This is a long overdue review since the Sky Player was released on the XBOX 360 for UK users on the 28th of October. Well, I have been keeping busy. But nevertheless, I am here writing this review. Sky player’s introduction into the Xbox could be a major game-changer in terms of sheer innovation, control, and distribution channels that this medium opens up, and the game console can finally state as it has arrived. Frankly because, Sky is certainly the lion’s shareholder when it comes to Cable and Satellite TV distribution. All the major sporting events – Sky Sports; Movie channels – Sky; TV Entertainment – Sky 1 shows – House, Fringe, Modern Family and Stargate Universe amongst others. So there is no denying that Microsoft did choose the right partner to collaborate with. But does the Sky Player meet all the expectations or does it disappoint? The answer is a mixture of both.

After the Jump, Full Review of the Sky Player on the XBOX 360 including screenshots.

Now, to begin with, the Sky Player on the XBOX took sometime to get configured. I tried to get it on the XBOX Dashboard, and I have still been unsuccessful. If anybody knows how to get it there, please shout it out in the comments.

What you need to get it started is given here: http://skyplayer.sky.com/watch/xbox360/

I did experience a lot of problems to get it started initially. The morning of 28th Oct, even after proper installation, Sky Player kept on showing Access Denied: Failure to connect. Talk about successful rolling out. The Sky website page for XBOX 360 was down. And Sky even released an apology notice.

We’ll not go into the installation part, and get straight into the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The interface and the UI used is as simple as it can be. Just use the game controllers to scroll and browse around the contents.

To go to the Sky Player, I currently go to Quicklaunch–>Latest Downloads–>and then select Sky Player. This means, that unless I am not downloading much stuff in the coming days, I am safe to use this method. And so I need help here to get the Sky Player on the dashboard. Now, once it is installed, and you have configured your login settings using your XBOX Live card, and your Sky ID, what you get is this.

As mentioned, the UI is simple. The channels can be browsed according to genres, and also the movies – Sky Movies, Movies on Demand etc.

The TV Guide reminds of the new EPG – which is still to be rolled on the Sky Box that we got.

The Live TV section is the one which disappoints the most. There’s no BBC or BBC iPlayer, no Freeview channels, and not even Sky1. All we have in the Entertainment section is – GOLD. And some programmes are not viewable in Live TV Broadcast. A message is displayed when it is so:

The Live broadcast as suggested by Live TV isn’t actually live as on selection of a channel, the following clearly indicates Buffering:

Finally, when the Broadcast does start, the output is quite amazingly good. At the current average bandwidth, the picture quality at a selected High Quality is normal Standard Definition broadcast as shown below.

Although the OnDemand service shows a lot of channels, the content isn’t as flashy.

And by not flashy, I mean this: The On Demand service on Sky 1 contains only few programs- There is no House, Fringe or Stargate. What you get is UK Border Force.

And even though, I am a subscriber of Sky1 as well as Sky1 HD, I need to pay a rental fee to watch these on demand programs. How much you ask?

Yes, you saw that right. Almost a pound to see these programmes, when I can just simply Sky+ them, or may be not even care about Sky+ them, coz these programmes are just not good enough for me to record.

On a positive note, one of the most fun parts of the whole experience is : Party Room view.

Feels like you are viewing in a huge hall with a wall of Telly. What’s even more exciting is that you can rotate the view using the gamepad controller, and the back-view of the party room has a wall LCD TV too.

And yes, I was just watching Drake and Josh on Nick – for testing purposes!

Coming to the Movies section:

Can be browsed on the basis of Genre, Alphabetic, Latest Releases, Live Movie Channels etc.

So what’s the verdict?

Skyplayer on the XBOX 360 is a remarkable feature and is indeed a giant leap in the usability of the console. The simple UI makes it easily accessible to anyone and everyone and with a huge line-up of movie on demand, and movie channels and sports channels – this is a perfect choice – provided you have the relevant subscription. But to me, the content needs to deliver more to make the arrival more dashing.

The Good:

I’ll say it again, Love the UI.

The fun Party Room.

Movies on demand, and Good n Fast Live Streaming at Standard Definition.

And the best of all: To use Skyplayer on the XBOX, you need just £15 per month for the XBOX Live subscription and no dish at all. Each Sky Player account can have four PCs attached, as well as one Xbox, and those consoles and PCs needn’t be in the same household as the satellite dish.

In other words, Sky is offering here is a second subscription for use anywhere you like, or a second set-top box for those wanting movies and sports in a different location other than your main viewing area.

The Bad:

It is still £15 for the subscription which doesn’t even have all Live streaming channels of Freeview.

Again, no BBC, iTV or any Freeview channel. All we get in the name of Entertainment is GOLD.

MTV cannot be played all the time as some programs are not available for viewing on the Sky Player.

The Ugly:

On demand Service for Sky has very less and unlikely to be rented content.

More so, the rental fees to watch on demand episodes is just ridiculously expensive. Who’d pay a pound to watch UK Border Force?

Why there is no iPlayer in the On Demand service? The On Demand Service needs to carry all the On-demand providers contents on it – from BBC, iTV, Channel 4 and Five.

So, as I said before, that with the inclusion of much more content, and more features with a subsidised pricing, the Skyplayer on the XBOX  is certainly a catch. But as of now, it doesn’t dazzle me.

P.S. For the entire pricing plans go here: [Sky Player Pricing Details - Guardian]

Who the F needs another Social Network? @Microsoft -Seriously?

It all started for me when Google had something to offer. My classmates in Engineering College told me of a something called Orkut. It was fast becoming one of the emerging trendy keywords, and was supposedly the successor of email. The next generation of communication, as we call it, was here. It was late 2004 when I joined Orkut, and have been an active subscriber to it [ except for I deleted my account twice because of spam reasons ].

A few years went by, and my friends list exponentially increased till it was ready to explode. And then, in late 2007, I came to know of a something called Facebook. I was reluctant to join because of all the hassle involved to invite all my friends there, and importing contacts, and yes maintaining the account by participating in the discussions and replying to the posts. I had already been through quite a lot of other social networks like hi5, gazzag, myspace, bebo, multiply et al. My relation with all of the others remained limited to just a couple of months, as I retained my loyalty to orkut.

And then, something happened. All of a sudden, I heard all the social network gurus, the “in” crowd of the blogosphere – from Michael Arrington to Om Malik, John Chow to Darren Rowse- everyone was on Facebook. It was the place where everyone was there. And besides these people, my contact list from orkut had by now started sending me invites for Facebook. After a few reluctant logins to the Facebook, I got used to the interface. Long before I could realise, from celebrities to my local chai-walla to even my University professor – everyone was on Facebook.

Which brings me to this – Windows Live Planet. Really, who needs yet another Social Network in 2009? I do not. I am too old to keep shifting base. I am too used to the Blue and White interface to shift over to the Aero-Flow based Live presentation. I do not want my ‘space’ to look like I am living in an MSN World. And yes, I did check out the initial questionnaire, and it is filled with absolutely unfunny, non-sensical answers to some of the most badly placed questions. The only thing I liked about Live Planet was nothing.

One last thing, the Self-Cool image being posed on the homepage looks excruciating. And the tag-line – Match And Make New Friends – makes it feel like it is not a Social Network but a Matrimonial Matchmaker. The guy with the curly hair reminds me of Justin Guarini [ which is not a good thing ] and the forced usage of “Whats up” seems like a conscious attack to the teenage target audience. Also wtf is meant by the line: Find ur Twin?

I don’t know why I have so much negative about Live Planet. Hmm, may be because its 2009, and its TOO LATE for a Social Network to be born. But again, if I find everyone else is moving in that direction [ as in Windows Live Planet] , who am I stop? But do you really think people will adopt this new Social Network? My prediction- NO!

Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer version 8.0 RC1, which is supposedly going to be bundled with Windows 7. But before you go and press the download button, let us have a look if they have made any substantial changes. In other words, is the new IE really worth it?

MS says: New rendering engine, support for CSS 2.1, ‘smart address bar’ ( very similar to Firefox’s Awesome Bar ).
It is not available for Macs, only for WinXP and Vista 32 and 64 bit versions. MS officials have confirmed of not going for any further changes in the user-interface or the programming from now onwards until its release. So pretty much, RC1 is what you would get. So, what’s different from the beta? MS has listed the whole list out here.

But seems like, more than that, IE (or rather MS) has picked up a few tips from Chrome (Google). Firstly, the separate process for each tab which would ensure IE would not crash for failure in one of the tabs.

Secondly, the “porn mode” or the InPrivate mode which is very similar to the Incognito Window in Google Chrome.

DownloadSquad has run a few tests comparing the IE8 RC1 with Google Chrome, Firefox 3 and Opera. The results are here.

For more on the IE8 RC1, please visit the following links.

New Internet Explorer 8 accelerates browsing

Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8 RC1: Promises Faster and Safer Browsing

Microsoft’s IE8 Release Candidate Is Live; Nearly Identical To Final Release

Here’s an interesting hack on your Windows XP 3d Pinball game. (If you are one of those few remaining who are stuck with these time killers) So, when the game gets loaded, type the words “Hidden Test”.

It still seems all normal, until you grab your mouse. Click the mouse on the pinball machine and drag it all around. The pinball will now follow your mouse direction wherever it goes. Pretty cool huh!

Now check this out, press H key and see what you get. It pops the high score table with an entry of a Billion and you can remain as high scorer forever.

Lastly, press the R key to increase your rank in the game.

Happy pinballing!!! And as “the Who” said, “Sure plays a mean pinball”

Open up today’s Techmeme and you will see this splashed across almost throughout the entire page. Because this is HUGE news. Microsoft has withdrawn its plans for buying out Yahoo, more popularly known as Microhoo in the speculative blogosphere. So what does it mean finally for us?

Does it mean that we can actually breathe a sigh of relief before some other giant (Google) makes the next move? Or has Yahoo got some other plans up its sleeve? Almost 3 months after the initial speculations of Microsoft’s plan of acquisition of Yahoo, and almost a 16 billion $ increase in market value, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer released his statement that it was withdrawing its offer of acquiring Yahoo. And now that the beans have been spilled, speculations are making the rounds.

Of course, most of them surround the Big Goog tying up with Yahoo to do things OpenSource. Also under the radar is the question of how Yahoo’s shares would turn out on Monday when the markets open. And unless there is a huge miracle, the stock-prices are expected to decline drastically. And well, as Techcrunch states in their post here, if Yahoo tanks badly, Microsoft can even be back with a lower bid. Hmm, so we just can’t count out Microsoft out as yet.

Indexed below are the sites which have covered the entire chapter from every possible angle and every possible aspect.

Yahoo Responds: “The distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us”

Breaking: Microsoft Corporation Rescinds Offer For Yahoo Inc

Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo!

Yahoo! Issues Statement in Response to Microsoft

Guessing Yahoo’s Opening Stock Price

OK, so what’s Microsoft’s plan B?

Email From Steve Ballmer To All Microsoft Employees

Ballmer to Yang: How stupid are you?

YHOO and MSFT: Jerry Yang should be fired

As Bill Gates gets dethroned from his spot as the World’s richest man, Microsoft has launched the new version of Internet Explorer ( aka the IE 8 ) at the MIX08 conference. The beta is out for download for testing purposes. Though at the MIX08 conference, the browser has been shown to have passed the Acid2 test, some users aren’t still happy about it. Phillip Lennsen writes :-

You know you’re installing an important program when you need to reboot your computer to finish the setup. When you need to reboot twice, you know you’re installing something really important. Well, that was what happened when I just installed the new Internet Explorer 8 Beta on Vista.

Neither do I have Vista running on my laptop, nor do I have any affinity for the new IE8. Especially after hearing of the dual rebooting requirement. The interface from the pictures available online doesn’t seem different from its predecessor.
So what’s new about it?First things first. Microsoft is embracing Facebook. And so, they have done something similar to the Flock browser by integrating Facebook into the browser. Users will now be able to get status updates et al from the left-hand sidebar.
What’s next? eBay integration. IE8 uses a new technology aptly called “Webslices”, to integrate webservices to update users about new statuses ( similar to feeds) without actually visiting the website.It even enables users to subscribe to specific portions of a webpage and add them to the favorites.
And something again on the lines of Firefox (how predictable). And that is Restoring session in case of browser crashes.
Apart from Webslices, which integrates pretty much all the “new services” that IE8 is projecting (from Live Maps to Me.Dium), IE 8 promises better functionality with AJAX pages. What did you think about the new IE8? Please post your comments.

Pic Courtesy: vscarpenter

Yeah, I know. Yet another half fried post on the entire episode of Microsoft’s bid for the slumping Internet giant Yahoo for a whooping $44.6 billion. Clearly, Microsoft is desperate enough to acquire Yahoo. But amongst all this, the question that remains is, is Google worried? Let’s chase it point by point as to what this deal could bring to the table, if it actually gets finalized. What could a “Microhoo” actually mean?
It means that the 600 million combined user-base of Hotmail (Windows Live Mail) and Yahoo could well be way ahead of what Gmail has. But as Scoble indicates, is there any solid reason for Google to be really worried about this deal? Of course, officials at Google aren’t very happy with the hostile bidding of Microsoft over Yahoo.
David Drummond, Senior VP at Google Inc. writes what this deal could actually churn out if Microsoft continues its legacy of monopolising Operating Systems and Internet Browsers. What if Microsoft loses all business ethics, once it acquires Yahoo, and uses it solely for its good by forcing users to use its Web-Based Services, integrated into Mail, IM, PhotoSharing et al.
The war will still continue with OpenSource technologies adopting everything Google, but this deal is a clear indication of the challenge that Google faces. Clearly, Google with the Android campaign is steering its way towards finding a huge presence or rather dominance in the Mobile World. And with the presence of Web Applications like Google Maps and Youtube, I believe Microsoft even if they acquire Yahoo, will have a long long way to go.And now the second question that emerges is, what if..ahem! Google outbids?

Image Courtesy:johnnie.maneiro