Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Can't Do Hardware

Microhard



Summary: The hardware business is proving too hard for Microsoft, still

THE XBOX 360 is a story of how to burn money because consoles are sold (and repaired) at a loss. Xbox 360 hardware was a technical disaster and Microsoft is still paying for it. Microsoft's KINect seems like yet another case of bad hardware for reasons we named before [1, 2, 3]. Sony's attempt to emulate the Wii's controller is already leaping ahead of Microsoft's:



Gamescom: Move beats Kinect to major award



An expert panel at Gamescom - the German trade show that brought us all sorts of juicy announcements this week - has crowned Sony's Move controller as the best hardware accessory at the show.

The jury, which consisted of celebrated German video games industry experts, overlooked Microsoft's Kinect for the prize.


"Kinect lost out to Sony's move at the CVG awards," Tim said last night.

Chips B Malroy contributed some more news last night, as well. According to this, for example, "Kinect [is] Truly Dumb at Launch" as "the voice chat feature touted at the E3 unveil alongside voice control won't be ready for November 14th."

"Kinect is really becoming dumbed down and a product of bait and switch," Malroy explains. "Lower graphics video camera, no sign language, on now no voice control. Perhaps the 'Kin' name is appropriate."

Another news item says that "Video chat will also be missing on launch, presumably to be turned on "in due course" as well."

“Kinect is really becoming dumbed down and a product of bait and switch [...] Perhaps the 'Kin' name is appropriate.”
      --Chips B Malroy
"At the top of the list of issues that Microsoft's Kinect controller for the Xbox 360 faces is the problem of interference from people not in the virtual driver's seat of the console," says another new report. "That's a very bad sign, especially with Kinect due out in about three months. The fact that he couldn't tell me what Microsoft would be doing to resolve the issue was an even worse sign" (thanks Malroy for the link).

This article says that "MICROSOFT is selling advertising on the home screen of its Xbox 360 gaming console for the first time." It also says that "The ads, which can be seen on the Xbox Live platform on consoles that are connected to the internet, will be displayed as tiles that open up full-screen video or link to a branded destination page featuring downloadable content."

"So it uses up your bandwidth as well," says Malroy.

Microsoft has failed in hardware every time it tried, the exceptions being mice and keyboards perhaps. "Microsoft Windows glider crashes," says another new article:

Those of you who've been following our Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) programme are invited to spare a thought today for Microsoft's Phoenix glider, which failed to demonstrate the Right Stuff over the weekend at Red Bull's Flugtag competition in Long Beach, California.


Microsoft is not a hardware company. At the moment it just tries taking credit for a new microchip from IBM, falsely claiming it to be its own 'innovation'. Don't be easily misled by articles about it. That's just PR.

Recent Techrights' Posts

"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
 
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025