaceman Angelforeskin. Bic Multiliner. Pentel Satanica. Ohto Ohno.

  • CaptainQuint #15 9 months ago

    "It's about our technology learning about you"

    Yeah. I bet it is.

  • edhe #16 9 months ago

    Nay sayers say nay!

  • rotmm #17 9 months ago

    I like the new user interface.

  • Utilero #18 9 months ago

    Microsoft has lost its mojo.

  • Ryze #19 9 months ago

    Xbox bing porn.

    Bing porn!!!

    Dumb xbox.

  • cheeky_BILLY #20 9 months ago

    i like the way he's say's it's 'effortless' .

    yeah, because standing up waving my arms around trying to find BBC 1 is so much quicker than pressing '1' on a remote.

    MS are really clutching at straws with their shitty console and the over hyped kinect now.

  • StooMonster #21 9 months ago

    Some fun stuff, but some stupid stuff too.

    For example, why do you have to say "Xbox Bing Halo" when you could just say "Bing Halo"?

    "It's our technology, learning about you" he says, well how about my suggestion above that reduces three syllables to one?

    The only flaw I can see in my plan if you have a certain type of doorbell ... "bing bong" ... "Bong: a filtration device for smoking ..." that's the only logical explanation of why you need to say "Xbox" in front of "Bing" unless it's typical Microsoft marketing malarky of course.

  • immateriaux #22 9 months ago

    The people they wheel out to do these demos all look exactly like the kind of people whose living rooms you would never want to be in; the thin plastic covering still on the couch and one of those small vacuum cleaners resting on the armrest, ready to pick up any deviant crumbs that might fall while you "effortlessly" stand there, almost perfectly still, bar the one arm raised in the air, slowly moving slightly, slightly to the side, like a mime artist with blunt head trauma: "XBox Bing Remote control"

  • MojoDex #23 9 months ago

    i demand my meals be replaced by pills!

  • evilrobot #24 9 months ago

    Post deleted at 22:12:53 08-05-2012

  • Phily50 #25 9 months ago

    Surely the technology is adapting to the way Microsoft want you to do things?

  • Machiavellian #26 9 months ago

    Well I will step away from saying something negative since that is the theme within this thread and look to the positive. I like the new layout and look. The all white space look appears to have gone which is a definite plus.

    i like the way he's say's it's 'effortless' .

    yeah, because standing up waving my arms around trying to find BBC 1 is so much quicker than pressing '1' on a remote.

    I have used Kinect sitting down to so standing is not required. Integrating voice into the UI is actually a good move. It can be faster than going through menus depending on what you want to do. Combine that with the TV offering MS is trying to do and it can be a real treat like "Xbox, find all action movie for today". If the voice get to this level, then I am looking forward to the new update.

  • Dave52 #27 9 months ago

    So, I have to stand up if I want to browse channels...?

    Brilliant.

    Xbox - Bing - Kinect Sold Through figures

  • SG #28 9 months ago

    Kinect? Possibly. Bing? Fuck no, it's a joke - if we could have Google though...

  • Sid-Nice #29 9 months ago

    "Xbox Bing Music" "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"

  • Skooch #30 9 months ago

    I didn't think I would use voice control with Kinect much, but more and more if I download a film on Zune I don't bother with a controller and it is actually quite refreshing and easy. Doorbell goes, "Xbox Pause", done. I have six remotes on my coffee table and this is quicker than finding the right one and hitting pause. Walking back in the room with two cups of tea in hand, "Xbox Play" and off it goes whilst I settle down on the sofa.

    I don't know exactly how well the whole Bing search thing will work but for me the basic voice control in Kinect works nicely.