Design Interact has a fascinating story up that talks about the two-year process of designing the Xbox 360’s user interface. The process included Microsoft designing their own Flash-like animation tool, working with design firm AKOA and narrowing ten ideas down to one. The end result is a sucked in interface that resembles the console’s own sleek design and features the ability to quickly cycle through games, photos and other entertainment capabilities.
(Via Kotaku.)
Update: This image came from a demo Microsoft did in Spain, showing off this detachable QWERTY keyboard for the controller, plus lots of other goodies. LINK
This might make the whole Media Center Extender experience built-into the Xbox 360 a whole lot more useful for those applications requiring more text input than you’d want to hunt and peck with an on-screen virtual keyboard.
(Via Engadget)
A new study reported this morning on Mediapost.com (registration required) describes a study commissioned by ESPN to study the use of DVRs by non-early adopters. The report says that 57% of people given a DVR, ultimately returned the unit because they didn’t want it.
Of the 157 households that participated in the test, 90 returned their DVRs for a variety or reasons including: complaints about the installation process, the cost of DVRs, or the fact that the digital set-top devices clashed with or didn’t fit into their home furnishings.
Oh – the study also said that most of these people didn’t tend to fast-forward through commercials. Hmmmm. If anyone happens to have an extra Tivo Series 2 lying around after this test, please send it my way.
The gray lady reports today that Tivo was close to a deal with Comcast (free registration required) to put TiVo technology into Comcast’s set-top-boxes, but TiVo’s board backed out based on the recommendation of Michael Ramsey, then CEO and Chairman. Now, Ramsey has resigned the CEO position, but remains as chairman. An interesting read, for sure. If TiVo continues to make boneheaded moves like this, the company won’t be worth much more than the spiffy plush TiVo mascot I have on my office shelf. Sad, really.