HardwareZone goes to Microsoft!
We were invited to a Press Release at The Mariott on 12 Oct 98 by Microsoft. Evidently, someone has heard of HardwareZone. The Press Release was held at the Presidential Suite, which we found pretty puzzling. I mean Microsoft could afford to hold a press CONFERENCE at the Conference Hall, but why hold it at some cheesy Presidential Suite? Geeks... 		A little background to who invited us. In case you were wondering if Bill Gates gave our Chairman a call, well, he did... in our dreams. We were invited by Microsoft's Interactive Media Group (IMG), IMG is responsible for coming up with all those cool joy-things -- joysticks, joypads, even vibrating ones. Their products include infotainment software (Encarta, Bookshelf, Greetings) and games (Age of Empires, Motocross Madness).
And Bill, if you are reading this, we're open to an acquisition by your mighty company. Bow bow... 		The Theme of the day was "Microsoft Singapore Shows Singaporeans How to Live a Web Lifestyle.", in smaller captions Launches New Interactive Media Solutions for Everyday Tasks in the Home. Basically they had a mock up home (Home 98?) set up in the suite and showcased how IMG products can integrate into our lives, like it hasn't already. This is actually quite a cool idea 'cause it lets us roam around in someone's house, step on beds, trash their PCs, fondle their joy-things. Being HardwareZone we of course concentrated on the latter. The main joy-things of the event were : (1) SideWinder Freestyle Pro, (2) Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel. Have you ever caught yourself ducking left and right when playing Quake? Like it would make a difference, well, it will now with the new SideWinder Freestyle Pro. The Freestyle Pro looks like a normal joypad, but you can control the onscreen movement of your character by tilting, moving, rotating, spinning, freestylin' the Freestyle Pro. Cool, but how useful is it? We'll find out when Microsoft allows us to review their hardware, stay tuned for our new joy-things section... ;) The Feedback Wheel is something like what you get in Daytona at the arcades, it clamps onto the table rather insecurely and but gives more resistance than a bus without power-steering. It's even got paddles beneath the wheel to shift a la Schumacher. Both products are going to be released soon by the time you read this.

Written by da5id for HardwareZone