One of Microsoft's core competencies lies in the cloud, and they've been trying to leverage that know-how in creating the next-generation gaming platform for quite a while.
In the meantime companies like Google have been doing exactly the same thing, and even managed to officially release their product. Microsoft obviously has to worry about their stil very physical Xbox business, but they are soon ready to expand to the cloud with a new service.
Microsoft's streaming game platform xCloud is going to be ready for testing this fall, the company revealed at their E3 event. The public testing of the platform will begin in October.
You'll be able to test both Xbox games you own as well as games on Xbox Game Pass with the new service. While there's no expansive list of supported devices or platforms, Microsoft has assured that xCloud will be made available widely across different platforms.
This suggests that you'll be able to play on big screens, mobile devices, and everything in the middle. Microsoft and Sony striking a deal on cloud services also suggests that Sony devices are likely to support xCloud.
Our dear website, AfterDawn, officially launched in 10th of June, 1999. To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we start a year-long project to look back what news we covered back in 1999 - 2000. We'll publish these collections once a month, covering a month years earlier on, with modern perspective on events happened back then.
At this point, it is also time to remind you, our readers, that AfterDawn didn't start out as a "general tech website", but instead, our core focus was on digital audio technology (MP3s, most notably, and how to encode, edit and play them) and digital video. As the decades have passed, our focus has also changed to cover other things. But during these first years, it was all about digital audio and video.
And yeah, we didn't produce many news in our early days, as AfterDawn's original idea was - and still is - to be a "portal" where you can get various types of information. Back in 1999, that meant we published guides, news and software downloads. But hey, we also provided free hosting for independent artists' MP3 tracks and, at some point in time, offered a quite large collection of WinAMP skins for users to download.
And damn, our news articles weren't too long, either :-)
Software update: WinDAC
In June, 1999, we covered handful of major software updates in our news. One of those was a recent update to a CD audio ripper program called WinDAC. As the name implies, the Windows-based software was meant to copy the contents of an audio CD to a PC hardware. Back then, this was done by storing the data in WAV format, which user later could edit and compress (encode) to a smaller format, such as MP3.
As expected, E3 started with a bang from Microsoft. The company revealed the first details about their upcoming, next-generation Xbox console.
While Sony has been revealing some tidbits about their PS5 already, Microsoft has been fairly quite until now. Microsoft's upcoming Xbox doesn't have an official name yet, not one that we know about, but they did give us some impressive specs to look forward to.
The device we still know as Project Scarlett is extremely powerful. According to Microsoft it can perform up to four times faster than current generation Xbox One X.
This means that the upcoming Xbox will no only provide 120 FPS framerates but up to 8K resolution. In addition it will support variable refresh rate and the state-of-the-art lighting effect known as ray-tracing, popularized by new GeForce RTX cards.
It's based upon the AMD Zen 2 processor architecture and new RDNA GPU architecture, which means that you'll get super fast GDDR6 memory. As expected, Microsoft will move from HDD storage to much, much faster SSD.
It all started in winter 1998/1999. It was one of the coldest winters in Finnish history with temperatures dropping to record low of -51C in Northern parts of the country. There was this slightly bored web developer, with too many easy job tasks at hand, dreaming about doing something of his own to the Internet.
After months of thinking it through, a vision of a website dedicated to all things about MP3s was taking a shape. The idea was to build a website that would combine all aspects of the trendy new technology under one umbrella: news about the tech, guides on how to use the tech, software downloads to help to follow the guides provided and a place for indie artists to publish their songs, in MP3 format, for free.
Drafting the plans, the realism hit hard. Building - and maintaining - such a site on my own seemed like an impossible task. The thinking was, that once the novelty of the project would wane, the project would be left to die, if running the site on my own. Furthermore, back in those days, there weren't open source CMS systems, free picture galleries, WordPress themes to pick from or anything like that. Nope, you had to build the entire site from the scratch, on your own, including all its backend systems, design, etc. And yeah, hosting, even a medium-sized website would cost something like $100 a month back then. I was in my 20s and quite poor, to be honest.
The U.S. government's blacklisting of Huawei has resulted in fairly dire consequences for the Chinese smartphone giant. Many of the American, as well as some European, companies have stopped, or will stop, working with Huawei.
Now another U.S. top brand is shying away from supporting Huawei. Facebook has announced that it will no longer provide their apps for pre-installation on Huawei devices.
This means that no Huawei comes with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or WhatsApp installed at the factory. However, it doesn't ban the apps from being installed, or updated, by the user. At least as long as Huawei phones retain the ability to use Google Play.
According to atw, the policy applies to all the phone units that haven't yet been shipped, including smartphone models that have been in stores before the blacklist.
Obviously this isn't the worst of the blacklist consequences but it sure doesn't help Huawei's standing against other Android brands. First and foremost the problems will come with Google and Android and perhaps after that from chip manufacturers and designers like Qualcomm and ARM.
If there is one company that has inspired people about robotics in the recent years, it is most certainly Boston Dynamics.
The former Google X company, know owned by Japanese Softbank, has been creating more and more nimble and smart robots in different humanoid and animal forms over the years, and we've been able to follow their journey with videos that nearly always go viral.
However, these robots have so far only been research prototypes.
Now according to The Verge, Boston Dynamics is readying an actual launch to consumer markets. To be launched is one of the more impressive creations: the dog-like, and aptly named, Spot.
Spot is being currently tested in different possible consumer environments and might hit the shelves in the coming months, or at least before 2020. Boston Dynamics aims to produce a thousand Spot units by the end of the year.
We've previously seen videos of Spot running in different terrain and perhaps most controversially being kicked to show how Spot holds its balance.
There's no word on price yet, but most likely it's going to cost you quite a bit more than a cleaning robot. However, Boston Dynamics' CEO Marc Raibert said that it might cost less than some of our four-legged friends.
Apple has been rumored to be working on self-driving cars for ages. Many believe it's just a matter of time before Apple reveals their own Tesla killer.
Now they are ready to many another move towards their own AI-driven vehicle, as The Information reports that Apple is closing in on buying Drive.ai.
Drive.ai is, as you might guess from the name, a company developing autonomous driving. It was established by students from Stanford and is headquartered near Google in Mountain View, CA.
The hundred strong Drive.ai will likely mostly move to work for Apple after the acquisition, and know-how is what Apple is really after, not current prototypes or patents.
The company was founded in 2015 and secured $12 million in funding in 2016 and $50 million the following year in the second round.
Stadia will indeed provide games at up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second with both HDR an 5.1 sound support. To access all that among the first you'll have to acquire the Founder's Edition of Stadia as it lands in November, which will cost you an initial $129.
That gives you the Stadia controller, Chromecast Ultra as well as three months of subscription to Stadia Pro. Further subscription costs $9.99/mo.
Stadia Pro also offers occasionally free games, starting with Destiny 2: The Collection, as well as discounts on others. There also will be a free Stadia available next year with Full HD (1080p) games at 60fps and stereo sound without HDR support. The free tier won't include free games or discounts.
We also got to finally know a little more about available games. Google revealed that at least the upcoming list of games will come to Stadia.
Google's upcoming cloud gaming platform seems pretty impressive if you trust that Google can indeed deliver quality it has promised.
The search giant getting into the cloud gaming space has even gotten Sony and Microsoft worried. In fact so much so that they've started working together to provide better cloud services.
The one thing that worries many of us, in addition to Google not managing to deliver on low latency and good quality, is that the prices are just way out there.
Well, thanks to Canadian La Presse, we've got some leaked pricing details to lay our eyes upon.
According to the information leaked, not every game is going to be included in a subscription fee. Instead some of them need to be bought separately. In Canada, the service, called Stadia Pro, is said to cost $11.99/mo and it offers 4K gaming with 60 fps framerate.
Minimum internet connetion requirement is stated at 10/1 Mbps but to enjoy the 4K@60fps you'll need at least 35 Mbps down.
Games that are expected initially on Stadia include the likes of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Doom, The Division 2, Destiny 2, and three Tomb Raider titles. However, there's no word whether these will be included with the monthly fee or sold separately.
Apple's perhaps strongest part of the business is not iPhones or iPads themselves but the App Store, which keeps on printing money with royalties.
However, there might be a problem with how Apple conducts its business regarding to the App Store.
Supreme Court recently decided that Apple is in fact a participant in and responsible for the app selling business, even though it argued, and continues to do so, that it is only in business with the app developer that pays the commissions, not selling the apps to the customer.
After the Supreme Court opened Apple to be sued for antitrust violations by customers, we expected several to be hitting the courts in the coming days, weeks, and months.
It is bound to happen from the customers too, but today we have us a case against App Store by app developers.
The plaintiffs include developers from a baby naming app and a basketball workout app who argue that the Cupertino company "stifles innovation" with its policies, Yahoo! Finance reports.
One of the leading game conferences is upon us. Los Angeles' own E3 starts next week, and while there's tons of exciting game content to behold your eye on, one important piece of the video game puzzles is not attending.
Sony has said a while ago that it won't be going to E3 this year. Therefore we won't see PS5 sneak peaks at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
However, worry not. Sony has decided that it still wants to take some of the limelight ahead of the convention. In an interview with CNET, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has revealed some new information about PlayStation 5.
As we've already learned, the successor to PlayStation 4 will include things like a speedier SSD storage instead of the obsolete HDD technology. Now Ryan has revealed that PS5 will also support gaming in 4K and 120hz (or 120fps).
4K gaming has been here for a while thanks to PS4 Pro but increasing the framerate to 120 is a big upgrade. Not only is it double of PS4 Pro max framerate but many of the 4K games can't output even 60fps.
Ryan also confirmed that game saves will move from console generation to another seamlessly, thanks to cloud storage.
PlayStation Now will be revamped this year, too. Competing platforms like Google's new Stadia cloud gaming platform have made Sony push even harder in the cloud, so much so that they've announced partnership with Microsoft, who's thought to be the arch rival of Sony in this space.
Apple announced a lot of things earlier this week at their annual Worldwide Developer Conference, some of them less of a surprise than others. One thing we already knew about was that Apple was going to kill iTunes on Mac, like it has done on iOS.
Apple replaced iTunes with new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps and thus iTunes is no longer. Well, it's no longer available on iOS or macOS, but you can still use it if you really, really want.
One place you'll still find iTunes on is Windows. Thus, Apple is not going kill iTunes in its entirety, but just replacing it on all of its own platforms.
In an interview with ArsTechnica, Apple confirmed that Windows version of iTunes is not going to change for now, and there are no updates announced for it.
However, one can imagine that this isn't going to last forever. Apple is trying to get rid of its bloated app and one of its least liked brands, and this will eventually mean that the three aforementioned apps will replace iTunes on Windows too.
Do not expect the iTunes experience to get better on Windows, and for it to be eventually replaced by separate apps.
One of the things that we didn't get to tell you about yet is the new macOS update, which has some interesting improvements and additions as well.
Like many of us have suspected, Apple has been working on unifying the mobile and desktop experience behind the scenes for quite a while. This doesn't yet mean that all the desktop features are going to be found on mobile and vice versa, although some are making their way already to iPadOS.
For most of us the annual OS upgrades are the most meaningful announcements at Apple's WWDC. However, some people have been waiting for a professional grade computer from Apple for ages, and they finally got some exciting news this year.
Apple announced the new Mac Pro, which returns to its previous cheese grater design before the 2013 trash can. The computer is as nutty when it comes to maxed out specs as is it's asking price even at the low end, $6,000.
However, many of the pros also need a high-end professional display to go with the professional grade computer. Fortunately Apple announced a new display alongside its Mac Pro.
The new Pro Display XDR specs are out of this world, too. The 32-inch display features 6K resolution, 6016 by 3384 pixels, at 218 PPI. It has 1000 nits continuous full screen brightness and 1600 nits peak.
The XDR moniker comes from eXtreme Dynamic Range, and that is exactly what you get with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, which is insane for an LCD. Color-wise it features P3 wide color gamut and 10-bit depth for 1.073 billion colors.
The bulk of Apple's this week's WWDC keynote was taken by new OS announcements, including iOS 13 and the new iPadOS.
However, one thing that most of us will probably never get, or even see, caught the attention of us all. Apple's new Mac Pro.
Apple is finally releasing a replacement for their modular computer aimed at professionals. The previous one is the iconic trash can Mac Pro from 2013, and now they've introduced a new one with a brand new design.
The design itself is controversial, after all it does look exactly like a cheese grater pretty much like the one before the trash can, but it's also pricey beyond mere mortals.
It starts at $6,000, and no one knows how high the price goes when you jack it up with everything they've got.
The system includes a 8/12/16/24/28 core Intel Xeon processor and 12 DIMM slots for up to 1.5 TB of RAM. It starts with one AMD Radeon Pro 580X and can be suited with up to four AMD Radeon Pro Vega 2 cards. There's 8 PCI slots, four full and four half-sized, up to 4 TB of SSD storage, and a 1400 watt PSU.
One of Microsoft's core competencies lies in the cloud, and they've been trying to leverage that know-how in creating the next-generation gaming platform for quite a while.
Our dear website, AfterDawn, officially launched in 10th of June, 1999. To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we start a year-long project to look back what news we covered back in 1999 - 2000. We'll publish these collections once a month, covering a month years earlier on, with modern perspective on events happened back then.
As expected, E3 started with a bang from Microsoft. The company revealed the first details about their upcoming, next-generation Xbox console.
