E3 Xbox Announcements

Microsoft announced several things at the opening keynote for the 2011 E3 conference and in a release.  Personally, I am interested in some of the announcements:

1. Xbox Live Cloud Storage


2. Integrated search


3. Live TV features

Xbox Live Cloud Storage

With Xbox Live Cloud Storage, you should be able to keep your profile, and some game saves on the Xbox Live servers.  This should allow you to go to any network connected Xbox, and log into your profile.  This is better than the Gamertag recovery that you have to go through now.  For users that choose to keep their profile online, I wonder what happens if the user tries to use the account when they aren't online.

Integrated Search

I have mentioned before that it is hard to find a particular piece of content that you are interested in, especially with the  various content provider.  For example, if my kids wants to watch a movie, I currently look on Netflix, then Hulu, then in the Zune Marketplace.  The new integrated search should make this easier.

Live TV

Microsoft is supposed to be providing access to live TV content. I don't know which content partner they will be working with, but I am more interested in how open they allow this to be.  For example, I want to be able to plug in the following sources into my Xbox

• UPnP ATSC tuners


• Windows Media Centers

Microsoft was promoting Kinect control of the Live TV experience.  I hope that they also improve the experience when using an Xbox media remote control.  This would reduce the barrier for switching to the Xbox in our house.

L.A. Noire

I just finished the main story in L.A. Noire this week.  This is a great game.  I have liked other Rockstar games like GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption, and L.A. Noire has some of the same qualities.  The main thing that I like about these games is the story in the games.   With each of these games, I want to continue playing to find out what happens in the store.  Also, each of these games have worlds that are great to explore.

L.A. Noire is not as much of an open world game as GTA4 or Red Dead Redemption.  While playing the game, you can either work on the main case, or respond to various street crimes.  You can also find various things hidden around the map.  The fact that L.A. Noire isn't as much of an open world game isn't a negative for the game.  In fact, it works well, as it keep the player more focused on the main story.

Backupify

Backupify is a service that allows you to backup the data in many online services.  A couple of months ago, I tried the 30 day free trial for the service, but I decided not to continue after the free trial.  I figured that I didn't need to backup my data, as the various services back up the data.

About a month later, my wife mentioned that she was missing some contacts from her address book.  This is the perfect situation that Backupify solves.  If I had set up Backupify for our domain, we would have been able to restore the contacts from the backup.

Once I upgraded my account, I was easily able to add my wife's account, and have it backed up. I had more trouble with my account through.  Since there was a period between when I used the free trial, and when I upgraded the account, the authorizatiokn tokens had expired or had been revoked.  Unfortunately, there isn't a way to manually reauthorize access for Backupify.  Working with Backupify's support, I was able to get things working.

There are several things that I would like to see added to Backupify's service:

1. Ability to backup WordPress blogs


2. For the Backupify Pro plans, it would be good to have the option to allow the other Google Apps users to backup their Social Media services


3. When restoring data, it would be nice to be able to search through the archives to find he particular entry that you are looking to restore.

Hands-free call volume with KVT-516

A few months ago, we replaced the head unit in our car with a Kenwood KVT-516.  One problem that we have been having is that the in call volume is too low for phone calls.  We would need to turn up the volume to hear the caller.  Unfortunately, this would affect the volume of music, which would be pretty loud at the end of the call.

It looks like the latest firmware update solves this problem.  Now the KVT-516 has separate volume settings for hands-free calls, and other audio sources.

Squeezebox for Android

I have used several third-party applications for to control my Squeezebox radios from my phones.  They each have varying support for the different Squeezebox applications.

It looks like Logitech released their own controller application for Android.  This is one of the nicest applications for controlling Squeezebox players.  If you have configured applications, you can play content from them.

I do wish that you could add or change alarms from the application.

ADW.Launcher

I was looking at trying an alternate launcher for my phone.  At first, I took at a look at Launcher Pro, but it requires more permissions than I am comfortable granting for an application launcher.  For example, it requests permission for read and write access to my email.  I am sure that this is required for a Gmail widget, but since I wouldn't use this widget, and Launcher Pro also has network access, there is a potential for my data to leave the phone.

Instead, it looks like ADW.Launcher does everything that I want in a launcher, without requesting too many permissions.  It also has some interesting features:

• Support for themes


• Customizable dock bar and application drawer


• Support for different sizes for widgets

The main thing I like about it is that it doesn' t request too many permissions, so there is less of a security concern.

GameFly

There are many video games that I am really interested in the single player campaign, and I that I only play once.  Often, I end up paying $60 for the game, and selling it back to GameStop after playing it for a month.  Since GameStop doesn't pay that much when buying used games, playing the game for a month often costs about $40.

Since there are only a few games that I play for a long time, I figured I would try GameFly.  GameFly is essentially a Netflix for video games.  You add video games to your queue, and they send you the games as they become available.  When you are done with the games, you can just put them back in the envelope and drop it back in the mail, and the next available game on your queue will be sent.

With the demand for more recent games, it is hard to get the newest games through GameFly.  But if you want a game that came out in the past 6 months, it shouldn't be a problem to get it.

If you are interested in trying it, GameFly has an offer, where you can get a month free.