Items tagged with box
The scoop wire was running late tonight and these shots of Asus' upcoming Eee Desktop made their way to our inbox just now, so we thought we'd give you the digital relay on the skinny... literally. Though it's hard to get a sense of size here, this thing is obviously svelte. We don't have firm details but since this is an Asus "Eee" product, we can assume it follows the same mantra of "Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play". Maybe a beefed up Linux distro and application bundle? We'll see... We should caution you that these are not "official" pictures per se. In fact, we can't really comment on the source of these pics except to say that they are indeed...
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Some say Microsoft chose poorly when they backed Toshiba's HD DVD standard, and that had Microsoft backed Blu-ray instead, there wouldn't have been much of a format war. There's another group, including Michael Bay, that thinks Microsoft intentionally chose a standard that they didn't think would win in an attempt to undermine consumer confidence in disc formats altogether. Why?So they could build up their HD content on their digital distribution service:"Microsoft has been expanding the HD video capabilities of both Vista Media Center and Xbox Live Marketplace. The Marketplace's HD content library is modest today, but the software giant clearly has plans to change that.So, let's put everything...
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After Toshiba pulled the plug on HD DVD the rumor was that Microsoft was going to offer support for the Blu-ray devices both in Windows and on the Xbox 360. Now Microsoft is claiming that they're not presently working on such a device for the Xbox 360:"Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience," (Xbox group product manage Aaron) Greenberg told Reuters in an interview.One possible reason why Microsoft isn't developing a Blu-ray player just yet is that they might be planning on pushing their Xbox Live video rental service harder. Why back a competitor's technology when you can vertically integrate?...
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According to a report in the Financial Times, Sony is in talks with Microsoft about offering a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360. As many of you know, until recently Sony has touted Blu-ray as an advantage the PlayStation 3 holds over the Xbox 360. Microsoft had backed Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and offered an affordable, external HD-DVD drive for the 360, but by now we all know how that worked out... "A Blu-ray drive in a 360 would make Microsoft more competitive with the PS3, but it would also mean extra revenues for Sony’s electronics division. It would also add further cost to the 360, meaning a premium edition of the console could be necessary. A Blu-ray drive could be incorporated...
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With PCs for sale well under $1,000, nowadays $2,600 would be considered an expensive computer. But what if it's a unopened, new in the box (NIB), vintage Apple IIc? What would you pay for that?Though bidding on vintage computers can often start as low as $1, this Apple IIc from what was then called Apple Computer Inc. was more valuable: It was still in the original packaging and had never been opened."When this auction came along, I knew I had to have it," Budiac said in an interview. "The prospect of unboxing a mint, 20-year-old computer was simply too good to pass up." Yes, collectors: for those of you who are really serious about collecting, Budiac committed the ultimate evil: he opened the...
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There seems to be one last detail we need to take care of before we put the fork in the HD DVD format: The hard drive for the Xbox 360. It appears Microsoft is preparing to offer an Xbox360 with a stand-alone Blu-ray drive as early as May of 2008.Michael Ephraim the Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment said: "We would welcome Microsoft to the Blu-ray stable. In fact it is quite logical for them as the PS3 has been very succesful in driving consumers to Blu-ray. In fact we believe that it has done more to win the format war than traditional Blu-ray player".When asked whether Sony would grant Microsoft a Blu-ray licence he said: "That is up to Sony Corporate but I see no reason...
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Call this a rumor, but a particularly cool one.Netflix may consider extending its Watch Instantly movie streaming feature to game consoles, says one customer presented with a survey by the company. Polling its subscriber base, the rental outlet asks households if they would like to watch both movies and TV shows through either the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360 and suggests a custom software implementation that would allow the feature.No confirmation yet, and only one report of this survey, which makes this report very questionable yet. It would indeed be a cool feature, however....
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It must be really cold outside, because something just froze over. It appears the Xbox has managed to turn a profit.In the last six years, there's been one constant when discussing Microsoft's foray into the strange and seductive world of video game console manufacturing: they had yet to turn a profit on any of it. No more, with today's announcement of Microsoft's second quarter earnings which showed a relatively impressive six-month income of $524 million (compared to a $423m loss during the same period last year) from the the Xbox's Entertainment and Devices Division.Before you go thinking that was all thanks to the Zune and PC game sales, the company's 10-Q filing states that the EDD's...
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Poor box office receipts have been blamed on a number of things (besides a bad movie, that is), including poor weather, natural disasters, embarrassing news for the stars, strong box office competition, etc. This is the first time we have heard a video game blamed for bad box office.Industry expectations for "The Heartbreak Kid," the date movie that re-teamed him with the Farrelly brothers (the duo who made him a megastar in "There's Something About Mary"), called for a $20 million to $25 million opening for the film. Instead, "Kid," which cost north of $60 million to make, managed only $14 million in the U.S. and Canada -- heartbreaking, indeed.But there's more. Total industry ticket sales...
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On August 31st, NBC Universal said it would not be renewing its contract with iTunes, after a dispute over pricing. Later that day, Apple said it would drop NBCU content prior to the fall season - and prior to the expiration of the contract. NBCU didn't waste any time, as today in a joint announcement NBC Universal and Amazon.com announced NBC television shows will be available on Amazon Unbox. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and NBC Universal today announced that a wealth of quality TV content from NBC Universal is now available on Amazon Unbox (https://unbox.amazon.com), Amazon.com's digital video download service. Amazon Unbox and NBC Universal are offering customers a variety...
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Microsoft and Google have been locked together in a corporate struggle of titanic proportions for the past few years, one from which a clear victor has yet to emerge. The battle sprawls from search engines, to office suites, and now the video services are becoming the new focal point of the conflict.On the Google side of the line is the reigning king of video sharing services, YouTube. In Microsoft's corner is the up and coming Soapbox. Both services have a few unique twists, but at the end of the day they're just different takes on the same concept. Microsoft and Google aren't the only two players present, however.In fact, there are numerous sites following the 'me too' business model, but...
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Perhaps based on the brouhaha over the iPhone battery replacement plan, which some have said, because it was not unveiled until after the iPhone went on sale, is "lawsuit-worthy", AT&T is making sure you know absolutely everything about your iPhone bill - such that the bills themselves run into so many pages that forests are being threatened. As you enjoy your weekend, ponder this bit of humor: while the iPhone may be the master of the digital experience (for now), dead trees come in for a flogging, as AT&T's iPhone bills are quite impressive in their own right. We're starting to get bills for the iPhone here at Ars, and while many of us have had smartphones for some time, we've...
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I'm sure you've heard about the price drop that was just announced for the Xbox 360; the Xbox 360 Premium model has dropped from $400 to $350. However, more quietly, Microsoft has also added a freebie into the mix - a hardware refresh that includes an HDMI port, previously available only on the Elite model. This was rumored at first, and now has been confirmed. Microsoft confirmed late Wednesday the existence of newly updated Xbox 360 units that include HDMI support. The news comes amid reports that new machines are now available in stores coinciding with today's price drops. The company denied comment on the port addition to cheaper Core models not to mention the rumored cooler running processors....
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If you’re an Xbox 360 owner and you’re looking for a place to download more of your favorite shows and movies, then you may want to look into CinemaNow. A recent update to their software package has enabled more than 7000 videos to be downloaded and viewed by Xbox 360 owners: “CinemaNow Inc., the premier online destination for downloadable Hollywood movies and TV shows, today released an upgraded version of its 'Media Manager', a proprietary software application enabling the download, management and playback of video content. CinemaNow video downloads are now directly accessible by networked Xbox 360 users, and its Burn-to-DVD service is now compatible with Windows Vista users worldwide. This...
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