BT's Vision of 360 as set-top box

[#1]

Xbox 360 in deal with BT Vision? Bill Gates' last hurrah in yesterday's keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas has of course received plenty of coverage already. PC Pro judge it right in my opinion.. it does read like it was a bit of a disappointment for many. As an example, Vista is wholly responsible for my wanting to buy a Mac this year - and I know I'm not the only one. One interesting item though, also picked up by Engadget, is news that BT is looking to hook up with Microsoft to deliver IPTV to the Xbox 360.

Just in case you weren't reading along to our liveblog of Bill Gate's twelfth and final CES keynote - in which case, what were you doing? - we wanted to share some Xbox 360 IPTV news. Last year, Microsoft was talking up their IPTV initiative but when Fall '07 rolled around, there weren't any set-top Xboxen to be found. During last night 's keynote Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, announced that British telecom giant BT Group would be the first "to provide that capability." But when will they provide it and in what markets? As always, answers as we get 'em, but in the meantime read the rest of the Microsoft keynote by clicking the read link. Source: Engadget

[#2]

Bookmark this for regular updates: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/CES2008/

[#3]

PJ said "Vista is wholly responsible for my wanting to buy a Mac this year - and I know I'm not the only one." Me too! Having experienced just how rubbish Vista is on the new laptop I got my Mum I went out and got myself a Mac.

[#4]

Glad to hear it. The more Mac users the better, so the rest of the computing world doesn't keep treating us like some awkward minority.

[#5]

*Cough* There's more than one PJ and this one doesn't think Vista is all that bad. *Hides*

[#6]

I do also use Linux for servers and some workstation functions before I lose all credibility

[#7]

Hehe, buy a mac, oh sorry that be a ibm compatible that is overpriced, and run it with an OS that looks like a fisher price toy. Yeah right, if apple had their way we'd all be using exactly the same computers and all the same colour - welcome to the totalitarian state. Bring on MS Vista, bring on real PC's, bring on real hardware, at least we can play 'proper' games on them, customise them and update them cheaply, seen the price of mac's and mac updates on the Apple site recently . If you want a toy, buy a mac rofl; if you can't get vista to run then you don't deserve to own a pc, just put it back in its box, take it to the retailer and tell them you are too stupid to use one Chris

[#8]

A troll if ever I saw one.

[#9]

IPTV - what's that going to do to bandwidth usage??? Isn't prime-time TV around the same time as prime-time internet usage?(You know - the time it gets a bit slouchy every evening)? So if contention ratios are giving us trouble now, what's it going to be like when the masses decide that IPTV is the next "cool" thing to have? Unless there is a major investment in infrastructure the internet in the UK is not ready for huge numbers of users using IPTV. And who will pay for the upgrade? That's right - WE will! IPS's (generous lot that they are) can't continue to up their bandwidth allowances at no cost. IPTV may be coming - but it will cost us, one way or the other. (And if the bandwidth is not available, contention will ensure that there is just as much picture break up on IPTV as there is on my Freeview picture on a windy night! Whatever happened to wonderful digital quality - Freeview is just garbage!)

[#10]

Now then Be3G, I think that's fair comment. I don't agree with parts of it obviously, but he makes his point about Macs being standardised and more expensive. I'm more than happy to have robust debate on these forums.

[#11]

Yeah, debate's good, but there's a big difference between calmly offering an opposing view and acting like a troll - which, IMHO, cuke2u was clearly doing what with calling people stupid etc., which is why I didn't bother actually entering into a proper debate with him.

[#12]

About the comment that Mac's are a bit fisherprice. Well that is *exactly* what I used to think. I had built 3 PC's for home use (for me and my 2 kids) and work as a unix sys admin in an international financial firm. So I am very technically litterate. Then the wife says she wanted a laptop. I knew how much faffing about I spent on the 3 PC's updating windows, adaware, zonealarm, anti-virus etc etc and the thought of a 4th windows box was not appealing (this was before vista even!) So, out of mild desperation I did some research into Macs. We ended up getting an iBook and was delighted to discover that MacOS has genuine and functional technical depth as well as the well known elegant user interface. Its got apache, php, perl, even python. It is basically unix under the hood. Lots of free software was available too - dvd rippers etc... I run linux and XP virtual machines on my iMac. It can do 6 things at including burning DVD's without making coasters. The built in parental controls keep my kids safe (yes their PC's got replaced) - and I can remotely monitor their activity both onscreen and via http logs. So I am not trying to convert here. But this fisherprice idea just is not true. Also, the folks in my professional sphere, the real high flying technical guys, the distinguished engineer types, all use Macs. So that tells you something about their fisherprice-ness!

[#13]

Sell those M$ shares!

[#14]

Is there any news yet as to when Plus Net will be providing BT Vision (with or without an XBox 360). Although to be fair I never have enough time to watch everything on Freeview as it is. As to the Mac v Vista debate I'm using XP Pro until Linux can run the few Windows applications I really need to use (CAD and Proprietary programs).

[#15]

@LimestoneCowboy At the moment we don't have a firm date for BT Vision on the PlusNet network. I don't envisage it being in the first half of 2008 as there are some significant network and systems barriers to overcome. We'll shortly post our 'plans for 2008' post which will give some more details.