Did Microsoft Fake XP on XO Press Media?!

Do you remember all the hoopla around the XP on the XO announcement in May? Where Microsoft gave us a press release, blog post, and a video, all announcing Windows XP for the XO laptop. Well, thanks to the sleuths on OLPC News Forum it looks like Microsoft may have faked two of the three.

XP on XO Photoshopped?

First, let's look at the official press release photograph showing XP on the XO. Now, take a very, very close look. Do you see what teapot sees?

The image is definitely an overlay -- lower corners obscure the screen border, and black areas around the screen are nowhere to be found.

However diagonal graininess of the blue background seems to suggest that it may be taken on XO or XO emulator, and pasted to compensate for camera's contrast/dynamic range. Pretty strange considering that XO screen is not particularly bright or glossy.

If you look at the photo on James U's blog post, you can really tell the difference - his image has the XP screen looking way more natural. And if that were the only trespass, who really cares, eh? Everyone Photoshops.

Yet, its not. Just take a close look at the Microsoft XP on XO video:

Now re-watch that video, closely, and pay attention to the background and the details of Bohdan Raciborski's actions. Previously, we knew there was some time-shifting going on when Doug noticed subtle changes in previous comments:

The other observation is that this "video" is a very well done production and something done over a period of time and not likely a short period of time.

I say this because if you look at the section where he does the video capture, the recorded video of him waving does not have the poster on the wall behind him. The "live" shot where he waves his hand does have the poster behind him.

But recently, we've had a bit more analysis of the video, and the results may surprise you. After a close inspection, Anna has a startling opinion:

At the very least, the Windows Movie Maker thing was staged or faked. My BF has an XP machine, and being an A/V tech, was kinda curious. Recording video with Windows Movie Maker doesn't work like that. And it's out of order. Notice how the clip is at the bottom left of the screen the entire time and then disappears when it's time to "save" it.

In addition, the audio doesn't seem to match the wave patterns in the audio record. If it really played off the XO, I've never heard the XO speakers sound that good.

Now how could Microsoft faked such a video? Let's have Anna explain her hypothesis:

To spell it out, I'm bringing up the possibility that they captured the output from a regular XP machine to a video file and played it back on the XO to produce a carefully choreographed demonstration. Yeah, I know it sounds like a bizarre conspiracy theory.

Or does it? Its not like Microsoft hasn't faked video before. They were famously caught trying to use "massaged" videos in their anti-trust Netscape case with the Department of Justice. And in this case, a massaged video wouldn't be legally actionable, but did serve its PR purpose. That is until eagle-eye Anna spotted one last, tell-tale trace of XP on the XO fakery:

Notice how the HDD light (the one on the far left) only comes on during bootup and is off the entire time during the demonstration EXCEPT when he flips the screen around to show off Internet Explorer in book mode?

Huh. That's not how the XO hard disk light works.

source : http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/microsoft/microsoft_fake_press_media.html