Gates: Xbox Is A “General Purpose Computer”

7 Responses

1. Anuban

   January 9th, 2007 at 5:40 pm

   1

   Well then yet another console is being called a “computer” of sorts. I don’t know how I feel about that but run with it while you can I guess MS. Meanwhile Sony has a bit to say to the critics … which I found somewhat interesting.

   “New Sony Playstation worldwide head Kaz Hirai made some remarks in an interview for the CES print magazine Blu-ray Today (the cover of the mag had a headline saying that Blu-ray’s success was “inevitable”). Hirai is quoted as saying, “I have heard many people say our competitors’ systems are just as powerful as the PS3. That simply is not true. No other next generation entertainment system pushes the envelope on advanced technology like PS3.” Hirai also defended the shortages and delays that they had to deal with, saying, “I don’t think anyone could have foreseen the difficulties we encountered in the production of the blue laser diode for the PlayStation 3, which ultimately delayed the launch of PlayStation 3. We were asking our teams to develop millions of components for the PlayStation 3, like the Blu-ray Disc player and cell broadband engine, that had previously only been produced in the thousands.”

   I just want to point out that the only competitor they could possibly be talking about is MS. Now no one is actually saying that the Cell isn’t more powerful than the 3 Intel processors … but rather that Sony has yet to unlock the potential of the Cell and they should have been able to do that with at least one full blown game before they were ready to launch the PS3. They should have expected this reaction when people only believe what they see and we all know that. Anyway it will be very interesting to see what this year brings. By the end of the year we should be able to tell if Sony (by way of its developers and partner developers) is actually going to be able to realize all this power or if they just wasted millions of dollars on purported superior technology that they can’t find a way to leverage.

2. tidles

   January 9th, 2007 at 10:28 pm

   2

   Yeah, so why cant I browse the net yet Bill? Roll on the BIOS crackers who provide the real features we want from Bills babies.

3. josh

   January 10th, 2007 at 2:59 am

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   web browsing is the most or one of the most basic things you can do on a computer. you cant do that on a 360(yet) so as far as im concerened its far from being a pc

4. Anuban

   January 10th, 2007 at 3:16 am

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   Who really needs web browsing on their console though … it just opens up the door to more security issues anyway. I have a PC to browse the web so I just don’t get what all the focus on that aspect of a console is about. How about being able to download Movies and TV shows on demand though and use your console as a complete media center … that is where the 360 shines and will continue to do so with IPTV. IMHO that is where the true innovation and value lies.

5. josh

   January 16th, 2007 at 2:24 am

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   Who really cares about it is not the issue. Whether the 360 is even a “general purpose pc” is, and it doesent have the basic functionality of a pc so it cant be considered a computer, not saying that iptv isnt going to be great because I look forward to that as well, but there are certain aspects of a pc that you have to include with the 360 to consider it a computer, such as web browsing, which isnt possible(at the moment) by the 360.

6. Max

   March 5th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

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   Word to Anuban, all video game consoles are computers. The only difference is that they do not run an OS, that allows things that windows/linux/nt do.

   Also, IBM is the producer of the 360’s triple core cpu, not Intel.

   Also, only a very small handfull of games (i’m thinking the nuber is 0) actually are eble to utilyze the 3 cpus of the 360 simultaneously.
   As the 360 begins to age, there will be games that are programmed to be able to use all 3 cpu’s.

   As far as using “opening up security issues” as an excuse for not using the 360 for tasks that are pc-esque, that is really a non issue. Virus’s, and malware are designed for Microsoft os’s with traditional x86 cpu’s. To write code for the 360 is extremely hard. Not only that people aren’t going to be likely to access online bank accounts on there 360 so the motivational factor, for writing viruses for a 360 just isn’t there.

7. Anuban

   March 5th, 2007 at 1:19 pm

   7

   It is not a computer in the generally accepted sense but I do get what you are saying and thanks for the correction on about the IBM processors I always forget that. But I still don’t think that web browsing is needed for the PC and I would still be concerned about security issues. But that is just me. I am certain that if MS feels that it is really something users are dying to have then they will provide something but from what I read on the web 360 users including myself are not clamoring for web browsing functionality.