xbox – Terence Eden’s Blog

Review: Kaico Xbox HMDI Cable + Optical ★★★★☆

@edent — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 11:34:24 +0000

A few days ago, I posted about my quest to find a decent HDMI cable for my original XBox. The good folks at Kaico Labs were kind enough to send me a demo unit of their new Xbox to HDMI + Optical cable. I agreed to give them feedback - and they were happy to let me blog about it.

It is important to note that this is a demo unit. I don't know how much, if anything, will change before it gets released. Nor do I know the cost. Adjust your expectations accordingly!

Video

Firstly, I'm pleased to say that it works! Colours are crisp and bright. Picture is stable with no noticeable noise or wobble. I'm sure that if you sat with your nose to the screen, you'd find the odd compression artefact, or fuzzy pixel. But you're playing 20 year old games with the TV on the other side of the room. You aren't going to notice anything distracting.

Here's Buffy:

Ok, it's hard to tell quality from a photo taken of a monitor - but I was impressed with the picture given both the age of the game and the console.

Here's the original Sonic The Hedgehog, running on an emulator:

And a close-up:

My Xbox is chipped and pumps out widescreen 720p. The Kaico cable handled all the video I threw at it. 480i, 576i, 720p - they all came out beautifully. Well, as beautiful as upscaled 480i can be! The interlaced modes are always going to suffer - there's just not enough quality in the original image to make things look great. Once you force into progressive mode, things are much clearer.

Only a few games use 1080i - but using Crunchbite's HDTV Test Application 1.3 I was able to verify that the box handles that video mode very well:

Again, photos of screens are no substitute for seeing things yourself. And, obviously, there are diminishing returns to this sort of thing. No amount of video trickery is going to make Super Monkeyball Deluxe look photorealistic.

But for playing back original XBox games, emulated retro-consoles, and the occasional DVD - this is about as good as you can get without tapping directly into the GPU. There's no lag in the video, no static, banding, or other gremlins. Obviously you're limited by what the original console's video fidelity was - but this is about as good as it gets.

Upscaling

I'm happy to say there is no upscaling! When playing the original Buffy, my amp reported that it was receiving 720x576i @50Hz YCbCr444. That's exactly what the game was designed to be played at. You can have your amp or TV do any upscaling or post-processing that you want. It's great that the Kaico doesn't introduce anything that wasn't already there.

Audio

Stereo audio is handled well. Sound was loud and clear. I'm not going to get into an audiophile discussion of the sound-stage and sonic intensity. The MP3s and FLAC files I played had great stereo separation with no noticeable distortion.

But… it is only stereo over HDMI. Even when playing video files with 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS audiostreams, it only produced stereo. That's a real shame. There is, however, a way to get surround sound…

Digital Audio

There is optical out - it's the standard S/PDIF / Toslink port. Shove an optical cable in there and you will get digital audio.

Both DD and DTS were passed through without issue and with no noticeable delay. The synchronisation between audio and video was fine. There were no click or pops. Just brilliant audio fidelity. My amp reported that Xbox games were being delivered with 48kHz 5.1 Dolby Digital. Again, as with video, the cable doesn't manipulate the audio - it just passes it through.

Thanks to Illtud Daniel for his kind donation of an optical cable!

Downsides

There are a few things that are worth knowing before you splash the cash.

There's a green LED which illuminates when the console is on. And it is very bright. I'm not quite sure what the point of it is - but you may want to tuck it away.

However, this might be a result of this demo unit's plastic case. Their regular cases are metalic so this might be fixed by the time it ships.

The HDMI doesn't support CEC. Normally, when I turn on my PS4 or Switch, my amp receives the CEC signal and turns on itself and the TV. Or, if it is already on, it flips to the correct input. Sadly the Kaico doesn't do that - so you'll need to dig out your TV's remote control.

In a similar vein, widescreen detection seems a bit iffy. Some games do support widescreen - but you might have to manually adjust your TV's "zoom" function. I don't think this is the cable's fault - between the ancient hardware, the third-party BIOS, and weird emulators I've installed it would be hard to track down a culprit.

There is a tiny bit of colour shifting on very dark scenes on interlaced video. For example, the start of the Star Wars Lego games features a black screen with lots of stars. The black background occasionally had a little bit of red or green shift. How much of that is due to the original video compression is hard to say. And, in truth, you have to be looking really carefully to notice it while actually playing a game.

As with all these cables, the picture is slightly dark - as this greyscale test shows:

But you have to remember the original Xbox was designed for CRT TVs which were much brighter than modern TVs. But, once again, a quick tap on your remote and you can tweak your screen's brightness.

The only really annoyance is the lack of bitstreaming over HDMI. I can't quite understand why they didn't just mux the audio into the video rather than providing a separate optical port. I know this is possible because the Electron Shepherd circuit can combine the audio and video.

Teardown!

It wouldn't be a proper blog post if I didn't show you some circuitry, right?

It has a 24.576MHZ crystal and... not much else identifiable! There's a a RetroScaler board with a similar part number.

The internal cabling doesn't look terribly neat and are secured with a big spludge of white gunk. But, do remember that this is a demo unit. The production version may be a bit neater.

It looks to me - and I'm no expert - that it's a modified version of the Bitfunx's OEM board. See other Xbox HDMI boxes like this:

I couldn't identify the video chip in the Kaico. But it sure looks like the MS9288A. That explains the lack of digital audio - the chip simply doesn't support it. So this board routes the S/PDIF lines directly to the optical out. Which is fair enough, I guess.

There's no active or passive cooling - the box got a little warm during use, but didn't suffer any problems over a several hour gaming session.

Verdict

If you want to resurrect an old Xbox, this is great. Truly just plug and play. Video quality is excellent. Sound is perfectly find if you're content with stereo.

If you want surround sound, you'll have to hook up the optical port and hope your amp allows an alternate sound source for HDMI video. That's a bit of a faff. My amp only has one optical in and I had to dive deep into the settings to assign it to a specific HDMI input.

They haven't listed a price for the cable - but their converters are typically €25-€45, which is pretty fair.

Remember, you're not going to get the original Halo looking as good as it did when you were 12 and the only thing you had to worry about was when your mum was going to kick you off the "big" 24-inch TV. Your memory plays tricks on you. This cable won't allow you to travel in time - but it's a good substitute.

As I said in my last post, there are a variety of cables which do stereo audio. But this is the only available ready-made box which does digital surround sound. If your amp supports assigning optical to an HDMI input, this is a worthy bit of kit.

Original Xbox to HDMI

@edent — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 11:34:04 +0000

I know what you're going to say - the Xbox has HDMI. Well, modern ones do. The Xbox 360 and its successors all have crisp digital outputs. But I'm talking about the original Xbox. This bad boy:

Mmmmm! Chunky!

The OG Xbox's AV connector is... Let's be charitable, a bit weird. The console was released a few months before HDMI - so it isn't surprising that it doesn't feature that particular output port. Instead, it has a proprietary port which can output all sorts of different signals, depending on the cable plugged into it.

That's handy for multiple markets each of which may have a different standard for connecting to TVs. No point in having a SCART connector in the USA, for example.

The Xbox can pump out several different forms of video and 2 different forms of audio.

Audio is the simplest one to describe. It can output analogue stereo via two RCA ports. Or - and this was quite forward thinking of Microsoft - it can output 5.1 Dolby Digital! Delicious surround-sound. But, sadly, only via an optical cable (SPDIF / TOSLINK).

Video is trickier. The Xbox was released before the widespread adoption of HD TV. So was initially limited to 480i in the USA and 576i in the UK. The graphics chip is quite capable of 720p and 1080i - which some later games made use of.

Depending on the cable, and your TV, the Xbox could produce composite video, S-Video, and SCART at standard resolutions. For HD, it used Component (YPbPr) video via RGB cables.

So, how can this old console be connected to a new TV with HDMI?

There is no single box - that I've found - which will take in 720p component and optical, and then output HDMI. That just doesn't exist any more.

StarLink used to sell such a magic box. But it has been unavailable for years.

(If you think I'm wrong, and such a converter is still on sale in the UK, please drop a link in the comments.)

So, there are four main options if you want to get your old XBox working with a newer AV system.

0. Do Nothing

Some TVs and amps will accept HD analogue video and convert it to digital. They will also take analogue audio. So if you're willing to lose audio quality, you can just plug and play.

Sadly, my amp only accepts 480i via component - which isn't really good enough.

1. Digital Video, Stereo Audio cable

There are a bunch of "Shenzen Specials". Cheap cables which will plug directly into the XBox and create and HDMI connection.

At the cheap end (£10-£20) there are composite to HDMI like these ones

They require a USB power supply and, according to all reviews, are a bit crap. The best they'll do is 480p.

At the next level (£25-£35) are component to HDMI cables

They will take the 720p analogue signal and produce digital video, but also seem to be limited to stereo audio.

At the top of the price range (£35-£45) is the Kaico XBox HDMI cable. Again, it is limited to stereo audio - and some users report that the picture quality is quite dark.

Kaico have teased that they have a V2 adapter which can do digital audio:

But no shipping date yet.

2. Digital Video, Digital Audio cable

What options exist if you want proper 5.1 surround sound Dolby Digital audio? There are two solutions which offer that but, sadly, both are out of stock due to the worldwide chip shortage.

The Chimeric Systems adapter costs about £45 + shipping from the USA.

The Electron Shepherd is about £25 + shipping.

Both tap into the digital audio output of the XBox and mux it in to the video signal. They're probably the cheapest and easiest way to get the best picture and sound quality. But, alas, you'll have to wait for them to come back in stock.

I'm told there are over 2,000 backorders for the Chimeric!

Electron Shepherd do sell the circuit board which powers their solution - but that's a bare board and needs a connector, a case, and a little soldering.

Speaking of which...

3. Soldering Time!

The fantastic thing about the original XBox was how hackable it was. There was a brilliant scene of people making add-on hardware to unleash the full power of the console. A whole cottage industry of people making USB adapters and little LED strings for it.

So some bright spark has gone and made a shim which solders directly on to the GPU and grabs the digital video before it is converted to analogue! This is the MakeMHz XBoxHD+:

That - to be frank - is ridiculously clever. And, by all accounts, works well. Sadly, my soldering skills aren't up to the fine level of control necessary to make this work.

Next steps

Unless I can find the fabled StarTech box, or the worldwide chip shortage suddenly ends, I think I'm left with only one choice. Time to buy a random cable off eBay and see if it fulfils the promises its box-art makes!

Expect a full review soon.

Raspberry Pi Zero Hidden In An Xbox Controller

@edent — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 08:22:21 +0000

I like to tinker. My wife picked me up the new Raspberry Pi Zero. It's an ultra small and ridiculously cheap computer. How small and cheap? They give it away free on the cover of magazines...

Ok, so what can I do with a wafer-thin Linux box? I had thought of turning it into a simple door sensor, or perhaps wiring it in to a lightswitch, or swallowing it to see if I would get super powers. Then it struck me - turn it into a games console!

Now, don't get me wrong, this has been done many times before - but I think I've come up with a unique twist. Build it directly into the controller!

My original plan was to buy some USB NES controllers - they're about the right size, but with only two buttons I'd be restricted to playing, well, old NES games. Also, buying new plastic stuff... nah! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Long term readers will remember that I turned my original Xbox into a Linux running media centre. I still have the original (giant) controllers, my brilliant wife suggested that there was probably enough space in one to fit the Pi Zero.

Let's Go!

Getting Started

WARNING! Playing around with electric items can be dangerous. You risk damaging yourself or, worse, breaking your toys. Proceed with caution.

Equipment

Raspberry Pi Zero (£5).
Original large-sized Xbox Controller (£variable).
USB OTG cable (65p).
2A USB power supply (£5).
Mini HDMI adapter (80p) or Mini HDMI cable (£5).
MicroSD card (£5).
The usual assortment of screwdrivers, knives, wire-strippers, and nerves of steel!

Right, remember this big brute?

The Pi nestles neatly between the triggers, so it should fit.

Open it up:

I removed the chunky memory card holder. I left in the physical slots as a wedge to hold the Pi.

After unscrewing all the cross-head screws, we can see how well it fits.

Nifty!

Ah, but can you spot the problem?

The Pi is blocking that strut. Only one thing to do...

The plastic was soft enough that a penknife made short work of this.

As you can see, the inside of the controller has lots of room.

In order to connect the controller to the Pi, we need to do some wire stripping. The Xbox controller uses bog-standard USB wiring, but has a proprietary plug. So, chop the ends of that and wire it into a USB OTG cable.

I suppose I could have just wired in a regular USB plug, or bought an Xbox USB adapter. But where's the fun in that?

One thing to note, you'll need to insulate the bottom of the Pi against all the contacts on the controller. For this quick hack, I'm using some of the cardboard packaging. Not exactly sustainable from a long term POV! Nor is the BluTak used to hold everything into place.

So, the controller's cable loops back into itself and plugs into the Pi. The Pi takes in power and outputs over HDMI.

It would have been great if HDMI also supplied the power - but I don't think that's possible. There is enough space inside the controller for a USB battery pack should you want a more portable solution.

And... errr... that's it really!

Emulation

The good folks at RetroPie have a pre-built image which contains everything you need in order to run a variety of emulators. It even includes some built in shareware games.

We want the build for the Raspberry Pi version 1. It automagically detected the Xbox controller, and after a few clicks I was playing Doom!

The Raspberry Pi Zero is, without exaggeration, a marvel.

When I was a kid, computers were unreasonably expensive. I remember reading this passage from The Demon Headmaster series of books:

I felt so angry that the computer revolution was restricted to those whose parents or schools could afford such luxuries. The Pi is (almost) cheap enough to give away with cornflakes. Sure, the sundry items cost a little bit more - but this puts powerful computers within the reach of everyone.

The size is also... It's almost too small! If you lose one in your home, it's probably cheaper to buy another than waste an hour looking for it. That also means it can sneak into unexpected places - I can see kids hiding these in games controllers, hair brushes, or flick knives. Add a battery pack and a mesh-networking module and you've got a communications infrastructure that a school cannot censor.

Interesting times ahead!

Update! Well, that went better than expected. You can read what people have to say about the project at:

Xbox 360 - Confessions of a First Time User

@edent — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:01:30 +0000

After an entertaining discussion at BarCamp Berkshire about video games, I decided to treat myself to an Xbox 360. After several happy years with a Nintendo Wii, I was keen to see what the new state of the art was.

I picked the current top pick console and, I must say, while the games are great the console is somewhat of a disappointment.

I picked the limited edition Xbox 360 320GB Star Wars Kinect Console with Kinect Star Wars - Limited Edition (Xbox 360).

Yay! Star Wars!

Hardware

It comes with a 320GB hard disk, a Kinect, optical audio, HDMI port, fully tricked out - and a composite video cable!

I was bemused when looking through the packaging. This is meant to be a flagship console, and yet it's expected that I'll show this off on my huge TV via a crappy little low-resolution cable? A bog standard HDMI cable is a quid! Why not throw one in the box? Same with an optical cable, the console has delicious 5.1 surround sound - and yet the console comes with only a stereo cable.

It's an odd blemish on an otherwise fine bit of hardware.

Controllers

The controllers are also odd. I had naively expected that they would charge via USB. The console has an abundance of USB ports, so surely the Xbox controllers - like those of the PlayStation - can be charged via them?

Well, yes and no. The controllers don't come with a rechargeable battery pack. Although Microsoft very generously provides a couple of cheap AA batteries. There is a charging port on the controller - but it's not a standard USB recepticle. It's a weird proprietary port.

This is typical Microsoft - make things slightly inconvenient for the user in the hope that they'll buy an overpriced accessory. The controller could have so easily come with a built-in battery pack and charged via a normal micro-USB socket.

Dashboard

So, after wiring the whole thing up, what are the first impressions of using the Xbox dashboard?

What. A. Mess! I'm sure that if you've been using the 360 since launch it all seems familiar - but there are just so many options! I know that it's more than just a games console - but there's such a jumble of ideas that the whole effect is one of confusion.

Actually, the first thing I noticed was that my home screen was playing an advert! I've just spent over three hundred quid on this, and you're showing me adverts? Adverts which when accidentally selected scream out at high volume? Not cool.

Here's a screenshot of the home page:

It's dominated by a huge advert compelling me to upgrade my experience (because the default isn't any good, I presume) then two adverts on the right. Sidelined on the left are things I actually want to do - play the games that I've purchased.

Yes, please do alert me to new things I can do - but does it have to be this crude?

There appears to be no way to customise the dashboard. I want my homescreen to have quick links to iPlayer, my downloaded games, and whatever's in the drive. That's not possible. It's almost Apple like in its insistence that This Is The One True Way. Very frustrating.

Kinect

The Kinect is marvellous fun - and a great technical innovation. Even better, it just about works even in my lounge. I'm 2 metres away from the TV and it does a good job of detecting me. It works really well in games it is designed for,

However, the Kinect is poorly integrated into the main Xbox features. Perhaps you recognise this quote:

The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.

That extract from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is scarily accurate.

I can be sitting watching a programme on iPlayer, shift my body a little and the Kinect wakes up and asks me to wave at it - using an annoying little graphic in the corner of the screen.

I just wish there was a way to turn it off when not in use.

iPlayer

Oh, one last word on the iPlayer - the Xbox 360 doesn't adjust its refresh rate to match the playback rate of material. So you get 25fps showing at 60fps which causes all manner of weird jerkiness. Most unpleasant.

(NB I have a new TV, so it may be that I have to fiddle with some options to get the picture back to a normal state of fluidity - but a media player like the 360 should just do this automatically.)

Games

I'm properly loving Portal 2 - the other games are also fantastic. There are just three flies in the ointment.

First is the loading times. On my Wii, I've ripped all the games to a USB hard disk. The load times are virtually gone, no waiting between levels, or anything like that. I had assumed that with the Xbox's huge internal hard drive, the majority of games would take advantage of being able to cache their content. That doesn't seem to be the case. Games take ages to load from DVD. Even the downloaded games, like the ridiculously fun Fez, make me wait for a chuntering drive. I almost wish that the 360 came with an SSD rather than the lump of spinning metal it uses for storage.

(As a very minor disclaimer, I have a friend who works for Xbox who gave me a copy of Fez. Cheers J!)

Secondly, there's the issue of updates. The first time I switched on the console it wanted to connect to the mothership and update its software. Which it did. Twice. Every game I slip into it interrupts my first play experience with "This game needs to be updated NOW!" I understand why updates are needed - but it's really disruptive and doesn't create a great first impression.

Thirdly, personas (personae?).

So, I've set up a GamerTag for myself. My wife has also created some kind of Xbox account. How easy is it to start a co-operative game of Portal 2?

Now, I'm not sure if the following is a problem with Portal, or just the way Microsoft makes the 360 works. Anyway, here's the experience when we try to play....

Ok, click on "Play Portal 2". Easy enough...

Wait for a loading screen. Game will start soon...

Oh, another loading screen. Still, good to know who owns the copyright for these things. That'll improve my gameplay experience.

Yes! We're in the games and ready to... oh! No. My mistake. Still waiting to load.

Ok! Finally, let's hit that start button and crack on :-)

What the bloody hell is this? Not once in setting up my Xbox have I ever been asked to set a cloud storage device. I've no idea what it is, or why I would want one. Worst still, there's no "remember my selection" so I have to see this pointless screen every time I want to play.

The hard disk is not a speed demon. I'm sure it helps keep the console cool & quiet - but it means yet another loading screen for me to sit patiently through.

Now I can select the sort of game I want to play.

Fine, have this as a sub menu, rather than on the main screen. Whatever. Click.

Yes. Yes. Splitscreen. No, please don't give me some way to remember my preferences, that would be far too convenient. Hang on! I don't have a premium subscription - why are you even offering me online play?

Now I have to find my second controller. That's my fault for leaving it in the bathroom though (don't ask).

The sign in process for the second player is fairly pedestrian, but a bit long winded. That's it? No, have to absolutely super-duper confirm that was the profile I intended to select. Nyagh! Another of these bloody cloud things! No no no! Go away, just save on the HDD forever and NEVER ASK ME AGAIN!

We are exhausted at this point and the 360 allows us to take a nap while it access its memory banks. Oooh! A loading screen!

Oooh! A different loading screen! Wha? But? I...? Is this it? YES! After sixteen hours of setting up, we're finally ready to play.

In seriousness, it's a dozen button presses, and about 3 minutes of my time wasted. It's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things - but it's a continual annoyance.

Overall

I'm being deliberately nit-picky. I love the console (and the R2-D2 sounds whenever it's switched on). The games are such good fun, and the Kinect is a marvel.

But... But... The overall feel really disappoints and confuses me. Is this a games console, or a video player? It mashes the two together in an uncomfortable way. The Metro UI looks lovely - as it always does - but highlights its shortcomings by having dozens of sub-menus to plough through. It's an expensive bit of kit - yet it's slathered in adverts which, to my mind, reduces its premium feel.

I've not yet tried my free month of Xbox Live Gold Membership - at this point, it just feels like it would be another long download and offer very little in return. It seems odd that I can only pay for movies if I've already paid my monthly membership fee. I can download games without paying. And why can I watch iPlayer without subscribing to Gold, when trying to watch 4oD requires the premium subscription? All very inconsistent and hard to understand.

I can customise my avatar - and even pay for the privilege of wearing a branded T-Shirt - yet I cannot customise my dashboard to suit my needs.

That, I think, is the root of the problem. Parts of the 360 feel like it has been designed for Microsoft's benefit; not mine.

Split Personalities of Windows Phone 7

@edent — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:01:44 +0000

I've just come back from a chat with Paul Foster of Microsoft. We were discussing Windows Phone 7 - its promises and its problems.

I remain convinced that Windows Phone 7 (WP7) will be a hit. There are so many delightful touches in the operating system that I won't be surprised if it is ripped off before it is fully launched.

I was given an excellent overview of the software and proposed functionality. I also played with a demo handset. Even at this early stage the software is smooth and feature rich.

There are two sides to WP7 which I want to discuss here. The split personality of the device could really shake up the mobile market place.

What Do You Want To Be Today?

Is this a business phone or is this a gamers' phone?

The iPhone has always been a consumer device - support for corporate mail, networks and security policies has been added belatedly or not at all.

RIM's BlackBerry is the opposite. A hard core business phone which is now trying to woo younger consumers with non-corporate offerings.

WP7 is the first device that I've seen which has been designed from the ground up for both work and play. It has an (unfair?) advantage working with Microsoft's range of Enterprise software - OneNote, SharePoint, Outlook - as well as having the necessary range of security policies for a corporate environment. On the play side, it has total integration with Xbox and a wicked set of 3D graphics.

I do wonder if there is sufficient overlap between the gamer and salaryman demographics. Are corporates going to be able to justify giving their workers a powerful 3D games console (with built in phone)? Will gamers resent having to buy a phone with a load of enterprise rubbish on it that they just don't need?

Q&A

I received a bunch of questions on Twitter about the phone - so here is what I managed to glean...

Q: We know 3rd party apps won't be able to multi-task yet. But seems there's some state saving going on, how well supported is it? (Fabian Sasson)
A: There is some support for multi-tasking. You can send push notification from your web-server to the phone (via Microsoft). During an incoming call / email / etc, apps are "tombstoned" - they are essentially suspended and then "rehydrated" when the user clicks back to them. If an app is terminated - it is able to save its state so when the user switches back to it, they can resume from where they left off.

Q: Extra information on Xbox Live integration would be awesome. Does it need a subscription, for separate platforms do you buy twice? (William Morland)
A: It will work with a free "Silver" subscription - you don't need Gold membership. While some games will be free, you will have to buy other content.

Q: how many gamer points per Windows Phone7 title! Actually anything related to Xbox Live integration (Kevin Prince)
A: You can't use gamer points to buy content. It's credit card or Operator Billing.

Q: just confirm that the copy/paste rumour is actually a joke :) (Matt Rawlinson)
A: No. No joke. The idea is that quality user experience comes first. Is there a way to get rid of copy-and-paste for the most common uses? For example, the OS should recognise a phone number in an email message and let you click on it to call, add to address book, text, send to a friend etc. Where possible, that should be done automagically without the user having to manually intervene. A fine stance, to be sure, but I would expect to see c&p in the next firmware revision.

Q: Microsoft told us they have no devices for European markets. that wrong? (James Governer)
A: Wrong. WP7 will launch worldwide. US, EU, Russia, Australia, New Zeeland and a whole bunch of other territories. Not all devices will launch in all markets. Not all launches will be simultaneous.

Q: if you can manage to stop laughing, you could ask them why bother... (Sam Smith)
A: I cheated a bit and didn't ask this. It's clear that MS are putting a lot of effort in to this. They know that mobile is the growth space at the moment and that they have failed miserably with WinMo6.5. They need to get this right. If they can, they've locked in mobile, email, SharePoint, SkyDrive, Windows Live ID and Xbox games. This could be the hub for all of MS's products. If it succeeds - and that's a big if - it will reinvigorate Microsoft and consolidate all their products into one device. That's either awesome or terrifying depending on which team you bat for. Regardless, it will set the mobile industry on fire.

Games

If you're an Xbox games, you will buy this phone. Simple. I played with some of the 3D games on the handset and they are stunning. Sign in with your Windows Live ID and your Xbox Live stuff is accessible directly from the phone's homescreen.

But let's take it one step further.

Let's say you've bought a racing game on Xbox live and the companion game on WP7.

You can see your gamer score and achievements - and your friends' - on your phone. Neat.
If you unlock an achievement on your Xbox - it will be unlocked on your phone. Sweet.
If you unlock an achievement on your phone - it will be unlocked on your console and show up on your dashboard. Make your commute count for something!

So far, so good. It's a wonder this hasn't been done before. But what happens next will give you a taste of things to come.

You unlock the "Ford Mustang" on your console.
Want to customise the car? Play the next level on your phone within 20 metres of a Ford dealership. Click here to find your nearest location.
Click here to book a test drive.

Integrating achievements, location, social networking and gameplay all in one package.

Game Over, Man! Game Over!

There are some limitations to the gaming service. All of these downsides are "for now" - let's wait and see what the future holds.

No Xbox / WP7 live play. Due to the latency of 3G networks, you can't play against others on the Xbox live service.
Some gaming APIs & Xbox Live integration are only available to registered publishers. Not a big publishing house? No access for you.

Big Boys Only.

WP7 takes one "great" thing from Android - multiple vendors producing a variety of handsets.

It then marries it "great" thing from iPhone - fanatical lock down of applications and services to trusted third parties.

Want access to certain API functionality? Only available to MNOs and manufacturers?

Want to run apps in the background? Better be in bed with MS. And not casually, either.

App development is "free". Well, the SDK and the compilers are free. You'll need to be running Vista or Windows 7 - no Macs or Linux. Registration to the Marketplace - which includes code signing - is $99. That will allow you to upload 5 free apps. Subsequent free apps will cost $19.99 each to upload.

Why this restriction? Quality. MS doesn't want their Marketplace to be cluttered with thousands of poorly developed freeware titles. They believe that putting up a significant barrier to entry will deter sub-par applications. I think, it may just cost them developers who want to dip their toe in the waters.

Want to offer a "lite" version for free and a "pro" version for $5? You can't do that. MS don't want duplicate apps cluttering their store. What they will allow is for developers to build in "trial" modes. So, rather than customers paying $5, trying the app, then applying for a refund - a developer sets what functionality will be available in the app for a trial period. The customer can then upgrade in-app. A really smart solution.

If you're selling apps, you can price between $1.99 and $499.99. That's right. Five hundred bucks. There are professional apps for BlackBerry which sell in this range - that's clearly one of the markets MS are gunning for.

The revenue share is 70/30. I really think MS have missed a trick here. It's an "industry standard" price point because no one wants to get in to a price war. Increasing the share that goes to the developer would be an excellent way to convince wavering developers to adopt the platform.

Paying for goods is via credit card or Operator Billing - no paying with Gamerpoints. Operator Billing will be supported in most territories - the advantage of being Microsoft is that you can push the MNOs to open a few doors for you. There will be no price descrimination between OB and CC. Any difference will come out of MS's 30% - so developers won't be left out of pocket.

There is definitely the feeling that MS wants big, professional applications only. A great way to ensure high quality experience on the device - but it may just cost them the next killer app.

Conclusion

I do wonder if MS should have made an Xbox Phone and a Business Phone. Bundling the two together could be too confusing for customers - and ultimately dissatisfying.

The UI is fantastic. Rather than copying the Windows 3.11 UI (a la iPhone and Android) they've come up with something which fits the form factor really well.

The Xbox integration will get every gamer wanting one.

The tight integration with Sharepoint and Exchange will get every Head of IT wanting to ditch their BlackBerrys.

The range of manufacturers will ensure that there aren't shortages on launch. A wide variety of form-factors and designs (all within the MS parameters) will help convince those who can't live without a touchscreen / QWERTY keyboard / flip / slider - that this is the phone for them.

The limitations for developers will be frustrating - as will the high cost of development. The MS commitment to high quality, revenue generating apps will stifle the number of applications available. But if it means not having to wade through 5,000 fart noise generators.....

Microsoft knows that they have to score big with this operating system. WP7 is due in the "holiday season" - up to 5 months from now - and they're already trailing it massively. They're being hugely open about their plans for it (for Microsoft). They're listening to developers and users. The whole Microsoft team - from Office to Xbox - has a stake in this phone. Come Christmas, I expect their media machine to be in full swing.

WP7 looks great. It doesn't have the openness of Android. It doesn't have the hype of Apple. It doesn't have the pedigree and mindshare of Nokia. It doesn't have BlackBerry's simplicity. It successfully steals the best bits from each platform and improves upon them.

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft - as I've said many times. If I were being uncharitable, I'd say that it has dragged along the worst features from the major mobile players - fragmentation, rigid QA, crappy revenue share, lack of multi-tasking. But even I am forced to admit that it is attacking RIM, Apple, Android and Nokia at their strengths.

If nothing else, this is the phone the N-Gage should have been.

Integrity!

There are three things Microsoft specifically told me not to mention - because they'll be making announcements in the coming months.

What happens when you hold down the "Windows" key.
How OS software updates are handled.
Zune.

This post hasn't been checked, censored or spell checked by Microsoft. They did buy me a drink - but didn't give me a free phone - so I don't think I'm editorially compromised. I still run Ubuntu on my home machines.

Hate Microsoft - Love Windows Phone 7?

@edent — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:23:22 +0000

I'm not the biggest fan of Microsoft. Both my original Xboxes now run Linux, I've converted my laptop and computers to Ubuntu, and I generally laugh in the face of Microsoft's increasingly desperate attempts to stay relevant.

So it was with great mirth that I went along to a BizSpark event a few weeks ago. Microsoft were going to be showing off their latest "innovation" - Windows Phone 7.

I went along expecting to hate it and, instead, found myself curiously drawn to it.

Take a look at the emulator for an interactive demo.

I played with the demo hardware and software and had my expectations blown away. I'll be honest - I expected crap. I had horrible memories of the stylus oriented Windows Mobile 6. The phone which would display an hourglass if you had the temerity to receive a phone call while playing solitaire.

Windows Phone 7 (WP7) was a million miles away from the old Microsoft experience.

Pros

The user interface is refreshingly simple and fun to use. It's like nothing else I've tried before and I really think that Microsoft has outclassed both Android and Apple.

Pushing so much information to the homescreen really makes you want to use your phone constantly. iPhone only does this half-heartedly and Android does it without much animation or UI consistency.

App Store. One excellent feature of the MS app store is the "Try Before You Buy" model. Rather than a developer putting out a free, limited version and a "pro" version they can publish a single app. They can restrict the features and functionality of the "demo" version until the customer makes the purchase. Or, after a set period of time, the demo version can become non-functioning. Or have reduced function. Brilliant.

Gaming on this device will be huge. It looks like it will be simple to port games from the Xbox to WP7 - that gives it a great competative advantage. Tie in Xbox Live (or whatever it's called) and you'll get gamers buying the same game twice - once on the console and once on the phone. The 3D power of the phones was stunning.

Cons

There are some serious shortcomings in the Windows Phone 7 vision of the future which Microsoft urgently need to address.

Expand the development options. If you want to write for Windows Phone 7, you'll need Windows installed on your computer. Given that Android allows you to develop on Windows, Mac and Linux, it doesn't make sense to make developers buy a new operating system. Especially as iPhone development is tied to Apple.
Open it up. I love the idea of integrating my phone with my Xbox live account - but I don't have an Xbox! Open it up so that my Wii or PS3 gaming experience can be pushed to the homescreen.
The same goes for mail and IM - don't restrict it just to Exchange and MSN. Openness is hard for Microsoft, but it will attract more customers to the platform.
Have a firm, public roadmap for enhancements which all manufacturers stick to. Android is currently being stifled by manufacturers like HTC who refuse to update the software on their customers' devices.
Revenue share for developers needs to be better. At the moment it's the same 70/30 split being offered by Android and Apple. It needs to be lower for two key reasons.

Attract developers to the fledgling ecosystem.
To avoid any accusations of a cartel. To have all three major platforms "independently" converge on the same revenue share deal looks suspicious.

Now What?

I've played with the prototype hardware and I'm impressed. The software is really good. Much better that Microsoft's usual standard.

It has to be.

Microsoft are betting their mobile future on this platform. Win6.5 failed. Kin failed. They can't afford another high profile failure like this. Mirosoft are putting their best people on this project and, as far as I can tell, are revisiting their Xbox strategy; SPEND SPEND SPEND.

By the time the phones launch (holiday season 2010) you won't be able to move without seeing an advert. They will crank up their media machine to 11. Just like the original Xbox, they will buy their way in to the market with a view that - like the Xbox 360 - the real prize is several years away.

I hope they succeed. Not because I have any love for Microsoft, but because Nokia, Apple, and Google will all have to raise the quality of their software and hardware to compete against Microsoft's marketing expenditure.

I'm a Linux geek - and I think Windows Phone 7 is the best thing to come out of Redmond in a very long time.

Repairing an Xbox's DVD Drive

@edent — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:00:50 +0000

For the last four years, I've been using a chipped XBOX as my media centre. Running XBMC, it has managed to play everything I've thrown at it. Recently, though, it has had a real problem playing standard DVDs. Aside from percussive maintenance, the only way that I know to fix something is to crack it open and have a fiddle!

I've opened my Xboxes several times before - if you're new to it, you'll need a TORX screwdriver set (Size 10 & 7 are the only two bits you actually need) and a regular cross-head screwdriver. And nerves of steel, obviously. There are lots of guides to taking apart the Xbox - there's a particularly good one on repairing DVD drives.

As it turns out, my DVD drive was suffering from a 4 year accumulation of dust. Eurgh! Clicking each of the pictures will show you the horror in 5 MegaPixel detail.

Dusty Lens

Dust on the lens

Dust Around the Casing

Dust In The Unit

Dust on the Mechanism (Click for bigger)

Luckily, dust is one of the easiest problems to solve. You just put your lips together and blow...

Actually, a can of compressed air and a lint free cloth is generally better! A quick reassembly and the DVD drive is as good as new.

Building the ultimate Xbox Server

@edent — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:00:00 +0000

I've been playing around with Linux on the Xbox for a while. I finally decided to stop piddling about with the stock drive and create a fully featured network server. I shall call this beast.... The xNAS!

While doing this, I found a lot of badly presented and conflicting information. This is my attempt to right that wrong. I've attempted to add some of these steps to the Wiki, but it's not accepting changes at the moment.

This tutorial assumes you are using Xebian and an original Xbox.

The Aim:

Build a headless Linux server with 1.5TB storage space, Bit Torrent, Samba Sharing and other stuff.

Kit you will need.

A chipped Xbox. This is a bit of a cop out. There are many excellent tutorials around on how to chip an Xbox. If you're not comfortable soldering around your Xbox - you can buy pre-chipped ones on eBay or the AVForums.
Some large IDE hard drives. The Xbox will take a maximum of 2 IDE devices. The largest drive I could find were 750GB each. You may be able to go larger using a SATA/PATA converter.
An ATA power Y-splitter. The Xbox's DVD drive has a proprietary power connector. You'll need a splitter if you want to power more than 1 HDD.
A set of torx screw drivers
Nerves of steel!

So... Let's begin.

I chose Xebian Linux because it's based on Debian. This means that all the packages are very well maintained. You should get a large range of programs with frequent security updates. The Xebian Basic distribution (which we'll be using) doesn't give you a GUI. You get command line access only. It might be a bit scary - but it keeps everything running quickly on the Xbox's modest hardware.

There is an excellent tutorial on the Xbox Linux Wiki. However, some of the information is out of date.

Here's what you need to do.

Download the latest version of Xebian Basic.
Burn the ISO on to a CD or DVD that you are sure your Xbox will read.
Remove the Xbox's original HDD - replace with your massive HDD.
Boot using the Cromwell BIOS (or other method to boot unsigned content).
Select the DVD drive.
Linux will now boot! Hurrah!

This is the point of no return. Once these next few steps are complete, your Xbox will be a Linux machine. You will not be able to play Xbox games on it.

Type XBOXLinuxInstall
Linux will start installing.
You will want to choose Option 3. This will take over the whole disk for Linux.
Answer the questions as they arise (set the IP address etc).
You can now remove the DVD drive (with the power off!) and replace it with another HDD.

You are now, technically, done. Xebian is installed. You (almost) have an xNAS. However, it is not (currently) very useful.

There are two things we need to do to get this Xbox in a usable state.

Set up the DNS.

By default, Xebian points to an outdated DNS entry. You will want to modify this to point to your DNS server.

Type nano /etc/resolv.conf

This opens the file in the nano editor. This is a very simple editor - much easier to use than emacs or vi.

Edit it to say

nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 208.67.220.220

The IP addresses there point to the OpenDNS Servers - perfect if your ISP is a bit poor at providing a DNS service or you're going to be changing your network configuration frequently.

Edit the update sources.

Because Xebian is based on Debian, we can update it in the same way as we would a normal Debian system.

Unfortunately, Xebian uses a rather outdated sources.list (the file which tells Xebian where to look for updates).

Luckily, it is very easy for us to update this!

First, go to http://www.debian.org/mirror/list and find your nearest mirror. So, if you're in the UK, choose ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/

For this example, we'll be using nano - feel free to use your favourite text editor.

To open the sources file, type

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

You should see a file which looks like this

deb http://ftp.at.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

Replace it with a file that looks like this (substitute your nearest mirror)

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

Save the file and exit.

Updating is a three step process.

To get a list of updates, type apt-get update
To upgrade to the latest version, type apt-get upgrade
- (You may need to answer some questions from the upgrader - if you don't know what you're doing, accept the default option.)
Finally, to upgrade to the latest distribution, type apt-get dist-upgrade

That's it - you have upgraded successfully!

Whenever you want to check for updates, type apt-get update

Then apt-get upgrade

Tada! All done!

Here she is in all her glory

Up next - setting it up for Samba, Bit Torrent and other fun stuff.