360's Guitar Hero II guitar works in Windows, Frets on Fire
>> From joystiq.com: [QUOTE] The USB-equipped X-plorer guitar that ships with the just-released Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 has some interesting tricks up its nonexistant but metaphorically convenient sleeve. Randy tipped us off that the guitar controller works in Windows Vista, but we had to check for ourself. This image was captured in Windows XP.
Of course, we quickly fired up freeware PC clone, Frets on Fire, to see if we could manage to get these two to play nicely together. Sure enough, after a minute of changing the control configuration, we were able to rock out! Unfortunately, while Mac OS X recognized the device immediately, it failed to be detected as an HID-compliant gamepad by either GamePad Companion or the open source Xbox 360 Controller driver. [/QUOTE]
HSD - This is apparently the upcoming May update, which features Messenger integration, a separated Marketplace Blade and other goodies.
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>> From nintendojo.com: [QUOTE] What started as a homebrew project to bring tilt sensitivity to Microsoft's Xbox 360 will now be produced commercially, according to an Engadget report.
Purdue University student Adam Thole reached an agreement with specialty accessory maker Talismoon to commercially produce his tiltBoard module for Microsoft's console. When attached to an Xbox 360 controller, Thole's tiltBoard allows gamers to replicate controls normally relegated to the controller's left analog stick by reproducing the stick's "max/min values for the Y-axis when it is tilted 45 degrees or more up/down and "the max/min values for the X-axis when it is tilted 60 degrees or more left/right." [/QUOTE] Full Story :nintendojo.com
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>> From sacbee.com: [QUOTE]I compared the Apple TV to Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 game console, which can more or less do the same things, acting like a bridge between a Windows computer and an HDTV set.
After having my eyes gently caressed by the Apple TV's menus, the Xbox interface is like a slap in the face. It's garish and confusing, and you have to press more buttons to get where you want to go.
But the Xbox does your HDTV justice. Microsoft's Xbox Live marketplace has some movies in HD, and these look absolutely stunning - better than most broadcast HD, and almost indistinguishable from HD DVD or Blu-ray discs, which provide the best video quality available to consumers right now.
Even the standard-definition fare on Xbox Live looks much better than iTunes movies, despite nominally being the same resolution. They look almost as good as DVDs.
Xbox Live has two other advantages: the movies are downloaded straight to your Xbox hard drive, with no need to go through the computer, and you rent the movies for around $3, which is a lot cheaper than buying. [/QUOTE] Full Story: sacbee.com
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Xbox 360 sales steady in Japan; far below Wii, PS3
>> From PunchJump: [QUOTE] Sales for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 are steady in Japan but remain far below competitor consoles in the latest hardware sales data for the region.
Media Create Co. on Fri. reported that the Xbox 360 sold 3,889 units between Mar. 26 and Apr. 1. By comparison, the console sold 3,492 units the week prior.
In addition, the Xbox 360 ranked one game title in the top 50 game sales, Call of Duty 3, which debuted at No. 26.
Xbox 360 sales remain far behind Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Sony Corp.'s Playstation 3, which sold 51,000 units and 16,800 units, respectively, in the same period. [/QUOTE] Full Story
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GamerScore Podcast: Microsoft Leaks and Product Code Names
>> From gamerscoreblog.com (FYI: Microsoft owned blog): [QUOTE] This episode talks about how companies deal with leaks, why they are good - or bad, and gives you a behind-the-scenes look at some product code-names. This is also the first time we've had multiple end-of-show easter eggs. [/QUOTE]
Here's what Window's PR manager Michael Wolf said about the Xbox360 Elite leaks: [QUOTE] "For the Elite, for example, people were talking about the functionality and had pictures and all this stuff, but they didn't have the full story. They didn't know the price, they didn't know the accessories, they didn't know additional information that really puts a lot of context and a lot of information behind it,"
"The reason why it's bad is because then you lose all the context. You lose all the facts that back it up, so that people hear the story once, understand it, and move forward, as opposed to hearing things bit by bit, piece by piece." [/QUOTE]
>> From CNet news.com: [QUOTE] Microsoft plans to follow Apple in selling unprotected songs from EMI, though the company won't say just when such tracks will appear on the Zune Marketplace store.
When CEO Steve Jobs issued his open letter calling for an end to DRM, Microsoft said the total abolition of such protections would be irresponsible, since they are needed for subscription music and other new business models. However, the software maker said Wednesday that it does plan to offer DRM-free music from EMI and others.
"We've been saying for a while that we are aware that consumers want to have unprotected content," said Zune marketing director Jason Reindorp. Reindorp said he did not have a time frame for when unprotected songs will be added to the store. [/QUOTE]
>> From next-gen.biz: [QUOTE] Computer security experts believe it is only a matter of time before console users and online gamers become the next major target for hackers.
Reports arose last month suggesting that Microsoft's Xbox Live network had been hacked. While this proved not to be the case, Microsoft did admit that support staff had compromised security by being tricked into releasing customers' account details. Experts view this trend of fraudulentlty extracting details, known as phishing, as just the beginning of what will be a sustained attempt by hackers to target game players, says a report.
With online cpabilities playing such a prominent role in today's console market, a security analyst for Australia's Computer Emergency Response Team (Auscert), MacLeonard Starkey says, "I haven't seen any malicious code that is specifically designed to run on a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox but I would expect it is not very far away at all." [/QUOTE]
>> From zune-online.com: [QUOTE] According to Zune marketing director, Jason Reindorp, Microsoft is looking at using the Zune Pass subscription just like mobile phone providers use their plans. This means a future flash version of Zune, could be released for a low price or even for free with a Zune Pass subscription plan...
The current version of Zune costs too much to be sold for free with a subscription service. Microsoft will release flash memory player(s) by the end of 2007. In this category, a low cost / low memory player like the iPod nano or shuffle is possible to be sold for free with a subscription plan of 6 months or 1 year. If not for $15 per month, for a bit more giving the option to subscribers to "buy" a certain amount of tracks normally (like eMusic does). The ideal player IMO should connect to the Marketplace from every Wireless Hotspot and download by itself tracks and albums using the subscription service. So its not that important the size of the memory. [/QUOTE]
>> From next-gen.biz: [QUOTE] Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has been defending the price of its $180 120 Gig hard drive for Xbox 360, from consumer criticism that it is too expensive.
Speaking to weekly podcast Game Theory he said, "We know it is expensive and we have definitely heard that feedback but it is a little apples and oranges to compare it to internal PC hard drives because those are off the shelf drives that you have to install yourself. You have to format those and figure out how you are going to move your content over. There is a lot of work there for your average consumer it is not a plug in and play experience for them."
"What we have done is release a smaller laptop size drive. If you compare what we are offering with a real plug-and-play drive the closest thing would be to take a 120 gig self-powered external PC drive and in that case we are seeing those retail at anywhere from $160 to $200 for comparable laptop sized external hard drives." [/QUOTE]
Anyway, those who don't want to pay Microsoft's 'premium' price will probably be able to install their own 120gb Western Digital SATA BEVS HDD using TheSpecialists HDDHackr(info) tool with the 'sector 16' taken from an original 120GB Xbox360 HDD. Full Story: next-gen.biz
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Xbox360 Advert Banned for 'glamorising street car racing'
>> From Reuters via Yahoo: [QUOTE] A television advertisement for the Xbox 360 games console must be pulled after the industry watchdog criticised it for "glamorising street car racing".
The Advertising Standards Agency said the advertisement, which featured a driver weaving in and out of traffic, being chased through a busy city centre, "could be seen to condone dangerous driving". It showed the car overturning and the driver getting out and being handed a police badge by his pursuers.
They had deliberately placed prominent onscreen text in the film, such as "Dramatisation. Professional stunt. Do not attempt", to explain that all stunts were performed in controlled environments by professionals and that viewers should not attempt the stunts themselves.
The ASA said it had noted the on-screen text, but it considered that the text "reinforced the sense that the events were real, rather than fantasy, and were therefore capable of being copied". It ruled the advertisement breached health and safety and driving standards rules, and should not be broadcast again. [/QUOTE]
Looking at the description, they are probably talking about this "Cops and Robbers" EU Xbox360 commercial (thx to sr_sparky) ... weird thing is this tv-spot dates back from October 2006 ... afaik they didn't air it anymore for months:
>> From xbox360fanboy.com: [QUOTE] If you've listened to our most recent Fancast with guest Major Nelson, you'll know that he dropped a hint to what one of the new features will be for the Spring dashboard update. Major said that a new dash feature is one of those "simple things that I've been asking for since launch" and after doing some research, we think we've figured it out. Major has always been vocal about including some way to show what game is in the DVD drive, because right now it only says "Play Game" on the bottom when a game is in the drive. So, we're thinking the update will get rid of the "Play Game" text and display the name of the game that is in the drive, something along the lines of "Play Gears of War" or "Play Crackdown". [/QUOTE]
>> We received this email from Team InFeCtuS about their versatile multi-platform InFeCtuS modchip. They now made it possible for the InFeCtuS to access (read/write) the Xbox360 NAND flash (were dash/kernel/... are stored). At this moment it's not very useful for the normal end user (as downgrading the new 4552 kernel isn't possible atm due the eFuse MS blew up), but it's a cheap and easy way for developers and researchers to read/write and soon on-the-fly patch the Xbox360 NAND flash - so they can experiment as much as they want: [QUOTE] Here in attachment the diagram to connect INFECTUS to the X360 NAND Flash.
We spoke with some hackers about a way to give a good tool to try to trick the eFUSE... right now INFECTUS is like a PROGRAMMER... in the next weeks we want to add a "patching" utility.
We want to use the onboard flash of the INFECTUS to store some strings of bytes that INFECTUS can patch on-the-fly on the BIOS. The idea is that the developers will have a nice tool that can be used to store data strings inside the flash of the modchip, then tell to the FPGA to replace on-the-fly that strings when requested... The user can define what the "conditions" are to allow a patch on-the-fly, like "wait this byte and overwrite it with XXX bytes" etc...
I hope you understand our idea... it will not be so simple to do but it is possible, and with this nice tool the developers and hackers have an unbelievable and cheaper way to try what all what's impossible! FUCK THE eFUSE... and I'm sure is possible! ;)
Tomorrow a new version of the PROGRAMMER will be released with the new options to manage the NAND X360 FLASH.
Microsoft: Xbox 360 Warranty and Service Enhancements
>> From xbox.com: [QUOTE] 1. New Warranty Enhancements, Including Cost-Free Shipping and Return of Original Console We recently announced that we changed the Xbox 360 warranty in the United States and Canada from 90 days to one year from the date of purchase. Now we're adding additional service enhancements, taking Xbox 360 customer service one step further.
- Free Shipping: In the event your console needs to be returned to us for repair your shipping costs are free. We will immediately send you a postage paid container in which to send us your console, and we will pay for shipping charges to return your console to you. We are committed to delivering an improved Xbox customer service experience for our Xbox 360 console customers, one that is faster, more efficient and includes shipping free of any charge. From our customer service representatives to our executive team, the entire Xbox team has made delivering on this commitment a top priority.
- New Post-Service Warranty: If we repair your Xbox 360 within the original warranty period, you will receive either the balance of your original warranty, or 90 days, whichever is longer. In addition, we will now pay for the shipping both ways. If we repair your Xbox 360 after the warranty period has expired, while you will be responsible for the repair costs, your repaired console will be returned to you with a new, one year repair warranty.
- Return of Original Console In either an in warranty or out of warranty situation, most customers will now receive their original console back from Microsoft.
2. Faster Service We are implementing an expedited repair process; upon receipt of the console, Microsoft will repair it and ship it to you within five business days.
3. Enhanced Operations We're increasing the number of Xbox customer care representatives, enhancing our training processes and further building out our on-site technical support, all so our customers will begin to experience a noticeable improvement in the quality of the service they receive when they contact us. Xbox will be hiring a customer care champion who will be responsible for ensuring the end-to-end experience for all Xbox customers is first-class, evaluating and implementing new practices and policies to further enhance the Xbox customer experience. We are also adding more staff at the supervisory level, to ensure we serve you better. [/QUOTE]
>> From mcvuk.com: [QUOTE] Despite Xbox 360 being currently the only next-gen console to offer no form of motion control via its standard joypad, Microsoft's developer group general manager Chris Satchell has told CVG that his firm is waiting to see how the sector develops before making any moves.
"There's no point building the hardware if nobody really wants it," Satchell stated. "One thing I'm not certain of is that third-parties are super-excited about the motion control, or at least they're not showing it with the games hitting the shelves yet. [/QUOTE]
>> Red Kawa released a new version of the Videora Xbox360 Converter(info) - a tool that allows you to convert your regular PC video files (avi, mpeg, etc) into the proper video format that your Xbox360 understands. What's new/fixed: * Added: Xbox 360 MPEG-2 Support * Updated: FFmpeg rev8564 * Release Notes: Xbox 360 MPEG-2 support has been re-added to the main conversion core. For now, Videora Xbox360 Converter only converts videos to MPEG-2 format. This means Windows Media Center (2005 or Vista) is required in order to view and playback your converted MPEG-2 videos. We hope to add support for conversion into WMV eventually. * Upgrade Notes: There is no upgrade available so you will have to download the full installer. The full installer will overwrite your old version so you will loose all your old settings and profiles This version is substantially different from the last and there is no way to keep your old settings and profiles.
Microsoft Launches Xbox360 Disc Replacement Program
>> From xbox.com: [QUOTE] If, for any reason, you have a damaged Microsoft Xbox 360 disc and like to replace it, please review the information below:
THIS PROGRAM IS GOOD ONLY FOR XBOX 360 CONSOLE OWNERS IN COUNTRIES WHERE XBOX 360 IS SOLD AT AUTHORIZED RETAIL LOCATIONS.
This program only applies to games where Microsoft is the publisher, and is subject to availability. To check and see if your game is available for replacement, please review which Microsoft products currently fall under this program here. Link to Game List Page
You will need to print and complete the program form. Once the products have been received by Microsoft, please allow four to six weeks for delivery.
The following game titles are currently available for this program: Crackdown, Fuzion Frenzy 2, Gears Of War, Halo 2, Kameo: Elements of Power, Ninety Nine Nights, Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, Viva Piñata, Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Vol. 1 [/QUOTE]
Note that they'll still ask you 20USD/15EUR/10GBP to replace the disc. More Details: xbox.com
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Free60: X.org Driver and a new 'Full' Gentoo LiveCD for Xbox360
>> More development from free60 ... they released X.org xenon drivers and Cpasjuste, who already released a Gentoo 'Minimal' Xenon LiveCD (87MB) a few days ago, now released a Xenon modified ISO based on the 'full' BETA Gentoo LiveCD (608MB): [QUOTE] No April Fools' Day joke. We have released a preliminary X.org driver and Cpasjuste has built a new LiveCD which makes use of it. Unfortunately, support for Samsung drives and sound drivers are still missing. [/QUOTE]
From the gentoo-livecd-xenon-beta readme: [QUOTE] This is a liveCD for Linux on the Xbox 360. It is based on the experimental gentoo liveCD that can be found here. It has a few changes to boot on the Xbox 360 (codename xenon). Currently, Samsung drives aren't supported, there is no sound driver, and you should use vga output for better results.
This liveCD is build with the new xenosfb driver so it have a full gnome desktop. It also contains the powerpc64 toolchain for developers.
How does it work ? Burn gentoo-livecd-xenon-beta.iso. Upload the cdreader binary via serial, or use the new king kong patcher with built-in readcd code, this will open the dvd tray. Put the gentoo-livecd-xenon-beta CD in the drive. cdreader will automatically start the xell bootloader located at lba 0x20 on this cd and boot the Linux Kernel. [/QUOTE]
Note: Like with all homebrew/linux stuff on Xbox360 atm you'll need Xbox360 kernel 4532/4548, a burned King Kong Xbox360 game with patched shaders and a Xbox360 DVD-ROM drive (Hitachi-LG only for the LiveCD if you use Xorloser's new 'no-serial-cable' shaders) with modified firmware.
>> Amirm, a Microsoft HD-DVD insider, posted some details on the AVS forums about the HDMI port on the upcoming Xbox360 Elite: [QUOTE] Xbox 360 Elite supports HDMI 1.2 profile. For audio, you can select DD, DTS (at 1.5 Mbps), and WMA-Pro (Microsoft high fidelity multi-channel codec supported in some AVRs such as Pioneer). Since it is not based on 1.3, it will not support output of DD+ or TrueHD (even if it did, mixing would have been turned off). PCM output is available but only for 2-channels (not 5.1). If you are keen on having 5.1 PCM output, I recommend purchasing the Toshiba A2 player which after the price drop, will be much cheaper than Elite.
Answering other questions, both Xbox 360 Elite and current Xbox 360 units will have a spring (console) update which adds support for different video levels for VGA output ("7.5 IRE vs 0"). And as someone mentioned, using this setting you should be able to use computer monitors in addition to TVs with resolutions all the way up to 1080p with high fidelity and no issues with HDCP handshaking. So for current users, I highly recommend trying this update with your VGA connection to see if it does the job for you. Note that this is a console update and will work for both games and of course, HD DVD. The HD DVD software update is separate from this (and will be available on both Xbox Live and xbox.com).
On output video format, Xbox 360 Elite will perform a handshake and select the appropriate RGB/YUV settings over HDMI. You cannot select it yourself. [/QUOTE]
>> T3CH released a new SVN compile (rev8391) of XboxMediaCenter(info) for Xbox1. This T3CH-compile is a complete snapshot of what is in SVN at the time the build was compiled, with just a few small additions.
Special Notes and Noteworthy/XML/Script changes: * Funny how things work out. This build isn't an april fools joke * added: Filter button to music and video library views. Allows you to filter a long list just by typing in the start of a word. * This build may corrupt an existing videodatabase, so to play it safe backup the userdata before upgrading if you don't want to loose your db's. * I include a new AMT revision which keeps it's cache in a different place; To avoid creating a new cache you may Create a folder \UserData\script_data\Apple Movie Trailers\ and move the old \.cache\ folder into it before running script. This AMT autochecks for updates to Newest Category on startup. Note to skinners: AMT Skins may be slightly outdated so feel free to update them * There's no new mplayer TEST version since my last build, but you can still report issues with old TEST here. * I've also tweaked the win32 run_me_first.bat so it runs and then unmounts the virtual drives when you exit. * I'm also including the XBMC Win32 PC environment.exe that is meant for skinners & python developers, read more about the concept here. It was built using Microsoft DirectX Summer 2004 SDK.
Keep in mind this is a SVN snapshot of the current development tree. It's not an official (stable) point release. Use only if you know what you are doing.
>> A homebrew game made to emulate and enhance the super mario brothers.... [QUOTE] - Animated lava and water tiles - 20% chance of a held spiked shell dies when hitting another player - Hammers are fired from a better position relative to the player - Fixed Screen shake POW bug - Fixes to AI to deal with podobos, bowser fire and new stuff - Fixed gfx bug when switching places with mystery mushroom while holding an item - Menu option to turn off/on secret moves - More than 20 Secret April Fools Features. Here are some hints: * Some features are special moves for players based on what powerup they have or what they are carrying * Some are new items and powerups * Some are tweaks to existing features * and some things don't fall into any of these categories... - There is a contest at http://forum.72dpiarmy.com to see who can unlock the most hidden features * Contest winner gets special forum status and badge on splash screen for next release of SMW! * So keep checking the forums for the latest codes and unlocked features! [/QUOTE]
