A Consumerist reader complained that after his Xbox red-ringed – again – he called Microsoft to get a shipping box to mail his console in for repairs. But the customer service rep told him he'd need to find his own box. As he pointed out, this gives them a possible out. Who's to stop them from claiming the box was damaged in the mail?

My Xbox red-ringed for the second time this weekend. Which is almost a relief after hearing how bad my disc drive was sounding, but not so much after hearing the new policy. I was told that Xbox no longer ships out a box to you and you must find a box to ship it out in. Yeah I guess its not a big deal, but I think it gives them another thing to hold over your head; "We are sorry, Sir, but you didn't back it well enough and it appears the damage was due to shipping, we cannot help you."

Bummer move, Microsoft, especially over something that's very much your own fault.

Update: Microsoft is saying that they do in fact still ship boxes to customers with broken Xboxes (if the customers ask for one), according to Kotaku. Which would mean this whole debacle is just one case of one employee being terrible, rather than the entire company. Unless you count how people wouldn't need to ship their Xboxes in anyway if the company had bothered making them right in the first place.

[The Consumerist]

Disney Star Guitarist, made with help from Washburn Guitars, uses the same style of "falling notes" that Guitar Hero and Rock Band use so well. But instead of cheap plastic buttons that mock my years of slaving over a sweaty fretboard, trying to learn some shitty Dave Mathews Band song so girls at college would sleep with me, Star Guitarist makes use of a real guitar. The special strings are included with the $200 game, and can be strung onto any standard guitar. Disney Star Guitarist, along with similar versions for keyboards and vocals, will be released for both PC and Mac this summer. [Wired]

Meant for children between the ages of 7 and 12, this chair will bend, bob and weave in all different directions, which will strengthen your child's core balance, tone their muscles, and improve their posture as it forces your child to refrain from slumping and support himself. Much like an exercise ball at a gym. But with safety features such as an emergency brake, a removable tripod leg, and specially designed joints that will keep gamers from being flung backwards.

GAMEROX can also support 175 pounds, and since it's not yet available for purchase, you still have a little time to hop onto your WoW treadmill to prepare yourself. [CrunchGear]

A Microsoft spokesperson told Xbox360 Fanboy that they constantly update the console's 1700 plus internal components and that the Xbox 360 Arcade was moving to internal memory. New buyers (of which there were many) can download content and save games right out of the box. Old users... well, you probably already got the external memory anyway, right? Not like you could return it now. Try not to get too hung up on buyer's remorse. [Xbox360 Fanboy]

Designing the circuit board and its components took Higinbotham a few days, and building the machine took about three weeks. On October 18th, 1958, hundreds lined up to play the newly christened Tennis for Two. It used a whopping five-inch oscilloscope screen, and featured play mechanics pretty similar to 1972's Pong, though the game was viewed from the side of the net rather than an overhead vantage point.

Why didn't he patent the technology? Well, Tennis for Two used designs extremely similar to what Higinbotham had created in his federal-owned lab, so any patent would have had to belong to the government. Owning the right to every video game ever sounds pretty sweet right now, given our monstrous debt, but that's really neither here nor there. [NYTimes, thanks Ronald!. Image: Maxine Hicks/NYTimes]

Remote Impact: Shadow Boxing Over a Distance registers how much brute force is behind every punch, making it a lot like a full body version of the first Street Fighter game (remember that one?). According to the developers, the game is a great way to socially bond and team build. Hmm. As hilarious and awesome as this looks (and really, it's worth clicking through to the video), I'm not sure if I'll feel closer to Judy in Accounting now that I know she likes to aim for the nuts. [Exertion Interfaces - Thanks Ariel!]

I've never played World of Warcraft. I'm not sure if the abbreviation is pronounced by spelling out the letters W-O-W or if you just saw "wow." It seems like the kind of thing where you have to know the difference between an elf and an orc, and I gotta be honest, I just don't care. But this is so over-the-top that I'm almost interested in finding the one true ring or banging lady-dwarves or whatever you do in that game. Prepared's setup features a whopping seven separate laptops, four desktops hidden away under the desk, and an array of screens that's disorienting even in a static image. He might be the only person on earth who's capable of using the 15-button mouse. Prepared claims that $5700 a year is reasonable for a hobby, and he's totally right. I can think of at least three hard drugs that would be more expensive.

Edit: I've been informed that our industrious nerd is not Bradster but Prepared. Sorry for the commotion this must have caused Bradster and his family. [Ripten via Crunchgear]

The game being worked on currently relies upon guiding a wondering, lost sole through the cubetastic world. Each tilt of the hexahedron guides the walker in the corresponding direction. The aim is to direct the bi-pedal show off to the exit of the virtual world contained within. Eventually, there will be multiple blocks, all interlinked, making for one crazy toy, indeed. Julian plans to release his work as an open source project in the near future, designed primarily for Debian, Ubuntu or Linux. If that explanation has left you confused and itchy, catch the video and all will make sense, we promise. [Technabob]

In the game, players lock hands with a fake arm and battle on screen characters such as a french maid, a drunken martial arts master, a chihuahua, and a professional wrestler. Atlus claims that "the machine isn't that strong" and "even women should be able to beat it." Hmmmm. Either this is one bad ass arcade machine or the Japanese need more calcium in their diet. [MSNBC]

[Warning: Do not install this update if you have modded your Wii]

Main Menu Revisions

&bull Clock Display

&bull The Disc turns 180-degrees on the Disc Channel icon

&bull News Channel icon displays headlines

&bull Forecast Channel icon now displays the weather without entering the channel

&bull Faster loading times when changing channels/leaving channels (Up for debate)

&bull Move contacts on Address Book

&bull Calendar no longer displays envelopes for the amount of time you played, only messages

&bull Light bar goes on when disk is inserted or removed

&bull Able to navigate Wii Settings with + and - (Man that always pissed us off)

&bull Scrolling through messages has a new sound, and scrolling with B now displays an arrow similar to the Internet Channel

Wii Shop Channel Revisions

&bull New Welcome screen detailing 4 Recommended Titles and the points they cost

&bull Titles You've Downloaded was moved to the main shop menu

&bull New ways to browse

&bull Popular Titles (not only based on recent info)

&bull Newest Additions remains the same

&bull Search for a title which can use partial names

&bull Search by Category

&bull System shows the different systems and how many titles have been released under each

&bull Publisher showing different publishers and amount of titles released

&bull Genres listed

Using only a piece of wood, a strap and a glass shelf. That way you coffee table-less gamers can still join in on the steering wheel goodness.

Now readers how much would you pay for such an amazing piece of equipment like this? $50, $100, $150? Those offers just insult the LapDeck, it's creators are asking for £175 ($350 US) and then there's a six week waiting list.

Here's a suggestion, take $50, walk over to IKEA and buy a coffee table right now. That way you can use your wheel immediately, save $300 and you get an actual table.– Ben Longo

Product Page [LapDeck via Coolest Gadets]

The first run will be found in Delta terminals within JFK, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airports. Hopefully those locations have EB Games inside them like Pittsburgh International Airport did when I lived there, otherwise transforming these demos into sales might be a little tricky.– Ben Longo

Come Fly With Me: Nintendo Aiding Weary Travelers [Kotaku]

Some choice quotes, after the jump. And for more Wii vs. Xbox vs. PS3 rumble-deathmatch, hit up Kotaku.

Contrary to popular belief, editors of the Official PlayStation Magazine don't get free hardware for their own personal use...After Kaz announced that the price would be $600, I found my enthusiasm sagging....I can probably get the Wii and the 360 combined for the cost of a PS3...BluRay, is frankly something I don't care about. I have a crummy 12-year-old 21-inch very-non-hi-def TV sitting on my stand at home...I've never been an audiophile—as long as I can hear it, I don't care if it's mono, stereo, 5.1, 7.1—I really don't care how high-res the picture is. My bottom line is that as long as it has color and is free from static, I'm good to go...I hope that the price drops soon so I can consider it. But until then, this Official PlayStation Magazine editor will have to join the dark side.

Dana's Blog at 1up.com [via Kotaku]

[Thanks Andrew "Hip-Tip" Booth"!]

Actually, its a PS3 photo prop made of wood, and unlike Pinocchio, no matter how hard the fanboys at Radar cry, its not going to turn into a real one. They fondled, and found that the 1:1 scale replica is all curvy, rotund, and fairly obese next to all the other consoles that passed on dessert. Must be from eating too many Memory Sticks.– Brian Lam

PS3 sizes up 360 [via Games Radar]