June 23 , 2007. Microsoft Initiatives.

Microsoft sure has grown. They're moving beyond just software. Well, they've been doing that since the original Xbox. But now, it's all about the hardware. We'll look at a few Microsoft Initiatives, both hardware and software and give our opinion. Because you know, we hope Microsoft gives us some of this stuff to test. And our boss says he won't pay for any of this stuff so we'd better find a way of getting it for free.

So we'll start with Club Live. You can read more about it here. Basically, Microsoft is tired of getting like 5 percent market share for searches and generally being laughed at by Google and Yahoo. So they figured that if they can get people to use their search engine by letting them play games and win prizes, they can get a whole lot of hits. It's a good idea. We can't wait for Google to give away free stuff too!

This is the Zune, a portable media player that basically sucks. Its got wireless that doesn't work with anything but another Zune. And even then, you can only share songs that last a few days before it disappears. Worse yet, the Microsoft music shop is lacking any popular music. You have to go to iTunes which doesn't work with the Zune. And there's more, the Zune wheel doesn't work. All you really get is a bigger screen and the built-in radio. We hear Microsoft is turning the Zune into a handheld game device.

Microsoft introduced MSN video, which will probably be renamed to give it a Youtube-like hip name. This is obviously Microsoft's attempt at competing with Youtube. And it's kinda like Youtube, if Youtube was overflowing with corporate crap.

We have to mention Vista. Not just because it's the latest OS, but because Microsoft is pushing an Xbox Live for the PC, which is only on Vista. And don't forget the latest version of DX is only on Vista. Our assesment of Vista is that it's pretty good, except for driver problems. But those are the manufacturer's fault.

And last is the Xbox 360. The 360 is even a bigger success than the Xbox having sold almost ten million units since it was introduced. There are so many great games for it. We won't give you the details because you know, this whole site is dedicated to the 360. And it comes in black now, which we will review probably next week when we can steal, we mean borrow and not give back, the Xbox Elite.