See those two antennas? They can only mean one thing: lickity-quick 802.11n WiFi on Microsoft's unannounced Xbox 360 adapter. Of course, the FCC label reads, "Xbox 360 wireless N networking adapter," leaving little doubt as to its purpose. A spec bump that should push the raw data rate to at least twice what you've seen on 802.11b/g networks while offering more options for placement thanks to improved range. What, you do have an 802.11n network at home, right? It's
IEEE official now, you know?
Awesome, can't wait to pay another 100 bucks for something that should cost half as much.
or something that should be built-in in the first place.
;)
Awesome! I'm glad this is an optional accessory instead of standard, since I have no use for it and don't like paying for functionality I don't need!
wrong! this will probably cost just as much as the damn xbox!
It's $100 for the crappy one... this one has two antennae... probably at least $200
@Unix
You wouldn't be paying extra for it; Microsoft is giving the consumers far less value at this point than the PS3 for the same price, in terms of built-in hardware. The PS3 has everything the 360 has, but also has WiFi and Blu Ray. Considering that a Blu Ray player alone can cost $300, I think it's a stretch to suggest that Microsoft would have to charge more for WiFi. I'm just glad the PS3 Slim is now at $300, because it will start selling more units and force Microsoft to give consumers a better value, and hopefully bundle common-sense features like WiFi--which I would guess that most people who play games in the living room would like to have, instead of running a 50ft cat 5 cable across the whole place.
maybe microsoft should release some stats regarding the amount of XBOXs sold vs the amount of XBOXs running wireless adaptors. At the very least it should shut up one camp of people in the above thread. :-)
I know. These things cost more than my damn 802.11n router.
I'm sure this will be justified that since they dropped the price of the console this can now be afforded.
I personally want more $200 120Gb hard drives as my ass isn't sore enough.
@John
Who the hell uses CAT5 anymore?
If you wanna stream HD......especially via WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER.....you know that wireless does not cut it.
Cat 5e or Cat 6e FTW.
Given their previous pricing schemes, I assume this one will be about $200.
Xbox 360 wireless b/g adaptor 100 dollars
Xbox 360 wireless n adaptor 200 dollars
Microsoft capitalizing once again, priceless.
Normal price $200 but for you my friend I sell $199. It very good deal.
and it is imported from the far east regions of China my friend that cost money
Blah blah turn 360 degrees and (moon)walk the other way.
great and its gunna cost way too much as well...
Cool... Of course in the end it'll be disappointing, if Microsoft decides to continue with their high-priced peripheral strategy.
The only question is whether they are going to sell it for $120 and keep the original or ditch the original and sell this one for $99! (Canada) ... either way, I won't be buying.
I'm sure this is the same as the original but just now with N support. Wireless N has been out for quite awhile so this thing is probably just as cheap to make as the original is or perhaps even cheaper, but since there new wireless adapter supports N, they will use that probably to justify their reason for keeping the price at $100.
I'll laugh if MS lashes out and prices the thing at 20 bucks.
I've bridged the connection on my desktop (I'm on wireless on my desktop, I'm not proud of it) to my 360 and it works great, for free. But if MS puts this thing out at $20, I'll buy three.
Yes, that rhymed - whoopee!
@Drew
Tell me more about your setup and how you configured it. That's exactly the setup that I'm looking to do. Thanks.
@ Dave,
I have the same setup on my end. I use a Linksys WirelessUSB adapter on my desktop. I run a patch cable from my desktop to my 360. Go to my "network connections" and share the LAN connection, viola! Free wifi adapter.
@ Dave,
Here is a link for better reference: http://gizmodo.com/5133447/how-to-add-wi+fi-to-your-xbox-360-smartly-and-cheaply
Competition is a good thing for everyone. For anyone needing this, hopefully they price it reasonably. Actually, they should pack it in with the Elite and call it a day...
Not gonna happen. MS will not include the wi-fi N-adapter in the ELITE bundle 'cause it's too busy taking even the essential components out of the bundle just so they can label it as a "price-cut".
On a side note, I just picked up a brand-new Elite yesterday (my 2-year old Elite RROD'ed about a week ago but luckily I had bought a Bestbuy 2-year warranty with it that is set to expire on 10/9/09... lucky me. So BB just swapped it with a new one in less than 10mins and gave me a ~$80 gift card too for the difference in price between then and now). Upon opening the box at home, I was shocked to see that the price reduction was accompanied with the loss of NOT ONLY HDMI cable but also the little adapter for Optical Audio connections that came included in my original Xbox. Needless to say, I ended up picking a MS-branded HDMI+Audio interface package for $50+taxes, which now effectively gave me only an insignificant discount over my original Xbox. WTF!!!
But if you call right now, they'll double the offer to 802.11n! Twice the speed, twice the price! All for just $199.99.
BILLY MAYS HERE, BRINGING YOU THE... no, no, it just doesn't seem right anymore...
I'm a little peeved they keep showing off some of his newer ads still around here. Fortunately, his image should survive for awhile, and his family should be able to benefit from syndication. RIP.
To be more on topic: I have the WiFi adapter for one of my 360s and performance is generally acceptable. As long as the network isn't congested, the thing works. My other 360 is wired to the router and you can't see much of a difference. While the range of current AirPort Extreme router isn't as far as my old Belkin router, my network has been stable and exceptionally fast since I switched to it. The adapter has a hard time picking up a strong signal with it, but you'd never notice without checking the network settings. $100 is a rip-off, but it works. Since the already outdated model works well enough as it is, there should be no reason to upgrade to this if you have one. Unless of course, the price was reasonable, but given the hard drives are still so expensive, I'd doubt it.
Hopefully this will make the Wireless-G adapter affordable, it would save some space compared to my DD-WRT bridge. xD
I wouldn't be surprised if they price the G at $50 and launch the N at $100. They will still stay profitable and can spin it as the "fastest" wireless connection possible, while still allowing for an affordable upgrade should a user action need the tech.
and yet every other system has wifi built in!
No kidding.
Yay, $150 WiFi adapter!
I'll stick to a wired connection, thank you very much!
Yay wires, indeed!
Wow ... that's just great.
I always wonder why Nintendo put a wireless adapter in the Wii.
They could've taken it out and it would've only cost $150 from the start.
Because as we all know ... wireless adapters cost $100 each.
In reality, don't some cost like $10 now?
I think I have a couple just lying about not being used.
Microsoft grinds my gears sometimes.
Fuck that Microsoft. Put it inside the system like the soon to be $200 Wii does.
Make it $10 and we'll talk.
Its in black that alone makes it worth wild it is the dumbest thing to have a console available in two colors but only have accessories available in one. Maby with a new one coming out there will be a price drop of the old one.
I wouldn't count on it - all of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Dev Kit is black, but most of the time it only hits store shelves in white.
It chaps my ass tbh....
They might get rid of the 802 a/b/g adapter which retails @ 99$ and put up the 802 wireless n adapter to replace seeing how it can operate on the a/b/g spectrum as well + the n. Or they might be gay and just make it $150 which is ridiculous because not only is a router much cheaper, but nowaday u can get a xbox 360 for that price or just put in a few more and get a new one.
Hope this one is more affordable. I hate having to stick with 2.4Ghz instead of 5.8Ghz cause the PS3/360/iPhone don't support n.
Not sure I understand why everyone is so quick to say (or complain) about a price point that no one knows about? Chances are the current adapter will either phase itself out or be reduced in price to perhaps $59.99 or $69.99 and this new model may replace the $99.99 price point. But nothing is official, so until it is, I don't quite understand why all the complaining.
The complaining is entirely deserved because Microsoft fucked up on the price of the original adapter and hasn't corrected that mistake!
Would you pay $100 for a wireless card when the component price is about $5, a full-blown 4 port wireless router costs $40, and all the competition has this feature built?
It's probably the most overpriced peripheral in the history of consoles!
MS " Why have it built in with those Losers will pay $100 for a normal network adapter! Hell, if they will buy several xbox360s after the RRoD , they will buy about anything"
I think it will replace the old b/g one, still at $99. Imo MS should bundle this at least with the Elite. Really, wifi hardware is dirt cheap now, selling this still as a separate expensive add-on is a pure rip-off.
a few things to point out. xbox owners are getting screwed over by microsoft, that's a fact. just check the price of a 20gig hard drive (only 13gb useable FYI) and then the current wireless adapter is over $100 AUD, and they will only release this to the elite system because they are trying to sell another xbox to people or already own one, or after it has died with RROD (my xbox was twice RROD). the new xbox doesn't even ship with a HDMI cable - because they want you to buy the thing on its own for more money.
microsoft are refusing to answer questions or have send out a press release regarding hard drive size because they don't care, they are making too much money to worry about the news. so what if 54% die, they will sell you another one. because for some reason people want to buy something that will break again and again.
Like their online pricing, some things are in points so you don't know how much you are spending and then the new 'games on demand' are in dollar prices.
Microsoft will never learn until people stop buying the xbox, stop paying $90 a month to play online (which is free on the playstation), and refuse to buy the extras like wireless for $100 and HDMI cable for $40, controllers for $90, games for $100. and all the other stuff they seems to be an extra. inlcuding divx support, and non-windows share drives.
Do yourselves a favor, and buy ps3. it works, is now slim, has just a price cut, plays blu-ray, can have up to 7 players (an ice hockey team on the same console), has wireless built in, and you can change the hard drive yourself for any price you like (but comes with a 120gb now).
xbox is for soccer moms who have more money then sense, playstations are for people who like consoles that Just work out of the box.
Normally I don't comment to if there's a chance I'm gonna start a flame war (and especially not to defend Microsoft) but jesus sam, you're just wrong all over the place. Are you intentionally saying dumb things?
1. "they will only release this to the elite system because they are trying to sell another xbox"
A. It's USB dude, it'll work with any 360 model.
2. "so what if 54% die, they will sell you another one. because for some reason people want to buy something that will break again and again."
A. Yeah, the 360 has a horrible rate of failure. I'm on my 3rd one. Guess what, my other 2 were replaced for free via the warranty. Sure it's a hassle, but no one forced you to buy another one. Worst case, you'll have to pay shipping or a processing charge (I didn't), which is still cheaper than buying a new one.
3. "some things are in points so you don't know how much you are spending"
A. I also think the point thing is stupid, but really? You can't figure out how much you're spending? It takes like 3 seconds to do the math in your head. (And again, not defending MS, but they "claimed" the point system was for international reasons, so the menus could be the same even with different currencies. Yeah, I know, whatever.)
4. "$90 a month to play online," "controllers for $90, games for $100"
A. Where the hell are you getting these numbers? Your ass?
5. "and all the other stuff they seems to be an extra. inlcuding divx support, and non-windows share drives."
A1. I have no idea what you're talking about here. 360 supports DivX.
A2. Doesn't Windows have something like 90% market share in the home PC market? Even people that have a non-Windows machine also have a Windows machine. I would be shocked if MS wrote code for the 360 to connect to Mac or UNIX-based share drives. It's a rare delight when a company writes code to support it's competitors, and this is only Microsoft.
6. "xbox is for soccer moms"
A. No, the 360 is for people that like to play games. Sure the PS3 may be a better machine, but where are the hot games? (It's almost as if it's a Blu-ray player that also happens to play games.) The game selection on the 360 is huge and diverse. I have yet to see a single game on the PS3 that would make me want to buy a PS3. 360 has maybe 3 or 4 titles a year that would make me want to buy a 360.
But other than all that, I agree with everything you said.
@Ender
"I have yet to see a single game on the PS3 that would make me want to buy a PS3"
I was with you right up until this line. Go play Little Big Planet.
@Ender in regard to Sam's post:
I think the $90 and $100 and other, the dudde is talking Australian Dollars, Not US Dollars, so i think you owe him an appology at least for asking if he's getting the numbers from his A$$...other than that you make some good poing and Sam's complaints are legit too....
JMHO