
Microsoft upgrades Xbox Live with live TV, and Kinect voice control - evo_9
http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/04/microsoft-upgrades-xbox-live-with-40-entertainment-services-live-tv-and-kinect-voice-control/
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pwelch
But will they do away the stupid points/currency system? I have found myself
using the Xbox Zune more than iTunes but hate the stupid points/currency they
use. Can I just see what I am buying in dollars?!

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ghurlman
Points * 1.25 / 100 = Dollars.

Assuming retail price for points purchased.

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brianbreslin
why not just use dollars or cents directly?

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andylei
they don't want you to directly associate points with dollars. the
dissociation allows you to spend points more freely than you would dollars

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georgemcbay
I'm pretty sure I actually spend less on Xbox Live than I would if everything
were done with straight money transactions because it is virtually impossible
to buy enough points to cover things you want to buy without having leftover
unspent points, the existence of which (even if temporary) makes me feel
wasteful.

eg. Ok, I would like to buy this indie game for XXX points, but I need to buy
points in blocks of YYY dollars which means after I buy this I'll have 200
unused points sitting in my account for who knows how long... screw it, I
didn't really want that indie game that bad anyway.

Granted this is just one view of the situation and I may be an anomaly, but
for me the whole point<->money system causes me to think too much which pretty
much kills off any potential for impulse purchases.

Straight up dollar values and a click-to-buy system as streamlined as Amazon
one click is what gets my money.

YMMV.

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andylei
i'm the same way, but i'm guessing most people don't think like you and i.

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wcchandler
I feel like the Xbox 360 is doing to console gaming what XP did to the OS
market. Which is only making me more leery about investing in their future
consoles. The Xbox 360 will not go away any time soon, but could this also
hurt their future console? Will it be able to stay up to date when the next
greatest thing comes out?

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andrewfelix
ABC iView access later this month in Australia! Seriously great news, since I
don't have access to live television where I am.

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brianbreslin
this is microsoft's trojan horse that analysts aren't paying that much
attention to in the living room wars (google/apple/etc)

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haridsv
Fails to mention that you need gold subscription for any of those, including
Netflix.

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jrockway
Interesting. The problem with Xbox is that every time I turn mine on, it has
to do an update. By the time it's done updating, I've forgotten why I turned
it on. It is also louder than many commercial aircraft, drowning out whatever
you might be doing on it.

So for TV, I just use a tiny computer under my TV, which can download stuff
from Usenet and play it without requiring updates or nine billion cubic feet
of air per minute.

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therobotking
Do you only turn your Xbox on every 6 months? Dashboard updates are very
infrequent.

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pwelch
Agreed, I use my Xbox several times a week and I think it has updated 3 times
total in the last 2 years.

