The State Of Updates

Right now almost every program on my computer has its own update mechanism of some sort. They primarily fall into three categories.

• Notify me of an available update
  • Pidgin
  • WinSCP
  • VMware Server
• Udate themselves from within the program
  • Firefox
  • Thunderbird
  • Quicken
  • Opera
  • Photoshop
• Special updating program that runs at startup and constantly uses memory
  • Java
  • Quicktime/iTunes
  • Google Pack (Picasa, Desktop Search, etc)
  • Thinkpad utilities

With every program doing its own thing, keeping your software up-to-date is a bit of a hassle and certainly not something the “average” user does.

Windows/Microsoft Update

Microsoft has their own updating software of course: Windows Update. It can already be extended to update other Microsoft products through Microsoft Update. They also serve up drivers for various WHQL’d hardware through it.

Why not open this up for any program on your system? This could be another feature to help differentiate Windows Vista or Windows 7 from the competition (OS X or Windows XP). This would also address one of the pain-points to “boxed” software that web applications don’t have.

Updates ala YUM, APT, or Xbox Live

I’m not saying that Microsoft should host files and provide bandwidth for every Windows application on the planet. They could create a secure way for third-party applications to be updated from the developer’s site through Windows Update.

YUM or APT on Linux is similar to this concept but it only works reliably if you only install software from repositories. Xbox Live also manages updates for every piece of software that runs on an Xbox 360 and it rectifies one of the main reasons for why I don’t PC game: it is such a pain to keep games up-to-date.

Ultimately Microsoft is a platform company, and this would make the Windows platform more attractive to users and developers. Having a unified method and interface would greatly simplify keeping software up-to-date, particularly for less savvy users. It could also have the effect of improving system security by making it easier for people to have the latest version of programs (Quicktime, Reader, Flash) that have been recently targeted through web browsers by hackers as well.

I would think that developers would appreciate not having to maintain software just to help…maintain software too. It really is kind of silly that everyone has to reinvent-the-wheel each time for updating their applications. Certainly there are some details for Microsoft to work out on how to implement this, but that is their problem. I’m just the idea man. :)

*Before anyone sends me an e-mail about this, yes I do know that there are programs such as RadarSync that claim to keep all of your applications up-to-date. I have yet to try one that is easy to use and actually works however.

The Benefits

There are three major potential benefits to installing games onto the hard drive. As it stands now the Xbox will realize two of them: speed and noise reduction. Microsoft has said that their own internal testing showed approximately a 30% improvement in loading times. This does come at the cost of having to install the game at some point. Although Microsoft told reporters than it only takes ten minutes to install Devil May Cry 4, which is half as long as the PS3 version’s install takes. In my book, a 30% improvement in loading times is easily worth a ten minute install.

The noise will be greatly reduced because of the DVD drive. Most users don’t realize this, but most of the noise of the Xbox 360 is caused by the very fast DVD drive, not the fans. With the game on the hard drive, the DVD won’t need to spin. No spinning, no noise.

The Third Benefit

There is a hitch to all this though, and this is where Microsoft misses perfection. The third potential benefit is not needing the disc to switch games, and the Xbox 360 will still require your game to be in the drive. This is of course an anti-piracy measure, and would be understandable for all games that have already been produced.

I’m suggesting that Microsoft should change how their games are sold. Every game should come with a code that, when entered during an install, would allow gamers to play without inserting the disc. These would be one-time use codes similar to the codes you can already buy at brick-and-mortar stores for Xbox Live subscriptions and Xbox Live Arcade games.

To make this user friendly the game would have to still be playable in the drive without ever using the code. Of course that would open up the opportunity to buy the game, install it, and give it to a friend or sell it used.  To combat that they could make it ask for the disc on some regular interval, say somewhere between one to three months, to verify ownership.

This would really make for a seamless experience of getting an invite to join another session in a game you aren’t playing and/or don’t have in the drive. It may be a small thing, but I hate it when I get an invite to Halo 3 only to realize that Guitar Hero 3 is in the drive. :)

Digital Distribution

All of this is of course baby steps toward digital distribution. There really shouldn’t be anything stopping Microsoft from selling me my games via Xbox Live especially with the new 60GB Xbox 360 on the horizon. They already do it for classic Xbox games, and a lot of free demos are well over one gigabyte. Microsoft will also let you re-download anything you have already purchased if you are worried that you may need to delete the game for space too.

What do you think Microsoft? You still have time to include this in the “new Xbox experience”. Using discs was so Xbox 360 1.0.

Microsoft

Microsoft really came out of the gate with some big news that surprised me. The major announcement was that the Xbox 360 is going to receive a completely new dashboard and guide. Honestly, I was surprised that the Xbox guys realized and accepted the fact that the dashboard needed some kind of complete overhaul/replacement like this.
Part of the new dashboard is that there will be avatars (read: Xbox version of Miis) tied to your gamertag as well. Sure, Microsoft totally copied the concept from Nintendo, but it could still be pretty cool. Overall, I thought the concept of the original dashboard blades was good, but the new dash looks like it will be a lot better. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until fall to see if it actually is.

The next major announcement was that Microsoft and Netflix have partnered up to deliver Netflix’s Instant Viewing to the Xbox 360. Apparently I should have waited a week before I decided to harp on Microsoft and Netflix for not being more aggressive on this. The one thing that kind of surprised me was that the Netflix streaming will require an Xbox Live Gold Membership.

In some ways this is good for Gold members because it actually makes it seem like you get more than just online gaming and the occasional early-release demo for your paid membership. Generally I think it is probably a bad idea however. It definitely adds to an already complicated Xbox offering. I doubt it will make sense to “average” consumers why they need a paid Xbox Live membership and a Netflix membership.

The only other notable announcement for Microsoft was that they landed one Final Fantasy XIII for Xbox 360 in the U.S. and Europe. This is a huge blow for Sony to loose a long time exclusive franchise like this. Oddly enough, I really think that this would have helped Microsoft the most in Japan; the only place where FFXIII will be a PS3 exclusive.

The rest is semi-typical E3 fodder: upcoming games, Lips karaoke, the Pro model will get a 60GB hard drive, and some other stuff that may or may not be worth your time.

Nintendo

I don’t know why I was so surprised, this is after all par for Nintendo’s course lately, but I was dumbfounded when they announced another Wii accessory! The new is this really the best name they could come up with? Wii MotionPlus. (Personally I’m more of a fan of the Wii Motion++)

FYI, I am not the first to feel like this is something the Wii really should have done correctly from the start. I don’t know if I have ever made this clear on here, but my issue with the Wii isn’t the concept, I think the concept is great. My issue is with the implementation, I have always thought the motion sensing was terrible; only good enough to fool my 8-year-old niece.

Instead of creating an add-on, Nintendo should have really looked at what Microsoft did after they released the original Xbox controller. Realize you screwed it up, and release a new one. Seriously, all new Wiimotes should have this tech built-in with the add-on only for existing units. Without it as default technology in the Wii platform the WMP just looks like it will fragment the user base.

Unfortunately, from what I have read only WMP specific games will use the new add-on. It will not improve motion detection in current titles. Too bad Nintendo didn’t tell developers about it any earlier than they told you and I. So it may be some time before anyone but Nintendo uses the WMP.

As it is powered by the Wiimote, it will probably shorten battery life as well. It will also be another thing to remove from the Wiimote when you pop it into a plastic guitar to play some Guitar Hero.

For those of you keeping score at home that pushes the current controller add-on list for the Wii up to half-a-dozen: the nunchuck, Wii MotionPlus, WiiFit, the zapper, the steering wheel, and the classic controller. A basic setup of just a Wiimote ($40), nunchuck ($20), and Wii MotionPlus (probably at least $20) will cost you at least $80.

The cheapest “next-gen” system: $250, bowling at home: complementary, making a mint selling accessories: priceless.

Sony

Last on the list is the big dog from the last-generation: Sony. They have really had some good momentum lately and they needed to have a big E3 to keep it going. Unfortunately for them, I don’t think they did.

They didn’t have any information on when their will it come out before Duke Nukem Forever virtual world software, Playstation Home. They basically showed off some games, and announced that they have gone down to one PS3 SKU (for now) but really nothing worth writing home about.

While I’m on Sony and their SKUs I just have to say it really blows my mind how often Sony changes their product mix.

• First there were two SKUs, 60GB and 20GB (both with hardware backward compatibility
• Then the 20GB got dropped so it was back to one
• They went back to two SKUs when they added an 80GB model (with software backward compatibility) and reduced the price of the 60GB one
• It was really just a firesale on the 60GB model though so it went back to one SKU
• Then the 40GB came out (lacking any backwards compatibility at all)
• It is back to one again though because the 40GB model is apparently history.

This is only the North American SKUs too! Don’t forget that they also switched over to a Dualshock 3 from a SIXAXIS controller somewhere in there and their prices bounced around between $400 and $600 during that time too. It is bad enough that there is an entire Wikipedia article just on the “Timeline of PlayStation 3 SKUs”. We’ll see if they go back to two (I’m betting on it).