Microsoft's Handheld " Argo " Confirmed

[Promiscuous Girl]

-- Well, i guess Microsoft is joining in as well, it was only a matter of time. They seem to be playing it smart though, with no intentions to go directly after Nintendo-- as of yet anyway.

Alot of people have speculated and speculated and speculated, but Microsoft can't get away anymore. Now, American Seattle Times have gotten their hands on a document that confirms what Bloomberg said earlier, that Microsoft is going to get into the handheld war.

Their greatest competitor isn't the Nintendo DS or the PSP, instead Microsoft are aiming on taking a bit of the mp3-cake from iPod by offering a whole new service like the iTunes. The point is that Microsoft's new unit, that's using the temporary name ''Argo'' at the moment, will communicate with a built in Wi-Fi so that you can download a song even if you're on a train or at home.

Argo is being developed by J. Allard that is known the most for his performances in Microsoft's Xbox-group. That the Xbox-division is brining up the unit indicates that games will also be a big part of Argo. For example you will be able to connect to Xbox Live Marketplace no matter where you are to download new Live Arcade-games and specialmade Argo-games.

Microsoft wants Argo, Xbox 360 and the upcoming OS Windows Vista to have a lot of features linked together.

Argo, which isn't the final name, will according to the information be released this christmas already. More about the unit, prices and functions and everything else will probably be released July 27th when Microsoft have a meeting with their stockholders and will present their strategies for the future.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/10/microsofts-argo-xbox-wireless-portable-media-player/

http://www.gamerevolution.com/news/view.php?id=1642


-- Anyway's, i sure hope the final desgin looks better then that-- i'll give it a month or two after it's released before it's officially known as a failure though. I suppose Sony, Nintendo and Apple can all drink to this one and have a good laugh afterwards before getting back to their TGS preparations-- i could be wrong though.

 

[Babyboy]

.....wtf is that thing isnt that a ipod...u sure it plays games ?...impossible.:S

 

[MC]

It doesn't look like a hand-held, more like an Ipod as Babyboy said. Hopefully the current design is a concept rather than a finalized design, I mean, it doesn't look like you can do a whole lot with it.

Microsoft wants Argo, Xbox 360 and the upcoming OS Windows Vista to have a lot of features linked together.

So that means they want certain things to be similiar with all three of their products? A wonder what features they are talking about, but I don't think it has to do with the gaming department, but only time will tell.

Good find Diamond Princess, Microsoft making a hand-held was the last thing I ever expected. Hopefully it will be something worth buying.

 

[Babyboy]

i see now, so its main purpose is to play music though so this would be more fitted for the tech section. :] lets hope Microsoft will make it better.

 

[bapplebo]

I'd rather it be not just a music player. We have too many of those around atm. I'm hoping Microsoft will come up with something innovative here.

 

[Adaptus]

Microsoft is making its own iPod?

I don't think people are really waiting for something like this.

I think calling it a 'handheld' is a bit misleading, because from what I could tell, it's not a pure gaming device.

 

[Babyboy]

exactly very misleading

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

Well they call the PSP a handheld but it's designed to store music and play videos. I hope some solid competition brings down prices across the board so I don't have to drop $200 on a relatively small Ipod in the future.

 

[|Overlord|]

Hopefully MS won't try and mimic the Ipod (heh, this reminds me of how there are more AIM users then MSN messenger users in america because Microsoft failed with MSN to begin with and by the time it became good it was to late, so if this fails it will be a simlar story).

I'm guessing it could become more popular in some aspects, you'll see that when people get an ipod they are forced to use Itunes along with quicktime, so MS will probably intergrate usage or support for the device with Media Player (With Quicktime being Apple's player that is installed on OS X by default), however I can already copy songs to an ipod using meda player if I wanted to do so. They really need to focus on making it innovative, and seeing as how they say they plan to make it possible to downlaod music to the device while out and about is a starting point in the right direction (Of course, people will argue that you can already do this with a phone, but a phone doesn't have has much space to store music on as a MP3 player or an ipod on, let alone does it have the ability to paly great games as the gfx chips on phones are not so powerful in comparision to handheld consoles).

 

[sub]

I don't think there was much demand for another music player, but if Microsoft does this and does it well, I'm all for it. It can never hurt to have another high quality music player on the market, competition is always a good thing. The idea of downloading xbox marketplace games on it is intriguing [Geometry wars = awesome] and including wi-fi in it so you can download on the go is a great idea.

What the hell is up with the design of that thing though? It's ugly as hell

 

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

THe ipod looks like a personal massager and costs 3x what it's worth, but people still buy it.

Personally I'd buy this just to stick it to all the Mac fans, heh.

 

[NinjApe]

*sigh* Microsoft, when will they ever learn =7

 

[Ravendust]

Hmmm, so this was the reported 'iPod killer' from Microsoft, as other people have said, it doesn't look designed for games in the slightest (where are the buttons?) but could make a nice music player. Anything to knock Apple off their high horse. I'm rooting for Creative too, they deserve to dominate that market after seeing their latest offering.

 

[Optimus Prime]

As far as I could research, this is an mp3 player, the only thing remotely related to video gaming is that it's being developed by Microsoft's X-Box division.

- Moved to tech.
<hr>
Are you serious? How many other would be 'iPod killers' have claimed to do what Microsoft is purporting to do, and faded away into darkness?

I'd like to see Microsoft even halve Apple's grip on the market.

I can't wait to see a micro blue screen of death either. Classy.

 

[MF29]

It looks like some crap.

 

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

*sigh* Microsoft, when will they ever learn =7

When they stop making billions of dollars.

 

[Scruff]

I'm hoping Microsoft will come up with something innovative here.

Now that is all kinds of funny.

 

[Hash]

Sounds cool to me. Now lets just see exactly what Microsoft does with it. If it can do everything an ipod can, plus connect to xbox live and play games and stuff (even just simple fun ones), then i'll definately pick one up.

 

[bapplebo]

Confirmed its not playing games.

http://palgn.com.au/article.php?tit...&id=4888&sid=7754a134406a3d6af119fd8c638b3855
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/microsoft-zune-update-186628.php
http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/11/microsofts-media-player-dubbed-zune/