Lian Li launches PC-XB01: the Xbox 360 Chassis replacementLian Li shows Microsoft how it’s done! 14 August 2008, Keelung, Taiwan – Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd will launch the PC-XB01 chassis for the Xbox 360 today. The XB01 is a chassis replacement for the XBox 360 chassis, which alleviates heating issues from hot components and reduces noise...Read more...
Rumors have been circulating of a possible $50 price cut for the Xbox 360 Pro, the 20 GB model. While still a rumor, more evidence has arisen which seems to not just point to a $50 price cut, but also to the day: this coming Sunday.Below is an image scanned from a Target flier. Not only is the price cut by $50, Target is throwing in a $25...Read more...
Microsoft had all sorts of trouble with the reliability of its XBox 360. Tales of the "Red Ring of Death" gave potential buyers pause, and Microsoft spend a small fortune replacing defective units. One of the main reasons the game console was so fragile is that the 90nm scale GPU ran very hot. 65nm chips to the rescue!Microsoft will make available...Read more...
Remember the father who sold his pot-smoking son's Guitar Hero III game on eBay as punishment? The father netted $9K in that auction. The mom here won't get that much, but at least she's teaching her kid a lesson.A 13-year-old kid in Virginia has backtalked to his mom for the last time. When he was told to do his chores instead of play Xbox...Read more...
The rumor keeps circulating that Microsoft is indeed going to include a Blu-ray player in future Xbox 360s. Microsoft continually denies the rumors, such as the one started by DigiTimes regarding a deal with Lite-On to manufacture said drive.Microsoft's PR department had this say:“No. Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox...Read more...
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...Read more...
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...Read more...
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...Read more...
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...Read more...
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...Read more...
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...Read more...
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....Read more...
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...Read more...
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...Read more...
A Microsoft investigation of the Xbox has turned out to be favorable to existing owners of the system, and to those who wish to grab one in the future. In light of the results of the inquiry, which revealed a number of factors that contribute to the infamous overheating problems of the Xbox, Microsoft today announced that it will extend the...Read more...
Yes, literally speaking, Microsoft has made an announcement to deal with the Xbox 360’s chronic overheating problems by enhancing the level of cooling in the Xbox 360. Microsoft has installed a new heatpipe and heatsink to cool the AMD Xenon chipset in the console. The new heatpipe and heatsink will reduce overall case temperature and prevent...Read more...
The Folding@Home team is constantly striving to add support for more devices to join the good fight against diseases ranging from Parkinson's to Alzheimer's. First they added support for alternative OSes, then video cards, and now a second gaming console, the Xbox 360, looks like it has a fair chance at showing its processing muscles off....Read more...
The Inquirer is reporting that the Xbox 360 is about to get a web camera, and that it will be initially used for instant messaging: "Microsoft will provide the Xbox 360 spring update access to Windows Live Messenger with people able to console themselves by chatting to up to six folk at once...Read more...
Starting the week of May 7th, Xbox 360 users will have access to Windows Live Messenger features, and be able to taunt their friends seamlessly. Here's a pic of the QWERTY beast you can do it with: Members of the six-million-strong Xbox Live community currently send more than two...Read more...
So, does the popular gaming magazine confirm the rumors of a new Xbox 360 version? According to some leaked scans, yes it does. The new Xbox 360 Elite is expected to come in black, with a 120GB Hard Drive, HDMI output, and a $479 price tag. It's also rumored that once the new Elite's sell out, the hardware will replace current...Read more...
Harcoreware.net has an interesting article on-line today that details the power consumption characteristics of today's top three new consoles while playing back video and playing games. And for the sake of comparison they also built a mid-range gaming PC to see how it stacked up. "Today's...Read more...
With the millions of people arguing over the XBOX 360 vs the Playstation 3, it's always interesting to get a game developers take on the issue. One of the major points of argument, is that even though the PS3 has better hardware specs on paper, its lack of programming flexibility will hamper its performance. While the anonymous interviewee...Read more...