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Xbox's Aaron Greenberg: Hulu on 360 like "asking out a really hot chick on a date"
Hey, our main dudes over at Joystiq sat down with Xbox's Aaron Greenberg recently, and there are some great bits of info in the interview. Aaron says the big Xbox price cut has been planned for months, so it's "just a coincidence" that it happened right on top of the PS3 Slim -- and he also says he's an avid Joystiq reader, so if Redmond had wanted to get the jump on Sony, they'd have been prepared. Other nuggets: the $99 WiFi adapter isn't coming down in price, the Netflix relationship is going well, and getting Hulu or Amazon Unbox on the 360 is like "asking out a really hot chick on a date, they don't all say yes." Yeah, it's a pretty great interview -- hit the read link for the whole thing.
Microsoft says 360 Elite is just so hot right now, no SKU changes planned
Naturally curious as to why Xbox 360 Elites are so difficult to find, we went straight to the source -- and Microsoft tells us that demand is simply outstripping supply on the 360 Elite right now, and that no model lineup changes are planned at this time -- especially since the Elite is their hot seller. Well, so much for that conspiracy -- guess we're back to reading the PS3 tea leaves.
Xbox 360 Elite debuts in Europe Aug 24
After a longstanding silence on the subject, an official European release date for the Xbox 360 Elite has been confirmed by Microsoft. The information was revealed during Microsoft's E3 press briefing. Microsoft's Shane Kim announced that the Xbox 360 Elite will finally be touching down in Europe on August 24. A price has not yet been confirmed by Microsoft.
Data transfer demo for your new HDD
If you're a current 360 owner and are in the market for a new 120GB HDD or the Xbox 360 Elite in the coming weeks, then you'll be dealing with some HDD data transferring. And thanks to Major Nelson's data transfer demo, the whole process will be painless. In the embedded video above, Major and his clothes twin Albert walk you through the whole thing step by step and even do a little Xbox 360 Elite unboxing to boot. It's actually quite simple and should take less than an hour to move all your data to your new 120GB behemoth. And, as if it wasn't mentioned enough, the data transfer will be permanent and can only be done once. So, make sure this is what you want, as there's no going back.
Joystiq unboxes the Xbox 360 Elite
The evil menace known as Joystiq received their Xbox 360 Elite today. As is only fitting, Joystiq set about performing the unboxing ritual with utmost care. As you might expect, the box contained an Xbox 360 elite and all the related goodies (HDMI cable, audio cable, 120GB HDD, and all that jazz). The HDD transfer cable -- used to copy your 20GB HDD data over to the 120GB HDD -- was packed outside of the box for some reason. We surmise, as does Joystiq, that this does not represent final packaging. Other than that, there isn't anything particularly remarkable about the Elite. It's black, it plays games, and ... um ... it's black.Check out Joystiq's Elite gallery for more pictures of the unboxing.
Welcome to the Xbox 360 Elite freak show
Man, April 29th isn't going to carry as much excitement as we all thought, because some retailers (ahem, Target) just can't hold onto their products until the street date. Llamma.com got their hands on an Elite 360 at a local Walmart in Minneapolis and instead of selling it on eBay, opted to break her open. They ever so kindly posted comparison shots of the new Elite motherboard versus the old and a few CPU/GPU pictures too. But even after ripping the console open they still couldn't figure out whether or not the Elite is sporting an upgraded 65nm CPU or that archaic 90nm version. Maybe we could help out by borrowing them our super scientific microscope and a mini ruler. It's a thought. Though, they did get the full dish on what brands the DVD drive and hard drive are, so it wasn't a total bust. Make the jump for more pictures (including a Microsoft branded HDMI cable) and behold the wonder that is an Xbox 360 Elite gutted with its innards pulled out. Yes, it is sick and vile, but we like it.[Via Engadget]
Non-Elite HDMI adapter rumor resurfaces
Even with the announcement of the Xbox 360 Elite, it seems the longstanding rumor of an HDMI adapter for the regular Xbox 360 just won't die. An Engadget reader named Evan M supposedly sent Microsoft an email after learning of the HDMI enabled Xbox 360 Elite. You see, Evan just purchased an Xbox 360 Premium, and was understandably miffed on hearing of the new Elite, knowing that his television supports HDMI. Evan received a response from Microsoft stating that a component to HDMI adapter was in the works, though the support person was unsure if this device would ever be sold by itself. In other words, it could be sold with a future iteration of the original Xbox 360.Now, customer support isn't always on top of everything, so the information can't be taken as gospel. Furthering the doubt of such an adapter, Microsoft's Andre Vrignaud, better known as Ozymandias, recently stated such an adapter is not in the works at all. Furthermore, Ozymandias states that a hardware change was required to implement HDMI in the first place, hence the creation of the Elite.And of course, the most obvious reason to doubt an HDMI adapter, it would serve no purpose. The analog-to-digital conversion created by an adapter would likely nullify the enhanced visual fidelity of HDMI anyway. Unless the HDMI port is the only free port on the back of your television, an adapter wouldn't make any sense at all.
Japan to get the 360 Elite
The QuickJump Network's 360 site reported that according to a press release from Microsoft Japan, The Land of the Rising Sun will be getting its hands on the Elite, as there were rumblings that it wouldn't make the trip to the Far East. Of course, there were no specifics as to when the third SKU would be showing up on Japanese store shelves. We can only guess if the Xbox 360 Elite will catch the attention of the Japanese consumer when it actually does come out and hopefully the price point will be proportionate to the Elite here in North America.
Pre-order the Xbox 360 Elite? Not at GameStop
According to Evil Avatar, GameStop and EB Games will not be taking pre-orders for the upcoming Xbox 360 Elite. The decision not to take pre-orders apparently stems from an uncertain number of consoles being allocated to each store. EvAv notes that there is no confirmation about whether or not customers will be able to pre-order the fabulously expensive 120GB hard drive.So, if you want to snag an Xbox 360 Elite, you'd best be prepared to wait in line for one. Well, that or you could pre-order it somewhere else. Has anyone out there pre-ordered an Elite?
Dean asks: What makes HDMI so great?
Journalist for the Mercury News and all around Xbox guru, Dean Takahashi, recently raised an important question. The question: who really needs HDMI? Of course, Takahashi is referring to the Xbox 360 Elite and its inclusion of an HDMI interface. Who better to answer the question than Kasey Holman, senior director of Corporate Marketing, HDMI Licensing, LLC. She couldn't be biased at all, right? Obvious sarcasm aside, Holman made the following arguments for the greatness of HDMI. HDMI provides the best video quality as there are no loss conversions involved, unlike component. The all digital signal will create sharper pictures without the ghosting or softness found through component. Smaller, high contrast details like text display this most prominently. HDMI provides superior digital audio (it supports up to 8 channels at 192kHz, uncompressed). HDMI is the future standard of High Definition content. Within a few years, content producers may activate a usage restraint token that won't allow High Definition playback over unprotected interfaces (i.e. component). Through an HDMI connection, the Xbox 360 will automatically detect the best settings for each television to which it is connected. In other words, users will no longer have to manually adjust resolutions and aspect ratios. These adjustments will be mad automatically according to the TV's specifications. HDMI sends both audio and video through the same cable, eliminating the need for separate cables. Of course, users of optical audio will beg to differ, but it does simplify things like System Link play. There you have it, 5 reasons HDMI owns component. Anyone out there picking up the Elite solely for HDMI?
360 Elite launch date MIA in Europe
With the announcement of the Xbox 360 Elite came a flurry of news posts around the intertron, many of them featured right here. While the box has been confirmed for an April 29th release here in the States, our friends across the Atlantic have yet to receive any official date from Microsoft. So far, Eurogamer has conjured up two sources pointing to the nebulous date of late summer. The first source is Albert Penello, Microsoft's director of global platform marketing, who spoke on Major Nelson's 360 Elite blogcast. The second source, a spokesperson from retailer HMV, also suggested late summer, adding that they would likely receive the new SKU "sooner rather than later." When questioned about the launch date, Microsoft responded that it was still awaiting confirmation of the European launch date.
120GB HDD transfer limited to one 20GB HDD
Aside from HDMI, the biggest feature of the Xbox 360 Elite is undoubtedly the 120 gigabyte hard drive. Much to the relief of 360 owners everywhere, we now know that the 120GB drive will come with a transfer cable allowing users to transfer data from the 20GB drive to the 120GB drive. Sounds great, right? Don't answer that yet, because Joystiq has uncovered a few caveats to Microsoft's transfer solution. Do you have two 20GB hard drives? You'd better pick a favorite then, because the transfer software allows only one 20GB drive to be transferred to the 120GB drive. Maybe you have data on your 120 GB drive you'd like to stick on the 20GB. Too bad, because you can only transfer from the 20GB to the 120GB. Any other combination -- transferring 20GB to 20GB for example -- won't work.As if all that wasn't bad enough, transferring data automatically deletes any data already stored on the 120GB drive, and all files transfered will be deleted from the 20GB. Finally, data cannot be transfered back to the 20GB from which it originally came. Of course, some of these issues can be nullified by purchasing a memory card -- a financial fact of which we're sure Microsoft is aware -- but the data transfer cable seems unnecessarily restrictive. Essentially, it will only be useful one time, unless you really want to format your 120GB HDD for some reason.[Via Joystiq]
Microsoft accidentally confirms HDMI?
With Microsoft staying hush-hush about the Xbox 360 Elite, people are looking for information anywhere they can get it. It seems the latest source of information is the official XNA Game Studio Express forum on the Microsoft Developer Network. An innocent XNA coder looking for answers seems to have confirmed more than the press could with calls and email directly to MS. The question, from forum user PAPutzback1, was simple: "Will the HDMI output on the revised 360 require any code changes? I am hoping some developers have a beta unit and can answer this question." A Microsoft employee by the name of Shawn Hargreaves responded, "No changes required." Obviously, Hargreaves' answer points to the Xbox 360 actually integrating HDMI at some point in the future, possibly confirming the existence of the Xbox 360 Elite. Our buddies at Xbox-Scene also report that their Microsoft sources have informed them that the HDMI port could be worked into Core and Premium 360s by June.Granted, Game Informer has already stated that it doesn't print false stories in its April issue, but this is the closest we've gotten to official confirmation from Microsoft. Take it for what you will.[Via Xbox-Scene]See also:Xbox 360 120GB HDD advertising appears
