Tech News: Microsoft Controlled Cars, Windows Phone 7 Gimmick, $250 Million Social Network
Today in the news, I am going slightly insane because my Comcast internet is down. All of the drama aside, I really needed to get talking about something semi-productive, so this got me on the subject of what Microsoft has been up too lately. Well, none other than myself was more excited to hear the Windows 7 phone had the possibility of playing X-Box live games on their phone. As cool as it sounds, it turns out to just be some major hype, as Microsoft is extremely quiet as to “what games” will be able to be played, in fact, they use vague words such as “select few” and “some”. Quite disturbing if you ask me, I guess it will remain to be seen. Oh, as a side note, Need For Speed is NOT what I would consider a selling point for a mobile game… I’m just saying…
In other Microsoft news, apparently Microsoft is going to have more control over the way some vehicles operate. That’s right, some of your car’s systems were already running on the Microsoft thin operating system designed for vehicles in the way of bluetooth syncing and USB controlled audio. The good news, however, is that these cars will not be operating anything devastating such as our brakes, our tires or our steering wheel… yet. I was fine with it after I heard about that. Have fun with those liability concerns Microsoft, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.
Facebook, Amazon and a few other big players are going to be throwing down $250 million big ones to invest in social media startup companies. I applaud their efforts and investment into one of the most popular and fast growing business markets in the world. We are sure to see some good inventions come out of this. If only our government had enough sense to invest in something realistic… but no… lets keep driving cars that have wheels, and not cars that can fly… whatever…
Lastly, the motion market battles begin! The Kinect and Playstation Move have both begun to fight it out over the motion market for this Christmas. I can only think the Wii is yawning over this battle, since, well, you know, they basically still dominate this market and probably have some tricks up their sleeves for this Christmas. I guess we will find out soon enough. Oh, and apparently the Playstation 3 one is already “sold out”. Which to me just means they didn’t make enough of them so it could appear more popular than it really is. That is one great marketing technique. Call me a conspiracy theorist, I’m going to go throw my modem out the window now…
Venture Firm Launches $250M Social Startup Fund:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=11939608
Microsoft Expands Presence in New Cars:
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2010/10/microsoft-expands-presence-in-new-cars.html
Xbox.com Will Share Games With Windows Phone 7:
http://www.tbnews.info/696/xbox-com-will-share-games-with-windows-phone-7/
PlayStation Move off to strong sales start:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/1021/PlayStation-Move-off-to-strong-sales-start
Kinect, Playstation Move make the Toys R Us ‘Hot Holiday Toy List’: