For whatever reason this week’s launch of the beta version of AMD’s Fusion Media Explorer, the company’s first forray in the social media hub / browser space, isn’t being met with a mountain of buzz. For a 40-year old giant of a tech company that’s mostly known for its micro-processors and related technologies, that’s quite surprising, especially because the product actually appears to be quite cool, if not very innovative these days.
I say appears, because the installation failed on my computer for lack of an AMD processor (I should have known), and I should probably note the application has only been tested for use on Windows and Linux machines. From what I can gather, it most certainly makes me want to test it asap though.
Here’s how AMD pitches the browser (buzzword alert):
The AMD Fusion Media Explorer (FME) is a new 3D Immersive Social Media and Digital Media Browser, built and distributed by AMD. In addition to enabling unique multimedia and social media experiences, FME does a great job of showcasing the power of AMD CPUs and GPUs. This application demonstrates what our platforms are capable of when the software is designed to take full advantage.
AMD Fusion Media Explorer combines a user’s local media items, plus related online content from providers such as, Flickr, YouTube, and Microsoft Live. In addition, FME has Facebook integration which gives our users even more options for posting or interacting with their favorite photos or friends’ photos. All of this is managed by an integrated search engine, that makes it very easy to quickly locate what you are looking for.
So basically, the FME application allows you to view and search for multimedia content like photos, videos, music etc. straight from your hard drive as well as online destinations like Flickr, YouTube and Facebook, and enables you to share them with your friends on a variety of social networking services from within the three-dimensional interface. The scrollable 3D ribbon appears to be a nice touch. For a comprehensive review, check TheInquirer or read the release notes.
The screenshots and video below remind me a lot of the (now dead) Pogo Browser initiative from AT&T, and also of Cooliris, which offers a similar desktop application.
In the blog post announcing the limited beta release of the Fusion Media Explorer, AMD’s Director of Product Marketing Casey Gotcher says that the platform has been specially developed for its Puma and Dragon-based notebook and desktop systems and will be provided free to AMD customers, and in some cases may come pre-installed on select AMD-based systems.
(Via GadgetVenue)
Someone claims to have it working on an Intel processor. Might be worth a read should any Intel processor users want to test it out.
http://www.brig...-intel-cpu.aspx
Hello, I tried to find “C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Temp\f8f432.msi.”, however in my computer it does not exist. What do i need to do? Help to figure out. TNX
looks cool but way too cooliris-like
Requires Vista. I say pas
it looks beautiful
Does anyone know whether this thing has hyperlinked multimedia?
Like if you click on the mountain video on its timeline (numbered frames) and if there’s an embedded link in there from that point to another point VideoA.FrameX to another point VideoB.FrameY ?
Hyperlinking and back (like a program call stack) in multimedia (video+audio) ?
That would be a cool add-on to this thing.
Frist post!
Can’t try it on mac, I guess I don’t care then
I wonder if anybody actually uses the whole graphical 3d flipping technology like if you were flipping through things in real life… I find that less efficient than a simple textbox with incremental search.
“Immerse yourself in the future”
It does look pretty smart, but i suspect that the only people who’ll care are the developers themselves.
i dont :-p
I guess they do, or it wouldn’t be a newsworthy item in the first place?
I think it’s a good thing that they come up with this new innovation
Fail
Wow. The antithesis of useful portable software, software that’s tied to a specific processor. Programmers don’t build applications entirely in processor specific assembly language for a reason, i.e. there is a good reason for a lack of buzz on this app.
I’m sure this is geared towards people who don’t know much about computers. Since that is the bulk of the planet then this is worth their time as it gives them publicity.
It is undeniably cool, especially it came from one of the Big company in the industry. But the idea is not that new to us. I hope they’ve added more cool features to make the product more unique.
Just like the fancy window flipping feature of vista it is a waste of system resources with could be put to a much better use. Fair enough fancy features may be some peoples cup of tea but I want a computer that is going to perform without any junk running on it. Just like the old mobile phones, good old Nokia 8210 a phone, text and snake game… thats it. No camera, colour screen or fancy features to go wrong… several years later this phone is still going strong.
Can’t talk right now… I’m off to buy a AMD right now especially for this Cooliris browser!
Sike.
Looks like a way to slow down your day. Nice but do you really need it?
It requires you to have Vista on your computer to be used effectively. I don’t think it will be that popular as many people are shying away from new Windows operating systems.
Should had been an extension for Fx or IE.
With already existing 3D add-ons (such as cooliris), creating desktop apps, yet supporting only AMD based computers is ridiculous.
Nonetheless, it’s great marketing idea for such big vendors to create cool stuff just for being “there”.
Also Cooliris has a patent-pending notion in their site.
I wonder whether AMD violates anything issued by that patent.
Anyone has a clue?
I will stick to my cooliris. It is basically the same thing and not a me too with a wave. Rip off!
The ArmorSurf browser has some of the same functionality, but works with XP.
Just got a mac instead of a new windows laptop specifically because I dreaded the thought of owning Vista. Don’t care if I never see this browser …
Just got a mac instead of a new windows laptop specifically because I dreaded the thought of owning Vista. Don’t care if I never see this browser …
Vista has a Windows flip-thru feature? I never knew that. Not real sure why I’d want this AMD thing. I have Cooliris and don’t use that. So, yawn, I guess.
Does anyone remember when Excite tried to do something like this a LONG time ago? Like late 90s?
Looks awesome – but I don’t have an AMD cpu so can’t run it. Too bad.
Nice gizmo, but I doubt that it will be useful íf you need to work on your computer.
I like the soundtrack to the youtube video
Not going to care about the app though, because my Windows is confined to life inside VMWare Fusion and only when I really need it for something that does not yet work on a Mac.
no
That is cool but to answer your question, no, no one cares. It is just a cooliris clone…
it looks like just about every single other 3d browser, this is nothing special and has beeen done before. Looks about 3 years old! come on amd! lets see some real innovation rather than just copied stuff from SGI, HP, and Apple
Will it get any significant market in the next 12 months? I dont think so
you should all check it out, much better than cooliris
what a bunch of ignorant nerds thinking that such a tool is not useful just because you’re stuck with the geek stuff you’re using daily. that’s a great app and I hope it gets its way to linux as well. get a life. 90% of pc users ain’t geeks. anything that makes a different approach to a UI for a better experience is a good thing. even as an experiment. the entire technology sector is build upon different ideas from different people and companies, merges and matured over many years. so stop bitching and bashing. if you don’t like t, don’t use it! duuuuuuh!!
So because it doesn’t run on a Mac it is bad? Why exactly should AMD port to 3 percent market share again? For Apple for free? Why? What? Oh, and “author”, everyone else has moved on to Windows 7. You may have not gotten the memo. I for one am trying to figure how Tech Crunch stays in business. Their Austin meetup and supposed web roundtable seemed more like a kiss ass Apple/Obama no talent ass clown fest. I learned nothing. I heard nothing, and the night cap at Pangea was a bore. So much so I found nothing worth writing about. Nothing. It was full of a bunch of fake people with iphones. Fun. Do not want. For the record, I wouldn’t care much if every blogger fell off the face of the Earth. In fact it would be a better place. Happy Easter everyone.
“So because it doesn’t run on a Mac it is bad? Why exactly should AMD port to 3 percent market share again? For Apple for free? Why? What? Oh, and “author”, everyone else has moved on to Windows 7. You may have not gotten the memo. I for one am trying to figure how Tech Crunch stays in business. Their Austin meetup and supposed web roundtable seemed more like a kiss ass Apple/Obama no talent ass clown fest. I learned nothing. I heard nothing, and the night cap at Pangea was a bore. So much so I found nothing worth writing about. Nothing. It was full of a bunch of fake people with iphones. Fun. Do not want. For the record, I wouldn’t care much if every blogger fell off the face of the Earth. In fact it would be a better place. Happy Easter everyone.”
Hilarious. My dad works at AMD, and was saying that Chris Brogan went in last week to give a social media talk to AMD marketing. they seriously need to replace the old with the new.