Microsoft

Ben Heck Sticks an Xbox 360 Wireless Controller into an Original Xbox Controller

Console modder Ben Heck generally takes formerly gigantic things and crams them into small packages. For his most recent project, he did the opposite: He stuck an Xbox 360 wireless controller into an original Xbox controller, which is monstrous in size. While yes, he added batteries and wireless capabilities to the original Xbox controller, it…

Zune Scene Predicts Zune 2 on October 16th

Nate from Zune Scene predicts an October 16th date for Zune 2’s launch. He also confirms our already double checked Zune photos, making them a surer than sure sure thing. Thanks for the backup, Nate. [Zune Scene]

USB 3.0 Coming in 1H 2008, Adding Fiber Optics and Improved Speeds

The USB 3.0 Promoters Group, which includes Intel, Microsoft, HP, TI, NEC and NXP among others, are planning to release a USB 3.0 spec in the first half of 2008. It will increase transfer speeds beyond USB 2.0’s 480 Mbps by using a second fiber-optic channel in addition to the standard copper channel. The copper…

Halo Lingerie? Really?

Do you, Halo or Xbox fan, care about all these marketing attempts to grab Halo mainstream attention? I thought of this as I skimmed some article headlines declaring the obvious: Halo is No Longer a Microsoft Game, but a Monumental Brand. Dun Dun Dun! Sure, whatever. But did you know that Microsoft had pitched lingerie…

Microsoft Blue Monster Wine Reminds Us of BSOD

Microsoft’s Blue Monster Reserve label is a wine expressly made for their employees and potential clients, allowing them to get hammered, but in a Microsoft way. We’re not sure how getting drunk off our balls promotes innovation, which is their goal, but maybe we just weren’t drunk enough. Microsoft drunk, if you will. How else…

Google adds a PowerPoint clone called Presentation to its stable of online Word and Excel clones. Whether an online-only, browser-based presentation suite will be nearly as powerful as a native application is yet to be seen, but our guess is no. [Google]

Sprint and Microsoft Debut Location-Aware Local Search

We already know how great Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Live Search was, but combining with Sprint and adding location-aware searches? That’s fantastic. The GPS location-aware that’s going to automatically figure out what city you mean when you’re searching for “Sushi Restaurants” isn’t actual GPS—it’s cellphone tower-based triangulation—but that’s more than enough to figure out what city…

Zune Tattoo Guy Gets Third Zune-Related Tattoo

Remember Steven Smith, the Zune tattoo guy? Well, having promised us a third Zune tattoo for a while now, Steven has re-emerged with not only pictures of the new design but also bearing a new, slimmer body. The tattoo is the catchphrase, “Welcome to the social” and is proudly (and apparently painfully) tattooed on the…

Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360 Unboxing

Apparently, there’s a game called Halo 3 coming out for the Xbox 360 soon. Funny, I’ve never heard of it! Microsoft seems to think that people will be so excited about it that they’ll buy a fancy, more expensive system dedicated to it despite the fact that it doesn’t actually come with a copy of…

Microsoft, shaddap and pay your $689.4 million antitrust fine, Euro court says [New York Times]

The Halo 3 special edition Xbox 360 ships today. Pick it up to show all your frat brothers how really, really into Halo you are. [Amazon via i4u]

Windows XP and Vista Self Updates? Calm Down, It’s Not So Bad

Windows XP and Vista users in the last few weeks have discovered that Windows Update, the software that automatically checks and installs new updates from Microsoft, was updating files on their machines even when they set the update to “manual”. This seems pretty fishy at first, but it should really make no difference to the…

Matt Jubelirer, the Zune’s product manager, left Microsoft in August to join Slacker as Director of Product Marketing. He’s been a friendly and knowledgeable guy who’s always been on top of his game whenever we spoke to him, so we wish him the best of luck at Slacker. What this means to Zune 2.0 is…

The Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Shirt

Finally joined the Xbox 360 red ring club? Make it official with this Red Ring of Death T-Shirt from Split Reason. Besides the 2001 reference and the HAL-esque design of the lights, you’ll also make a bold fashion statement when wearing this—one that says, “Hey, I’m not too proud to admit I play Xbox, but…

Rumor Smashed: Blue Zune Not Blue Zune

False alarm. The Blue Zune we showed you in the Target ad isn’t actually a Blue Zune, it’s a Black Zune that just looks blue thanks to the crappy image. The black one does actually look slightly blue when you look at it (the doubleshot is blue), so we can see where the confusion comes…

Financial Times is reporting that the Wii has overtaken the 360 in overall sales—9 million to 8.9 million—making it the best-selling next-gen console in ze world. (To be clear, this is units sold, not units shipped.) Poor PS3 has amassed less than half of either, with a mere 3.7 million sold. [Ars Technica]

Ex-MS Employee Has the World’s Fastest Ethanol-Based Car

Karl Jacob, an ex-Microsoft employee, has the world’s fastest ethanol-based car. He took his run-of-the-mill Dodge Viper and had it converted from a regular gas guzzling monster to an ethanol chugger. While Jacob didn’t drive the car himself, a driver from Super Viper hit 218 mph in July, a top speed record for an ethanol-based…

Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 Stores 1GB

Microsoft’s new Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 has a secret: it packs 1GB of flash memory for secret files (porn), you wife’s pictures (porn) and even the occasional Excel spreadsheet (cataloging your porn). Running off 2.4ghz or Bluetooth, the mouse is adjustable with the flick of a switch. And while the idea of storage in a…

Microsoft Patents “Stealthy Audio Watermarking”

Microsoft has been granted a patent for “stealthy audio watermarking,” which is just a slick way of saying inaudible digital watermarks directly embedded in the audio of a file, allowing the owner to be traced. Apparently, in their version of the tech, the watermark’s scattered throughout the file so it’s more difficult to pull out…

Target Ad Scoops Blue Zune Release

Next week’s Target ad shows both a $199 price cut in the Microsoft Zune player—something we’ve covered before—and a brand new Blue Zune. We haven’t seen this anywhere yet, but it looks like it’s blue with light blue doubleshotting, and will be the same $199 that all the other Zunes are priced at. If Target’s…