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Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
Tiny Diggers Delivers Learning With Construction Trucks For Kids on the …

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Home » XBOX 360

Internet TV on the Xbox 360

Submitted by Kat on January 10, 2007 – 1:00 am5 Comments

Around the end of this year, the Xbox 360 will have Internet TV, thus turning it into a personal video recorder of sorts. Features will include watching live streaming broadcasts, gaming while you’re recording a video in the background, an on-screen program guide, and pause/rewind/fast forward ability. This is all to come out as a firmware update, so you won’t need new hardware, although you might need more than a 20GB hard drive.

via Download Squad

http://www.farbot.com/ Paul Munn

The big deal about this: You need an IPTV provider to use it. That means Verizon’s service or another fiber-optic TV service. Not cable.
Nathan

I just have three major questions about this service. I know that the answers will be coming eventually. However, if they already have it working on a system then they know what the channel lineup will be and how much demand content they will have.

1. Bandwidth use. How much of my Internet is this going to eat up?

2. Is this really a cable replacement? How many channels is it going to have and will it have full HD channels and most importantly will it have local channels. I’m guessing not but I’m hopefull. I don’t know if you realize this but a good HD antenna is expensive.

3. Cost. We still have to pay SOMEONE for Internet. Most likely that’s our cable service. I get a discount on my bill for having both Internet and cable. So, is Microsoft going to offer their own broadband too? Because I get a really good deal on my 8Mbps connection.
Subnet6

Nathan,

I can’t claim to be privy to MS information, but being in a networking field that handles things like VOIP and IPTV, I’ll take some rough shots are your questions. Your mileage may vary.

“1. Bandwidth use. How much of my Internet is this going to eat up?”

—-If you are streaming? A lot. Streaming video (of high quality) requires a technology called QoS or Quality of Service. It will require that video packets get high priority inbound, most likely forcing standard web traffic to wait (read: slow down).

However, if they set this up as a background download, where it buffers a chunk of the movie, it won’t cause near the problems. The drawback here is that you have to wait to start watching the movie, anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on the quality of the provider.

“2. Is this really a cable replacement?”

Not yet. Far from it. Most IPTV providers have a very limited channel lineup as this is still mostly in the development stages.

“How many channels is it going to have…….”

See above.

“and will it have full HD channels……”

It will likely have both HD and non-HD for some time.

“and most importantly will it have local channels.”

VERY doubtful. The technology to internet-enable your local TV broadcasts exists but few to zero local TV stations have the hardware or the know how to make this a reality. Getting this content to your main IPTV provider would be even more challenging, especially when you consider that many markets have many different potential carriers.

“3. Cost. We still have to pay SOMEONE for Internet. Most likely that’s our cable service. I get a discount on my bill for having both Internet and cable. So, is Microsoft going to offer their own broadband too? Because I get a really good deal on my 8Mbps connection.”

Since it’s not a cable replacement yet, you probably won’t want to ditch your cable, so you’ll keep your broadband discount. Keep in mind, MS won’t offer IPTV, they just provide the protocol suites that will be used by AT&T, Qwest, or whoever. So MS most likely will not be offering broadband, however, companies like Qwest will probably eventually bundle IPTV with phone and internet so there may be alternatives there as well.
Sammael

I don’t know how much I like the idea of the 360 acting as a PVR… my major prob is I’m hoping it doesn’t interfere with the gaming aspect one iota. I like the way my 360 is running now. This isn’t hate, just concern.

I just hope we don’t see scenarios where a game is lagging and it’s due to someone in the game dl’ing the newest Paris video… or PVR’ing the final episode of the OC…

Also, 20 GB is nothing for a PVR. They’ve got to be kidding if they think anyone believes there isn’t another drive on the way out the door.
Subnet6

“I don’t know how much I like the idea of the 360 acting as a PVR… my major prob is I’m hoping it doesn’t interfere with the gaming aspect one iota. I like the way my 360 is running now. This isn’t hate, just concern.”

Interesting point. I hadn’t thought of that. I would really hope they don’t sacrifice gaming for some new multimedia feature. I doubt it, but let’s keep alert on this one.