$400 Xbox 360 Game of the Year Bundle Confirmed

The rumors were right. Microsoft is releasing a "Game Of The Year Bundle" including the Xbox 360 Elite, Halo 3 and Fable 2 for $400—the same price of the standalone Elite console. It's not an AMAZING deal, but if you're looking to "jump in" to the Xbox 360, these are games you'll want to play anyway. The bundle should be available anytime between now and soon. [Major Nelson]

Red Xbox Coming

Kotaku notes that a NZ Halo Wars press release makes mention of an EB exclusive Red Xbox 360 Elite. [Kotaku]

Dealzmodo: $80 Off Xbox 360 Elite

Remember that deal from last week where you could save $50 on a new Xbox Elite at Dell? Well, I really hope you didn't listen to us. Because this week—today only, actually—you can save $80 on an Elite at Dell. Enter the code 'NP?CKPRH$KTWLL' at checkout and knock the price down to $320 (with free shipping). If you did listen to us last week and paid a bit more for an Elite, make sure to hop in your time machine and punch us in the face. It probably won't prevent anything but it might make you feel a bit better. [Dell via eDealinfo - Thanks Polo!]

Dealzmodo: Free $60 Gift Card With Xbox 360 Elite at Amazon

Following Microsoft's solid price cuts on the Xbox 360, this is a sweetass deal: At Amazon, if you buy an Xbox 360 Elite, you'll get a free $60 gift card. The only catch is that you have to buy the 360 from Amazon.com, and not one of their third-party merchants. It'll get emailed to you by Sept. 30 with the info about redeeming it. That's a free game or like half-way to a Gears of War 2 Lancer to faux grind your little brother into kibbles 'n' bits. [Amazon via Bargainist]

Dealzmodo: $100 Off Xbox 360 Elite

You could buy a new 60GB Xbox 360 for $350. Or, if you are reading this post right now, you could buy a new 120GB Xbox 360 Elite for $350 and get two bundled games free. We'll let you decide whether the 60GB version's tweaked RAM placement is worth $100 and a few games. (But just so you know, it is not.) Available at Dell until August 20th, enter V8Q199$GCXJWL$ at checkout to get the savings. Oh, and free shipping, too. [Dell via Fatwallet Thanks James!]

Pioneer Elite SC-07 and SC-05 Flagship Receivers (Plus the VSX-03TXH and VSX-01TXH)

Pioneer's got new Elite 7.1 receivers, the high end SC-07 and SC-05, and the lesser VSX-03TXH and VSX-01TXH. The SC-07 has a Burr Brown Sampling Rate Converter (SRC) to upscale audio to 192 kHz 24-bit res, and dual HDMI outputs for multiroom output. The SC-07 and SC-05 also work with Pioneer's new Blu-ray player to activate the "Precision Quartz Locking System (PQLS) that synchronizes data between the Blu-ray Disc player and the receiver, providing listeners with the ultimate precision in CD playback." I kid you not, Pioneer is working on making CDs the yesterday technology of tomorrow! All four receivers do new lossless formats ("DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution, Dolby® TrueHD and Dolby® Digital Plus" ) and room tuning. More »

Elite Portable Floor-Rising Screen is Pure Magic

Good lord, look at this Elite Portable Floor-Rising Screen that's motorized. Carry it around with you, make it rise with its magic motors, and impress all those superficial suits on your next presentation road trip. Or, keep it right at home, take off that easily-removed handle, and it looks like it's a permanent installation. Available by June, your choice of either an 84" or a 100" diagonal screen will set you back $2000. Screen sizes up to 150" are planned.

HP Updates Slimline Desktop With Dual Blu-ray/HD Player, Offers New Monitors

HP is also dropping a pair of updated desktops and monitors for CES. First up, the HP Pavilion Slimline s3330f is a media-oriented machine, now with a sweet Dual Format Blu-Ray and HD-DVD player, plus a TV tuner and GeForce 8500 vid card with an HDMI port to connect to an HDTV. It comes in at under a grand, which is nice with the Dual Format HD drive. More »

MadCatz HDMI Conversion Kit Brings HDMI to Premium, Core Xbox 360s

The last time we saw HDMI cables for the Xbox 360 it was from the now out-of-business Lik-Sang. This HDMI Conversion Kit however, is from MadCatz, who have brought interesting and innovative products to market without going arse up. More »

Spyder3 Calibrates Your Monitor, Probably Lobotomizes You at Night

Aimed at creative professionals, Datacolour's Spyder3 color calibration system may give you sci-fi shivers when you see it parked on your desk. Incorporating a larger aperture than previous models, the Spyder3 uses an ambient light sensor to improve its accuracy, and its monitor sensor takes just seven minutes to calibrate. More info and pics below. More »

Pioneer Elite SC-09TX Amp and Receiver Kicks Audio Arse

Pioneer rolled out its Elite SC-09TX Direct Energy amp and AV receiver combination, a mutha of an AV system if we've ever seen one. Set to ship in January, the setup consists of a 10-channel amplifier stacked on top of a precision pre-amp receiver unit, giving you 200 watts x 10 of sweet, clean power. And man, did this sucker sound great. Pioneer hooked it up to some of its speakers designed by a former KEF engineer, and knocked our socks off. Since we can't perfectly convey that sonic experience to you here, settle for a bit of amplifier porn in the gallery on the next page. More »

HP Elite m9000 Desktop Is an Incredible Entertainment Hulk

HP's new Elite m9000 Series Desktop PC is as hardcore as a non-gaming desktop PC can get these days: More »

HDMI Coming to Not-So-Elite Xbox 360s?

A "mole" at Microsoft has told Ars Technica that after the current inventory is spent, they're going to "soft launch" new Core and Premium Xbox 360s in late August or September that are loaded up with HDMI and possibly quieter DVD drives, along with the long-awaited 65nm process CPUs. While this is complete hearsay, the guys at Ars have better bullshit detectors than most, and we've been expecting these updates for a while, so it's not exactly flailing speculation—but be sure to keep breathing. [Ars Technica]

AdWatch: Xbox 360 Elite Commercial Runs Out of Bullet Points

Usually, when you're making an ad for a new product you have on the market, you make a bullet-pointed list of ways that it improves on the previous generation. In this case, all Microsoft could come up with was HDMI, a 120GB drive, and that it's black. They even said pointed out that it was black twice, since they really don't have many other features to tout. More »

Pricing and Details of Pioneer's New Plasmas

To recap the news that leaked out of Europe yesterday, Pioneer is rolling out its 8th-generation plasmas, TVs whose black levels are 80% deeper than Pioneer's previous TVs. The end result is a 20,000:1 contrast ratio, and three times as many gradient steps. That means, in dark movie scenes, you'll see be able to see the action but also appreciate the depth of the shadows. Best of all, Pioneer says that because of the way the technology works, there's no sacrifice in panel brightness. More »

Xbox Hard Drive Transfer Cable Free

Just a reminder to those of you who purchased an Xbox 360 Elite already. If you fill out a migration kit order form included with your machine, Microsoft will send you a cable free of charge. More »

Xbox 360 GPU Goes 65nm this Fall

The rumors of Microsoft's Xbox 360 CPU going to a 65nm manufacturing process have been bouncing around for months, but we haven't heard much about the GPU yet. However, Digitimes (who also said the 65nm CPUs were delayed until mid '07) reports that Chinese-language paper Commercial Times claims the upgraded GPUs are coming in the fall and will be manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. More »

Xbox 360 Elite on Sale Today

Just a quick note reminding you that the Xbox 360 Elite is on sale today from EBGames and Gamestop. They have them in stores, but technically their website should have them as well (even though there's still a message telling you to check back April 29). And if you're still on the fence about whether the black, HDMI, and larger hard drive are worth upgrading to, check out our extensive test. – Jason Chen More »

Best Buy's Xbox Elite Street Date - Accessories For Sale Early

A tipster just sent in some details on Best Buy's sale of the Xbox 360 Elite. The street date will be April 29, and all stores are mandated to hold all stock until that date. Of course you'll get the one or two who "forget," but that's pretty much when you'll be able to get it. More »

Xbox Elite is Really Just OK

With more details emerging about the Xbox Elite, we're finding that the provided HDMI isn't quite the Holy Grail—at least according to one AVS forums Microsoft "insider." More »

Xbox 360 Elite: The Video

Take a look at on10's video with Albert Penello, Director of Global Marketing for Microsoft's Xbox 360. Some good views of the new Xbox 360 Elite, and also of sweet gaming journalist Tina Wood. After you watch, read our interview with Penello, where we actually ask him some real questions. – Charlie White More »

Xbox 360 Black Elite Gallery

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Xbox 360 Elite to Have Data Transfer Cable

One of the questions you may have had about the black Elite version of the Xbox 360 we saw yesterday was how in the hell were you going to get your game saves and downloaded content onto the new 120GB hard drive? Would you have to use memory card and copy stuff 64/512MB at a time? Nope, because the new drive is going to come with a transfer cable. More »

ELITE Bomb Detector Kit Identifies Explosives in a Minute

Now you could argue that a minute is one minute too slow, but for those times when the bomb squad ain't around, the pocket-friendly ELITE (Easy Livermore Inspection Test for Explosives) detector lets you sniff out up to 30 different types of explosives. Just rub one of the ELITE swipes on the suspicious package (hopefully you won't set it off while doing this) and wait a minute for the color-coded results (just like a pregnancy test!). The kit will only set you back $10. – Louis Ramirez More »

First Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1 Blu-ray Review (Verdict: Identical to Sony?)

If you read the Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray player review, you'd have a good idea of what the Pioneer BDP-HD1 player could do. Because, strangely enough, they are identical. HDGuru found that the back panel, disc drive, menus, format support, and capabilities were exactly the same between the two players, down to the time it takes they take to boot and load a movie. More »

CEDIA 2006: Pioneer BDP-HD1 Elite Blu-ray Player Also Streams

Pioneer's first Blue-ray player is late to the game, but adds in movie, picture, and music playback from a USB stick, PC, or DLNA compatible device (by ethernet.) That's to the usual DVD upscaling, and of course, 1080p Blu-ray disc love. Since it's their Elite line, we can be sure of three things: Top line parts inside, a robotic user interface, and a price tag that'll hurt more than a titty twister by a circus strongman. More »