Apple and (more) oranges.
The concurrent XBOX and Apple iOS5 presentations today reconfirmed a few thoughts I drafted earlier this year that I never finished:
I had the opportunity to play with the XBOX Kinect over the holidays and despite my initial skepticism I walked away relatively impressed. Watching a group of drunk adults get into Dance Central reminded me of my first experiences with the Nintendo Wii and Rock Band: all three share that elusive people magnet quality, ensnaring gamers and non-gamers alike. While Sony seems content to merely mimic the Wii with its Move hardware, Microsoft made a rather bold - dare I say it - Apple-like move by re-imagining the way that consumers interact with their technology.
Yet despite its initial wow-factor, the Kinect has a distinctly un-Apple quality: it feels rushed to market to capitalize on novelty rather than performance. For example, it is often hard to get the Kinect to register what you want it to do, which strikes me as the one quality you would not want in an input device. Even something as simple as navigating menus had me practicing my zen meditation exercises so I didn't throw a stray Wiimote at the screen. Many of the E3 presentations only reinforced this impression: clumsy pantomime masquerading as intuitive input. Perhaps even more nettlesome, the Kinect demands that you rearrange you entire living room to meet its spatial demands. I couldn't get a Kinect even if I wanted to as my gaming nook is far too small. In contrast, Apple is lowering the barriers that prevent people from entering their iOS ecosystem.
In a way, the Kinect feels like the Mega-CD: forward-looking technology developed at the wrong time. Still, kudos to Microsoft for developing something the feels very un-Microsoft despite its very Microsoft like problems.
I had the opportunity to play with the XBOX Kinect over the holidays and despite my initial skepticism I walked away relatively impressed. Watching a group of drunk adults get into Dance Central reminded me of my first experiences with the Nintendo Wii and Rock Band: all three share that elusive people magnet quality, ensnaring gamers and non-gamers alike. While Sony seems content to merely mimic the Wii with its Move hardware, Microsoft made a rather bold - dare I say it - Apple-like move by re-imagining the way that consumers interact with their technology.
Yet despite its initial wow-factor, the Kinect has a distinctly un-Apple quality: it feels rushed to market to capitalize on novelty rather than performance. For example, it is often hard to get the Kinect to register what you want it to do, which strikes me as the one quality you would not want in an input device. Even something as simple as navigating menus had me practicing my zen meditation exercises so I didn't throw a stray Wiimote at the screen. Many of the E3 presentations only reinforced this impression: clumsy pantomime masquerading as intuitive input. Perhaps even more nettlesome, the Kinect demands that you rearrange you entire living room to meet its spatial demands. I couldn't get a Kinect even if I wanted to as my gaming nook is far too small. In contrast, Apple is lowering the barriers that prevent people from entering their iOS ecosystem.
In a way, the Kinect feels like the Mega-CD: forward-looking technology developed at the wrong time. Still, kudos to Microsoft for developing something the feels very un-Microsoft despite its very Microsoft like problems.
posted by d l wright at 6/07/2011 02:30:00 PM
2 Comments:
Although, I am impressed by Microsoft's tenacity. After all, they release the "drivers" for Kinect and then steal all the breakthroughs that the hobbyists make with the tech. Basically they outsourced R&D, got it for free, and got something far more creative than they would have internally.
LOL
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