Microsoft Incorporates Music and Video in Windows 8
By Karla Robinson
October 30, 2012
October 30, 2012
- Microsoft has been making moves to compete with Amazon and Apple in multimedia content, redesigning and ramping up its music and video offerings.
- “The evolution of Music and Video begins up front, where the apps have shed their Zune branding. Instead, Microsoft chose to reuse the Xbox brand, as the company moves to expand the scope of the Xbox name from gaming to all media and entertainment,” Ars Technica writes.
- At first glance, the Xbox Music and Video applications are very similar. “In both apps, the first/main screen is dominated by Microsoft’s attempts to sell to you,” the post states, introducing a reoccurring theme in Microsoft’s multimedia offerings. “Users are greeted by a mix of promotional areas that highlight ‘hot’ artists or movies, and entryways into the music, movie, and TV stores. Your own media are hidden out of view to the left.”
- Browsing your own content in the apps is difficult. For video, there are a bunch of unscalable thumbnails and faulty filters that make searching difficult; for music, the spreadsheet layout is “extraordinarily slow” and lacks a “fast scroll” mechanism like an alphabetical sidebar.
- “One smart feature: when Music is playing, the volume popup that appears when you use the hardware volume keys also includes playback controls and album art. It’s a nice touch,” the post states. “One not at all smart feature: the play/pause key on keyboards with media keys doesn’t control playback of the Music app. Want to quickly pause playback to take a phone call? You’ll have to go into the app to do it.”
- Ars Technica also details Microsoft’s Pandora competitor: “Xbox Music offers free streaming of a claimed 30 million songs available through the service. The streaming is free and unlimited, albeit ad-supported, for six months. After six months, you’ll be restricted to 10 hours a month.”
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The article concludes that the Music and Video apps are “bare bones” but they work. However, “Microsoft explicitly promotes the use of media from other sources, claiming you can ‘Easily manage and play all of the music from your collection right in the Xbox Music app, including songs purchased from iTunes or other services, playlists created with Xbox Music, or albums ripped from CDs.’ This just isn’t true in the current incarnation of the app.”
The article concludes that the Music and Video apps are “bare bones” but they work. However, “Microsoft explicitly promotes the use of media from other sources, claiming you can ‘Easily manage and play all of the music from your collection right in the Xbox Music app, including songs purchased from iTunes or other services, playlists created with Xbox Music, or albums ripped from CDs.’ This just isn’t true in the current incarnation of the app.”
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