Technology News

San Francisco - When Microsoft launched the first Xbox is almost a decade, analysts considered the effort and losing money to be a kind of Trojan horse in the show: an attempt to become a home media center center.

Now, Microsoft is facing a covert aggression Apple, Google, Samsung Electronics, and the creation of companies like Roku and Boxee. All of them are struggling to fill holes in Internet video on the big screen with the hardware that makes it easy to view on demand.

Microsoft and Sony, which makes the PlayStation, seeking to enhance their video offerings on the Internet before the new challengers to capture the home entertainment market which have been in cultivation for many years with their systems.

Sony plans to develop a new version of its video download service for PlayStation 3 on Tuesday. People who subscribe to the PlayStation also be able to download a summary, and from October 11, all owners of the console games you can download the application from the home screen in the same way they can get from Netflix .

Stylish Video Unlimited is a large text, and the artwork for movies and television shows. The overall design is very similar to Metro Style Microsoft uses Windows Mobile 7 and Windows 8

Video Unlimited will send a new proprietary search interface that works well with the arrow keys on the remote control, which typically do not have keyboards, and the system suggests the results of a user - just like the Google search results predictive. Just navigate menus, the app often make recommendations for movies and the like.

"We want you to be able to search and navigate in a nonlinear way," said Michael Aragon, vice president of Sony Entertainment Network, in an interview. "We want people to get lost in the experience."

The company is renaming its suite of multimedia Qriocity, which includes a subscription music and video store. Music Unlimited and Unlimited live video under the umbrella of Sony Entertainment Network, and, finally, may be accompanied by the PlayStation Network, said Aragon.

For now, the PlayStation store network will continue to offer the same unlimited video programming that has to satisfy the customers familiar with media buying through existing stores.

Music Unlimited store and the PlayStation Network will be revised later, Aragon said. The music service has about 750,000 active users, and about 100,000 to pay for access, he said.

Couch potatoes waiting to start immediately, but the video of unlimited a la carte downloads do not do this at the time of the PlayStation. This works for Sony Blu-ray, which have the application installed, it is coming to PlayStation, Aragon said.

Redesigned for the video service from Sony is becoming a set-top boxes and televisions Bravia in the coming months, Aragon said. Sony tablet which is set to debut early next month, is an unrestricted version of the video and the iPhone App finally include the ability to watch videos online, he said.

With Web services, Sony hopes to leave behind the mistakes of earlier this year, resulting in a long-term failure for your network. A reminder of the broken recently when Sony has asked its users to give up your right to file lawsuits. In the interview, Aragon boasted that Sony has added 3 million accounts and use has increased more than 10% since the accident.

But Sony's distribution network has more than its own past mistakes care of itself over time. Google has developed an unwavering in the Google TV platform, the Sony installation of some of its products. Some of the signs within the supply chain that Apple is preparing a television. Samsung is pushing its Smart TV.

Even with a capacity of more TVs with the Internet group, the market for set-top boxes is expected to grow 14% this year to 21 million units sold, according to market research firm In-Stat.

Microsoft, Sony, feel the heat and continue to advance beyond the Xbox games.

"Xbox is to become the center of your living room," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a conference in January. "Is your game system is to movies, television experience."

Steve Ballmer has expanded on this concept in a presentation at its developer conference last month. Microsoft plans to launch a new video on demand and television services for Xbox Live, in collaboration with dozens of media companies, he said. There is already a channel ESPN for Xbox Live subscribers.

While Sony is optimizing its platform for remote controls with single search function, Microsoft is promoting the Kinect, with a microphone and a camera to detect motion, as the device to navigate video content. Microsoft has refused to issue an executive to be interviewed.

"Sure, we all know the frustrations of using the menus and the guides and drivers, and we think a better way to do this is simply to make Bing and talk with Xbox," Ballmer said last month. "You say that the Xbox can be found."

With Zune Pass, and video applications limited Xbox, Microsoft has taken advantage of subscription models. It is unclear how the new Xbox will be packed.

Nintendo has been testing the waters in 3-D media delivery through your hand 3DS. The Wii is not considered a center of the media, although they may have access to Netflix.

Netflix has about 24 million subscribers, and game consoles were a people the privilege of receiving the service. Sony card favors "Netflix model," said Aragon, since they can offer new movies in the vicinity when they are released on Blu-ray. "If you want to subscriptions, you can not have new content," he said.

Sony is planning to offer a subscription service catering to young people, which include animated movies, Aragon said. "PlayStation is so strong ties with the gamer market," he said.

Subscriptions are growing, as evidenced by the success of Netflix in partnership with Amazon.com 's 20th Century Fox announced on Monday, the instant video service. Microsoft and Sony wants to sell the media, not just the hardware that plays them. But if your game consoles were actually home entertainment Trojan horses, time is running out for them from his surprise, in the spring.