Microsoft astounded the tech world Thursday - and stormy a couple of journalistic feathers - when it voiced a product-unveiling eventuality with usually 4 days observe . The invitation's denunciation was absurdly scarce in detail, inspiring a clarity of poser and anticipation, but moreover convincing reporters to inquire either a craft outing to Los Angeles was vital to see the splendid phenomenon of, well, who knows what.
Indeed, Microsoft's eventuality call in didn't supply many clues, over this near-meaningless advisory: "This will be a leading Microsoft statement - you will not wish to skip it."
Yet Wired will be there, as our oddity is right away entirely piqued. Alexandra Chang will be casing the eventuality from Los Angeles starting at 3:30 p.m. Pacific (6:30 p.m. Eastern) today. Follow along as Microsoft shares its latest, uh, "major announcement" with the masses.
Until then, let's encumber what Microsoft might have up its sleeve.
First off, the eventuality is in Los Angeles. This isn't precisely the tech funds of the world, but it is our universal entertainment capital, so you have to design that something about the statement is Hollywood-related.
To irritate the press armed forces even further, Microsoft refused to share the place of the eventuality until Monday sunrise at 10 a.m. This is a problem, as Los Angeles is not San Francisco or New York - the locale is the clarification of sprawl. So if you were a contributor who arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday, you had to take your chances on a road house location, and hope your lodgings were shut to the event.
Well, right on evidence at 10 a.m., Microsoft voiced that the eventuality would be hold at Milk Studios , located at the dilemma of Santa Monica Blvd. and Cahuenga Blvd. This is nearby Paramount Studios and the Hollywood Forever burial ground - that reinforces conjecture that the eventuality is media-focused. Or someway relates to zombies.
The eventuality itself is believed to be the rising indicate for a Microsoft inscription , according to TechCrunch's unnamed sources. If the rumored inscription is complicated on media smoothness around rumored Xbox Live streaming, the Los Angeles place obviously creates sense. Studio heads admire a home-field value to share their content.
The Xbox Live service has undergone a media rebirth lately, with the service rising Comcast and HBOGO video-on-demand apps. Of course, the console has had media core capabilities from day one, and the Netflix app has been existing on Xbox Live for years. But violation from the console, and streaming all this Xbox Live calm to a tablet, could be a really engaging growth for people who've already paid for in to Microsoft's streaming ecosystem.
There have moreover been rumors that Microsoft's new investment in Barnes Noble will fool around a segment in to today's announcement. The $300 million investment gives Microsoft a 17.6 percent interest in the book seller's e-reader company. So, if Microsoft were to let go a inscription with any arrange of e-reader capabilities, it would make clarity for Barnes Noble to be segment of that event.
But alas, according to Dow Jones, Barnes and Noble will not be participating in today's event. And a orator is to book seller fixed with Business Insider that BN isn't creation any announcements currently .
A last-minute gossip from a site called shifted2u.com involves a press let go for a product called Xbox Surface. The let go sum two pieces of hardware - a Tablet Computing Device and a Stationary Computing Device. If the headlines is legit, the inscription will liner with a 7-inch, 1280×720 touch shade with a law IBM engine for "scale-out workloads" and a little 288MB - that's right, megabytes - of RLDRAM.
The "Stationary Computing Device" will be powered by two IBM Power7 SCMs with 6 active cores. Fun fact: IBM Power7 chips are IBM's high-end server chips . Imagine that, a high-end server estimate workloads in your living room. The network will moreover obtain 5GB of LRDIMM RAM. This is extraordinary since that you can usually purchase 16GB LRDIMM RAM modules, and that 5GB is an unusual number is to amount of RAM on any device.
The topping on the baked sweat bread is the inclusion of a 250GB, 10,000rpm 2.5-inch SCSI drive. Finally, SCSI is creation a comeback.
If Microsoft unveils a inscription today, it would spot the company's initial incursion in to branded, Windows-running P.C. hardware. Sure, the firm has a abounding story in production P.C. mice, but currently the the Xbox is the usually square of Microsoft hardware that's scored equally to Microsoft software. Direct computer/software formation has worked marvelously for Apple - and right away it could work for Microsoft too.
Oddly, Microsoft is moreover keeping a Windows Phone-related eventuality in San Francisco on Wednesday . For reporters who cover the company, it's a visit navigator miles excavation - presumption their editors are peaceful to send reporters up and down California.
But the timing moreover begs a couple of questions: Why couldn't Microsoft just have a event? The Wednesday eventuality was already scheduled, so because increase a second eventuality hundreds of miles away? Does a new inscription really clear boring everybody to LA? We'll know shortly enough. But if Microsoft uses today's eventuality to publicize its Yammer merger , be ready for a huge, combined plaint from the press corps, and a lot of really upset reporters watchful for their flights home in LAX.
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