NXE -- Engadget

NXE posts

Forthcoming Xbox 360 update locks out 'unauthorized' memory units

by Donald Melanson posted Oct 18th 2009 at 6:50PM

Using a less than official memory unit with your Xbox 360? Then you'll probably want to get your act together before diving into the upcoming preview program for the latest 360 update, as it will apparently lock out any "unauthorized" memory units as it adds all those nifty Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm features. That word comes straight from none other than Xbox Live's Major Neslon, who also warns anyone using said memory units that they'll basically be flat out of luck if they update before backing things up to an official storage device and then go looking for their saved games -- which, you know, would be a bit of a pain.

[Via Joystiq]

Xbox 360's new Zune, Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter features detailed on video

by Paul Miller posted Oct 7th 2009 at 2:19PM

We just got a pretty detailed look at Microsoft's upcoming Dashboard update for the Xbox, which brings with it the Zune Video Marketplace and Last.fm music streaming, along with Facebook and Twitter social functionality. We were most impressed with Facebook, which includes a feature for spotting which of your Facebook friends have Xbox Live -- a great way to grow that friends list and bring a bit of "synergy" to your life. Last.fm was a bit of a downer, since you can't do anything else while listening to the music, but otherwise there weren't many minuses to the presentation other than the lack of a firm release date. Check out Joystiq's full impressions at the read link before, or watch the whole demo on mind-blowing video after the break.

Continue reading Xbox 360's new Zune, Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter features detailed on video

Xbox 360's new Netflix Movie Parties disabled for Starz Play titles?

by Ross Miller posted Jul 25th 2009 at 4:54AM

Ever get a sinking feeling in your stomach, like it's November 2008 all over again? Yes, just like when Sony Pictures blocked its films from Netflix on Demand for a then-fresh New Xbox Experience update, so too are the early adopters of the new Xbox Live Dashboard update seeing select films excluded from the joys of its group sharing "Movie Parties" mode. Our BFFs at Joystiq have done some preliminary testing on the issue, and it seems the common link is that all guilty videos hail from the Starz Play catalog. In other words, you can all but forget about watching Pineapple Express synchronized with your Xbox 360-toting friends and family thousands of miles away -- for now at least. With any luck, like the previous issue with Sony Pictures, this problem will eventually fix itself, and with any luck, it'll be smooth sailing by the time the Xbox Live Dashboard update is officially pushed out to the masses on August 11th. Video proof of the misdemeanor can be seen after the break.

Continue reading Xbox 360's new Netflix Movie Parties disabled for Starz Play titles?

The new Xbox Live dashboard update preview is... live!

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jul 24th 2009 at 11:08AM

That's right kids. Netflix movie parties, avatar accessories, Games on Demand (though no proper Xbox 360 titles yet -- this is just the preview after all). We just got the update and are exploring right now, so stay tuned. If you're one of the select few, let us know in comments!

Some notable bits thus far:

Netflix now has way, way more options. You can actually browse content via the app, which is great. As a commenter points out, HD content is now denoted with a tag.
There isn't any avatar prop content available just yet -- hopefully we'll get to pick out an awesome gun to carry around soon though.
No Games on Demand content from the current gen console is available, but apparently the games will start rolling out in early August (sigh).
As we noted in previous posts, the preview doesn't boast any of the Last.fm, Facebook, or Twitter additions yet.
We know they're still working the kinks out, but there seems to be noticeable slowdown when shifting between pages, something we've never noticed before in the NXE.

Gallery: Xbox Live dashboard update first look

Microsoft touts 30 million Xbox 360s sold, 20 million Xbox LIVE members

by Donald Melanson posted May 28th 2009 at 8:29PM

Sony may have been the first to claim the 20 million users number, but most will no doubt agree that Microsoft has a considerably stronger claim to that title, as their just-announced 20 million users apparently includes only "active members," and doesn't include users that have simply signed up to use their online forums. Even less debatable are Microsoft's latest sales numbers for the console, which now officially top 30 million worldwide. As Microsoft points out, that translates to a whopping $14.5 billion in sales across all Xbox 360 categories, or an impressive $5.9 billion in game sales for third-party publishers. Other tidbits include the fact that Xbox 360 users own 8.3 titles each on average, and that Xbox LIVE has seen a 136% increase in new members since the launch of the New Xbox Experience last year.

Zune HD (xYz) positioned to take on Apple, Sony, Nintendo and Google?

by Thomas Ricker posted May 15th 2009 at 6:42AM

Sounding too good to be true, the cats at Teamxbox have posted a lengthy piece quoting multiple sources from Redmond and Santa Clara who anonymously spill the beans on what the Zune HD is and isn't. The "digital entertainment handheld," dubbed unanimously as product "xYz" by said sources to emphasize its purpose of bridging the Xbox and Zune platforms, is not a phone (that's Project Pink) but a converged "mashup" of devices like the Sony Mylo, PSP, and iPod touch. The emphasis of the device is not the hardware but the software, services, and entertainment experience if offers while remaining primarily "a portable game console and media player." It's said to link into Microsoft's Skybox computing services for mobiles and blur the lines between Xbox Live and the Zune and Sky Marketplaces. Even the Xbox 360's NXE interface will be making its way onto the new Microsoft handheld. As Teamxbox summarizes:

Buy a song, a movie or a TV show on your Xbox, play the content later on the handheld or the other way around. Play an Xbox Live Arcade game either on your Xbox or in this handheld.

At the moment, we have no way to authenticate any of this beyond what we've brought to the table already. Honestly, having had our hopes crushed by a tepid reaction to market trends from Microsoft in the past makes it difficult to believe all these seemingly fanboi fantasy claims of specs and convergence. However, if true, if Microsoft finally breaks free from the rigid silos of its own making and delivers an integrated living room, gaming, and portable media experience along with a stable Windows 7 computing environment... well, wait this just can't be happening.

[Via wmpoweruser and SlashGear]

Poll: Has your Xbox 360 been dealt the E74 error?

by Ross Miller posted Mar 20th 2009 at 12:31AM

Move over RRoD, it looks like there's a new Xbox 360 hardware failure in town. According to anecdotal data collected by Joystiq as well as Google Trends, there's been a steady rise in reports and discussion of the E74 error since mid-October, with no apparent correlation between any specific model or year of purchase. From what we can tell, the E74 error is related to video problems caused by either a faulty AV connector or, more often, a loosened ANA / HANA scaling chip. Symptoms include visual glitches like random lines or snow and a single red light on the console in the lower right quadrant (see picture). The time frame for the rise in issues makes NXE and its November debut a suspect, but it's worth noting that the uptick started just before that launch, so perhaps it has more to do with hiccups caused by spurred interest in turning on the console after a long period of dormancy. We're curious to know how the issue has affected the Engadget readership. Has your Xbox 360 gotten the Red Arc of Death? Let us know in the poll below.

Read - Joystiq Survey
Read - Google Trends [Via Negative Gamer]

Xbox Live tallies 1 million Netflix Watch Instantly activations, 1.5 billion minutes served

by Richard Lawler posted Feb 5th 2009 at 3:01AM

Bad news first: there might be a bit more competition than you expected for that home theater giveaway. Good luck bringing down Netflix's shooting star though, as if last week's good news train wasn't enough comes news that over a million Xbox Live Gold members have already downloaded and activated the Watch Instantly app since its NXE debut last November. That's more than 10% of Netflix's just announced 9.4 million subscribers who've already watched over 1.5 billion minutes of TV and movies through their consoles. They're not the only ones happy, while streaming may be eating into DVD rentals, Xbox Live Marketplace rentals are up 174 percent year over year. The streaming library is up to 12,000 titles, with a "growing percentage" in high definition, for the rest of the celebratory details check the full PR after the break. Nothing left for us to say but congratulations and hey, if you get a minute, could you fix Nilay's HD streaming on the Xbox? Thanks.

Continue reading Xbox Live tallies 1 million Netflix Watch Instantly activations, 1.5 billion minutes served

Xbox 360 HDMI audio fix arrives tomorrow morning

by Richard Lawler posted Feb 2nd 2009 at 5:33PM

Notice something missing from your Xbox 360 ever since the NXE went live? Some HDMI-connected gamers lost all audio after the update, and a fix is finally on the way. According to Major Nelson, it's due to arrive February 3 at 2:00 a.m. PST in a mandatory dashboard update that should address the issues experienced with some HDTVs. That problem with your idiot friend always triggering the witch while playing Left 4 Dead? Still unaddressed.

Gridplane releases hazy NXE mockup that never was

by Laura June posted Jan 30th 2009 at 11:03AM

Design / animation studio Gridplane's recently unloaded photos of a mockup it contributed to the Microsoft Xbox team in charge of revamping the Xbox user interface, which eventually became the New Xbox Experience, AKA NXE. There are a few things here we like -- the design has a clean, other-worldly feel to it that's semi-appealing. However, we're not so into the milky haze that could have separated us from our beloved, fashionable avatar. Check out a few more shots of the proposed design after the break.

[Via Joystiq]

Xbox Live Gold subscription on sale at Amazon for $29.97

by Laura June posted Jan 19th 2009 at 3:49PM

You heard it right! Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold subscription, which normally runs $50 annually, is being sold by Amazon right this very instant for $29.97. A similar discount was apparently going on at Buy.com last week, so we're not sure what it all means, but we suppose it could mean that Microsoft might possibly be moving toward a lower price for the subscription (don't hold your breath). We don't really know "why" or "how" this has happened, but it "rules" and we're looking forward to all the extra cash our avatar's going to have in the coming year for new hats and fingerless gloves.

[Via PC World]

Engadget's Netflix HD streaming shootout

by Nilay Patel posted Jan 19th 2009 at 11:08AM

Netflix seems to be doing things right when it comes to the streaming game, partnering with several hardware companies in an attempt to make its service more or less ubiquitous -- a pretty sharp break from the proprietary hardware approach taken by most of its competitors. That means Netflix subscribers have quite a few choices when it comes to streaming, and we thought we'd put the ones available now head-to-head and try to crown a winner. The good news? There isn't a mediocre choice out there. The bad? Well, read on.

Update: We shot another video to answer some lingering questions about the Roku player, check it below.

Continue reading Engadget's Netflix HD streaming shootout

Microsoft promises to keep Xbox Live up through the holidays

by Nilay Patel posted Dec 11th 2008 at 7:21PM

It looks like Microsoft doesn't want a repeat of last year's post-holiday Xbox Live outages, when the service was basically unusable for two weeks -- according to 360 product manager Aaron Greenberg, MS is "well prepared for the type of growth we expect this holiday," and that more Live staffers than ever before will be on hand to fix things if things do go bonkers. From what we've heard Live is more robust than ever now that the NXE and the associated backend changes have been rolled out, so we're hoping things go well -- but we wouldn't necessarily say no to another free Arcade game.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

New Xbox Arcade units to pack 256MB internal storage

by Jacob Schulman posted Dec 2nd 2008 at 9:12PM

Now that the New Xbox Experience has been mostly-successfully pushed out, with its avatars, new interface, and updated marketplace, Arcade owners with less than 128MB of storage have been left out in the cold -- and the big M's "solution" of free memory cards wasn't exactly ideal. That's changing, however -- a MS spokesperson confirmed to Xbox360 Fanboy that new Arcade units will contain 256MB of internal memory. So if you've been looking to pick up a new 360 Arcade, feel free to get your Netflix HD on as soon as every last cord is connected -- if you're a subscriber, that is.

Columbia Pictures flicks -- mostly -- back on for Xbox 360 Netflix streaming

by Richard Lawler posted Nov 25th 2008 at 10:29PM

We never got a satisfactory answer for why they disappeared in the first place, but it seems the majority of the Columbia Pictures' movies on Netflix Instant Watch lists suddenly switched to "not available on Xbox 360" are once again open for streaming to all devices. The Karate Kid series, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and others now stream to Microsoft's box, however Columbia Pictures movies tagged with the "available through Starz Play" logo -- including Bad Boys and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story -- are still out. Hopefully the remaining relevant parties are contacted soon, as Detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett have work to do, but this is a great start.

[Thanks, Hunter!]