Interesting that this didn't get announced at E3, but Games for Windows Live is now free for all. Yep, totally free, cross-platform multiplayer with the 360 included -- which obviously raises the question of whether Live will ever be free on Xbox. We think that's a pretty safe no -- unlike Games For Windows, Xbox Live actually makes money, which is pretty hard to turn down, and without a ton of competitive pressure from, say, Playstation Home, it's hard to see why Microsoft would turn that funtime cash fountain off. Still, there's always hoping, right?

It wasn't all Zune gaming at Microsoft's GDC keynote this morning -- a lot of time was spent discussing Community Games, the new official name for XNA-based games. Amateur devs will get "creator identities" along with their gamertags, and Live members can rate, grade, and discuss your efforts. Of course, as we've heard, games can move from the 360 to PCs to second-gen Zunes, which is definitely pretty cool, but it'll be interesting to see what that means for devs who want to try and take advantage of the 360's horsepower -- will they be restrict their code to a specific platform? While we wait for those answers, it looks like we'll be able to get a taste of what Community Games have to offer right away -- Microsoft announced that the first seven XNA-based games are available immediately, with an open beta to begin in spring and full-on launch by the end of the year. List of games after the jump -- but what are you doing reading this when you could be playing?

Update: We just tried downloading RocketBall and the process is totally different than you'd expect. First you have to download the XNA Launcher, which is under New Arrivals in the Marketplace blade -- but you don't need a membership, so skip that, and the XNA ad that displays points you to the wrong thing, so ignore that as well. Then head over to the Games blade and select Games Library, but don't open the Launcher, cause it'll just kick you out. Instead, press Y to view the list of games and download one. So far the "YouTube of games" seems a bit convoluted -- hopefully the next Dashboard update makes this all a bit simpler.

Of all the weeks to have a major outage of your online gaming service, the holiday and vacation weeks of Christmas and New Years may have to be the worst -- which Microsoft has learned all to well over the last ten days. We know you've heard plenty about it here at Engadget -- but that's really only because Xbox Live has had such a solid track record over the years, and we're all just as surprised as you. But while it's perfectly clear users have been seeing these issues, it's still unclear exactly how "intermittent" those issues really are. Care to let us know how you've fared in our wholly unscientific poll?

After treading deeply into some crazy Orwellian statusbox doublespeak, it looks like Xbox Live is finally up and running with no lingering issues or caveats. According to Major Nelson, the entire Live team has been working "day and night" to get things sorted, and while we appreciate their efforts over the holidays, we're still of the opinion that Live members should be getting a free week or month -- you gotta deliver when you run a paid service.

Update: Now it's down again! Status message gives the old line about intermittent issues and engineers working on fixes. Ugh, could the timing on these outages be any worse?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We're starting to think Xbox Live's holiday strategy was modeled after Newtonian physics: what goes up must come down. Although the Live support site shows the service as being "up and running", apparently users are still experiencing intermittent issues, sometimes more dramatic than those officially listed. We don't know about you, but even though only some of us on we were able to get on, even they have been seeing a lot of stalling and freezing -- and the unlucky ones are just completely shut out of Live. How are things going out there? Any XBL issues of which to speak?

P.S. -Microsoft, congrats on the great holiday season. You obviously sold a TON of Xbox 360s and Live service contracts. Now be a doll. Give everyone a week (or, say, a month) of free Live service for the ugliness over vacation, ok? These people paid for their service when the other guys offer it up for free.

Read - Live support site: still having problems
Read - Our post about problems from last weekend
Read - Our other post about outages on Christmas day

Update: Our broham Major Nelson says the Live engineers have identified a fix for the issues and things are on their way to being back on the up and up. Hopefully this time for good!

If you're a musician of any type, odds are you've found yourself on stage more than once desperately hunting for some variety of esoteric adapter which is supposed to plug into a connector you've never seen before. Well, for those who've mounted Orbital style goggle-lights and gone digging into bottomless bags only to come up empty handed, today is your day. Enter the Electronic Musician's Emergency Adaptor kit -- a little red bag containing all of the connectors, adapters, splitters, and couplers you could ever want or need. With a wide variety of XLR, 1/8", 1/4", and RCA plugs, your excuses for sucking are probably going to get a lot more complicated.

[Via Gear Diary]

Heads up, Xbox 360 tinkerers -- it appears that Microsoft is bringing out the ban hammer once again. According to a thread on an Xbox-Scene forum, users are having their Live wrists slapped left, right, and center due to "bad discs" (i.e., non 1:1 copies of games). Initially, the problem seemed to be modified DVD firmware, but it now appears the cause is due to game data that isn't properly copied, or has been "touched" in some manner. Keep in mind, these are console bans, as opposed to Live account bans, which is a minor amount of good news. The forums are abuzz with profane indictments of Microsoft and calls for heads on platters (okay, it's not that bad) -- but mostly everyone is just waiting to see where the next hit will come from. You've been warned, folks.

Alright kids, we're locked and loaded at E3 2007, and while the list of attendees has been pared quite substantially from years past, there's still fun to be had.

The action here in Santa Monica will get kicked off tonight with Microsoft's press conference, and rest assured, we'll be delivering the blow-by-blow coverage right here with our brohams from Joystiq when it commences at 8:30PM PST.

The rest of the week will see conferences from big shots such as Nintendo and Sony (both slated for tomorrow), as well as lesser brand names such as Activision, Disney Interactive, Electronic Arts, Midway, and Konami. So if you've been itching for some fresh gaming minutiae to chew on, keep it locked right here for your E3 fix.

See also: Engadget's E3 2006 coverage, Engadget's E3 2005 coverage, Engadget's E3 2004 coverage

If you thought picking up a full-length studio album on a USB stick was hot stuff, di[rec] is out to make such an idea seem second rate. Founded by two ex-Sony BMG colleagues, the company is looking to round up support from their former employer, Warner Music, and various independent labels as it records live performances, mixes and masters on-site, and offers up the show on a USB drive or "download voucher" as folks are filing out of the exits. Sadly, there's no word yet on how much the outfit plans on charging gullible concert goers for the privilege of reliving their deafening experiences over and over, but it has already given the system a go at Nova Rock in Austria last month. So, for those of you at the festival just weeks ago, how about clue the rest of us in on the quality and value of di[rec]'s offerings?

[Thanks, Lars G.]

If there's one thing we're a tad skeptical of, it's a piece of silicon making a decision that will ultimately decide whether we live or perish, but bioethicist David Wendler of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, suggests that the unbiased computer may actually be a more reasonable decision maker than your frantic family members. For those forward-thinkers out there who've already completed your advance directive, you have no worries should you become incapacitated, but for those who will end up relying on relatives to make treatment decisions for you, check these statistics. In a recent study of 16 scenarios where the patient lost the ability to make their own call, surrogates only matched their wishes "68-percent of the time," pushing the researcher to devise a formula to hopefully remove the second guessing and eventually "predict patient's wishes to an accuracy of 90-percent." Of course, critics argue that a machine can't make ethical / unethical decisions, but regardless of waiting around to see if this miracle solution actually reads your braindead mind, we'd recommend penning your future wishes right about now to avoid such quandaries.

Xbox and PC nerds who've always wondered -- really wondered -- whether controller does or doesn't pwn keyboard and mouse, and come May 8th you'll get your chance to find out. That's right, we're talking about Games for Windows Live, which pits PC gamers and Xbox gamers in epic battles of Shadowrun, and, um, Uno. We'll leave the nitty gritty to our pals at Joystiq, but the jist is you can count on your current Silver and Gold account to work in Vista, as the whole thing is based around the concept of a unified, single gamertag. Unfortunately there's no way to only play against like-platform gamers (i.e. choose only to do battle with other keyboards + mice or controllers), so get your whining voices ready for when your head continuously explodes thanks to the dude with the sniper rifle and the 1800dpi / 1MHz / 1ms laser mouse.

We're here live at the Yahoo press conference, where they're talking about their efforts in mobile internet. Marco Boerries, SVP Yahoo! Connected Life, just started in about Yahoo's interest in providing content and services to users across a range of devices via its new Java-based client running on Motorola, Samsung, Nokia and RIM phones.

* Mobile devices outnumber PCs worldwide; internet is going mobile. Users want services optimized for their mobile phones, not just a PC sync experience.

* Yahoo! Go 2.0 mobile user experience -- uses My Yahoo! settings and personalization. Changes you make on your phone are mirrored back to your My Yahoo! account

* Localization -- search localization, tailors search results to your current location.

Ah Google, where would we be without you? Instead of answering that, we'll just say that the search giant (and future world dominator?) has landed yet another smile-eliciting deal, and this time it's the San Franciscans getting the spoils. While the deal between the city of San Francisco and Google / EarthLink has been brewing for quite some time, city officials have (finally) "finalized a contract that will enable EarthLink to build a citywide wireless network and allow Google to provide free internet access." With an estimated one million or so folks to benefit from the implementation, things are looking good if you've been itching for everywhere-WiFi and happen to live in SF, and while EarthLink still plans on offering a "fee-based premium service," Google is looking out for the little guy by dishing out the free stuff. Apparently, no hard pricing figures nor rollout dates have been set just yet, but things should start moving along relatively soon if Google has anything to do with it, as a statement released by the company stated its intent to "to see the service go live as soon as possible" -- now that's what we're talking about. [Warning: PDF Link]

[Via CNET]

While product announcements are certainly thrilling at times, there's really nothing better than getting some live action video to spy before you buy. We've seen Wowwee's FlyTech Dragonfly buzzing around T3's headquarters, and we've witnessed Doom being played on an OLPC XO, but now we've got several videos showing Team Xtender's XFPS 360 doing its thang. The handy converter box allows gamers who dig the Xbox 360's high definition visuals -- but prefer to input commands via Sony's dual-shock controller or the tried and true keyboard / mouse tandem -- to have their wildest wishes granted. Moreover, it reportedly plays nice with the PS2 light gun, racing wheel, dance mat, and guitar (huzzah!). So if you're still fence-bound trying to decide whether or not this thing's worth your $79.99 come the first week of January, be sure to click on for a YouTube demonstration, and hit the read link for some more in-depth coverage.

Who woulda' thunk it? After all these years of rumors, delays, fanboy wars and beefy dev kits, somebody actually got a flesh n' blood PS3 with real, live blinky LED lights and even some of those "video games" all the kids are talking about these days. The lucky recipients of this system -- and subsequent takers of many nerdy pics -- are the PSM3 magazine peeps, so props to them for verifying the true existence of this mystical console, and for being a bunch of lucky bastages. As for their impressions, they're pretty positive. Apparently the system runs incredibly quietly, the "SIXAXIS" joypad is light (as ever) and quite responsive, and start up and load times are ultra-speedy. Of course, the console is also "heavy like a planet" and the shiny console easily succumbs to dust and fingerprints, along with being quite difficult to photograph -- though we're pretty sure you're not going to spend a large percentage of your time snapping pics of the thing when there's "TrueHD" entertainment to be had. Be sure to peep their vid of the PS3 in action after the break.