I, Cringely On A Momentous Week

rocketjam writes "Robert X. Cringley offers his take on three recent high-tech occurrences, saying they add up to an 'inflection point' that will change the landscape of the personal computer, video game, and electronic entertainment businesses forever. He briefly points out that Bill Gates' revelation that the next-gen XBox will offer music and movie playing capabilities as well as web-surfing will put MS into direct competition with its hardware OEM customers. He also touches on Yahoo's new music service and Apple's rumored movie download service. The meat of the article though is his take on the significance of Google's Web Accelerator. He says, 'If surfing can be doubled in speed for nothing, of course nearly everyone will go for it', the upshot of which is that AOL, MSN and Earthlink lose their relevancy. From this point more speculation on the implications of Google's success in this endeavor ensues."

Re:3.2 GHz PowerPC Xbox? Has APPLE heard of that?

[RatPh!nk]

Just remember there are many PowerPC processors [ibm.com] and cores [ibm.com] that IBM makes. This is a "custom" fabbed chip for Microsoft with a (3) VMX unit(s) attached. This is not a Power4, Power5, or 970/FX/GX or like chips. Also, has pricing for XBox live has not been announced, but $300USD seems right.

But it sure would be nice to have >3GHz G5's or dual cores....or dual/dual...or ...

Re:3.2 GHz PowerPC Xbox? Has APPLE heard of that?

[UnknowingFool]

If a $300 Xbox360 has a triple-core 3.2 GHz PowerPC in it, I would say this is really just MORE proof that Apple has been ripping people off for years by putting out underpowered computers to save a few bucks and then jacking up the price.

First, it's a multi-core 3.2GHz PowerPC based cell controller not a PowerPC CPU in the classical sense. Sony also has abandoned the CPU design in favor of multi-cell design for PS3. Second, the later something is designed, the newer it's components can be. Third, it's may not be up to Apple. Apple has always been at the mercy of its suppliers. Motorola could not provide enough G4 chips for the PowerMac a few years ago. Hence, they dumped Motorola when they decided to develop the G5. When IBM comes out with a 3GHz PowerPC CPU that Apple can use and Apple doesn't use it, then you might have a point.

These aren't the PowerPCs Apple uses

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple uses G5s. The XBox PPC cores are PPEs which are much simpler and not terribly appropriate for general computing use

Web Accelerator is no big news, folks

[KillerBob]

It's a proxy server with server-side compression. Plain and simple. That's all it does. One of my former ISP's was doing this years ago, and it wasn't that great.

http://webaccelerator.google.com/support.html#basi cs2 [google.com]

Revolutionary, it is not.

Web Accelerator Stalled

[r2q2]

Its interesting to note that google has disabled more people from using their new service. They state on their site http://webaccelerator.google.com/ [google.com] that they have reached maximum capacity.

Re:More on XBOX 360.

[grub]

Man, you're an idiot. NDA generally applies to contractors, not employees.

I've signed several NDAs as an employee which are still binding. No more or less as I've signed as a contractor/consultant.

Competes with PC? I think not!

[korielgraculus]

Has Cringely even read the released information about the XBox 360? It will stream video and audio FROM A PC! How exactly is this competing with PC manufacturers? To get the most out of the system you will need a PC running ... wait for it ... Windows Media Center! What MS seems to be saying is that the future of the home PC (as far as they are concerned) is tied up with Media Center. The XBox 360 is an extension of a PC system, not a replacement.