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Xbox 360 802.11n adapter rebirths on Costco site, ships November 10th for $88

by Ross Miller posted Nov 5th 2009 at 4:54PM

You can't keep a phoenix down and this Xbox 360 wireless n adapter seems to be a bird of similar feather. After discretely showing up on US retail sites and subsequently managing to drop off into internet obscurity, the 802.11n-compliant peripheral has returned to the scene via Costco's site, this time with a November 10th shipping date and a more attractive than before $88 price tag. With only five days until the 10th, will this finally be the price and date that stick? Who knows -- but at least this time we won't have to wait long to find out.

[Thanks, WeakSasco]

Leaked Walmart ad reveals Xbox 360 Arcade with $100 gift card, $300 HP G60 laptop

by Ross Miller posted Nov 4th 2009 at 12:29AM

It's not quite a $99 Xbox 360, but if this apparent Walmart scan via Kotaku is to be believed, that $199 Arcade version is getting a $100 gift card promotion going into effect this Saturday. In real terms, that boils down to a $234 Xbox 360 Pro for first-time buyers, seeing as you'll be needing that $135, 120GB hard drive, too. Also listed are a Sony Blu-ray player for $148 (we're guessing the currently-MSRP'd $199 BDP-S360), and a $298 HP G60-519WM, which touts a 2.2GHz Intel Celeron, 15.6-inch HD display, Windows 7 Home Premium, 3GB RAM, and a 250GB HDD -- not a bad followup at all for that Compaq CQ60. Some interesting spy shots from the Slick Deals forum seem to give credence to the scan, although we're still playing wait-and-see -- that $100 gift card with the Xbox 360 arcade is almost too good to be true, even if it is just a clever tactic to clear shelf space in the lead-up to Black Friday.

Update: Sure as the sun, an official ad has popped up on Yahoo's front page. Screenshot after the break.

[Thanks, just4onepost]

Read - G60-519WM spotted
Read - $199 Xbox 360 Arcade with $100 gift card?

Continue reading Leaked Walmart ad reveals Xbox 360 Arcade with $100 gift card, $300 HP G60 laptop

Xbox 360 Wireless N adapter disappears from the internets

by Thomas Ricker posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 7:16AM

Today's the day that a GameStop listing had Microsoft's Xbox 360 Wireless N Networking Adapter going live for retail. So how's that $100 worth of throughput treating you? What's that... it's not actually for sale? Indeed: the entry has been pulled from GameStop and a Google Shopping search reveals only a single Buy.com entry showing the adapter as "temporarily sold out." That's wishful thinking. While Microsoft has confirmed the adapters' existence they have not officially announced a street date or price. We'll let you know if that changes.

Update: Amazon.fr lists the adapter for 80 euro bucks with an expected November 20th ship. We'll see.

[Thanks Adam and Tim Ashman for pre-modified photo]

Dog buys 5,000 Microsoft points, says he just wanted to check out the Abbey Road DLC

by Laura June posted Nov 1st 2009 at 7:57PM

Say what you will about dogs being man's best friend -- they sure can get into a lot of trouble. While our dogs have been limited to eating shoes and shedding on our furniture, Greg Strope of Richmond, Virginia has reason to believe his furry friend has gone the extra mile. While he lay in bed sleeping, his dog Oscar, he believes, purchased 5,000 Microsoft points. The only possible culprit, Oscar left some telltale signs (drool and scratches) on the Xbox controller, leading Greg to blame the $63 purchase on him. We have to admit the dog's actions rather impress us, though it also makes us nervous about all those times we left our laptop open and unattended around our own tiny beast. Video featuring damning photographic evidence is after the break.

Continue reading Dog buys 5,000 Microsoft points, says he just wanted to check out the Abbey Road DLC

Datel reportedly looking to 'remedy' Microsoft's lock-out of unauthorized memory units

by Donald Melanson posted Oct 28th 2009 at 3:58PM

This brouhaha isn't officially on just yet, but MaxConsole has what it says is a letter from Datel's UK distributors, which details the company's response to Microsoft's locking-out of unauthorized memory units in the upcoming (and currently previewed) Xbox 360 dashboard update. While it's a bit short on specifics, Datel reportedly says that it is "aware of the changes that are required to remedy this problem and will shortly release a solution in readiness for this potential update." In the meantime, it's apparently telling retailers that they can send back the affected memory units if they like, and promises it will replace them with updated units in time for the dashboard update.

Microsoft temporarily suspends Sky Player for Xbox 360

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 28th 2009 at 9:52AM

"Very fast," "a dream," "fantastic." It looks like you can add "on hiatus" to the list of superlatives -- at least for the time being. That boffo Sky Player that Microsoft debuted for the Xbox 360? "Suspended." Why, you ask? "Due to an unforeseen technical issue." Luckily for Britons and ex-pats, the £15 monthly service should resume tomorrow, barring any further technical issues. In the meantime, it looks like the poor avatar above will be stuck watching Benny Hill on Netflix like the rest of us. Statement after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft temporarily suspends Sky Player for Xbox 360

Sky Player on Xbox 360 receives first eyes-on analysis

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 27th 2009 at 8:12AM

Sky TV has made its arrival on the Xbox 360 today in prompt fashion, with live streaming and on-demand video available, and the keen lads over at Electric Pig already have a preview of the service in action. Their immediate reaction was that the Sky Player interface was "ultra-speedy" and easily navigable using the 360 controller. Streaming at the high-quality setting (alas, there's no HD on offer yet) was also no problem on a 4Mb broadband connection, though they reserve their highest praise for the on-demand content which was pumped through within a couple of seconds of selection and benefits from an "astonishingly well-designed interface." For the full impressions of the subscription-based service, which starts out at £15 per month, hit up the read link below.

Microsoft: 'We have no plans for Blu-ray on Xbox 360'

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 1:49AM

A recent Gizmodo sit down with Steve Ballmer led with a headline exclaiming a Blu-ray add-on for Xbox was coming. See, when Ballmer was asked about making the Xbox a home theater companion of choice and where Blu-ray might fit in, the Windows 7 wild man said, "Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there -- you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories." He then added that on-demand is the future of movies, not physical media. Now our bud Major Nelson, Director of Programming for Xbox Live, has stepped up to lay the conflation to rest. The Major says that Ballmer was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC and reiterated Microsoft's focus of bringing instant-on 1080p streaming movies to the Xbox 360. So... that should end speculation of Blu-ray on Xbox right? Not if history serves, nope.

Xbox Live update preview program now rolling out

by Ross Miller posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 10:28PM

Xbox 360's resident spokesman Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb wants you to know that the Xbox Live update preview program is now officially a go, with the first wave of registered participants getting automatically prompted to update upon sign-in (you should also receive an email, but apparently they're behind on the notifications). More people are said to be getting the update "in the coming days," so don't lose hope yet -- not that waiting for Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm integration, and 1080p instant-on streaming should cause ultimate despair, but we digress. The only thing you don't get is the Halo Waypoint preview, which doesn't join the preview fun until next week.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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]

Homemade pink Xbox 360 controller makes the ladies say 'heyyy!'

by Darren Murph posted Oct 18th 2009 at 5:44AM

Not that we haven't seen pink Xbox 360 controllers before (including one from Microsoft itself), but this one just oozes class. Constructed by Flickr user 4apples for the lovely lady (ladies?) in his life, he took all the time one would expect a handsome young bloke to take by dissembling it, painting each piece in varying shades of pink and slapping it all back together. Have a look at the read link for the finished project, and naw, we won't tell your special someone if you decide to follow suit and call it an original.

[Via technabob]

CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXIV: Microsoft's Greenberg says Xbox will outsell PS3 for 'entire generation'

by Donald Melanson posted Oct 16th 2009 at 7:21PM

Didn't think Microsoft exec Aaron Greenberg could top himself after saying that Hulu on 360 was like "asking out a really hot chick on a date?" Well, think again, 'cause Greenberg recently sat down with GameInformer for a fairly wide ranging interview, and he took the opportunity to toss a few bombs in Sony's direction. The biggest of those is that he's "confident" that the Xbox 360 will "not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation" -- adding that it's "similar to a game of baseball, it is not about just winning one inning, but instead being able to win the game by consistently delivering across all nine innings." Greenberg also went on to say that Sony's expected good showing in the September sales numbers is merely a "short term bump," and that "it is not a real concern to us." Hit up the link below for the complete interview, which also includes talk of the Zune HD, Xbox Live, and Microsoft's plans for the holiday season.

[Via PC World]

Exclusive two-tone Xbox 360 Play and Charge kit coming to GameStop

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 16th 2009 at 2:11PM

We still think those crazy Mad Catz Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 controllers are the coolest around at the moment, but if you're committed to staying first-party this new GameStop-exclusive Play and Charge bundle is right up there -- black carbon fiber with red inserts never did anyone wrong, you know? Pre-orders are up now in all kinds of countries for $70.

Gallery: Exclusive two-tone Xbox 360 Play and Charge kit coming to GameStop

Celebrity Nerds: Lil' Wayne's got a modded Xbox

by Laura June posted Oct 9th 2009 at 3:39PM

Celebrity Nerds confirms what you always knew, deep in your heart of hearts: that stars are nerds like us. Send in your own confirmations of this fact right here.

Now, we don't have photographic evidence of this one, so Wayne, if you happen to be a reader, feel free to snap a pic of yourself with the console. Either way, we have enough proof to proudly classify Lil' Wayne a... you know, nerd. GTR has published a video of the New Orleans-born rapper having a conversation with KRS-One during which he says he's got an "Xbox that has every game from A-Z, Atari, Nintendo, pong, movies & even porn." Whoa. Where can we get one of those? Wayne claims that the Xbox was a gift... but we bet he hacked it himself. Video is embedded after the break.

[Via Joystiq]

Continue reading Celebrity Nerds: Lil' Wayne's got a modded Xbox

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