Microsoft upgrades Xbox Live with 40 entertainment services, live TV, and Kinect voice control. Xbox Live isn’t just an online gaming service anymore. Microsoft is announcing today that the new version of its Xbox Live user interface will help transform entertainment on the television. The upgrade goes live on Tuesday. Calling it the future of TV, Microsoft is unveiling a new user interface for the Xbox 360′s dashboard; it is also unveiling dozens of new options for watching movies and TV on the console. Microsoft has also improved the quality of using Kinect voice commands to move from one choice to another, or to search through all of the entertainment options at your disposal in an instant.
The update is one of the biggest in the past five years for the Xbox 360 because Microsoft is trying to improve the experience of watching entertainment. It also includes cloud-based access and storage for gamers to improve the basic gaming experience. “A lot of people have said they’re going to reinvent television,” Honey said. Don't let cyber attacks kill your game! Verizon FiOS Customers Can Now Sign Up For New Xbox 360 Service, Will Let You Control Live TV With Your Hands. Last month, Verizon and Microsoft announced a partnership that will bring live HD TV channels to Xbox 360 customers who have active Xbox Live Gold subscriptions.
Through the agreement, customers who sign up for the service will be able to watch live TV via their Xbox, without having to purchase any additional hardware. Of course, the coolest part of the news was not that you could watch live TV on your…well, you know…your TV, but that you could control it via the Xbox 360 Kinect. Yep, prepare to channel surf with your hands and your voice!
The offer is now ready to order, says Verizon, which has just launched the sign-up form here for new FiOS customers. Existing customers can just call Verizon to add an Xbox to their current service. (Note that in addition to Xbox Live Gold, you’ll also need to subscribe to both FiOS TV and FiOS Internet in order for this service to work). OK, now for the bad news: the sign-up form is live, but the service itself is not. Could Big Cable Team Up With Microsoft to Preempt Its Own Disruption? If you thought cable companies were in a panic about the threat the Internet poses to their business model, think again. Rather than sit idly by as Web content makes its way to television screens via set top boxes and smart TVs, companies like Comcast will instead try to position their traditional offerings alongside that streaming content. How? By adding it to set-top boxes. Specifically, Comcast and Verizon are talking with Microsoft about the possibility of including cable subscriptions via the Xbox 360, according to a report from Digiday.
The tech giant's gaming console, which already streams content from sources like Netflix, Hulu Plus and others, could in effect become a cable box if Microsoft manages to strike a deal ahead of its upcoming release of Xbox TV. The move could offer Microsoft a real advantage over the likes of Google and Apple, whose Internet-connected set top boxes have yet to take off. Reader (1000+) The summer of our discontent: How web TV has changed — Online Video News. Online video finally chipping away at broadcast TV — Online Video News.