Microsoft

Rumor: Xbox 360 Upgrade Coming With Bundled HD DVD and Larger Hard Drive

Toshiba insiders report that Microsoft’s developing a new Xbox 360 with a “new” HD DVD drive (unclear if it’s on-board) and a larger hard drive, possibly for any IPTV or DVR efforts coming soon. Also, there’s been features thrown around that are unlikely to make it into the final product, such as dual HDTV tuners…

Giz/Kotaku Halo 3 Match…and Reluctant but Heartfelt Tubgirl Apology

Click to view Hey people who’ve been following the tubgirl stuff. I’ve been thinking about it for the better part of the day, and I’m sorry, I should have used a lesser image for the prank. Yea, it wasn’t very thoughtful considering the many readers of Kotakuwho view the site from work and school. Also,…

Viacom, Disney, Microsoft and Others Form Justice League of Copyright

A smorgasborg of media companies—Viacom, Disney, News Corp., NBC Universal, CBS, and others, including Microsoft—have formed a coalition laying out guidelines for protecting copyrights online. Their “principles” include using technology to wipe out copyright no-no content generated by users, as well as shutting it out before it hits the public intertubes. You’ll notice GooTube isn’t…

Verizon Adds Samsung SCH-i760, Palm Treo 755p and Two More WM6 Devices To Busy Smartphone Lineup

As Charlie speculated back in April, Verizon Wireless is adding the Samsung SCH-i760 to its lineup of Windows Mobile 6 smartphones. The QWERTY-equipped horizontal slider will cost $350 after $50 mail-in rebate and two-year contract. https://gizmodo.com/samsung-sch-i760-approved-by-fcc-headed-onto-crowded-f-251781 Verizon is also adding Palm’s Treo 755p to the lineup, as well as two more white-label WM6 devices with…

Plugging Your PS3 Into a Surge Protector Doesn’t Void Your Warranty

A PlayStation forum poster claims that a Sony customer service rep told him his broken PS3’s warranty was voided because he plugged the console into a surge protector and not a wall socket, and that he’d have to pay $150 to fix it. When reached for comment, Sony said this wasn’t the case and that…

Torvalds Family Uses Windows, Not Linus’ Linux

A piece by Lee Gomes in the WSJ argues that Linux has a long way to go. Proof of this, he says, is the fact that even back in the open-source mother country, Finland, Linus Torvalds‘ father and sister use Windows, not Linux. (His mother, however, apparently does use Linux.) Regardless of what Torvalds’ dad…

Contest: Win a Xbox 360 + HD DVD Player

The Xbox 360 is finishing up its second year on the market, which means this is the perfect time to get in on all the great titles coming out this holiday season courtesy of Gizmodo. From Mass Effect to Lost Odyssey to PGR4 to Halo, it’s hard to beat the amount of games on 360.…

Video of New Microsoft Surface Table Apps

T3 UK was late to the Surface Table coverage, but they did well by catching a video that shows off some visually stimulating concept apps that Chen wrote about a few weeks ago. I like the pond app that shows ripples on touch, and the multitouch paint app that can read all 10 fingers at…

Zune Almost Matches iPod Battery Specs

The battery life specs are in on the new Zunes, and they match up pretty well to the latest iPods. The Zune 80 will get 30 hours on audio and 4 hours on video, and the 4 and 8GB flash Zunes will get 24 hours audio and 4 hours video. In comparison, the 80GB iPod…

Best Buy and Microsoft Get No Love From Supreme Court on Racketeering Charges

The Supreme Court ruled today that Microsoft and Best Buy would have to face a lawsuit alleging fraudulent sign-up of MSN customers, a crime that violates the Mafia-busting RICO anti-racketeering act. Here’s the backstory: In return for a $200 million strategic investment from Microsoft back in 2000, Best Buy promised to sign up customers to…

Ballmer Describes Relationship with Gates as “Husband-Wife,” Brings Wrong Images to our Minds

Steve Ballmer has revealed that his relationship with the world’s most famous Zune owner, Bill Gates, is akin to that of a husband and wife. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, everyone’s favorite chief exec talked about “the husband-wife-brother thing,” he has goin’ on with Bill Gates. And then he just took the analogy…

Rock Band Accessory Bundle: That’s All You Can Get

If you were hoping you could save some cash on that $169 Rock Band package by buying only what you need or want, we’ve got some bad news. The accessories won’t be sold separately until early 2008. Until then, even if you have two guitars from Guitar Hero, you’ll have to pony up for the…

For some reason, the new version of the Zune music manager suite got pushed out to some people through Windows Update. Unfortunately, all it does right now is list your entire music library. [Zunerama]

Microsoft Phone Patent Looks Just Like the iPhone

In a patent filed this July, Microsoft wanted to stake their claim to a new interface for use on a touchscreen in a mobile device. The patent, entitled “Extensible filtered lists for mobile device user interface” looks kind of familiar… where have I seen it before? Oh, right. It’s the iPhone’s exact interface. Whaa? I’m…

Leaked Xbox 360 Arcade Product Shot

Ars got their nerdtastic mitts on an Xbox 360 Arcade product shot—the new 360 version we detailed for you yesterday. There’s not much else to say other than look at the picture, but you’ll notice that the 360 Arcade’s DVD drive is the same gimpy white as the Core’s, instead of the majestic silver like…

“Transparent” Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

The iPhone touch interface is innovative, there is no doubt about that—but it does have some drawbacks. For example, multi-touch is ill suited to fat fingers and the process of navigating obstructs the screen. Wigdor at MERL, and Patrick Baudisch at Microsoft Research are hoping to change all that with a new touch sensitive gadget…

Xbox 360 Arcade Coming Soon, to Match Core System’s Price

The rumored Xbox 360 Arcade system looks to be inches away from becoming a reality, according to this fuzzy image snapped at an unnamed retail store. The details, as we have them, are thus: a hard-drive-free Xbox 360 that comes packaged with a 256MB memory card (to satisfy developers like Rockstar, who want to require…

Xbox 360 Racing Wheels Not That Broken, Return Boxes Coming In

The Xbox 360 Racing Wheel Retrofit program that Microsoft instituted back in August is well underway, with people getting letters like the one above that we personally received. https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-starts-xbox-360-racing-wheel-retrofit-program-292687 If you signed up for a “retrofit”, you’ll be eventually sent a shipping container that you can shove your wheel for Microsoft to repair and ship…

Sony PS3 Getting IPTV, Beats Microsoft to the Punch

After all of Microsoft’s big talk about IPTV at last year’s CES, it will be dark horse Sony PS3 that rolls out an IPTV service first. Because according to The Korea Times, Korea’s big telecom operator KT will provide its HD Mega TV service to PS3s starting this November (better late than never). Since Mega…

Rumor: XBox 360 “Jasper” Motherboard Set For 8/08 Release

According to Dean Takahashi of the Mercury News, Microsoft is developing a new motherboard codenamed “Jasper.” The upgrade promises to shrink the ATI graphics chip to 65nm and reduce the size of the memory chips as well. If true, this could reduce build costs and the heat problems that have plagued the 360. Although Takahashi…