"I hate sports games," Kristen says with a weary laugh, reminding me for about the fifth time this Thursday night "I had to ask someone what a sack was. They said it's when you tackle the quarterback. I said, 'Which one is the quarterback?'"

Only in name are Kristen and I playing Madden NFL Arcade. Instead we are "boosting," - throwing games to each other, more or less, to rack up multiplayer achievements. I've already gotten 50 points the easy way. Now it's her turn.

It is a substantial part of how Kristen, whose last name I'm withholding out of concern for her privacy, has become, according to one leading compilation, the No. 4 ranking woman, worldwide, in Gamerscore. Her tag is CRU x360a - go ahead, look it up. Kristen - CRU or Crubie to some online - is a 24-year-old stay-at-home mom in northwest Indiana. You call her extremely motivated. You can call her obsessed. You can also call her an achievement whore, like she hasn't heard that from every piss-ant with a 5,000 gamerscore in the underground zone.

Bottom line, she's is really effective at piling up her gamerscore. But she's not sure when, or if, she will stop.

A Race to the Top

"It was a friendly race at the time," Kristen says of the beginning, three years ago, when she got serious about her Gamerscore. "It was to 20,000. My buddy was at 15,000 and I was at 13, I was 2,000 behind him. I said, 'OK, this might take years.'

Kristen had bought an Xbox 360 in early 2007 and, like most, it wasn't because it offered achievements. She was a multiplayer gamer on a few titles she enjoyed - shooters mostly. Then she joined a Gamerscore league. And then she got into this side bet.

"Once I found sites that had guides on which were the easy games, I beat (20,000) in like a month and a half," she says. "It got me hooked and it was like a drug. A bad drug. A bad habit."

Soon enough Kristen managed to fall in with some elite players in the achievement grinding world. One, named Smrnov, who is the global No. 10 on MyGamerCard, praises Kristen's team-spirited achievement hunting. "CRU was unselfish in the help she offered our team, and has always been reliable for getting the game time in, which is a very hard trait to find for spanning so many different games, versus a single one," he says.

Stallion83, the global No. 2 on that list, played with Kristen in those early days, and was most recently her boosting partner on Damnation - a terribly received game. ("We managed to have fun talking about The Leprechaun movies," he says. "Party chat has made some of these games less painful.")

"She was just a nice person," Stallion83 recalls,"like one of the dudes. Most girls cause drama and try to get attention. I didn't see that with CRU." Both he and Smrnov heap praise on Kristen's FPS skill. "A great FPS player," says Smrnov. "In addition, she's very good about figuring out the best strategy for completing a game quickly and doing all associated research. She has both gaming skills and gamerscore skills."

But that doesn't keep Kristen from going after the kids' stuff, too. Last week, Spongebob: Truth or Square put her over 165,000. It's a cute detail but it barely scratches the surface of Kristen's performance over the past three years. Nor does the four-game Gamefly subscription, in constant rotation. That's to be expected. And the shelf full of games, many of them years old and still waiting to be played, well, what would you consider impressive? A hundred and sixty?

She bought Jumper: Griffin's Story - one of the worst reviewed games ever in Xbox 360 history. The day Modern Warfare 2 was released, she spent all her time on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. American Idol? She put the microphone in front of a speaker and played songs into it to ace the performances that much faster. It didn't work for Sing It: High School Musical or Hannah Montana, so, she had to belt those out herself.

"They're easy enough songs; It's not bad, there's no one looking at me while I'm playing it," Kristen says, "but my friends (on Xbox Live) see it, and all the guys can't believe I'm playing that game."

Remember that deal a few months back, when a someone tried to round up a 1,000 players to log in to NBA Live 07 and get the 100 gamerscore achievement for 1,000 players being online at the same time? Kristen was a part of that, with two versions of the game, one she had to go out and find for $3 at a game store, and the other playing on her Japanese 360.

Yes, she has an NTSC: J console. Kristen got that to play BioShock's Korean version, which has a separate achievement list. She's gotten 1,000 gamerscore in 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. She's gotten 1,000 gamerscore in 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand in Japanese. "I haven't even opened the Saint's Row 2 Japanese version, or the Saint's Row 1 for that matter," Kristen says. She's eyeballing a PAL console, but even an Arcade will be close to $300 with shipping and, "Do I really need to play BioShock again?"

Some of the region-locked Japanese games she plays are bought by pooling money with Stallion83, Smrnov and others in the ultra-gamerscore crowd, and the group then trades the discs around by mail. One game, Clannad, was picked for its low-hanging fruit. It's a "visual novel," sometimes called a dating sim, but as the choices are all text-based the gameplay should be pretty easy, right?

"It's a text game, and you have to choose A or B, you only have these text options," Kristen said. "But I'm sitting there on Google Translate trying to translate these strategy guides and match up (Japanese) characters to make my choices. And I'm thinking 'Why the hell did I buy a Japanese Xbox and this game, this is just retarded.' It's so embarrassing trying to match characters to a language I don't even know. I've spent $400 on a game I can't even read."

It makes me wonder. These are called games. And technically, she's playing them. But is this even fun? Is this ever fun?

"I definitely play more games I don't enjoy than games I do," she says. "Like, maybe 65 percent of the games I play I don't enjoy."

Kristen's husband doesn't even know why she sticks with it, if something like CSI: Hard Evidence is so unfulfilling for her to play.

"Sometimes I'll be playing, and he'll ask, 'Did I have to buy that or did someone else buy it?'" Kristen says. "And I'm like, 'Do you want the truth or do you want me to lie to you?' And he walks away, saying 'I can't believe you're playing that.' To me that's more embarrassing than playing Disney: Sing It."

A Mother's Work

Kristen is careful to remind me that she does have a life outside of gaming. "I'm an avid paintball player; I have my own gun, although that's also another expensive hobby," she says. "But yeah, I'd much rather go out to a bar, go bowling, play darts or pool than sit at home and boost games all night. I'm still young."

She's also the mother of a six-year-old girl. You can do the math there, it means Kristen became a mom at age 18. Before then, she was a rather typical kid, if a little tomboyish, and absolutely delighted by video games. Kristen says she's played them since she was five. When she lived with her parents, new games and new consoles were common, especially around the holidays. When she had her daughter and moved out of the home, her original Xbox and her beloved NES - which she still has even though it won't work - stayed behind. The Xbox 360 she bought a little more than three years ago marked her re-entry to games since having her daughter.

Sometimes mother and daughter play - Spongebob was one such example. But Kristen had to load up one of the five other gamertags she keeps on the console for family and friends to play. Boosting games might sound out of bounds to some gamers, but it's entirely within the ultra-gamerscore ethos. What isn't, however, is having anyone get an achievement for you. Even your six-year-old girl.

"She climbed up and said, 'Let me play,' so I said, 'Just a second,' and put her up with another (gamertag) and let her play," Kristen says. "Sometimes she'll say 'Look, Mom, I got an achievement too!' She gets excited."

This isn't something Kristen wants to encourage. "I don't want her to get addicted like I am though," Kristen says. "She doesn't really see me play too much, actually."

Her husband, Jeff, doesn't game much at all himself. He owns a towing business that provides a comfortable lifestyle and accommodates both his interests and Kristen's gaming. He's rather mellow about all the time she spends with games, if not the money, and keeps both in perspective. Some guys have wives who spend a ton of money on clothes, or dislike spending as much time around the house as she does.

"I have some hobbies myself that are fairly pricey and I can't really blame her for that," Jeff says. "However, occasionally a string of new games will come out within a two day span and magically a few hundred dollars will be missing from the bank account. With as much time as she has allotted for video games and the kid I can account for her whereabouts at any given moment so I'm certain that she isn't cheating on me."

Even pressed for a ballpark estimate, Kristen doesn't know how much her obsession with Gamerscore has cost in the preceding three years. "My pro system is $250, my Japanese console cost $400, the hard drive I put on it was $50 - I don't want to see the number, and I'm sure Jeff doesn't want to see it," she says. "But I think it would be cool to know."

There's another number about which she seems even less enthusiastic, though. And that's the next big milestone for her gamerscore.

Calling It a Career

Two hundred thousand. According to MyGamerCard, only one other woman has a total that high (with a second very close to reaching it.) And yet when Kristen brings it up, it's with a tone of voice that ponders what she will do then. It's almost like she doesn't want to get there, for what it will force her to consider.

The simplest answer is by far easier said than done: Just quit. "I keep saying when I get 200,000 gamerscore, I'm going to retire," Kristen says. "There are people who do that. I say it now, but I don't think you can ever actually quit. It's like a drug. It is addicting."

And she uses that word often enough that I figure I should bring up the subject. Carefully. I would never say video game addiction isn't real, knowing that real people do indeed battle it. I also believe it's a topic given to alarmism. And I'm not a psychiatrist, so it's not my place to go diagnosing other people's behavior. But I ask Kristen anyway. Maybe, has she ever considered talking to someone about her gaming?

"I wouldn't say I need to talk to someone," Kristen says after considering the question for a long moment. "I'm not hurting someone by doing this. My family life is not being hurt. Granted, it's like an addiction, but I'm not hurting anyone. Well, I'm getting little sleep sometimes, but that's on me.

"Besides, I saw where someone had gone to be treated at a rehab center for video games, and it was something like $30,000 a year, and I thought, 'Do you know how many Xboxes and games I could buy with this?'" she says, without a trace of irony. "I don't think so."

When Kristen is most at ease with her gamerscore is when it describes how she's good at something. How she's figured out a way to beat the system; or how she's actually put in the time to get the "General" achievement in Call of Duty 3 - getting 40,000 points in ranked matches - to collect a rare 100+ gamerscore achievement.

"It's very much a personal pride thing, being ranked in the top five in the world in something, whether it's gaming or the fact I'm a female gamer," Kristen says. "I'm never going to be in the Olympics, so I'll be a great gamer. It's something I know I'm good at."

But I hope when she breaks 200,000 she can put the controller down. She spent the first three years of her adulthood being a mom. I suggest to Kristen that, maybe, she's spent the last three in front of a console, trying to get some of that lost time back.

Kristen ponders this, and seems to agree. "Maybe," she says.

Maybe then she can call it even.

Phil Schiller Talks App Approval, Avoids Saying Much of Anything

There are lots of legitimate concerns about Apple's app approval (app!) policy, and in a recent profile in Business Week, Senior VP Phil Schiller goes out of his way to not respond to any of them. Yes, we understand that there are legitimate reasons for having an extensive approval process, and we even appreciate the complication-free results. But Schiller neglected to respond to any of the real problems with the process, like, say, the Google Voice ban. We're always interested to hear an Apple higher-up discuss the App Store, but we prefer it when something's actually said. [Business Week]

Microsoft Reiterates Smackdown on Pirate Xbox Users

In response to Microsoft's mass banning of Xbox Live users with pirate leanings, said pirates are contemplating hitting them with a class-action lawsuit—but Microsoft doesn't seem even a little bit scared. MS's response:

Piracy is illegal and modifying an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use. Microsoft is well within its legal rights to ban these users from Xbox Live.

Translation: Hey, you guys down there, you piratey types? Cute lawsuit and all, but you ain't got a chance in hell of winning this.

This winds up in Remainders because the lawsuit is still, as of now, speculative—no such suit has actually been filed. Still, that's about as big an ice burn as you're likely to see from the big MS. [Kotaku]

iPhone Magnification Camera Mod Came From the Recycle Bin

Bummed about the iPhone's lack of zoom? Bummed enough to attach the lid from a pickle jar to the back of your iPhone? Here's a tutorial for how to create a multi-zoom add-on with items found in your recycle bin and a few lenses pried off deceased cameras. It's ungainly as hell, and I'm not totally sure the iPhone's camera is good enough to be worth such effort ugliness, but it does seem like it would work and it even has an external flash. And, of course, we've seen much dumber mods before. [Instructables via Engadget]

Another Anonymous Netbook/Sleeping Aid Hits Wireless Carrier

Another day, another netbook. AT&T brings the LG X120 10.1-incher Stateside to be sold, subsidized of course, through Radioshack.com and the obviously so much more hip brick and mortar version, The Shack. It'll be sold for $180 with a 2-year contract, which requires a $60 per month data charge. As far as specs, it's got a 160GB hard drive, 1GB memory, a 1.6GHz Atom and Windows XP, and in case of emergency will function as a sleeping aid so potent you might never wake up. What I'm saying is, it's in Remainders because seriously you guys, snore. [Engadget]

The crux of the matter is that the warranty on an Xbox 360 "is not transferable," so if you buy a used console "that has been previously banned, you will not be able to connect to Xbox LIVE." So if you buy a used Xbox 360, make sure it's from a less-than-shady party—and if you buy from a used games shop, make 'em connect it to Xbox Live so you know you're getting something that works. [Major Nelson]

On Adium, the AIM client I use, I put in aliases for everyone on my buddy list. How the hell am I supposed to remember everybody's ancient screennames that are references to something obscure from high school? Instead, they come up as, you know, their names.

On Xbox Live, I have literally no idea who some of my friends are. I have vague guesses based on their avatars, and I knew who they were when I added them, but everybody has such goddamned goofy usernames, it's impossible to keep track of them all.

Wouldn't it be easy to allow people to enter their real names as well and then give users a choice about which to display, the handle or the real name? Or allow people to create custom aliases for each person on their friends list? Because not knowing who your friends are kind of defeats the purpose of having a friends list in the first place, doesn't it?

Only a "select few" have been chosen for what looks to be a trial run of the Xbox rewards program starting October 21, using a criteria that no one has deciphered yet (for instance, our own Jason Chen has a gamerscore of like a bajillion points and he hasn't received an invite—meanwhile, one of our own readers received an invite, and he's just a 4,000-point casual player). We're assuming that, like Club Nintendo, Microsoft will cut the exclusivity to their program eventually. Then again, maybe Microsoft wants their rewards to feel like a just-lucky-to-be-there type of deal indefinitely.

I, for one, couldn't care less about free t-shirts or demos. But give me a radioactive-green Mastercard and I'm sold. [Kotaku]

Tweet Tweet

Twitter actually makes the most natural jump to the Xbox. It's a really basic app, with your timeline, search, and trending topics, but it works, largely because the vertical stream is preserved, even if you can only see four (very legible) tweets at a time, so you won't be power-browsing, TweetDeck style, by any means. It's slow, and typing's reeeeeeeally frustrating, like having your eyeballs poked out one pinprick at a time, if you don't have the chatpad (part of thinks this entire update is all a giant conspiracy to sell more Xbox 360 chatpads). Updates can sometimes take forever to hit your Twitter stream, too. Still, it's pretty, and works the best of the new apps.

Facebookin'

Facebook uses the standard Xbox tile UI instead of rolling its interface, like Twitter did. Which is disorienting (and disappointing), since you're browsing through a stream horizontally, one choppily-animated tile at a time. Why is the tile-sliding animation so terrible on a monster console like the Xbox 360? We don't know. Like Twitter, it's basic—focused on Newsfeeds. Your groups are ported over, so you can browse their newsfeeds individually, but you literally have to browse one post at a time, which is agonizing, making you far less inclined to comment on updates.

The interface works much better, and feels way more natural, with photo albums. What's interesting is that, at least in the preview, your friends have to link their Xbox Live and Facebook accounts together themselves in order to show up in the "Xbox Live Friends on Facebook" (and vice versa) pages—you can't manually go in and link Jason Chen's accounts so you'll see them together in your app. That might change though, with the final rollout. (Here's some video of it, from Kotaku.)

Last.fm

This would be would be waaaaaay better if it could play in the background. It can't. Meaning once you link your accounts and all of you stations are nicely and automatically ported over, to listen to Last.fm, you just have to sit there and leave it running, with band pictures floating up to your screen every once in a while. Lame. (You can see it in action on Kotaku.)

Zune Video Marketplace

Not a whole lot to write home about yet besides 1080p streams—it's a video store on Xbox, with movies for rent or purchase, TV shows, trailers—but Zune Video is here and it, um, works. You browse through the standard Xbox interface, like Netflix. We didn't get a chance to use the possible killer feature—Party mode, where you can watch stuff with your friends—yet, but if anything makes the Zune video store really stand out, that could be it. Previews, alas, didn't come in at 1080p, even over FiOS, which clearly has the bandwidth to deliver.

All in all, the new apps, they're interesting, they add something, but with the exception of Zune Video Marketplace, aren't critical. At least for now.

So, I won't be surprised if it's $150, or even more, honestly.

In order to add in support for more than 100 friends on the Xbox 360, Microsoft has to ditch the old Xbox Live setup first, and they're not sure when they're going to pull the plug on Halo 2. So if you want more friends on Xbox Live (like so many of us do), you need to tell the friends you already have to stop playing Halo 2 and move on up to Halo 3—or you know, an actually good FPS, like Call of Duty 4. Yeah, I went there. [G4 via Kotaku]

Not one of the more exciting features, sure, but if you're the type of gamer who enjoys seeing their games boot up a few second fast than usual it's gravy. [Kotaku]

We've already been assaulted with ads in the 1 vs. 100 beta, which is annoying as it is. But I can avoid that if I just want to play normal games that I, you know, paid for. On the console I paid for, via the service I pay a yearly fee for.

It's not clear if this is showing up for everyone or just non-paying player, but if I start seeing ads on my Xbox when I'm paying for a service, I'm not going to be happy. You already are taking money from me, Microsoft. Don't push it.

Has anyone else seen these ads? Any Live Gold members, specifically? Let us know in the comments. [Kotaku]

Games on Demand looks pretty great; you'll be able to download full games, including manuals, and you'll have access to them forever, meaning free re-downloads in case you delete them. The new Netflix options include "movie parties" that sound sort of awkward, wherein you and a bunch of other avatars sit around and share digital popcorn (we are not making this up, see the press release below). But it'll also give you more control over your Instant Watch queue and supposedly give you smooth playback even with a finicky Internet connection. No luck yet on the Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, or Zune video additions we were promised at E3.

A warning: This is rolling out in waves, with a select preview first. Games on Demand won't be available until early August, and even that's only in the preview. We don't have an exact date for the wide release, though it'll almost certainly be in late summer. Check out the presser below for more details.

What does this Xbox LIVE Update include?

Netflix Updates
Now you can watch movies with your friends no matter where they are and manage your queue from the comfort of your couch.
· Movie Parties – Xbox LIVE Gold members can sit together in a virtual theater with up to seven friends no matter where they are while your Avatars watch a movie, flirt or even throw popcorn at each other.
· Manage Your Queue – Browse the Netflix Instant Watch video catalogue, choose from the most popular movies and genres and add to your queue all from the comfort of your couch – no computer required.
· Enhanced Playback Experience – Enjoy a smooth viewing experience when your internet bandwidth fluctuates.
· Friends Info – Richer information is now displayed in the Friends channel and in the Guide showing what you and your friends are doing.

Avatar Marketplace
Express yourself! Deck your Avatar out with the latest clothing and props from the top brands and game franchises.
· Clothing – Download premium items, including branded apparel from your favorite fashion labels and Xbox 360 games such as "Halo."
· Props – You can now equip your avatar with animated items they can carry around and interact with.
· Awardables – The ability to earn Avatar clothing and props as rewards within games has been added. Please stay tuned for an update on supporting titles.

Games on Demand— Please note that Games on Demand will be available in the preview beginning early August.
Enjoy 24 x 7 access to a growing online library of popular full game titles on Xbox LIVE whenever you want them, in the comfort of your living room.
· Purchase Options – Browse and download a great selection of full Xbox 360 games using Microsoft Points, direct debit, or credit card.
· Game Manuals – Game manuals for Games on Demand titles can be viewed, downloaded or printed on Xbox.com.
· It's Yours Forever! – As with other Xbox LIVE content, Games on Demand titles are linked to your Xbox LIVE account, so you can delete and re-download anything you have already purchased to the same console or another console.

User Ratings
User ratings help you find games that other people think are awesome!
· Rate it – You can now rate every game on the Xbox LIVE Games Marketplace using a 5-star system.
· Sort and Find it – Now you can easily find the games that everyone's been raving about by visiting the Top Rated games in the Browse All category of Xbox LIVE Games Marketplace.

Xbox LIVE Parties
Everyone loves to Party! Check out the new and improved Xbox LIVE Party features.
· Party Reconnections – If you are accidently disconnected from your party, Xbox LIVE will automatically reconnect you.
· Streamlined Party Invites – Invites are now just one click away! No need to click through multiple screens to get all your friends together.

Video Display Options
We've made it easier for you to see your entertainment in the highest resolution possible on your TV using an HDMI connection.

* Display Discovery – Make sure you can see and hear your entertainment in the highest resolution and sound quality possible with the option to override and select audio and video formats independent of the information your television sends to your Xbox 360 console.

Other Improvements
We're always listening to you for feedback, and this Xbox LIVE update will include numerous dashboard updates.
· Gold Member Veterans – Xbox LIVE Gold members get to show it off with a stamp on your Gamer Card that tells people how long you've been a Gold member.

* Indie Games – Xbox LIVE Community Games has been renamed Xbox LIVE Indie Games. We feel this new name better represents the independent spirit of these titles.

· Achievement Browser – We've revamped the Achievements browser so it's now easier to read through all the achievements while playing a game. You can now also launch a game directly from the browser.
· Achievements Tracking – A new view inside the profile panel which includes a summary of Achievements earned across all the games played, and shows of all your completed games.

* Streamlined Navigation - Streamlined navigation, including new entry points in the dashboard for Active Downloads, redeeming codes, recovering Gamertags and more.

· Voice Messages – No more blank voice messages! When recording a voice message, a warning will pop up if no audio is detected.
· Friends List Sorting – It's now easier to find your friends! Find and sort your friends by activity, Gamertag or online status by pressing the Y button while viewing the friends list in the Guide.
· Memory – Time stamps now appear in the memory area, which particular handy when managing saved games.

Account Management
We've made some changes to make your life easier.
· Subscription Notification – If your Xbox LIVE subscription is about to run out, you will now be notified when you sign into Xbox LIVE.
· Updates for Invalid Windows Live IDs – If the Windows Live ID you provided has expired, you will now be prompted to update it the next time you sign into Xbox LIVE.
· Account recovery – We've enhanced the account recovery process to make it faster and more reliable.

What does this Xbox LIVE Update not include?

The following features will be coming in future Xbox LIVE updates, which we'll be sure to let you know about.
· Facebook
· Twitter
· Zune video and 1080p Instant On
· Last.fm

The new, much sleeker MyXbox page offers quicker access to achievements, recently viewed friends, recently played games, and the like, through a nice highlighted menu. Basically, it's looking more and more like the Xbox's Dashboard, which we're sure is intentional. Go check it out if you're an Xbox Live user. [Thanks, Shiron!, image from Co-Optimus]

Similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live subscription, Ngmoco Plus+ gamers will be able to create profiles, keep track of friends, records and gaming history across multiple games. But unlike XBL, Plus+'s service won't be $50 a year—it'll be completely free. Since I've had enough of homophobic middle-schoolers, let's just hope that this service doesn't come with voice chat. [Business Insider]

I set the stage by talking about all of Xbox's features since the New Xbox Experience that go way beyond the system itself—the stage is totally primed for Live Anywhere, which we saw a couple years ago. Where is it?

"It's all right there. We're with you. That remains our vision. Right now though, what remains our number one priority, that's our box in the living room, so we're going to continue to push that hard." He brought up all the stuff going on with Games for Windows Live, pointing out that "we do PC and Xbox connectivity happening, and we don't have the mobile phone just yet. There's nothing to announce now, but we still live the dream."

"When I hear 'Live Anywhere' our vision for Live Anywhere is to be able to access the LIve services from any device that we have: our PC, our mobile phone, our Xbox. We've got some of that functionality on the PC now, we don't have it all. But we don't have a mobile client right now."

Mark asked if Live Anywhere would be some big thing that would "launch" or be something else, more like a smaller chunk like Netflix or Last.fm. Schappert reslied, "I think you'll see it unrolled piece by piece as you're seeing that right now. It's just the evolution of the Live service."

Okay, so we're not any closer to when we'll see Live Anywhere, but at least we know they haven't forgotten about it, taking care of this year's annual update. We'll see you next year. [Giz@E3]

Price Cuts
The financiapocalypse has yielded no price cuts for ailing gamers from Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft. A PS3 still hurts at $400, a real Xbox costs $300 (with downloadable retail games on the way, you need that hard drive), and a Wii still costs $250. Not to mention the true price of owning these consoles—$60 $80 for a complete Wiimote (can't forget MotionPlus, which Miyamoto said yesterday could be required for the next Wii Zelda), $50 a year for Xbox Live—also remains unchanged. This is undoubtedly part and parcel of this generation's extended lifespan, but parts and manufacturing prices have fallen, so they're all presumably recouping more money than ever on their consoles. If they're serious about picking up new gamers, they need to make it affordable.

PS3 Slim
Sony inevitably slenderizes every console, and the PS3 is an effin' monster. The PSP Go shows they're still very much on board on the shrink ray as a way to generate sales. The PS3 costs them less than ever to make—just think how much more they'd save if they didn't have to pay for all of that extra plastic? (OK, maybe they'd have to pay more for the smaller guts.) But we've seen possible branding for it, just maybe. Are they saving it for motion controls?

Zune, Zune, Zune
We really expected more ZuneHD to be a part of Microsoft's E3 keynote, given the barebone announcement that left us parched for more details. ZuneHD wasn't mentioned once.

Also, Microsoft promised "at E3 next week, attendees will see firsthand how Zune integrates into Xbox LIVE to create a game-changing entertainment experience." Um, we must've missed that. Zune Video Marketplace moved onto Xbox Live was all we caught. When we asked Xbox Live's Marc Whitten yesterday where Zune audio was, he pointed at Last.fm. And about what we can expect from deeper Zune integration, we got a more or less canned response that they'll be continuing to grow the service and move toward more integration. Not very satisfying.

Live Anywhere
Nearly three years later, and one year after being assured the project is still alive, Microsoft's Live Anywhere—the service that'll let you tap into Live from anywhere—is still nowhere. Which is absolutely baffling, given everything Microsoft's added to the Live service since the New Xbox Experience and all of the "cloud" work they've been doing. Live Anywhere fits perfectly with all of that. There's really no good explanation for why Live Anywhere is still MIA.

But we asked Whitten where it was, just for good measure. He said they're focusing on the living-room experience here at E3, and since that extends onto other devices, it's for another time and place. Ooooookay. Maybe when we see that deeper Zune integration?

A Bigger, Better Wii Balance Board and More Wii MotionPlus Games
While Nintendo didn't fail to come through with a new piece of potentially gimmicky hardware (notice they didn't even have a game to go with it, and Miyamoto himself was vague on WTF it's for), Wii Fit Plus is the same old Wii Fit from a hardware perspective. We hoped a Wii Fit Plus would come with a Balance Board Plus—a smarter board that's even bigger for people who don't have Japan-sized feet. It's one new hardware peripheral we wouldn't have minded one bit.

A year after announcing the Wii MotionPlus, the game pickins for it still look a bit slim. Nintendo announced a handful of titles yesterday that'll make use of it, like Sega's Virtua Tennis 2009 and the new Tiger Woods Golf from EA (which'll have it bundled) but it's disappointing they didn't have more to show at this stage of the game. During yesterday's Q&A, Miyamoto said that it might be required for the next Zelda on Wii, depending on how widely it's adopted—so whether we see it used in more games may very well be dependent on how well it does with the initial load of titles. So it's odd there isn't well, more of them to start to really get the ball rolling.

So that's what we really missed at E3—well, all that and Hulu. What did you guys really hope to see?

This scroungy little rumor breaks down into two sections: the believable, important half; and the questionable, weird half. From the believable half, in the "Product Description" that has supposedly been supplied by Microsoft, we see this passage:

The device also has a built-in accelerometer, so it senses when it is moving. This lets you play games and use apps that are controlled by moving the device. The touchscreen QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to enter information.

Games? Apps? Where did that come from? This is taken from under the "Surf the Web on Your Zune: " heading, so one (disappointing) possibility is that it refers to accelerometer-enhanced web apps. But in any case, referring to "Games" and "Apps" in a broad sense implies—but obviously doesn't confirm—something beyond preloaded software. And so ends the solid half of this rumor.

Now, for rest: the Date First Available for the Zune HD is September 8, 2008, according to the listing. Some are reading this as confirmation of a September 2009 release date, as per earlier rumors; I see a typo, or a mistake. In that vein, the Technical Details section of the listing refers to "games from Xbox LIVE", implying the availability of native games. Again, this could mean something, but these sections—Technical Details and Product Details—are user-editable, and, in this case, full of typos and obvious mistakes. That a subtle feature mention could have slipped by one of Amazon's listings editors is completely reasonable, so I wouldn't stake any hopes on it.

That first part though? That's interesting, especially in light of Microsoft's download-y new Xbox strategy. [ZuneSpring via Zunerama]

I asked about bringing Hulu into the fold—Xbox Live's Marc Whitten didn't answer very directly: "I think you'll see continue to see growth." He talked a bit about how, "Sky Experience is how I think about this...now I get to live TV directly inside of this experience...and when I start thinking about beyond that. How do we start to share experiences?" He seemed really interested in sharing and coop.

For instant 1080p video streaming you need an 8Mbps downstream connection—that's a pretty fat pipe in most of the country, so it seems kinda limited to competitive cable markets, where competition has pushed up the speed of available internet access. Which I'm sure Big Cable loves. The video format uses Microsoft's own codecs and a lot of the cloud work they've been doing, says Marc.

They're not getting really specific with dates on the Facebook and Twitter thing, just that it'll ramp over time.

Also new stuff for avatars coming up, so Microsoft can make money off of 'em: You'll be able to earn items in games, or buy whole costumes and props like an RC Warthog from Halo. I saw a few things on sale for 80 Xbox Live points in the Halo Storefront. [Giz@E3]

Not every game, but it is a mix of third-party stuff: Sonic, call of Duty 2, Crackdown, Bioshock Mass Effect and more. Dodged whether games will be downloadable the day they're released to retail. Also don't expect to use your credit card direct for anything now: "We're not getting rid of the point system." Booo.

Still, the disc's time is clearly ticking.

The Facebook client looks pretty similar to the typical Xbox Experience interface, with individual sidescrolling windows that might actually be a little tedious to trawl through. It'll also support Facebook Connect, which will let you upload, for example, in-game screenshots to your Facebook profile in real-time.

Xbox Live will also get Twitter, though we don't know much about it yet—looks like it's presented in one big feed, unlike Facebook, which is great. We'll keep you updated as we learn more. And for more ongoing info, head over to our liveblog.