I love the weekends before E3. I’ve worked four. You get everything in the tips jar—yesterday we got one that said Half-Life 2: Episode 3 would be a Wii 2 launch title. It was too earnest to be a troll. More »
You’ll be able to watch more TV via your PlayStation 3 soon thanks to an agreement between Sony and Yahoo!7 to bring the latter’s catch-up TV service PLUS7 to the console in Australia. More »
2007. CES. Microsoft get a few people excited with mention of an IPTV service for the 360. British Telecom will be the first to offer it. Years pass, however, and we hear nothing.
There wasn’t a whole lot of details flapping around when Robbie Bach announced that British Telecom would be the first company to team up with Microsoft to offer consumers an Xbox 360 set-top IPTV box.
Fortunately the BBC was able to squeeze some details about the box out of British Telecom. Chief among them is the fact that despite rumors, and our fervent desires, the box will not be able to receive or record live television. Boo!
The service actually sounds like a more robust version of the Video Marketplace Microsoft already offers on the box.
As well as access to BT’s library of on-demand content, users will also be able to watch hundreds of movies and other digital content, including its near-live FA premier League football matches. … “The reason for streaming only on the Xbox is because currently the console does not have the capability for live TV or enough hard drive for practical downloading of content,” explained a BT spokesman.
Well that sucks.
British Telecom will be the first cable provider to allow you to buy an Xbox 360 that can be used as a set-top box for IPTV, Robbie Bach announced tonight during Bill Gates’ CES keynote.
Turns out that IPTV option loaded into an Xbox 360 during a repair was a mistake not a sign of things about to hit. Microsoft told Joystiq that the IPTV feature seen in several screen caps were real, but a mistake.
“Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) features will only be available from the Xbox 360 through a service provider who has deployed Xbox 360 with Microsoft Mediaroom (IPTV) services. This was an isolated incident where these features were inadvertently exposed while the customer’s console was being serviced and is unrelated to the Fall Update. Xbox 360 with Microsoft Mediaroom (IPTV), will be available to service providers by the end of the year. Microsoft’s IPTV service providers will ultimately determine the timing of Xbox 360 with Microsoft Mediaroom deployments.”
So we’re back to where we started. We know IPTV is coming by the end of the year and that it will be through service providers. What we don’t know is which service providers are going to bite the bullet and test the feature out.
Microsoft: IPTV not a part of Xbox Live Fall Update [Joystiq] More »
