Thurrott Daily: March 1

Thurrott Daily: March 1

A few tidbits from around the web.

3/1/2016 9:54:21 AM

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Steve Ballmer dunks at Clippers game

Just a random reminder that Steve Ballmer is the man.

Microsoft hints that hardware upgrades may be coming to Xbox One … or does it?

I’m not convinced this is what he meant, but Polygons says that comments by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer suggest that Xbox One could get hardware upgrades like a PC.

“We see on other platforms whether it be mobile or PC that you get a continuous innovation that you rarely see on console,” he said. “Consoles lock the hardware and the software platforms together at the beginning of the generation. Then you ride the generation out for seven or so years, while other ecosystems are getting better, faster, stronger. And then you wait for the next big step function.”

“When you look at the console space, I believe we will see more hardware innovation in the console space than we’ve ever seen. You’ll actually see us come out with new hardware capability during a generation allowing the same games to run backward and forward compatible because we have a Universal Windows Application running on top of the Universal Windows Platform that allows us to focus more and more on hardware innovation without invalidating the games that run on that platform.”

That doesn’t say “hardware upgrades” to me. It says that universal apps are the future, and that possibly—possibly—Microsoft could eke more power out of Xbox One going forward, just like it did when it upgraded Xbox 360 to support 1080p out.

What’s really interesting about the Polygon piece is that the other keeps writing “Spencer said” to describe hardware upgrades. But there are no quotes by Spencer that actually say that. Anyway, it’s worth reading. But you need to really read it to separate fact from speculation.

There’s an article at PC World which does the same thing. Curious.

Xamarin explained

Coding Journeymann provides a nice Xamarin 101 overview.

Xamarin allows me to create native applications like an Android or iOS developer would do. The only difference is that I do not use the same programming language, instead of Java/Kotlin or Objective-C/Swift, I use C#. Like an Android developer I deal with activities, fragments, intents, AXML files and like an iOS developer I use storyboards, view controllers, UIView controls.

You can share code between Android, iOS and Windows Phone for instance. All of your apps use the same programming language. For example you can create a library with a API client for you application and use it on Android, iOS and Windows Phone: write it once and use it three times.

Surface Type Cover with Fingerprint Reader is coming to Europe

The Surface Type Cover with Fingerprint Reader that debuted with Surface Pro 4 here in the US last fall is heading to Europe, according to Microsoft Germany. So far there are store listings in the UK (135 pounds) and in Germany (180 euros).

PS4 Remote Play is coming soon to the PC

The PlayStation Blog says that PS4 Remote Play—which is like Xbox One game streaming for Windows 10—is coming soon to the PC.

We’re bringing PS4 Remote Play to Windows PC and Mac. This feature won’t be available to test in the beta, but you can look forward to it soon.

I guess it’s available in beta now in the next major PS4 system software update, version 3.50 (codenamed MUSASHI).

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