Microsoft Orapa to give IPTV to Xbox with Kinect control
updated 09:35 am EST, Thu March 10, 2011
Microsoft Orapa to mash Xbox, Mediaroom for TV
Microsoft's repeated attempts to get TV on the Xbox may be coming to fruition by the end of this year, tipsters said late Wednesday. Nikcnamed Orapa, based on a diamond mine and game park city in Botswana, the project would bring turn Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV technology into something that could be reached directly through Xbox Live, rather than through the special techniques needed today. ZDNet understood it would optionally use Kinect to steer TV with gestures and voice commands.
Windows desktop, Windows Phone and dedicated Mediaroom set-top box users would come at some point in the future. The current plan was to have Orapa as a real, shipping product by the end of 2011 with a preview version this month and a complete date sometime in the summer.
The Xbox 360 can already be used for Mediaroom IPTV and can stand in as a set-top box at providers like Telus. Orapa, however, would let users get TV service more directly online and would give them more control over the service. Support on other platforms would also make it completely independent of the usual TV equipment and would have a ready-made way to access their TV outside of the home without needing a special website.
Microsoft has given out multiple signs of wanting true live TV on the Xbox was even rumored in talks for a unique-to-Xbox subscription service that would again be available in late 2011.
