Ace on Tech » xbox360

Tech News Roundup

Ace — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:20:37 +0000

Tech news roundup for August 27, 2009. Yesterday was a slow news day, hence no news roundup for August 26, 2009. Today was also rather slow, to be honest.

Google Now Offers Over a Million Free Ebooks in EPUB Format #
Microsoft cuts Xbox price by 25 percent #
Asustek to launch e-book reader under Eee family #
Confirmed: $29 Snow Leopard Installs Whether or Not You’ve Got Leopard #

Google Now Offers Over a Million Free Ebooks in EPUB Format

Google currently offers 1 million books in EPUB format through it’s Google Books portal. Many of these books are in the public domain, so many of them are pretty old. But old books can still be good. Source at Mashable.

Microsoft cuts Xbox price by 25 percent

Microsoft has intensified the price war with Sony by lowering the price of its XBOX360 by approximately 25%. The Elite model will be 100$ US cheaper, with its 299$ US price point. The Arcade remains the same at 249$ US. The middle model, called the Pro, will be discontinued. This leaves the consumer with a simplified choice, says Microsoft. As of now, Microsoft is the only console manufacturer with positive sales. Source at Reuters.

Asustek to launch e-book reader under Eee family

eBook-readers seem to be in vogue lately. Word goes round that Asus, maker of the EeePC, will also be manufacturing an eBook-reader to compete with Amazon and Sony. Source at DigiTimes.

Confirmed: $29 Snow Leopard Installs Whether or Not You’ve Got Leopard

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will cost Leopard-users $30, and Tiger users $169, because they are supposed to purchase the Box Set. This includes the new OS, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09. It has been confirmed that OS X 10.6 will also install whether or not you’re actually using 10.5. It turns out the so called upgrade disc doesn’t check for prior versions. If you’re still on Tiger, you can skip Leopard all together and save a lot of money, but you’ll be violating Apple’s EULA. Source at Lifehacker.

Toshiba & Microsoft working on new entertainment Xbox

Ace — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:03:17 +0000

The XBOX360 is already an attractive media center extender, but it indeed lacks the built-in high-definition player and a more voluminous hard drive. Not having a native wireless interface (instead, one would need to buy a pricey add-on that plugs into the Ethernet port) is also a pain, since more and more people integrate Wi-Fi networks, more than they used to and have come to expect this functionality in everything. Righteously, too. Another thing to look forward to, imho.

clipped from www.smarthouse.com.au

Microsoft is working on a brand new Xbox that will incorporate not only a new HD DVD drive but a large hard drive and new entertainment software

the recently launched Xbox 360 HD DVD attach player is not selling well.

Microsoft failed to include a HDMI port

The new Xbox device, while allowing for extensive gaming capability, will be positioned as an entertainment hub that includes gaming and extensive wireless networking capability as well as 1080p playback. There is also talk of it including a dual HD TV tuner and EPG capability and a docking port for an MP3 player. For Toshiba, the device is critical if it is to be successful in beating Sony and the Blu-ray promoters.

Games for Windows LIVE

Ace — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:24:46 +0000

I’ve always thought this to be an extremely interesting feature, the ability to interchange online gaming experiences between Windows games and the console based games for the XBOX 360 (provided you’ve got a Gold subscription). More concretely, one can play online regardless of the platform. The current games supporting this is surprisingly small, though, which pretty much nullifies the effect. I’d expected a more spectacular launch/marketing of this (actually) killer-feature for both Vista and XBOX360. Pity.

clipped from windowsvistablog.com

As you know, several games have launched under Games for Windows – LIVE that allow PC Games to tap into Xbox Live.

Major Nelson highlights several changes coming with the 1.2 release:

Support for offline Achievements (so you can add to your gamerscore when not connected to the internet).
Ability to see if your friends are “joinable” in games.
Additional UI features.

New low-cost Xbox360 approaching?

Ace — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:35:27 +0000

From CNet News:

“Recent weeks have seen a flurry of rumors that the Xbox360 Core is about to be replaced by something called the Xbox 360 Arcade. For the same $280 price tag, the Arcade bundle will include a wireless controller, HDMI output, and a 256MB memory card preloaded with five Xbox Live Arcade titles.

The release date remains fluid, but October 23 seems to be the consensus.”

This is obviously a gaming system for the $$$-conscious gamer, with it barely being more expensive than the Wii, it’s definitely a feasible platform. Fanatics will most definitely dismiss this gig as silly, but I think it’ll convince more people to opt for this console as their main gaming system. Hard-core gamers will unlikely stick with the Elite or the PC, but that’s a different story entirely.

XBOX360 goes High-Def

Ace — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:10:40 +0000

NewsFactor.com:

Microsoft is taking its Xbox 360 game console to the next level with the introduction of a high-definition video player that promises to draw players into the action and deliver sights and sounds that surpass anything available today.

The software giant announced its Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on player on the home turf of Japanese gaming giants Sony and Nintendo, both of whom are poised to deliver next-generation consoles.

Microsoft also said that later this year it will provide a software upgrade so that Xbox 360 consoles can handle both games and movies in high-definition, 1080p resolution.

Halo 3 announced

Ace — Wed, 10 May 2006 18:00:58 +0000

Microsoft announced that it would be launching Halo 3 for the XBOX 360 somewhere in 2007.
More information can be found here (Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows).