Entries tagged with seattle - Channel 10

Rock Band 2 coming this September

Tina Wood — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:28:00 GMT

Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game company in the world, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks along with marketing and distribution partner Electronic Arts are taking the groundbreaking music platform that forever changed the face of music video games to the next level this September with the release of Rock Band 2. With the original providing millions of players a new way to interact with the music and artists they love, Rock Band 2 is the next evolution of the franchise that redefined the standard for music games.

Rock Band is the groundbreaking platform that allows music fans and gamers to interact with music like never before - challenging players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune while learning to master lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals.

Rock Band 2 builds upon its foundation as the first music game to introduce co-operative band gameplay, multiple instruments, a robust online multiplayer experience, an unrivaled offering of downloadable content and raises the bar by delivering an entirely new level of depth, connectivity, authenticity and features including:

Backwards compatibility with Rock Band downloadable music content. All previously purchased tracks will immediately load into your Rock Band 2 song list. No need to re-purchase or re-download.
The biggest and most diverse soundtrack ever featuring some of rock’s most prolific acts, comprised entirely of master recordings.
Major new and dynamic online modes that will connect the entire Rock Band community in more ways than ever before both locally and globally.
More variety of instrument choices than ever before with new and improved drum and guitar peripherals, enhanced functionality and innovative new designs - all fully compatible with the original Rock Band instruments.
And much more.

"As successful as the original Rock Band continues to be, we've now had the benefit of the last eight months to listen to our fans' requests and to build upon that foundation," said Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix. "Rock Band 2 is a second-generation band game that will elevate the music game experience to the next level."

Rock Band 2 will make its debut on Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft this September and have an exclusive launch window in North America. Rock Band 2 will be available for additional platforms later this year.

“We expect Rock Band 2 to continue to drive an amazing social music experience on Xbox 360, said David Hufford, senior director, Xbox Product Management for the Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft. “We look forward to supporting Rock Band 2 on Xbox 360 as gamers continue to download hundreds of new music tracks from Xbox LIVE so they and their friends can perform the rock music they love most.

More details regarding features and music for Rock Band 2 will be revealed at the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit. Rock Band, the first installment in the franchise, garnered more than 40 awards including Game Critics Award: Best of Show E3 2007.

In addition, Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that The Rock Band online music store recently surpassed 15 million paid downloads since the game’s launch in late November 2007. With more than 200 tracks available to date via download purchase (complete list of tracks at http://www.rockband.com/dlc), the massive Rock Band Music Store allows players to preview and purchase downloadable individual music tracks, packs and albums from the vast selection of offerings available as they build their own custom Rock Band library.

Rock Band 2 is rated “T” for Teen (lyrics, mild suggestive themes) by the ESRB.

For more information on Rock Band and Harmonix Music Systems please visit www.rockband.com and www.harmonixmusic.com.

NBA Live Chooses 2009 Cover Athlete

Tina Wood — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:24:00 GMT

We know the curse of being the cover boy for Madden but gracing the cover of NBA Live hasn't proven to be such a BAD career move. The cover athlete and spokesman for NBA Live in the UK is Chicago Bulls forward - Luol Deng. Deng, raised in the UK from 1993, has played in the NBA for three years and is a vital part of the Great Britain national team. This is the first time the UK has worked with a local athlete and highlights the continued growth of the NBA in Europe.

Deng is joined by some of the NBA’s biggest international stars on packaging around the world, including Los Angeles Lakers Pau Gasol (Spain) and Toronto Raptors Andrea Bargnani (Italy).

For the TOP SPOT San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker will be the cover athlete and spokesman for NBA LIVE 09 globally. In his seven NBA seasons, the 26 year old is a two-time NBA All-Star, has three NBA championships and was named the 2007 NBA Finals MVP. Parker will be the first European born (France) global cover athlete of NBA LIVE. Off the court, Parker is an avid gamer and won an NBA LIVE 08 tournament against fellow NBA stars at the EA SPORTS All-Star Challenge last February in New Orleans.

NBA LIVE 09 is back with new features like Pick and Roll Control, Defensive Lockdown Control, Signature Playcalling and Quickstrike Ankle-Breakers that will make the NBA LIVE experience fun from beginning to end. For those in need of some extra coaching, NBA LIVE 09 takes you to training camp with the NBA Academy that gives you a chance to hone your skills.

Now featuring 24 authentic FIBA teams with realistic team play styles and rosters, NBA LIVE 09 features a FIBA World Championship Mode using FIBA tournament structure, rules and court dimensions. Take your game online with 5 vs.5 team play, where 10 people can play together on 10 different consoles around the world.

NBA Live 09 is coming to the Xbox 360 this October.

Office Labs: Project "Community Clips"

Tina Wood — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:31:00 GMT

Community Clips is a portal for viewing, sharing, and discussing informal "how-to" videos (screencasts) on Microsoft Office products. It also includes a client application for easy recording of screen views and voice.

How to: Shoot and Edit a Time-Lapse Video

Tina Wood — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:00:00 GMT

We see it all the time. The passing of the night sky in an episode of "Survivor". The quick steps of pedestrians making their way through a crowded street corner. I've been asked by a few poeple about shooting Time-Lapse video, and just for the record I'm no expert but I can tell you how I shot and edited this video.

First, I wanted to film something that had an ending. It doesn't have to have an ending but I find it more interesting. So I threw some birthday candles in a skinny cow ice cream sandwich. With the knowledge that both the candles and ice cream sandwich would eventually melt and thus, giving me an ending. I mounted my Panasonic DVX100B camera onto a tripod and set up my shot against some tile in my kitchen. You want your shot to be as still as possible so I suggest either using a tri-pod or set your camera on a pile of books or something else flat.

I lit the candles and then recorded the candles and ice cream melting in a normal speed. It took roughly 30 minutes for both of them to melt.

Almost all digital video cameras have the ability to do an interval recording. And this is the most common way of shooting a Time-Lapse because who wants to sit at there camera for two days and watch a flower bloom while switching tapes and batteries. You might record every 20-30 seconds and record up to 2-3 seconds of video each time. I didn't need to do this for this piece because it was so short to begin with.

I then imported the footage into Premiere Pro 2.0 because that is what I use to edit.

I then brought my footage into the time-line. Then I right clicked the clip I wanted to speed up and then I chose speed/duration...I then chose to speed up the footage by 7000 percent. I tried many different numbers but this particular percentage seemed to have the best effect.

I then went to soundrangers.com and searched for a tune that set up the melodramatic vibe I was going for.   Once I found it, I then imported the MP3 into the video. I then exported the entire movie and there you have it. A thirty-seven second movie that tells a story. Time-Lapse style.

I've never shot a true time-lapse using a still camera, but Nic Fillingham is our resident digital camera expert so maybe he can give us a quick tip on how to do it.

If you have any other tips or I missed something feel free to chime in.

See the Windows Mobility Smackdown at TechReady 6 on Channel 8

Max Zuckerman — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:31:00 GMT

From Channel 8:

Every 6 months, Microsoft holds an internal-only conference called TechReady for our technical team in the field. It's an amazing convergence of people from all over the world coming together to learn about our technologies directly from the product teams as well as to give feedback about what customers are saying. In fact, it is not uncommon to see a product manager and a technology specialist getting into a heated debate about what's working, what's not, and where things should go in the future.

Although this is usually for-Microsoft-eyes-only, I managed to get you guys a sneak peek at one of the most highly anticipated sessions every year: the Windows Mobility Smackdown! This draws a huge crowd that literally lines up an hour before the session starts just to get a seat at all... and man do people go nuts for this one. The product team unveils some of the coolest Windows Mobile features, literally throws prizes into the crowd, and some lucky few walk away with a brand spankin' new Windows Mobile device.

Check out the video over on Channel 8.

A great video blogger...Wine Library TV

Tina Wood — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:18:00 GMT

Every once in a while you come across a video blogger that really catches your attention. A collegue of mine Loke Uei Tan invited wine video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk to Redmond to attend an MS Mobile event. Gary runs a daily wine blog and even if you don't care anything about Cab's or Syrahs Gary is a great example of a great video blogger. He is absolutely passionate about his topic, he's enthusiastic and he gets right to the point. Check out a little bit from Gary's blog and then grab a snack, put your feet up and listen to Gary's story courtesy of Loke.

How To - The creation of an Imagine Cup video

Tina Wood — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:28:00 GMT

I stopped by Worktank last week in downtown Seattle to check out the making of a really interesting Imagine Cup video. I personally have down the basics of editing but animating, not so much. Rick Wallace is the art director on the project and took some time to chat with us on how he strung the whole video together. From handdrawing the storyboards to creating movement with Adobe After Effects the entire process took him roughly six weeks. I hope you enjoy.

Why your Xbox games look so good

Tina Wood — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:00:00 GMT

I spoke with Anthony Brown from Seven Group Digital Media this weekend at the Elan Awards in Vancouver and he gave us a peek behind video game development that you may not have seen before. Long before you pop the disc in your Xbox, many games make a pass through a rendering farm, which crunches the bits and makes your games look so good. For Seven Group, Anthony has chosen Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Render Farms have always been an integral part of a game studio and now with special effects and animation becoming such a huge compute task they now require High Performance Computing (HPC). That's where Microsoft’s CCS comes in. Anthony breaks down HPC and CCS for us.

Life At Microsoft - The Truth Revealed

Tina Wood — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:18:00 GMT

People often stop me in the streets to ask "Hey Tina, what's life "really" like at Microsoft? Sometimes I can't even walk outside my house without somebody standing there with a giant neon sign that blinks "What is life "really" like at Microsoft"? Instead of answering every individual separately and so you can save your money on those neon signs. I decided to create a video that would answer that simple yet complex question. I want to throw out a special high-five to the following because without them and a lot of beer this video never would have happened.

Duncan Mackenzie, Erik Porter, Mike Sampson, Scott Davis, Grant BlahaErath, Dan Fernandez, Max Zuckerman, Adam Kinney, The Dalai Lama and Britney Spears

TN Games - Gaming Vest and Helmet

Tina Wood — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:15:00 GMT

I dropped by TN Games last week to check our their TN Games' 3rd Space™ Vest. The vest allows you to feel the impact of punches, kicks, bullets and blasts that happen to your character in the game. The vest communicates with compatible games to give precise, 3 dimensionally accurate impact where it happens, as it happens. Impacts from in front of you, you feel in the front. Impacts from behind you, you feel in the back. I also had a chance to check out the helmet which will available later this year. And if your a developer TN Games has made enabling 3rdSpace into game titles easy. A simple, yet customizable, API can be integrated into any game with minimal effort. TN Games provides game developers full support so if you want it check out their site.

Addicted to Video Games! For boys only?....hmmm

Tina Wood — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:23:00 GMT

Okay, I was perusing the internet this morning and I came across this article on ABC News.com. To summarize it, they stated: When testing the brain activity of men and women playing video games, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that the reward centers of men's brains were far more activated than those in women's brains. "These gender differences may help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become 'hooked' on video games than females," the researchers wrote in their paper. There is no doubt that I was "addicted" to the original Halo. Now, that could have had something to do with timing as well. I was working at G4 where LAN Parties and blowing each other up all day was part of my job but I played all night long when I got home. And my weekends were filled with marathon sessions in "Hang 'Em High" and "Blood Gulch". However, I do believe there are exceptions to every rule and I can say that the Original Halo is the only video game I was literally "Addicted" too. Have you ever been addicted to a video game, which one and do you agree it may be a boy thing?

Eye-Fi Wireless Memory Card

Tina Wood — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:13:00 GMT

The Eye-Fi Card is a wireless memory card. It automatically uploads pictures from your digital camera to your PC or Mac and to your favorite photo sharing, printing, blogging or social networking site. Here's why this is so great. Because you don't have to drag any wires and have access to a computer to share great pics. And it's all for under a hundred bucks. You can't take video yet with the 2GB SD card but that certainly is the future. They have over twenty partners for photo-sharing including Flickr and Windows Live. I chat with one of the founders of Eye-Fi.

Dial Keys Gen 2 - FREE beta

Tina Wood — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:41:00 GMT

DialKeys Gen2 provides Windows XP and Windows Vista touch, thumb and pen devices with an interface for text input, 2 clicks email, Geo Tagged pictures snapping, instant access to location services, and many more features. I couldn't resist sitting down, or standing up with Dial Keys to get the skinny on their newest version. Some new additions and features include the Picture Snapper Features: it transforms your UMPC into a portable camera powerhouse that has the capability of time and GPS, tagging your photos and directly paste it into an open application in three clicks. Take pictures and paste them directly into Documents (e.g. Live Writer, Word, …) Snap pictures and upload them automatically to web or ftp sites. Time and GPS stamps if enabled, are embedded in the snapped pictures. This allows you to easily organize the photos on maps or on time lines, a feature travelers and surveyors are keen on.

And like I said earlier Dial Keys Gen 2 works on XP. Not that any of you aren't running Vista but just in case you know somebody who knows somebody's cousin who has an ex-boyfriend who met Hillary Clinton once that's still running XP. Just saying, it works on XP too.

Download and Vote for your favorite Independent Video Game

Tina Wood — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Come on people, what are you waiting for? We all love FREE! Organizers of the Independent Games Festival (IGF) have launched the IGF Audience Award voting website, allowing game fans everywhere to download and play all of the eligible Main Competition finalist games who submitted a publicly playable demo, and vote for their favorite independent game of the year. Online voting is open now and continues through the day of the IGF ceremony, taking place alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards at the 2008 Game Developers Conference February 20^th. The winner of the Audience Award will be awarded a $2,500 prize, part of the $50,000 total in prizes being given as part of the IGF Main and Student Competitions. The full list of finalist games for download and voting is available at http://www.igf.com/audience.html; the full list of IGF finalists is available at http://www.igf.com.

In addition to those available to play via digital download, all finalist games will be playable at the IGF Pavilion, February 20-22, on the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Expo floor. Finalists were chosen from a record 173 entries and represent the growth of the independent games movement with innovative games of excellent quality, across various platforms. GDC, CMP Technology’s annual conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games, takes place Feb. 18-22, 2008 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Hey, if you ever want to work in the game industry...GDC is the place to be. Try to make it if you can.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2008

Tina Wood — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:50:00 GMT

In celebration of Steve Job's announcement of MacBook Air...Microsoft just released Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 yesterday. We're spreading the MAC love. The Home and Student Edition includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage 2008. Open XML file compatibility allows Macs and Windows-based computers to enjoy compatible Office-to-Office communications. Here is a quick hit of some of the features.

New Elements Gallery user interface offers easy access to the most commonly used tools and templates
Powerful OfficeArt graphics engine puts stunning visual and graphic effects at your fingertips; SmartArt graphics enable you to transform text and bulleted lists into professional diagrams with one click
Go to Entourage 2008's Project Center to manage project details, such as e-mail messages, documents, schedules and contacts, in one area
Use Word 2008's new design tools to create professional-looking cover pages and bibliographies in a snap; Dynamic Guides keep words and graphics straight and true
PowerPoint 2008's new Object Palette makes it more simple than ever to see and choose all your shapes, art, symbols and pictures; designer themes and custom designs make your presentations look sensational
Excel 2008 now supports more than 16,000 columns and more than one million rows to compile enormous amounts of data into meaningful reports and thought-provoking graphs
Also includes Messenger for Mac for communicating instantly with family, friends and colleagues

The Voice behind Halo's Guilty Spark

Tina Wood — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:05:00 GMT

Our beloved Duncan came across an interview with Tim Dadabo who is the voice behind Halo's Guilty Spark. 360 Stylecast did the interview and Tim offers a little perspective into the Halo Universe. Check out the podcast which is hosted by Avid X and Bimbo Barbie. I had an opportunity to do a little video game voice-over myself for the highly acclaimed video game JAWS UNLEASHED on the Xbox. Yea, I didn't think you played it. It got a 3.8 on gamespot. I could only play past the first level where I heard myself screaming "It's a Shark"! "Somebody help me"! "My leg, My leg"! I was too frustrated by the controls and choppy gameplay to continue, although I'm sure JAWS takes a chunk out of me in Level 2. It was a pretty cool experience regardless.

Microsoft brings Ads to shopping carts

Tina Wood — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:42:00 GMT

Okay, so you're at home and you grab a scrap piece of paper where you begin jotting down your grocery list. Eggs, Milk, Flax Seed, anti-aging cream and suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant gust of wind comes roaring through your house only to rip that grocery list you've worked so hard on right out of your hands and out of your three story window, blowing it on to the streets below to never to be seen or found again. Well never fear, grocery cart mounted consoles are here. Microsoft has teamed up with MediaCart Holdings Inc. to save you from the archaic form of scrap paper grocery lists by giving you the ability to type your shopping list into a designated website... I know crazy huh, it gets better. From there, you simply swipe your loyalty card on the MediaCart console at the grocery store and presto up comes your shopping list.

You can also scan your items and place them in your cart where the console will give you a running tally of your bill as it checks off items on your list. In case another giant gust of wind comes you don't have to worry about it blowing your calculator out of your hands either.

The system also uses radio-frequency identification to sense where the shopper's cart is in the store. The RFID data can not only help food makers understand shopping patterns, but the technology can also be used to send certain advertisements to people at certain points.

East Coasters not only get the Oscars before we do but they they will get to test the cart mounted consoles before us as well. ShopRite supermarkets will begin testing in the second half of 2008.

Politics and Blogging - Does it matter?

Tina Wood — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:28:00 GMT

I'm sitting in my living room watching the results to the New Hampshire primary and earlier this evening it was projected pretty early on that John McCain would take the top spot among the Republicans. And Hillary Clinton just finished giving her speech as the winning Democrat. I have a love for politics and the history of it, although truthfully I don't know a ton about it. I do know however that running for political office these days must be drastically strategically different then even eight years ago. With MySpace, facebook, blogs and youtube, information and therefore opinions have a significantly different way of traveling these days. The scary part is sometimes you don't know when a candidate is actually behind a site or not. I've been asked by a few people myself about my personal myspace page. I don't have a myspace page. I'm not a myspacer. But somebody has created a page and pretends to be me. Why? I have no idea. I wonder how many fake sites have been created about some of the current political candidates. About a year ago I went to listen to John Edwards speak, he came to Seattle to chat with bloggers and ask questions about blogging for his campaign this year. I respected him for doing that. Here's the link if you're interested. Anyway, there actually is a point to the post. I'm just curious how you think blogging and the internet has changed the way we look at politics? And if there was one candidate you think would be playing Xbox live, which candidate and which game?

Windows Mobile 6.0 Devices for your Shopping List

Max Zuckerman — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:52:00 GMT

Windows Mobile 6.0 was released a little under a year ago... so when I heard one of my favorite Mobile Specialists, Jason Langridge, was in the US, I had Laura Foy kidnap him in her truck and bring him to our studio for a little WM6 devices showcase.

He saw what she did to Tina, so he ~~screamed for help~~ happily complied. Smooth move, Jason.

My two favorite features he showed were the USB connect Windows Mobile 6 as a data modem (6:00) and the Windows Live Search via Speech (4:30).

This is my first on10 video, so go easy on me... also feel free to check out my stuff on Channel 8. Really, go ahead. Don't make me send Laura after you too!

a new grad's life as an almost grown-up: microsoft, laundry and life with a paycheck

ambika — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:19:00 GMT

salutations channel 10. im psyched to be posting this blog up here – the opportunity to join an interesting/varied/quirky community is awesome and I’m happy to be a part of.

a bit about me – im a recent college grad from Dartmouth College. the big green, the college on the hill, my little home in the middle of nowhere. i loved it out there - loved school, friends, even the dreadful weather. if you know any Dartmouth grads you’ll probably agree with me when I say that our loyalty runs deep, and the college is always in your heart and soul. ahhh trite perhaps but true:)

i grew up in seattle so im happy to be home. My family lives here and it holds all my childhood memories, but it is interesting to rediscover the city as a ‘grown-up’. the bar scene is not nearly as pitiful as people complain it is, and pacific northwest restaurants are awesome. i’m a big foodie and love to eat – and am finally working on the cooking part, albeit in my tiny new apartment with limited resources.. but its something.

rando facts – love the NYT, dig technology that is intuitive, am a travelling adict and spend millions of hours on social networking sites that allow me to stay in touch with people. i have a dog, am very interested in microfinance, and hope to drive a motorcycle some day soon.

i work at Microsoft as an enthusiast marketing manager – basically my job is to be here in Redmond and support our awesome Evangelists all over the world. It’s a kickass job with a lot of room for growth and dreams and learnings. so far so good..

so there’s a lot of ‘firsts’ going on in my life right now. First job, first apartment, first paycheck.. and first blog. i plan to write about my life as it is - a graduate, an employee, a 20 something, a woman, a technology enthusiast.. so as I try and get this rolling I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, suggestions, lash outs, high fives, virtual nods.. yeeaaaa just talk to me.

-new kid

Halo 3 Launch: Beyond your wildest dreams...

Laura Foy — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:13:00 GMT

I couldn't NOT go to the launch event for Halo 3 right here in Bellevue, Washington at our nearby Best Buy. Honestly, I was overwhelmed. There were hundreds of screaming Halo fans, free stuff, food, music, and PLENTY of Gamer Fuel. On top of all that excitement I got to talk to legendary football quarterback Warren Moon, Bungie community leader Brian Jarrard, Microsoft's global marketing Maestro Jeff Bell - and the man himself Bill Gates even came out to run the register on the first copy Halo 3 sold there. Plus, I got to mess with fanboys! Good Times!

Click HERE to see how the Halo 3 launch compared to the PS3 launch....

Microsoft Hardware celebrates 25 years

Laura Foy — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:53:00 GMT

Microsoft Hardware was formed in 1982 to develop a device that would help people use the company’s new word processing program.

The device was a mouse and the application was called Word, laying the foundation for a future of delivering hardware that helps people better and more easily use software.

From the original "green-eyed mouse" to groundbreaking products like the LifeCam NX-6000 and Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 (oh my gosh its so cool I need one), Microsoft Hardware has delivered exceptional mice, keyboards, communication products, and gaming gear that has changed the way the world works, plays, and connects.

I visited the Hardware department to take a tour down memory lane and get a peek into the future. Enjoy!

Quit your day job and play games!

Laura Foy — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:39:00 GMT

OK, don't REALLY quit your job- that would be just plain silly. But you can definitely start profiting from all those hours you spend playing video games. Just think about the many years your parents spent telling you games were a waste of time- well have them watch this clip and prove them wrong!

GamerScore Blog PAX-Cast

Laura Foy — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:48:00 GMT

When the Penny Arcade Expo has been all said and done, I sat down with the guys fom GamerScore Blog to get their take on things...and of course, I added my two cents :)

Microsoft struts their stuff at PAX

Laura Foy — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:00:00 GMT

When you think of big gaming conventions I'm sure you conjure up visions of E3 and GDC. I'm here to tell you that from here on out you should include the Penny Arcade Expo to that list. It felt like home to wander through the dark halls and wait patiently for my turn to play BioShock. Here's a glimpse of what Microsoft was showing off this year.