In November, Microsoft and 21Vianet announced that they were working together to bring Azure, a infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service product, to China. Today the firms stated that the service will go live on June 6th.

21Vianet, a Chinese company, claims that it is the “largest carrier-neutral Internet data center services provider” in the country, making it a sensical fit for Microsoft.

21Vianet has 81 data centers in 42 cities in China, meaning that it can serve Azure effectively in the country. Microsoft previously estimated that the number of firms that could use Azure in China is in the “millions.”

And, a key point: It is something of an early mover in the country. Amazon’s AWS suite of cloud products that compete with Azure have a data center in Singapore, and has a minor presence in Hong Kong.

The Azure-21Vianet has a hardware and scale advantage. It’s worth nothing, of course, that Amazon’s AWS services enjoy more market and mind share in most of the world, most notably in the United States. Still, China is a massive market, which could help Microsoft untip the current market facts.

Azure recently announced that its revenues had reached a run rate of $1 billion per year. Azure also recently announced that it is heading to Australia.

A short take on how seriously Microsoft takes Azure’s move to China: They sent Steve Ballmer, and the US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, was on hand at the launch event. This is a big-dollar deal.

Final caveat: Given the public issues regarding cybersecurtiy and hacking, Azure in China could be a sensitive affair; if there is even a whiff of government interference, Microsoft could lose brand equity in other regions; the Chinese Internet market is in some ways unique, both positive and negative. Let’s hope that when it comes to data security, and government non-intervention, Microsoft has its path straight.

Top Image Credit: futureatlas.com

Today at an event in Redmond, Microsoft revealed the new Xbox One console. In addition, it provided backstage tours with looks at new components like the freshly updated Kinect sensor.

This new Kinect is superior to the old one on just about every metric. Not only is it more compact, it’s also far more sensitive, with a 1080p RGB camera and an active infrared system that allows for precise tracking even in low-to-no light situations.

I was able to test the device out in a room with a bunch of other press types and the demonstrations were suitably impressive. First, we were shown how improved the depth graph of the Kinect is. This allows for precise placement of people in a room, as well as much better tracking of extremities, like fingers. The demo, which displayed our figures on the screen looking like cast pewter puppets, clearly showed fingers waving and had no trouble defining detailed objects like my badge.

The field of view is 60% better than the last generation, and allows for six ‘skeletons’ to fit in the frame at once. it allows for the sensor to be used in smaller rooms as well, because people can get closer. The minimum object threshold is 2.5x better, allowing the use of fingers and hands more accurately.

The new Kinect has an active IR system for the first time, allowing the Xbox to identify you using the new ‘time of flight’ sensor. The new sensor captures more data, more accurate data across a larger field of view than the older version. The ‘time of flight’ measurement is the time it takes light to get to an object and back. This helps the Kinect correct for latency and produce more accurate results.

The new Kinect is also so accurate that it can pinpoint not just joints but also joint rotations. This allows it to see which direction you’re bending an arm, for instance. Going a step further, it can now track muscle tension based on body models. This means that it can interpret the amount of force being applied to both your body and say, a surface like the floor.

This also allows Kinect to track the speed and violence of movements like punches and kicks. The audio capabilities of the new Kinect were also demonstrated, showing how it could filter out a crush of game and room noise to pick out voice commands.

In a mind blowing demo, the Kinect then switched to a mode in which it monitored the heart rate of a person standing in front of it using the color cameras to measure how flush the skin was and the infrared cameras to track blood flow underneath the skin. This could ostensibly allow a developer to determine whether a user was scared, or even lying, and could also have health monitoring implications.

Then things started to get super freaky. A demo was run that showed the faces of people standing in front of the sensor. The Kinect was able to not only detect which controllers they were holding (player 1, player 2 etc), but also exactly who they were and whether they were happy, sad or neutral. This was done using imagery of the face to see whether they were smiling or frowning. It was pretty wild.

Though the demo was short, it was undoubtedly impressive. This new Kinect is vastly more sensitive than the previous model, which sometimes took a lot of arm flailing to boost into gear. We’ll have to see how it actually works with games once Microsoft gets around to demonstrating them.

Hours following the reveal of Microsoft’s latest Xbox game console, the company has set up a notification system on the Xbox One website to alert people when it’s time to place your pre-order.

Now before you get too excited, it’s important to note that while the specifications of the Xbox One are known, two important items remain shrouded in mystery: its cost and when exactly the console will be available.

If you’re interested in purchasing the Xbox One, you can go to the Microsoft store and enter in your email address to be notified when the company will begin accepting pre-orders.

To encourage people to sign-up, it is offering $10 online store credit, although it’s only valid through June 9, 2013 — which doesn’t really help in the purchase of the new game console, just for games and accessories for older hardware. This is actually a rather useless offer since Microsoft says that the Xbox One will not be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games.

For more from the Xbox One unveiling, head over here to read TNW’s coverage.

➤ Microsoft Store

The controller of the Xbox One is a refinement of the 360′s controller on pretty much every cosmetic vector. But there are also a few changes that go more than skin deep and we got a chance to chat with some of the Microsoft folks about the update.

The new controller has been slimmed along all axes, and the battery has been trimmed down to fit inside the casing. Microsoft told us that no formal specifications were currently available (or they weren’t releasing them to us at any rate), so we don’t know how that change has affected battery life.

But I can tell you that the new design has improved the grip significantly. There is more room in the center of the controller for your hands when holding it in the natural grip, and the tips of my fingers are no longer mashed up against the battery casing.

The new d-pad features the wholly discreet plus sign design we’ve come to expect from great pads like Nintendo’s. I know that Nintendo has this design pretty well nailed down when it comes to patents, so I’m sure Microsoft is either licensing or has danced around it a bit. Either way, the directions feel more discreet and the action is crisper than the current mushy stock controller.

The new controller also contains four discreet vibration motors, rather than just two in the grips, as before. The grip motors are still there, but two have been added in the triggers and they’re designed to be more precise, allowing for pressure sensitive actions and feedback that could simulate resistance.

Unfortunately, we were not able to test any games with the controller, so I can tell you nothing about the way that the d-pad actually plays or how the vibrators work in a gameplay context.

What we were able to do is play a demo which had us don headphones and handle the triggers a bit in various scenarios that demonstrated the precision and power of the new motor setup. A helicopter takes off and the blades whup in time with the pulsing of the triggers, a car stops and the ABS brakes tock the triggers in time. A fireball grows in a hand, building your controller’s vibration to a roar and releasing it in a fading blast of shudders.

Overall, the demo felt fairly impressive (if a bit sloppy still, but perhaps that refinement is still up to developers) but didn’t tell us a whole lot about how they’d perform in real life. Developers will have access to those triggers and their motors for tuning, we’ve been told.

So far, the controller looks pretty nice and feels good when you hold it, but play tests will have to come.

Today Microsoft unleashed a wave of news relating to its coming Xbox One console, from its name to a slew of hardware specs and coming gaming titles. However, the hour-long event was more taste than meal, with many questions left unanswered.

Microsoft, likely realizing that it had left more than a few key details regarding the coming console. Two of those questions were met in a self-hosted question and answer session that the company posted: Will Xbox One require a persistent Internet connection, and will it allow gamers to resell their games after they have played them?

The answers are no, and yes, happily. Microsoft had come under fire before for a rumor that its next console would only function with an Internet connection present. The notion was exceptionally unpopular among its fans and users. Now, to the answers:

Q: Will Xbox One allow players to trade in, purchase and play pre-owned games? 

A: We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later.

Q: Does Xbox One require an “always on” Internet connection?

A: No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet. We’re designing Xbox One to be your all-in-one entertainment system that is connected to the cloud and always ready. We are also designing it so you can play games and watch Blu-ray movies and live TV if you lose your connection.

Microsoft also explained why the Xbox One will require a Kinect device, stating that the unit is “essential and integrated part of the platform.” Also, according to the company, by having a Kinect with every One, developers can better create experiences that are harmonious for all users.

The Xbox One had a good day. Much remains ahead of it, most critically the price of the device, but for now, Microsoft has laid a good framework for its console and living room business.

Microsoft confirmed today that its new Xbox One console won’t support backwards compatibility for Xbox 360 or original Xbox titles.

Digital titles purchased through Xbox Live Arcade will also be stuck on current hardware, although the user’s Gamerscore – the overarching metric for measuring in-game achievements – will cross over to the Xbox One.

The announcement shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. The Xbox One runs on x86 architecture, which means that Xbox 360 titles simply won’t run without an awful lot of compromises and workarounds.

Before you jump ship to Sony, however, it’s the same state of affairs with the PlayStation 4. The new system, due to launch later this year, won’t be able to run PlayStation 3 games and won’t support PSN game transfers.

The Ninendo Wii U is the only so-called ‘next generation’ console to offer backward compatibility to the company’s previous hardware. The House of Mario has done this in a peculiar way, however, by offering some form of emulation that boots up with the original Wii interface.

Marc Whitten, Vice President for Xbox Live at Microsoft, confirmed the omission of backwards compatibility to The Verge: “The system is based on a different core architecture, so back-compat doesn’t really work from that perspective.”

A representative for Microsoft added in an interview with Engadget that support for the Xbox 360 would continue moving forward.

“We care very much about the investment people have made in Xbox 360 and will continue to support it with a pipeline of new games and new apps well into the future,” the spokesperson said.

Today at the Xbox event in Redmond, Washington, we got a chance to take a bit closer look at the new Xbox One, its accompanying Kinect sensor and updated controller.

The look has been significantly updated from the original 360, with a far more threatening and industrial feel. Sharp blades of vents and a mixture of matte and glossy black make it look a lot like a piece of machinery, rather than electronics. Where the (original) 360 felt light and bright, this feels dark and menacing. It’s obviously a continuation of the design scheme that was established with the updated ‘smaller’ 360.

The rear panel has a mess of ports that include (from left to right) power, HDMI out, optical out, HDMI in, two USB 3.0 ports, a proprietary Kinect port (which appears to be two USB ports mashed together), an IR out port (for controlling a cable box?) and the gigabit ethernet.

The controller has also gotten a once over, with a slimmer profile and darker look. The battery hump on the underside has been trimmed away, and now sets up into the body. The stick and button positioning remain the same, but the colored gems are now higher contrast, with letters that jump out.

The new Kinect sensor is very boxy, with a big eye on one end and the Xbox badge on the other. The larger oval is the camera, and the IR sensor is behind the faceplate. It’s also far lower profile now, with a squat stand that appears to allow for less articulation. This is likely due to the wider angle camera, which doesn’t require that you adjust it as much in order to pick up people that are closer and further away, or at the edges of a room.

Today at the #XboxReveal event, the Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer was played, releasing it to the world. The game represents a new direction for the Call of Duty franchise, which has produced a number of best-selling console titles.

The trailer was immediately posted online. Given that the fidelity of the livestream provided by Microsoft of its Xbox event was poor, the clip is worth watching in appropriate definition.

Gamer or not, it’s culturally important to know where gaming is headed. This is the future:

For more from the event that saw the Xbox One unveiled in a number of ways – but not price – head here.

Today at its #XboxReveal event, Microsoft announced that it has partnered with the National Football League (NFL) to bring its sporting content to its coming Xbox One console.

However, simply watching the games isn’t all that Microsoft is adding to its coming console. What it calls “exclusive content” will be added as well, and deep fantasy football integration. Given the new “snap” interface – akin to Windows 8′s function – will allow users to pin their fantasy football team to the side of their screen, as they watch the real game.

As their picked players play, the user’s fantasy football statistics and scores will live-update. Given Microsoft’s coming Skype integration for Xbox One, you will be able to call up and harangue your friends, after your fantasy team spanks theirs.

The NFL partnership with Microsoft underscores that the console is hardly a niche device; not built for gamers living in a basement, in other words. The NFL deal may also help the Xbox line cross further into the mainstream.

For all of TNW”s Xbox One coverage, head here. As an early final note: Reaction to the Xbox One has thus far been positive. Unlike Sony’s blisteringly bad Playstation 4 event, Microsoft is meeting expectations.

Today, during an event in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft announced a live action Halo series created with Steven Spielberg.

“The Halo series is an…opportunity to be at that intersection where technology and mythmaking meet,” said Spielberg in a brief statement. There was no word on whether the series would be exclusive, but the word ‘premium’ was used, indicating that it’s a for-pay item. We’d imagine that it will at the very least debut on Xbox.