Digital Media

 

Microsoft Natal passes the beta test and is a game-changer

 

I love technology. I get RSS feeds from Gizmondo, read T3 and Stuff, and spend far too long exploring new internet applications and devices when I should be working.

Richard Eyre is a media pluralist
Richard Eyre is a media pluralist

The defence that this is work is, frankly, threadbare, as I finish up doing the real stuff late into the night to meet deadlines. I resist the title of "geek", but only because I don't really know how any of it works.

History will reflect on this era as a time when expectation mainly triumphed over delivery. It is the Beta period.
The pace of invention and the screaming competitiveness of the market mean the emphasis of suppliers is on getting it out there - in beta.

Beta is code for "not really ready yet, but at least we beat the other guy - sorry it crashed your computer".
I firmly believe we will pass through the Beta period and into a time when technology will just work.

When it will quietly upgrade overnight, heal itself when it goes sick and no longer demand significant chunks of my leisure time to get the bloody wi-fi to re-engage, resolve wars between my laptop and the printer or wait while "important upgrades" install on the piece of software I want to use right now.

What enthrals me about technology is change. However, the problem for us media wonks is the same as for financial investors. Spotting the inventions that will break through the treacle of public conservatism is not easy. But knowing that something will change everything is less important than knowing when.

So it is with apprehension that I point you to a new device that I believe is a game-changer in every way.
Search for "Microsoft Natal" on YouTube and watch the - only slightly goofy - three minutes and 40-second clip.
It is presented as an Xbox development, but a screen that recognises you and hears voice commands will do a lot more than liven up game-play.

It can pull up a personalised EPG for you as you enter the room, containing not just TV shows but new pictures and video messages received, developments in your social network, online games, new music, e-shopping opportunities or just enable a chat with the wife when she's downstairs.

The location of all this in one place not only achieves the convergence we have been anticipating for the last decade, it demonstrates why it matters.

This one is not just for geeks.

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