With the host of sophisticated fitness trackers from Fitbit and Jawbone, Kinect on Xbox 360 can look obsolete only supporting large movements like jumping jacks. Yet, it appears Xbox One’s fitness initiatives will pick up the pace for Microsoft. Leveraging a new Kinect sensor, fitness apps will support more precise tracking like muscle mapping, balance calculations, and limb orientation detection. This enables feedback of your form and intensity. What’s more is their partnerships with major fitness celebrities like Tony Horton and Jillian Anderson to support their signature workouts. It’s a great way of reinventing the fitness DVD and tapping into a large existing audience.
Tag: microsoft
Microsoft Announces Bing Offers Test
Microsoft today debuted Bing Offers, which is a Card-Linked program that saves credit card details for automatic discounts. Called “Bing Offers Card-Linked,” the program is based on a partnership with transaction processing company First Data, as well as credit card networks like Visa and MasterCard. The goal is to leverage the “offers” space, which is vibrant, but customers can’t easily take advantage of the variety of offers thrown at them. Microsoft figures that if it can store card and offer information in one, easy-to-access location, users will have a very simple way to utilize digital interoperability, without a lot of the friction that third party systems offer. By signing up, offering your Credit and Debit card information, and simply shopping through Bing, you’ll be automatically reminded of updates and offers.
Xbox One Will Launch November 22
Microsoft finally announced that it will launch the Xbox One on November 22nd in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and the USA. The company had previously delayed the launch of the new system in eight European nations, and for those countries the device will be available in early 2014. The console launches just after the PlayStation 4 in the US, but a week before it debuts in Europe. It will be interesting to watch the inevitable showdown between the two consoles for the Black Friday and Christmas shopping seasons.
Microsoft Buys Nokia’s Phones & Patents
In the biggest post-Labor Day news yet, Microsoft purchased Nokia’s phones and patents today for $7.2 billion. The move brings the Windows Phone 8 together with its hardware support, giving the company totally integrated mobile solutions. Part of the appeal for Microsoft is the low-end Asha brand, which has been acquired outright. The acquisition means that the Windows Phone will be able to reach millions more customers, drastically increasing its market share, and getting customers on track to future purchases of more powerful phones. Ultimately, this means that Microsoft can finally compete with Apple and Blackberry, entirely end-to-end.
Microsoft Phases Out “Tag” Barcode Technology
Microsoft has chosen to phase out it’s Tag barcode technology, essentially a more sophisticated QR offering that allows for more data stored in a smaller space. The product that marries the physical and digital has some utility, but the lack of consumer adoption has made it less impactful. In fact, eMarketer reports that approximately 1/4 of smartphone users have ever scanned a QR code and those that do with regularity has to be far less. While NFC looks to supplant QR, it may be running into the same roadblocks.
Microsoft Windows Store Hits 100,000 Apps
In an important milestone marking its ascendancy into competition with iOS and Android, the Windows app store bassed 100,000 apps in the Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT store. For comparison, iOS and Android each have over 800,000 apps available in their respective stores, and Windows has been aggressively pursuing developers in an attempt to reach similar numbers – including paying up to $100,000 to developers to bring their apps over to Windows. So although it has some catching up to do numerically, this is still an important moment for the mobile competitor.
Microsoft Launches Xbox Music
Microsoft quietly announced Xbox Music Web client – simply by activating the service at music.xbox.com. The web client bears similarities to the recently rennovated web app for Windows 8.1, but is less feature-dense than its native version. The service is currently ad-free, and it grabs a user’s music and puts it into playlists and collections that are pre-arranged online. Users can then edit, add, and alter their collections and playlists – with the results synced across clients. One thing missing is a radio-mode, which sets its competitors apart for the time being. But it’s easy to see this service coming in the near future.
Xbox Partners With Time Warner
Microsoft has notched a landmark deal with Time Warner Cable to offer Xbox 360 owners live access for up to 300 channels. Viewers will need an existing Time Warner Cable subscription as well as an Xbox Live Gold membership to access the service, which will launch later this summer. The TWC TV app is to include AMC, BBC World News, CNN, and others; it will be available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace and will support voice commands using the Kinect. Given that Microsoft is pushing its new console, the Xbox One as the best solution for TV-watchers and gamers alike, this partnership has vast potential for TV programming and advertising in the upcoming months.
Kinect Patent Indicates Ad Tracking Possibilities
According to a recent patent for XBox One’s Kinect, the tech may be utilized to measure viewing behaviors and monitor user engagement. This use case could be powerful for ad tracking and can also be leveraged to reward users for ad views. We’ve seen third party developers utilize Kinect for Out-of-Home measurement, but this would mark the first time Microsoft would be bringing it to the millions of Xbox homes on their platform. Privacy concerns abound however, so expect some backlash if they do decide to implement the tech.
Microsoft Backs Indie Xbox One Developers
Reports initially suggested that the new Xbox One would mean the end of independent, self-publishing game developers, but Microsoft’s Xbox chief says that the One will have an indie-friendly program. Thus far there are more details that need to be released before the extent of the program can be determined, but Don Mattrick insists that Xbox will foster an independent creator program. In his interview with Kotaku, Mattrick praised the success of games like Minecraft, and insisted that he remembers his days as an indie developer, and wants to foster that type of community at Xbox. For now, it’s all talk, but we will soon see how seriously Microsoft takes Mattrick’s words of support.
