Telescreen 720

Yummie, according to Microsoft's own docs, the new Xbox will be:

"Always on, always connected"
"Kinect is required to be plugged in"
"All games must be installed on HDD" 

http://n4g.com/news/1213397/vgleaks-documentation-durango-hardware-overview-always-connected-kinect-required-must-install

Let's not forget that the Kinect is actually a camera! Apart from blocking used games (very possible given this specs) it means that you're buying a 24/7 connected-to-the-mothership camera here, usually directed at the living room to boot.

In short: You're buying a real-life telescreen! (Telescreens are the television sets in "1984", they act as display devices but they also work as surveillance cameras, monitoring the room they are in and sending the stream to the powers that be)

Given this setup, I think it's only a matter of time before it user-identification through the camera is REQUIRED before using the console (according to rumors, your real name is a requirement for using the PS4, so this will be only a step-up). Maybe this will happen in the next version. You know, to prevent abuse, hackers, cheaters, pedophiles in in-game chats etc.. don't worry, an excuse will be found. Don't call me alarmist. Just a few years ago, the thought about blocking used-games and an mandatory always on-power/on-line console would have been absurd.

I also like it how the new Xbox SDK installer uses the Matrix font. Freudian slip?

Using footage from a movie about being a slave for machines from birth to death sets the mood quite nicely for Telescreen 720.

You can always make your own headset:

@wastingtimewithforums: Always on? Do not want.  When I'm not using something I want it switched OFF. I don't care if it takes 30 seconds to boot, when I'm not using it I don't want it using any power.

Camera in the living room, always on and connected to the internet?  Do not want. I'm not worried about MS monitoring me, I'm more worried about hackers getting access (and selling information about when there's no-one home and whether there's a dog and and what nice, expensive, easily portable things I may have). Paranoid?  Possibly.

Herbie

[tinfoil graphic]

I haven't made the stuff up, it's right from Microsoft's SDK:

http://www.vgleaks.com/durango-xdk/

Quote:

----

Durango will implement different power states so that it can always be powered on, but will draw minimal electricity when not in use. [...] and will always maintain a network connection.

Every Durango console will be sold with a new high-fidelity Kinect Sensor, which will be required for the system to operate [...] Active infrared illumination will provide high-quality monochrome images even in low ambient light conditions (!)

----

Didn't you know that a perma-connected console is just bricked without a mandatory infrared-enhanced camera?!

By the way:

http://www.neowin.net/news/how-microsoft-lets-the-chinese-government-spy-on-its-citizens-via-Skype

I laughed about this stuff too, but the direction in the last few years (not only Microsoft's) made me cautious.

On your way to buy tinfoil, you can pick up a power-strip with an on-off switch and some duct tape and it'll be just like you had an XBOX 360 again.

This will either change, or it is a hoax. 

If MSFT releases a product that allows hackers to spy on you then they will go out of business.  Any executive that argues otherwise should be fired.

23 minutes ago, ScanIAm wrote

This will either change, or it is a hoax. 

Funny. This was said quite often when people complained about Windows 8 before its release. It's pretty clear Microsoft has adopted Apple's mentality of "my way or the highway". I was hoping it was limited to the Windows division but it sounds like it's made its way into the XBox division as well. Too bad.

@DeathByVisualStudio: I think being spied on is pretty much universally despised, whereas there are plenty of people that enjoy using Windows 8. It should be pretty easy to recognize the difference.

You can always turn the thing off when you don't want to use it, and put a piece of tape on the camera if your afraid of being watched in your tighty whitey's, but generally I find these kinds of requirements distasteful and a serious con on the pro's and con's scale....

1 hour ago, cbae wrote

@DeathByVisualStudio: I think being spied on is pretty much universally despised

Oh yeah? Give it time.

I can remember when activation was something that was only for high-end custom software.. I can remember when DRM was utterly despised, and now it quite often gets defended on forums.

Blocking used games was absolutely unthinkable, it was bad sci-fi, and now it's something that is openly discussed by the vendors, maybe going even to be implemented. And the fanbois are starting to defend it.

Forced real names, operating systems that urge you to create accounts relentlessly, forced appstores with no sideloading functionality, forced cloudification, dubious studies that allude people who don't want to striptease their privacy on Facebook as psychopaths... And now always-on consoles with mandatory cameras.

Those Xbox docs look absolutely legit to me, because it's the logical next step in this path.

And the ubiquitous spyware functions just about everywhere don't even raise eyebrows nowadays. I can remember when it was called "phone home" and caused uproars.

For many of these things I had understanding at first, but that understanding grows thin. It's obviously not about piracy anymore, it's about milking the customers and, yes, control.

The tech landscape transforms straight into those b-movie sci fi flicks, where you always think how did the people let this sh*thole scenario happen. Well, now I know. They always forget to include the enablers known as "fanboys" in those movies.

3 hours ago, cbae wrote

@DeathByVisualStudio: I think being spied on is pretty much universally despised, whereas there are plenty of people that enjoy using Windows 8. It should be pretty easy to recognize the difference.

As blowdart suggested Facebook already proves that people are willing to be spied on. It's not about what the users like or don't like nor the percentage of users who have issue with the direction. My point is that Microsoft has turned a corner and for whatever reason doesn't seem to be listening to their customers whether is the majority of people, a large contingent, etc. I think it's been said here before (and I'm paraphrasing) that they don't like to be told they are doing something wrong and just block out those voices. Well if the vast majority of Xbox users complain over the direction they are taking that's just more reason for them not to listen.

Tinfoil hat? No. Case and point, a patent by Microsoft to use cameras to determine how many people are watching content in order to determine if too many people are watching said content (you may pay for cable, and your cable contract may say only two people can watch it at a time, or the number of people in your household which means you'd have to pay more for guests).

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220120278904%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20120278904&RS=DN/20120278904

Tinfoil hat?  No.  The hardware being put in place is the foundation so things can be implemented that are in this patent.  Who knows how much blow back they'll get or when they'd actually implement this, but it is coming.

Nowhere does the documentation say that the AlwaysOn feature is a requirement to be able to play a game.

Durango will implement different power states so that it can always be powered on, but will draw minimal electricity when not in use. The console will be ready instantly when users want to play, and will always maintain a network connection so that console software and games are always current. With this 'Always On, Always Connected' design, users will quickly and easily enjoy their connected entertainment experiences, with no waiting for the console to restart or install updates.

How are people reading more into this than "It supports ACPI mode S3 and downloads updates while in low power mode rather than waiting until you start a game"?

@Bas: A severe lack of brain power?

It has passive input and it's always on -> it can be used to constantly monitor you. Of course, my cellphone has a camera and a mic, and so does my laptop - why is it more likely that a gaming console would spy on you and not those devices that are far more connected to your personal life. among other things?

49 minutes ago, MasterPie wrote

@Bas: A severe lack of brain power?

It has passive input and it's always on -> it can be used to constantly monitor you. Of course, my cellphone has a camera and a mic, and so does my laptop - why is it more likely that a gaming console would spy on you and not those devices that are far more connected to your personal life. among other things?

++

Forget about worrying about smart TVs and Xboxes potentially invading your privacy when you're in the living room watching TV, and start worrying about the phone in your pocket that you (and your wife and your daughter) probably have on, watching, listening and connected when you're in the bedroom, the bathroom and the boardroom.

Who says I am in love with smartphones?

These next-gen consoles are particulary interesting, because gamers tend to have the highest ratio of enablers in their ranks. See how they defend with zeal their disadvantage in the comments. No wonder that consoles are currently just drowning in anti-feature ideas (second hand sales-ban, real name requirement). 

I have the feeling that the next consoles serve as a testbed, on how far can they go. That patent quoted above surely wasn't just an typing exercise, and having an infrared enabled camera as a mandatory requirement on a always-on console seems to be a right platform for those kinds of experiments.