Live Picture of the Next Xbox

n0ethics writes "A live picture of the Xbox 360 was leaked from Microsoft's Xbox 360 launch party held last night. The culprit appears to be a privately-owned cameraphone. Engadget Reports... Also included in the leak was the new Xbox Live headset, a new Xbox 360 controller and the new Eye-toy-ish Xbox 360 peripheral. Now the question is: was this intentional, or should we fear Bill?"

Comments

wtf

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do they call it a "live picture"? What is "live" about it? What does that mean, if anything? And why do people keep regurgitating it even though it doesn't mean anything?

Re:wtf

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do they call it a "live picture"? What is "live" about it? What does that mean, if anything? And why do people keep regurgitating it even though it doesn't mean anything?

They might mean "a picture of a real one" as opposed to a mock-up render or something. But yeah it annoys me too.

Re:wtf

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do they call it a "live picture"?

TFA says "real live picture". "real live" is an English idiom. The submitter probably didn't understand it.

Re:wtf

[n0ethics]

I used the word "live" to suggest that it was taken from "Real life." It's not a mock-up or render. Is this cleared up now?

Hello 1992

[bbzzdd]

Looks like a standard Micro-ATX case. Can't really tell if it's much smaller than the current Xbox either.

My guess is they were trying to go iPod with the white, but gosh, it's hopelessly not sexy.

Re:Hello 1992

[Janitha]

White, glossy, curves. Apple anyone?

Re:Hello 1992

[badriram]

Console looks just fine... Controller, looks good on closeup, terrible from far away....

Color better be white and not Beige....

Re:Hello 1992

[ThatComputerGuy]

After all, it's not like anyone could consider any apple hardware ugly.. no, of course not... All bow to the translucent plastic!

Re:Hello 1992

[TheHonestTruth]

I bet you were the same people that complained about the original xbox controller. That thing was the most comfertable controller

If you are a Sasquatch. The S-Controller is much much better to the average non-yeti-sized human.

-truth

Re:Hello 1992

[cheese_lord]

Looks kinda blah to me. Also it looks like a behemoth of a console with crappy curves. Can't Microsoft make anything sexy...

Re:Hello 1992

[vsprintf]

I hate you jackasses, I bet you were the same people that complained about the original xbox controller. That thing was the most comfertable controller

What, the controller police came and took yours away because people complained about it? The last I heard, they were still making both styles, but I don't really follow Xbox news that closely, since I use the better console.

Re:Hello 1992

[badriram]

nope they quit making D, they only make S now. Or they soo few that dont make it stores around where i live, or the online stores i look in.

Re:Hello 1992

[Adrilla]

I personally think that it's Microsoft trying to copy that Apple look, but they didn't get it right, and that's what makes it ugly to me. I'm not even an apple zealot, I don't own a single Apple product. It just doesn't have the same sexiness in design that Apple has.

Re:Hello 1992

[Starsmore]

I thought the typical X-Box user didn't care about performance either, just getting their new copy of last year's Madden game with this years roster.

Re:Hello 1992

[euxneks]

If you are a Sasquatch. The S-Controller is much much better to the average non-yeti-sized human.

I resemble that remark!

Re:Hello 1992

[Have Blue]

I have no trouble using the GameCube controller. I also have no trouble with the big Xbox controllers.

Regardless of which controller you or I prefer, it was silly for Microsoft to stop making a peripheral that a large segment of their audience liked to use and continued to buy.

Re:Hello 1992

[Khuffie]

As opposed to the typical PS2 user?

Re:Hello 1992

[wvitXpert]

I don't think it's going to be white. It looks like it will have designs printed on it. http://www.ourcolony.net/images/logos/37943.jpg

Re:Hello 1992

[Malc]

Well I don't fit that description. I don't like the Controller-S, and I like the PS2 controller even less. I'm not a frequent player, but I find the smaller controllers cause more cramping.

Re:Hello 1992

[dabigpaybackski]

My guess is they were trying to go iPod with the white, but gosh, it's hopelessly not sexy.

Why? It worked for the Dreamcast.

Re:Hello 1992

[unclethursday]

Sales of the S controller, though, were substantially higher than sales of the ginormous controller. That's why MS eventually packaged it in the box; sales showed that the majority of people who bought extra controllers for their Xboxes after the S controller was released preferred the S controller. I know when I bought my Xbox (2 weeks before they packaged the S with it), I bought a Controller-S and never used the original controller.

I hate the size of it, and the button configuration is teh suck. The S is much more comfortable, and the buttons are in a nice cross shape and round instead of in a oblong diamond shape with oval buttons.

Re:Hello 1992

[Kent Recal]

Ah, from the adventures of sam verner, isnt it?

Re:Hello 1992

[DanthemaninVA1]

I assume by "the better console" that you mean a PS2. I own all three of the current consoles, and my least favorite controller is the dualshock. The plastic it's made from is too thin; it feels like a fragile toy. The positions of the thumbsticks are too low on the controller, and too close together. I have big hands, and this causes major cramps. The thumbsticks are also too short, and the way they're crowned causes my thumbs to slip. The way the D-pad is arranged makes it a pain to press more than one arrow at a time. The L1 and R1 buttons are just too small. The thumbsticks don't give enough feedback, and you can push them too far without them actually doing anything. The S-type xbox controller has none of these problems.

Re:Hello 1992

[Suddenly_Dead]

Yes, I thought the big Xbox controller was okay. However, I do like the S but I can't stand PS2 controllers. This new one looks like it's getting too small, they're probably aiming for the larger (easily influenced OR small handed) market, those who go for the tiny controllers like that of the PS2.

Re:Hello 1992

[purple_cobra]

And, conversely, you must be a midget if you prefer the bizarrely-shrunken 'S' controller. Does the 's' stand for 'shrimp'? Perhaps a designation of 'P' (for pygmy) might have been more suitable.
Your surname isn't 'Thighbiter' by any chance?

Re:Hello 1992

[Zork the Almighty]

Some Apple hardware is ugly. The older plastic G4 PowerMacs are a prime example, along with the original cinema displays. The current Powermacs are less hideous, but still big and ugly. The Mac Mini is also pretty ugly, but it gains points for being small. In short, we have the following partial list:

Good looking:
20" Cinema Display
12" Powerbooks and iBooks
17" G5 iMac
iPod Shuffle

Not Bad:
Mac Mini
14" Powerbooks and iBooks
Original iPod
G4 Cube

Ugly only because they are too large:
G5 Powermacs
20" iMacs
30" Cinema Display
17" Powerbook

Just plain fucking ugly:
gumdrop iMacs
clamshell iBooks
older Cinema Displays
eMacs in general
iPod Mini (barf tones)
G4 Powermacs

Let the flames begin!

Re:Hello 1992

[Pxtl]

It looks like the worst of both worlds - a sick, half-assed copy of an Apple product.

Remember when the first iMac was released? Within a month, everybody and his brother was doing the stupid "white body and clear-plastic panels" thing, using cheap plastic and half-assed processes. They all were bulky, ugly, and crappy. Think back and remember stupid iMac-styled pencil cases, CD holders, mice, ATX cases, etc. all made copying the surface features of an iMac and not getting the sexy underlying curves and solid engineering of Apple's designs.

This looks like that, except sucking off of Apple's newer designs.

Re:Hello 1992

[karstux]

I'd mostly agree with your list, save for one exception... IMHO, the G4 Powermac (in its latest, final "Quicksilver" incarnation) was the very finest design Apple ever produced. It's futuristic, curvy, and despite all the plastic not cheap. I'm tempted to grab a G4 off eBay just for that case... :-)

Re:Hello 1992

[ThJ]

OMG advanced? Oh My God!

Re:Hello 1992

[Zork the Almighty]

Looking it up I would tend to agree, although I haven't seen one in person.

Re:Hello 1992

[MikeFM]

Even with designs printed on it that sucker will be ugly and bulky. But what else do you expect from a console that is just a glorified PC. Why not buy a PC of equal or greater specs and just play your games on that?

Re:Hello 1992

[Skrybe]

You got that right. If I'm going to buy a console I want one of two things - a standard size and shape unit that will slot nicely in with my other home entertainment components, or something that looks cool so I don't mind it sitting on my coffee table. Not something that looks like a kinda crappy small PC.

Looks like they've tried to go for some style by making it curved and standing it upright. Pity that makes it unstable. There were so many people crying about the old xbox falling on people (mainly cos it was so heavy). How much easier is it going to be to knock over if it's stood on end?

I want a console that's a nice brushed aluminium DVD player sized "box".

Re:Hello 1992

[mydigitalself]

you probably could tell if it's much smaller by using a bit of, er, relativity?...

this pic: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000293041091/

the dark grey/silver streak is probably the same size of a regular CD tray, so measure it up in pixels, measure up the dimensions of the existing xbox cd tray, do some maths and then you should have some idea as to the size of this guy.

Re:Hello 1992

[wvitXpert]

While I generally agree (I don't even own a current Gen console, but I do have a PC for HL2, CS:S, FarCry, etc.) what you don't get from a PC is the abillity to buy a game for it 2 years from now and it actually run better on the same hardware than the games that came out when the console was launched.

Re:Hello 1992

[Elranzer]

I guess I agree with most of it. The iPod Shuffle does look especially nice. I would also add the iPod Photo (and the current gen iPod regular, with the completely smooth, curved edges) to the Best looking list.

I think the Mac mini isn't ugly at all though. I think it looks sorta like a game console... small, silver, and only as wide as the disk drive.

I don't see how the 12" iBooks and Powerbooks look any "better" than the 14" ones. Technically the 14" ones "look better" since bigger screens means better visuals, which isn't an opinion but a fact.

Also don't forget to add the current Apple Pro Keyboard to the FUGLY list. WTF were they thinking, honestly?

Re:Hello 1992

[KrisW]

Two things. They said "better console", not "console with a better controller". Also, who's to say they're not talking about GameCube?

Re:Hello 1992

[Elranzer]

At least it's not as ugly as the PlayStation2. God, I have to insert discs into that console with a mirror, it's so ugly.

Re:Hello 1992

[justin12345]

"Ugly only because they are too large:
G5 Powermacs
20" iMacs
30" Cinema Display
17" Powerbook"

Your kidding, right? Its a display! How can a display be ugly for being too large?

Re:Hello 1992

[MikeFM]

It's still just a PC which seemingly runs some variant of Windows for most games. Microsoft could create PC hardware standards that games would adhere to just as well if they felt like it. Have the games marked as 'M$ WinGames 2005 Standard' or some such logo to show what year they are compliant to.

Re:Hello 1992

[ShawnDoc]

If you are a Sasquatch. The S-Controller is much much better to the average non-yeti-sized human

Hey now. Despite being very tall and having very large feet, sasquatch actually have very small hands.

Re:Hello 1992

[SkyWalk423]

PLEASE, not the PC vs. Xbox argument again.....

Re:Hello 1992

[LordKronos]

Sales of the S controller, though, were substantially higher than sales of the ginormous controller

Well I wonder why? When I bought mine a few years back, most places I looked were selling the S controller for $5 less than the original style.

Re:Hello 1992

[jayhawk88]

How can you seriously make this argument anymore? I might have entertained it before the first XBox was released (though it was bunk then too), but my God, XBox has only sold, what, 10 million units?

Microsoft entered the gaming console market and they kicked butt at it. You're just going to have to accept this fact.

Re:Hello 1992

[MikeFM]

What does how many they've sold have to do with if it's a PC or not? It's big, it's ugly, it runs Windows.. it's a PC.

That has nothing to do with how many they sell or the quality of their games.

I'd probably argue with the idea that they've been a huge success though. So far the only XBox game I liked was that DoA Beach Babe game. Otherwise I mostly just stick to Playstation or a real PC for games. I'm mostly into RPG games though and XBox hasn't got near the number of those available that PS does. It seems XBox is more into sports games and shooters. I do think Sony and Microsoft are about to send Nintendo down the path that they already shoved Sega.. switching from a console company to a pure games company.

Still - if the PS3 is 1/10th of what it is rumored to be then I don't see even the PC market competing well with it let alone the XBox2. Of course they've still got to prove they can deliver on their promises. That's always the trick huh? :)

I hope the XBox2 looks a lot better than those pics though before it hits the stores. That thing is seriously even uglier than my PC and probably bigger. Microsoft keyboards and mice aren't bad so I don't know why they can't design a better looking console. Wouldn't XBox fans appreciate a better looking console? Sony sure sells enough of their slimmer sexier console reversions when they come out. Why not make a sexy little revision of the XBox that looks more like a Mac Mini? :)

Re:Hello 1992

[vsprintf]

The plastic it's made from is too thin; it feels like a fragile toy.

Feels solid to me, and I've bounced a few of 'em off the floor as hard as I can often enough over the years to know they're solid.

I have big hands, and this causes major cramps.

This seems to be your only real complaint. Get hands designed to work with popular controllers, like the rest of us. :)

The thumbsticks don't give enough feedback, and you can push them too far without them actually doing anything.

Nonsense. The biggest problem with the dualshock is that when you've worn it out or bounced it off the floor once too often, one stick or the other will stop just shy of going completely back to center. And then your character walks off a cliff while you're not paying attention. If anything, they react to too little movement.

Re:Hello 1992

[drinkypoo]

Anyway the real problem is with Microsoft - why did they stop making the large controller? Making controllers in two sizes is a clever thing that no game maker has ever done before - and Microsoft did it accidentally, and then stopped doing it. This is how I know Microsoft could never successfully conquer the world - they'd self-immolate.

Re:Hello 1992

[filenabber]

Same here. The larger Xbox controllers are much more comfortable for me and I don't think I have Sasquatch hands. The S-controllers make my hands hurt.

Re:Hello 1992

[Zareste]

G5 Powermacs

These aren't so much ugly, but horribly retarded because it almost takes two people to lift one. I have one and of course it works great, but it sets new records by actually beating the G4 in huge bulkiness.
I don't think Apple wanted anyone to buy these.

No worries

[Electroly]

Microsoft has gone batshit crazy with astroturfing the Xbox 360 so far. (Ourcolony?) If the leak wasn't planned by them, I'd bet they at least don't really care.

Re:No worries

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

There's some reason to link OurColony to the Xbox 360. It might not be true, but if it is, it's astro-turfing.

Perhaps the OP made up his mind on whether or not it was, which is definitely his right.

Re:No worries

[ymgve]

SOME reason? Might NOT be true? Read the goddamn wikipedia entry about Orcolony!
There's no doubt it's connected to Microsoft and the new Xbox, since the site several times have revealed pictures of the new console as rewards for solving the challenges. Also, astroturfing is not the same as viral marketing, which is what Ourcolony actually is.

Re:No worries

[ymgve]

Typo, the link got swallowed: wikipedia entry

Re:No worries

[tofucubes]

yeah I know what you mean...it seems rather convenient PR move 4 days before the infomercial.

Re:No worries

[Have Blue]

This isn't astroturfing, it's "normal" viral marketing. Astroturfing would be MS employees coming into this article to post comments praising MS, but ourcolony has never denied that MS is backing them (that I'm aware of, at least).

White?!

[NekoXP]

Looks like it'll go really well next to an iMac :)

Neko

Re:White?!

[nametaken]

...but not very well next to all my sharp-edged, black, av equipment. :-/

Apple?

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like iBox...

i-box

[SupaKoopa]

wow, for a microsoft console, it looks very apple-ish. i kind of like it...but i'm more interested in seeing the games than the console

Re:i-box

[MyDixieWrecked]

It doesn't look appleish beyond the whiteness.

Apple has a definite style for it's consumer design and has begun to get pretty predictable, but that console isn't really Apple-ish by any stretch of the imagination.

although,I'm sure M$ said "we gotta make this thing pretty. Flamboyant Design Engineer Michael, design us something that's apple-esque, but don't get us sued."

Re:i-box

[op00to]

Oh please, the whiteness is Apple's (racist) trademark. Curvy, lame, gooey, white pieces of plastic.

Re:i-box

[th3space]

I love Flamboyant Design Engineer Michael!! But this doesn't seem nearly flamboyant enough...not from him. Perhaps it was Psuedo-Flamboyand Design Graduate Student Steve!

Re:i-box

[MyDixieWrecked]

remember. Flamboyantness causes people to go by their extended names. IE steve->steven, christ->christopher, etc.

get it right. ;)

Re:i-box

[th3space]

But Steve is psuedo-flamboyant. That just means he tries really hard to be like the guys that are actually flamboyant, and gets so confused by all of the intricacies, he forgets to follow all of the basic tennets.

*Slightly effeminate voice*
Stupid man...that poor Steve.

Intentional trade-secret trap?

[game kid]

Now the question is: was this intentional, or should we fear Bill?

...or should we fear Bill because the snap was intentional?

Better

[bsharitt]

at least it's less bulky and ugly than the first one.

Buttons

[Datamonstar]

Thank god they changed the button layout. The D-pad looks like trash, though. I imagine I won't be playing fighting games on that. Other than that, I like the new layout.

Re:Buttons

[Kryxan]

Its the same button layout as the current xbox controller with only a few slight differences. like the logo is supposed to be a button of some sort (no idea exactly what), the black and white were moved to the shoulders (something already done on current xbox controllers), and the start and back buttons are moved as well. the rest are mostly the same. without actually using the controller though its hard to say if anything else was move a millmeter or two...

OMG!!

[LibertineR]

Did you say that was from Apple? Oh, its gorgeous!!!

What was that? It's from Microsoft? Well, that is the ugliest piece of crap I have ever seen!!!

Re:OMG!!

[coso]

I think Bill is really behind. Apple is already past the white thing into the brushed aluminium thing. This thing looks like nice generic white box micro PC copying the Mac Mini. No HD, PPC chip, I really have no idea what MS is thinking with the NextBoX at this point. It seems like an attempt to go all new media swiss army wonderbox, with gaming as the fall back position if the whole media thing doesn't work out. I know the dev kit on these is Mac Based, so I would like to see OS-X on one just for kicks....

Re:OMG!!

[technomancerX]

Lol, sorry to tell you, it'd be just as ugly if it were an Apple design. The difference is Apple wouldn't release something that looks that bad. That's not anti-Microsoft sentiment, that's simply the fact that Apple is famed for elegant industrial design.

The problem here is it looks like MS tried to emulate an Apple product look and failed miserably. It's better than the look of the original XBox, but still ugly.

Re:OMG!!

[vsprintf]

Microsoft make very atractive looking mice (which makes me wonder why they didn't get the people behind those desings to work on the xbox s60, if they did then im at a loss).

Breeding mice is a lot easier than breeding gaming consoles.

Re:OMG!!

[bVork]

Guess you've never seen the Apple Pippin. Sorry, but Microsoft beats Apple when it comes to console and controller design.

Re:OMG!!

[soulhuntre]

On the topic of a portable flash MP3 player....

"It's from Apple? My god it has revolutionized the way music is heard... I never knew a forced random play mode coudl change my life"

"Hey, is that the MS thing? God those guys are so stupid all they coudl do is put it on shuffle. I mean seriously, they think we are too stupid to control our own music. Besides, these have been out for years".

I think the level of Apple fanboy postings on /. is a good indicator of how disenchanted with Linux peopel are getting - and they desperately need to keep up their rebel self image.

Re:OMG!!

[Total_Wimp]

The difference is Apple wouldn't release something that looks that bad.

So the eMac is good looking? Yeah. Right.

Re:OMG!!

[Anarchitect_in_oz]

Yep Pippin came straight to mind as soon as i read that too.

Did Apple really release the Pippin?
Wasn't it produced by them then branded and released by someone else?

That wasn't a good era for Apple design I can remember alot of produces from that time that seemed like they had a good idea behind driving them but got a good beating from the fugly stick before production.

Re:OMG!!

[HaydnH]

Oh come off it - just because someone said it looks a bit like a mac doesn't mean it's as sexy as a mac! Even if it had the same designer it probably wouldn't of been as sexy - take the Fiat Coupe (http://www.fiat-coupe.fsnet.co.uk/) as an example: It was designed by Pininfarina, you can't tell me that it looks even slightly as sexy as the Ferraris he designed??

Haydn.

Re:OMG!!

[elrous0]

I think the level of Apple fanboy postings on /. is a good indicator of how disenchanted with Linux peopel are getting - and they desperately need to keep up their rebel self image.

God, I hope they don't leave. Where would I go for my daily dose of smug self-righteousness?

-Eric

Re:OMG!!

[dr.badass]

That's one of the most arrogant comments I've read on here in a long time. Arrogant, elitest, shallow, AND uninformed. Nice job.

Yes, but it's still right. PC hardware design is, with exceedingly rare exception, crap. The companies that supposedly have good design (Sony is the usual example) tend to roll out a lot of polished turds. They just don't bother to expend the effort, and it shows.

it is so white

[b00tang]

looks kinda like the imac i'm typing this on. I wonder if there are any fruit logos on the side that we just can't see because of the picture. cute

Well

[Sv-Manowar]

At least its a moderately original design, they realised their original Xbox model was too bulky, and have redesigned to make it smaller.

We all have to remember, it's not how it looks, it's how it plays that counts, and I hope thats what will make people buy it.

Re:Well

[Anonymous Conrad]

they realised their original Xbox model was too bulky

No, it really wasn't. The original large Xbox controller fits my hands very comfortably and most guys I know prefer it.

I'm surprised they've ditched the white and black buttons though.

Re:Well

[drinkypoo]

Yeah, it's original if you've never seen a dell optiplex desktop case before. Otherwise this case design is pathetic.

Re:Well

[purple_cobra]

Ditto. If the new controller is 'S'-sized I hope there's a larger after-market pad available, and preferably from MS. That original Xbox pad was damn-near unbreakable and the perfect size for my larger-than-average hands.
Various accounts suggest these new pads are wireless and rechargable, not to mention PC-compatible (if you're using Longhorn, of course). Nice ideas, but we'll have to wait until the public unveiling to discover if any of this is true or just wishful thinking.

Re:Well

[Stonent1]

The item in question: Dell

Re:Well

[cirisme]

Not being a gamer, I can't comment on the controller issue, though I do think the console itself is much better than the enormous size of the previous XBox.

This XBox isn't too bad on it's own. I think not setting it on it's side would have been a better choice though. I'm neutral on the white, it has the potential to work, if the picture was better it'd be easier to say. The only problem is, compared to the huge black beast that is the first XBox, this could look kinda wimpy.

Re:Well

[damiam]

You're talking about the controller; the parent was referring to the console itself.

Re:Well

[wvitXpert]

It's bad, but it's still better than the current xbox. And it should be better when they put on the designs. http://www.ourcolony.net/images/logos/37943.jpg

Re:Well

[feidaykin]

original Xbox model was too bulky

I've read that's actually part of the problem with the xbox in Japan. Since apartment space is very scarce there, the GameCube looks a lot more attractive. Granted, if someone really wants an xbox I'm sure they can make room (don't exactly have to tear down walls for it, heh), but it's an interesting cultural difference that you don't normally stop to think about.

Talk about jumping version numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

where are the Xboxen 3 to 359?

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

Talk about stupid group-think-and-do, "boxen"??? I'll bet you're into SCA.

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[balster neb]

Same place where Windows 4 to 94, 96 and 97, and 99 to 1999 are. Dunno where. :(

And this Windows 2000 to Windows XP thing is just too confusing :(. I mean, Windows 2001 to ......

--Segmentation Fault. Core Dumped--

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[jacksonj04]

Windows 2001 to Windows XO, comes before XP.

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[pommiekiwifruit]

You forgot Windows 286 :-)

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[toetagger1]

Maybe someone at Microsoft was trying to use Roman Numerals, and chose XP. I don't know how much P would be in binary so.

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[Goobergunch]

According to the command-line, my version of Windows XP (which includes SP 2)is actually Windows 5.1.2600.

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I think the box packaging also says XP is Windows version 2002, and if you go by the system internals, it is something like version 5.1 (2000 is version 5.0). Windows NT is the real predecessor to 2000, being 4.0.

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[g-san]

Don't forget Windows NT coming out at v3.50. And Win 2k is based on that New Technology Technology. Fancy stuff, that MS ware.

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[tepples]

my version of Windows XP (which includes SP 2)is actually Windows 5.1.2600.

Which is why it's so easy to crack.

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[sjf]

I always thought they were Greek letters and MS had finally shipped the mythical Cairo O/S:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?MicrosoftCairo

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[petermgreen]

erm X is 10 V is 5

Re:Talk about jumping version numbers

[elrous0]

Maybe someone at Microsoft was trying to use Roman Numerals, and chose XP

Hey, Windows Cairo--I just got it. Chi (X) Rho (P). Cute.

-Eric

Microsoft is Bipolar

[dj245]

And like a long list of celebrities including Tiger Woods and Michael Jackson, Microsoft today decided to make the move from Black to White.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[FidelCatsro]

Sony did the oposite , They moved from gray/white(playstation and ps1) to black (psp and ps2/playstation 2) , Whilst i really didnt like the ps2/playstations design(far too 1980s for my tastes) The PSP is a really sleak device and they have learnt their design leasons.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[dj245]

Sony did the oposite , They moved from gray/white(playstation and ps1) to black (psp and ps2/playstation 2)

Which begs the question of what color to make game consoles. Black is 'old and busted', done to death. But it matches most other things on the consumer electronics stack. White is new and shiny, but its almost cliche at this time. Its almost like the Blue LED, an over-done LED color nowadays if ever there was one, just because the technology is available to make something look like it is, does not mean that must be the way things must be built.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[FidelCatsro]

Wood finish is due for a comeback around now . I say we all make them look like LP players from the 1970s

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

With Xbox's explosive PSUs, that'll make for a fiery combo.

Personally, custom cases should be made. I believe Microsoft is doing that with the Xbox 360 and the idea worked well for the PS2 Slimline series.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[FidelCatsro]

Design is such a subjective issue ,You can't really expect to make a design that everyone will love , Custom cases are a way around this i guess ;). knowing alot of folks tastes it could end in some frightening results(some grand ones too).

I did have an idea for some "assorted shape" based slot designs ( a selection of add-ons with odd shapes and colours that you could use to customise your computer, ) never got around to padding out the idea though (a kind of building blocks type lego idea but with larger more colourfull designs, i called it spludgeio).

I did infact have a wood trimed atari 2600 which caught fire once , well it melted a bit of the plastic .

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

a selection of add-ons with odd shapes and colours that you could use to customise your computer

Sorry, PCI has already been invented.

I guess the best people can do is make console-case mods like they do with PC-case mods. It might be in Microsoft's and Sony's interest to make a competition for upcoming games, such as Gran Turismo, Halo and Final Fantasy amongst others.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[FidelCatsro]

heh , Ofcourse imore ment as in the shape of the case( i know you probably got that heh), What i look for in a console has never really been design(its a nice bonus , Its been functionality .
If you want to compete you must have the games.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[FidelCatsro]

a good LP player is a quality device .I still have alot of my music on lp(unfortunatly i still have to have my LP player shipped to me) so yes , the music quality can be rather high .
I do have alot of respect for the designs of the era. I love some of the stuff i have from back then

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[mobby_6kl]

Here it is already, a wooden XBOX

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[ymgve]

Do it the Nintendo way: Purple!

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[NanoGator]

"Which begs the question of what color to make game consoles. Black is 'old and busted', done to death."

That's not why they choose the colors. They do it to make sure it's distinct from both its predecssor AND the other machines. You'll see a lot of going back and forth over the generations. The 3rd XBOX will probably be black.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[Adrilla]

I don't think the console manufacturers want custom cases, cause I don't think they want the consumer to get that close to the innards of their machines. We all know how paranoid they are about people mod chipping their boxes and letting people play "backup" copies of the games.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[freeweed]

Don't laugh. Fake wood panelling is coming back bigtime in the car industry.

Friggin Acura doesn't make the model I want (EL) with sunroof but WITHOUT that retarded wannabe-Atari wood panelling.

Lame.

I guess it makes sense though, what with the sudden appearance of 50 models of station wagons this year (sorry, I meant 5 door cars!!!).

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[haggar]

Laugh if you want, but I thoroughly love my NorthStar Horizon.

Another computer with wooden case (or parts of it) was the Sol-20, which I also own, but it's less cool than the Horizon, for some reason.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[KozmoStevnNaut]

That's "indigo" to you! :-P

All the Indigo ones were sold out when I bought my GC, so I had to choose between black and green. I chose the black one, but had there been an orange one, I would not have hesitated in picking that one up instead.

Re:Microsoft is Bipolar

[ddk]

Actually, the original X-Box is not black, it's a very dark green.

hopefully a prototype.....

[Ponzicar]

I sincerely hope that it's just a generic case they used for the demo, and that they're still working on its real case for when it's released.

Would look better in black

[xswl0931]

Why can't they make a console that matches the rest of my AV gear? At least the supposed leaked pics of the remote control has a power button.

Re:Would look better in black

[Anonymous Conrad]

Why can't they make a console that matches the rest of my AV gear?

Don't worry - they keep releasing "limited edition" re-colours of the current one. They're bound to do one in black sooner or later.

Re:Would look better in black

[oldwolf13]

I think they do this to make it stand out.

a lot of people might not know what receiver or cd player they're listening to at your house, but they sure will know if you're playing an xbox (1).

This thing looks different which will attract your guests wondering "Hmmm... what's this?"

P.S. I hate the new look... I don't much like apples look either... would rather have it look like a high end yamaha receiver... some of those are gosh darn nice to look at.

Re:How is this a 'live picture'

[essreenim]

This is a day old pic which was on Engadget already.

An old pic?? But this is /. How is this possible..

Can't wait 'til the new XBox comes out...

[Saint Aardvark]

'cos with any luck, that'll mean everyone'll be selling off their old XBoxen, and that means more Linux on the XBox for me. Seriously, can't wait 'til the old ones are $50 a pop...and I also can't wait to see Linux running on the new version.

Vertical

[0olong]

Why?

I hope for M$ it doesn't break when knocked over...

Re:Vertical

[bill_kress]

It will. Have you ever noticed that in those displays in k-mart or target or wherever, thie x-box is almost always broken? The ps-2 is down about 50% of the time. I have yet to see a gamecube down.

Re:Vertical

[badasscat]

Why?

So the Japanese can fit it in their apartments.

Seriously - I don't think most westerners can really appreciate the situation in Japan. Apartments of 50 square feet in size are not unheard of (that's 5' by 10' if you're not good at math).

There are reasons why Sony was successful in Japan while MS wasn't, and why even the GameCube has outsold the Xbox by a significant amount there. It has nothing to do with xenophobia, either - they love their Levi's jeans and their Coke and their McDonald's. They just did not specifically like the Xbox, and two of the reasons were a) it was ugly, and b) it was too big.

I'm not sure MS has fixed the ugly issue (I personally think they made it worse), but standing the thing upright really saves on shelf space. Even for me, in a New York apartment, with four consoles on my console shelf I'd never be able to fit them all if two weren't standing upright (a US and an import PS2) and one wasn't a tiny GameCube. For the Japanese, size matters even that much more.

No doubt you can stand the Xbox 360 either horizontally or vertically, so if you don't like the vertical you're not going to be locked into it. But making it an option is something MS had to do at this point to compete with Sony and Nintendo in Japan.

Longhorn

[Shinaku]

It looks sorta like that Jade Longhorn theme, with the white and the shiney black.

Re:Thats the ugliest thing I've ever seen

[Chris Kamel]

I think they are yet to apply paint to it, no way they're gonna release it like this imo.
But I can imagine it in black with the big trademark 'X' on it. wouldn't be too bad I think.

White? So What!

[CypherXero]

So what if Apple makes products that are primarily white? Does that mean that Apple has a copyright to the color white, and any company besides Apple that tries to color a product "white" is horrible? I guess you'll have to exit /. since it's background color is white. And according to everyone, white is Apple.

Headphone jack?

[Karl Tacheron]

Check out the middle inner edge of the controller. Is that a headphone jack? I remember thinking how much of a badass addition that would have been to the original Xbox to have headphone ports on the controller in that same place.

Re:Headphone jack?

[mliu]

Yes the controllers seem to have a pretty exciting design. Wireless by default (though you can plug in a charging USB cable to the Xbox to make them wired is the rumor). Have a gem in the middle that shows 1-4 to show what controller number you are since they're wireless. Headphone jack on the bottom. Press the gem down to get access to Live or something like that. Seem pretty cool.

Re:Headphone jack?

[Karl Tacheron]

Nice! Finally, a use for that goddamned gem! Another pet peeve on the original XBox controller, that freakin' 2" diameter gem that did nothing.

Re:Headphone jack?

[Medgur]

The linked picture looks a lot like the USB plug for the old Diamond Rio MP3 players. Is it likely that Microsoft would use that same design?

Re:Headphone jack?

[Hadlock]

Charging cable to the xbox? Fuck that! stick a 4 port powered usb hub under the couch; there's no reason to run cables across the living room these days.

Have a gem in the middle that shows 1-4 to show what controller number you are since they're wireless.

That's what I was thinking, or perhaps it can be used to assign controller number. Sit down, push the 3 button, so when your buddies who are always #2 and #4 come in, everyone has their "usual" corner of the screen for halo.

Re:Headphone jack?

[Anonymous Coward]

Press the gem down to get access to Live or something like that.

<clicks>
Xbox Gem Activated!
<clicks>
Xbox Gem Deactivated!
<clicks>
Xbox Gem Activated!
<clicks>
Xbox Gem Deactivated!
<clicks>
Xbox Gem Activated!
<clicks>
Xbox Gem Deactivated!
...
...
...
<clicks>
Perfect Gem Activated!

Re:Headphone jack?

[Phudman]

I'm guessing that's for the Xbox Live headset.

Re:Headphone jack?

[KozmoStevnNaut]

Did anyone ever find out if that damn gem really did anything? I'm still absolutely convinced that it was nothing but an evil Blizzard in-joke, as in "Look at all those weenies trying to figure out what that non-functional gem does!".

Re:Headphone jack?

[Rallion]

They eventually just came out aand said that the gem did nothing and existed solely to be clicked on for hours.

xbox memory?

[jupitersangel]

I'm more curious about how the 40 gigabyte hard drive attachment and removable memory cards will work than I am the way the case looks.

Re:xbox memory?

[alex_ware]

it slots in the top somehow

Now that shit is ugly

[vectorian798]

Wow...this is similar to other screenshots of the XBOX 360 that have been floating around the internet (side view, 3-4th view, etc). Those screenshots can now be found at gamespot's website here.

I have to say that it will fit in nicer with other electronic equipment that sits on our entertainment center but this seriously lacks a cool factor. Its colors are too passive, and the curves are all way too smooth...replacing the silver finish with a jet-black polished finish alone would make it look ten times better. Oh well. BTW does anyone else think the name XBOX 360 sounds lame?

Re:Now that shit is ugly

[oldwolf13]

i agree... I liked Xbox Xenon... thought it rang nice.

XBox 360 sounds like a cheesy leftover from the 80's.

So far so bad

[Entrepreneur]

So far, I'm not liking the new xbox at all. From the name, look, and the legacy left by the old one, it's all been bad.

Re:So far so bad

[SupaKoopa]

the legacy of great games like halo, splinter cell, KOTOR, jade empire, DOA, ninja gaiden, etc? sure there have been disappointments (fable, enclave, bloodwake, voodoo vince, Malice, Azurik) but hey, for the first time out, they had an impressive showing. xbox live alone more than warrants a purchase of the console. unless ps3 or revolution manage to blow me away, i'll be in line on launch day to buy one of these things.

Re:So far so bad

[Entrepreneur]

That's all a matter of opinion. I didn't like any of the games you listed.

Controller

[kryogen1x]

Can you say "Dreamcast Copy"?

Re:Controller

[SScorpio]

Not really. The original not S Xbox controller was almost an exact duplicate of the Dreamcast's controller though. It had the extra white and black buttons that made it a 6 button face unlike the crappy location on the S Controller. And it had a back and start button as aposed to the Dreamcast's start button only.

Re:Controller

[Edge00]

definitely looks like they ripped off the gamecube controller, however it makes sense cuz the gamecube controller has to be one of the most comfotable controllers to date.

Re:Controller

[grumbel]

Doesn't look much like a gamecube controller to me, more like a cross between Logitech Wingman Wireless and the original XBox controller.

Ugh...

[XeRXeS-TCN]

It looks like a damn blender, it would be more at home in the kitchen beside the microwave oven than anywhere else :P

Re:Ugly!

[Jozer99]

It doesn't look so bad. Of course its not a masterpiece of engineering, but Microsoft probably chose that safe white case to make it more appealing to an audience other than hardcore teenage gamers. My concern is that those paperwhite controlers are going to turn a disgusting brown as dirt and skin acids build up over a couple of months. Grey would have been a better choice, cause nobody is gonna want to touch the thing after a year of use.

Ps3 performance against Xbox2

[zymano]

Ps3 outperforms Xbox2

Re:Ps3 performance against Xbox2

[PunkPig]

Ps2 can render Toy Story in real time too!

Re:Ps3 performance against Xbox2

[Anonymous Coward]

We all heard the same sort of garbage hype before the PS2 came out as well. Wait until both are out and then see the difference.

Re:Ps3 performance against Xbox2

[MP3Chuck]

Fine, but which one will have the games that any moderately serious gamer will want to play?

Re:Ps3 performance against Xbox2

[KillShill]

i hear that the next linux kernel will have 100% win32 and OS X compatibility and with native performance too.

yeah...

thats the ticket...

Re:Ps3 performance against Xbox2

[zymano]

actually it says that some of that cpu power isn't good for gaming.

What ?

Re:Ps3 performance against Xbox2

[LarsWestergren]

Ps3 outperforms Xbox2

Thank you, Zymano, reporter from the future!

Nothing smacks more of fanboysim than crowing about which product is best even before it and its competitors have been released.

stop flaming just because you don't like microsoft

[jleq]

it looks perfectly fine...

Re:Ew.

[Jozer99]

And if Microsoft released hardware that looked as good as Apples, they would be bludgeoned within seconds by people like you, accusing them of stealing designs.

At least the controller looks nice

[TedTheHead]

The console looks like a bad attempt at Appledom, but the controller looks really nice. Big improvement over the appearance and poor color choices of the old controller. Looks really Dreamcast, actually.

Only two controller ports?

[BristolCream]

Did anybody else notice that there are only two controller ports on this thing?

Re:Only two controller ports?

[Karl Tacheron]

yeah, it seemed kind of strange to only have two of them. Might it be a port for different peripherals since the controllers are supposed to be wireless?

Re:Only two controller ports?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anybody else notice that there are only two controller ports on this thing?

retro?? I thought we explained this to you already on Engadget...

Re:Only two controller ports?

[grumbel]

There are NO controller ports on that XBox2, see this picture, you can see that those ports have "Memory Unit A/B" written on them, so the controllers must be wireless. The black port on the left might be a USB one, however thats just a guess.

Re:Only two controller ports?

[piffy]

I believe those two ports are for memory cards and the like. The controllers are actually wireless.

Re:Only two controller ports?

[Rickz0rz]

The black port on the left might be a USB one, however thats just a guess.

Nope. That's actually an infrared reciever. It goes along with the DVD remote that wasn't pictured. Check xbox-scene.com and you might be able to find the higher resolution pictures of the system (because this isn't really new news--a pic was leaked a LONG while back that's nearly identical), and you can actually see the IR reciever.

I just don't know

[UnknowingFool]

Forget for a moment that it kinda looks like MS copied Apple's design scheme. It is me or does the top of the machine look larger than the base. It looke like a dog-bone design where the ends are thicker than the middle. So does this mean that it is not made to lay flat? I think lots of people will have issue with this because most people have entertainment centers that only fit electronics flat.

At least the controller looks smaller this time around. I hated admitting that my hands were too small to use the Xbox 1 controlller comfortably. It hurt my male ego. :)

Re:I just don't know

[King Fuckstain]

At least the controller looks smaller this time around.

Yeah - that's really smart thinking. Base your perception of the size of the controller on a picture that has no point of reference in it. For all you know, that controller is ten feet wide you idiot. Give that MS abandoned the original controller and only sells the S, it's probably safe to assume the next controller will be similarly sized but your reason for thinking that is absolutely retarded.

I hated admitting that my hands were too small to use the Xbox 1 controlller comfortably. It hurt my male ego. :)

I hope your male ego wasn't bruised too much by the fact that I just pointed out how absolutely fucking stupid you are. Go rot in hell moron.

Re:I just don't know

[klack]

FYI, there's a picture of the controller beside a headset on a plastic head model. So, yes, there is a point of reference to the actual controller size. http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000490042605/ You are quite flamebait.

Not innovative

[Mishra100]

Looks like a white box with a couple of curves to me... Apple at least tries to put some design concepts into their equipment... The camera looks like an 80's style 5 1/4 drive or something... That is the only real ugly thing there in my opinion. The xbox just isn't innovative. :)

Re:Not innovative

[BungoMan85]

Last time I checked it was what was INSIDE the box that made a consol innovated. That and the games that got developed for it. They could make it shit brown for all I care as long as it makes things look pretty on my DLP TV and has 100s of titles to choose from that kick ass.

hmm

[Andy Gardner]

It looks more like a pre-production prototype to me. Notice the lack of ergonomic design and flatness of the controller. I would be very suprised if this is the final incarnation.

This is why some geeks dont get laid.

[LibertineR]

All these types of arguments are just forms of religion. And we all know what religions think about sex.

"Oh, is that a Windows logo eched in your pubes? Damn, I only do Mac pussy. Thanks, but no thanks."

Idiots.

Re:This is why some geeks dont get laid.

[dBLiSS]

couldn't have said it better myself... bravo

Comments on that site...

[esconsult1]

... Your all morons! If Apple came out with this design everyone would be raving at how genious the design is. The truth is, it looks far better than any console out now, has a very slick contemporary look to it and will look nicely in the living room home theater setup...

The above quote was taken from the article's site. He kinda has a point too...

Re:Comments on that site...

[brkello]

Yeah, he has a point. Unfortunately, spelling "you're" wrong when you are calling other people morons makes you lose a little credibility in the moron judging department.

Re:Ugly!

[moz25]

That's a matter of taste, I suppose. Some people have commented that they like the design. Personally, I am not that fond of it either... but then again, I'm not in the market for a game console.

Camera phone?

[jim_v2000]

Maybe I'm behind on the times, but that seems like one hell of a good picture to be taken from a camera phone.

Re:Camera phone?

[Infinite Entropy]

Maybe it was an imported Japanese 2 megapixel phone! I always wanted one of those.

Re:Camera phone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Number of pixels != quality. I've seen terrible photos at 6MP and great ones at 640x480. It's all about the quality of the lens, and there's really no room for a quality lens on a cellular phone.

Re:Camera phone?

[toddestan]

Most camera phones suffer from small, low quality lenses and no flash. Having a high pixel count is not going to remedy that.

Re:Camera phone?

[halo1982]

My Sharp TM150 has a very high quality 1MP CCD camera. With some high end phones now having optical zoom and more than 2MPs, its very possible.

Re:Camera phone?

[drinkypoo]

That's a bunch of horse shit, there's plenty of room if you make something else smaller. Even in my flip phone there's plenty of room for a decent lens and even a mechanism for moving it - if you eliminated the screen. You can achieve basically the same thing by going OLED, because you don't need multiple layers of glass, a backlight, etc. Anyway didn't you read that article about liquid lenses?

Too many buttons...

[ChePibe]

Gah! Can't they change the controller? Just a little bit?

I loved the good old NES controllers, found the SNES controllers to be a bit much but still easily manageable, the Nintendo 64 controllers to be far too big/"buttony", couldn't stand the playstation controllers, and haven't purchased a new gaming console system since.

The first time I tried to play the XBox, I was immediately turned off by the controller - far too complex, hard to memorize for a first timer, and huge. Even after a few hours I just couldn't get it right.

Don't get me wrong, I love PC gaming and using the whole keyboard. That's fine, I already know the keyboard, and it's set up quite easily so I can get to the keys I need. But the control pads on console game systems have just gone overboard, in my opinion - too many buttons, too big, too hard to just pick it up and start playing.

Gone are the days of AB, select, start, and directional pad... Sure games are more complex, and there needs to be more control, but there's got to be a better way to implement that.

I don't know, maybe I've just got two left thumbs and I should get more practice...

Re:Too many buttons...

[Ziviyr]

Take a look at the gamecube controller sometime.

It was designed around the concept of one analog stick and one big A button. If not for the analogs, it'd be a clear step backwards over the SNES controller, you should like it.
(and pushing those shoulder buttons is just a great feel for the first few days, great masturbatory experience, less mess)

For all I know, the next 'tendo box will leave you with nothing but a touch screen to control with.

WinCE Smartphone?

[mreed911]

Wonder if that pirate pic was taken with a WinCE based Smartphone? That would only be too ironic...

It's not a version number.

[game kid]

It's a brand name that signifies this Xbox's unmatched tic-tac-toe playing capabilities. Notice the X and the circular reference.

BTW, you say they skipped from 3. Did I miss the XBox 2 during my college work?

Re:OMG LMAO ur 22222 teh funny!!!11!

[imsabbel]

Just a hint.
Read the article (the first link) and look at the comments posted to the story.

I guess he is making fun of those idiots.

Re:Ugly!

[ProfaneBaby]

It actually looks like the old 3D render from the Infinium Labs 'Phantom' console, turned on end and smoothed a bit.... The one that was in the promo video that came out a year ago?

Re:Ugly!

[torpor]

to me, it sorta looks like a pippin.

reeallly .. not .. sure thats a good thing though .. and isn't this supposed to have PPC's in it? sooooper weird ..

yuck

[cg0def]

This is the worst design that I have ever seen. Maybe the people at MS shoud pull their heads out of their behinds and look at the thing before they release it. The original xbox was huge and ugly but at least it was very easily distinguishable. This thing looks like a modified Dell computer. And if MS hired people from Dell to design this thing they are idiots since everyone knows that Dell is about the ugliest thing one can get. As far as this going well with mini Mac I compleatelly disagree. MiniMac's design is WAY better than this. Plus miniMac features a slot drive and these idiots are still saving 50c and using a tray one. Yeah tray drives last longer and blah blah blah but this thing still is the worst designed console up to date. Oh yeah and all that hardware won't do a thing for it cause it's still driven by a modified Direct3d environment. MS should have asked themselves how come Sony can pull the same performance out of the 10year old PS2 as MS can out of the 3 year old Xbox. All I have to say is that my next console will deffinitely be a Sony one. At least I'll get to play online for free ...

the last controller was a DC copy...

[Anonymous Coward]

It took you how many years to notice?

See the original Xbox controller (not the later S controller). It is a dead-on copy of the DC, except with no windows for the memory cards to show their displays through.

For that matter, the entire Xbox was a DC offshoot.

Look at a Japanese DC, it says on the front "designed for Microsoft Windows CE". Look at a US (later) DC, it says on the front "compatible with Microsoft Windows CE". Early on, MS had made a Win CE API for DC. The DC browser and Sega Rally used it. However, Sega learned that MS had done this with the hope of making their own "super DC" that would be able to run (or at least port) a large number of DC titles, and thus enter the marketplace with a lot of games on day 1. When Sega heard of this, they withdrew the Win CE API for DC to thwart Microsoft.

So this is why the Xbox controller is so similar to the DC, it was designed to be a "super DC" from the start.

Re:the last controller was a DC copy...

[Zangief]

DC copy? But the DC controller lacked the completely necessary second analog stick!

I think that is not a minor problem...

Since when did Apple gain ...

[Cheapy]

Since when did Apple gain exclusive rights to white? Ohmygod! The PS2 and Xbox both are black! They are ripping off ENIAC!

It looks

[News for nerds]

kinda... unstable. I mean the dent. Young children may find it traumatic. Who knows.

Re:stop flaming just because you don't like micros

[mcleodnine]

it looks perfectly fine...

Exaclty, and I congratulate Apple for releasing this awesome Xbox killer into the gaming console market

Silver "button"

[mreed911]

The silver button in fact looks like a small trackball... something you could reach to make fine adjustments or precise aiming. Would be really nice to be able to reach up with one hand on the analog stick and use one finger to exactly align a shot, rather than having to guess at how much more pressure might make me shoot wide...

Here's hoping it really is a small trackball...

Re:Silver "button"

[kninja]

That's a clever take. It might be a trackball. That would certainly correlate better with media center than what I was thinking:

I thought it was like a floating compass or some such thing, for those people who move their hands (while holding the controller) when they play driving games. A form of accelerometer if you will.

I think your idea sounds more reasonable.

Re:Silver "button"

[mikael]

In the photograph (or could it be a rendered image?) there are also numbers beside the button. The edges of the X could be LED's letting you which player you are.

If it were a trackball, you would be straining the tendons of your thumb trying to get past the other two buttons. The best place for a trackball would be beside the handgrips of the controller, so you could make adjustments without stretching your thumb too much.

Re:Silver "button"

[grumbel]

The 'trackball' however has a big fat green X written on it, which makes it unlikly that it is a regular trackball, beside from that the position would be pretty bad for a trackball. On the other side it also looks quite a bit to clumsy for just being there for the logo. If you look closely the 'trackball' has 1,2,3,4 written around it, so it might be a frequency- or id-selector for the wireless gamepad.

Re:Silver "button"

[gklinger]

Here's confirming your hopes. There was a story about the controller with its integrated trackball at Gizmodo. There's a closeup picture of the trackball if you're interested.

Check it out.

Re:Ugly!

[double-oh three]

Not enough emphasis on the ugly. It should be a bit more like this:

"I have seen the new X-Box, and it is ugly. And I mean UGLY. Take it out back and put it out of it's misery ugly. Hit with not only an ugly stick, but an ugly pole and an ugly mace. It's like they tried to steal Apple's iPod white with none of Apple's design taste. Again, it's ugly. "

Is it just me...

[Goodevilman]

Or does this thing have "3do" written all over it

man.

[the italian]

what is it with people saying this looks like an apple product? Just because it is white does not mean it is an apple product. Last time I checked the color white was used on many items. OMG!!! my fridge is so APPL!!!!!!1!11one!!!
OMG!!! lOLOLOL my toilette is SO APPLE!
seriously people. Get a grip.

Re:man.

[Inconnux]

hmmm I remember long ago when my comp. case was white and the macolytes were calling it ugly...

Re:Thats the ugliest thing I've ever seen

[David Horn]

Actually, it'd look seriously cool in brushed aluminium, or have I just committed a home entertainment fashion faux-pas?

(Oh, and it needs blue LEDs. Blue LEDs make everything OK...)

Re:Microsoft and design

[TWX]

"Longhorn and Xbox360 look really.. uh.. 'unbranded'"

I could see them doing that almost on purpose. For many markets they are the establishment, whether we want them to be or not. For a long time they did understate their position as far as their operating system is concerned. The user was left with, "this is what a computer is like," rather than, "this is what Windows is like." That has helped ingrain to the userbase what they should expect, which makes any challenger to that (be they Apple, Gnome, KDE, etc) have to overcome being not-normal in addition to simply being different.

If Microsoft's competitors in this market are smart then they'll work to have the best software titles for their platforms available, and to try to get as many third party software producers to produce games for their consoles that the software producers had already planned for Microsoft's. As SNK's NeoGeo proved, a game system is absolutely nothing at all without the software to run on it, no matter how powerful or advanced it really is.

fear bill??

[Phil246]

since when has slashdot feared bill, OR microsoft for that matter?

Alright! More of Microsoft's design "Innovations"

[Turken]

Let's see here...

Console: Current Wintel PC technology with Apple's sense of style.

Controllers: Nintendo already showed us that first party wireless is the way to go. Way to be #2 Microsoft!

Camera: Oh Look! It's Sony's Eyetoy in white!

Headset: At last, something borrowed straight from their own previous product. Doesn't look like any innovations were made here though.

And this is supposed to be the NEXT generation of console gaming?!?

At least they got the name right... XBox 360! Bringing gaming full circle to where it is today!

Apple v Microsoft

[onetwentyone]

It looks so bad coming out of Microsoft because it's distinctly lacks the sleek appeal of Apple products. The Xbox is bulky, has buttons on the console which are way too large, and simply could look less like a computer and more like a game system.

Now, if Apple were to do design the very same system, we could expect to see the machine being at least twice as thin and buttons on the face being more intelligently placed. The form factor as well wouldn't be a brick shape.

Re:Apple v Microsoft

[LucBorg]

Yup, and the Apple version would cost 3 times as much, break down after a few game "cycles" and need to be sent back to apple for replacement/repair every few months, all costs being payed by the customer. This thing may look crap, but at least it isn't an Apple product! They shouldn't insult themselves by trying to copy apple - apple products are over-rated, in every aspect.

Re:OMG LMAO ur 22222 teh funny!!!11!

[FidelCatsro]

If you fit in, your insulted for being a clone or a sheap. If your diffrent ,then you get insulted and called a freak. You cant really win bar not giving a flying monkey what people care.

I couldn't tell you if the people are just following the trend , or if they are deliberatly going against it .Or are just having thier own opinions which fit in or go against the grain.

People with similar views and ideals tend to get together and become freinds , so no wonder alot of folks agree here , Still as they say oposites also atract so we get some folks who totaly disagree with the standerd sentiment.

Controller

[Medgur]

Hmm.. Am I the only one who thinks the controller looks a little cheap? The thumbsticks remind me of the terrible Gamecube controllers, while the overall design harkens to a light, breakable feel. I rather like the large, substantial XBox controllers, it's disappointing to see them move away from that.

Controller...

[SuperPunch]

No, the controller looks like garbage... and the eye is creepy... good morning dave.

Re:Ugly!

[Hadlock]

Funny; Playstation's nearly white controllers, SNES's white (but purple tinted) controllers, and the PSOne's white controllers never had any issues. Of course they got some grit in the seams, but that's about it. Come to think of it, I've never had any brown-ness occur on any of my white computer mice from the late 80's through early 2000's (I have a silver mouse now - still no brown). All of my friend's iBooks (white) still look..... white. Even the (white) keys. Sounds like you're spreading FUD.

... and has a really poor form factor.

[Turken]

I have to say that it will fit in nicer with other electronic equipment that sits on our entertainment center

Except that you only have two options...
1) Vertical, which won't fit too well into most stacks of shelves, or
2) Horizontal, where the funky curve makes the left side stick up more than the right, so you can't stack anything on top of it, and if you place it in a stack of shelves, it will appear to the eye that it isn't lined up with all the rest of your equipment.

No matter how you use it, it's just going to be inconvenient, or stick out sorely.

Zero controller ports!

[jimmcq]

Those aren't controller ports... those are memory card slots. There are no controller ports, because the controllers are wireless.

Re:Zero controller ports!

[WCLPeter]

Unless the controllers come with a 12 hour play time and 30 second recharge, I honestly think their decision to go with wireless controllers is going to bite Microsoft in the ass.

People want their controllers and games to "just work".

Forgot to plug in your controller last night? You just *know* you're going to run out of power when your in first place on your favourite race game. Or when you're about to capture the flag for your team in the latest shooter.

Use the headset and controller vibration? You'll just drain the batteries even faster.

Sure, it's a nice idea on paper having the controllers wireless. But that first time your controller dies in the middle of your game making you have to wait four to six hours for it to recharge, you're going to wish you bought a Playstation 3.

Pete...

Re:Zero controller ports!

[aliens]

Have you used the Gamecube wireless controller? Or one of the logitech ones? Battery life is hardly a problem.

PR scam

[loveboat]

this smells like a planned PR scam to me. the pics are to hi-res and well-lit to be taken with some crappy mobile phone cam.

Re:PR scam

[DingerX]

A) It's not that hi-res.
B) The images have been cropped or adjusted: the largest dimensions are 425x395 pixels, which does not, to my knowledge, correspond to any camera format. There's no XIF data either.
C) a flash was used (looking at the main picture you can see the outlines of the flash shadow, especially from the plastic case (or wire hanging in front). Judging by the depth of field produced, the flash was not very big. That's consistent with a low-power camera.
D) images like that are not outside realm of possibility for a camera phone -- especially the higher-end ones you'd expect nerds at an xbox party to be carrying

Of course, it's hard to imagine someone using a flash on a display -- repeatedly -- without being noticed by someone in charge.

Re:Alright! More of Microsoft's design "Innovation

[atezun]

You do realized the XBox 360 uses PPC technology, donh't you? I don't think there's a shread of Intel technology in there, correct me if I'm wrong.

Re:Alright! More of Microsoft's design "Innovation

[Matthias Wiesmann]

Console: Current Wintel PC technology with Apple's sense of style.

Aren't the processors of this thing supposed to be PPC based? This would disqualify it as wintel technology no? You might as well call it a Mac mini on steroids.

Screenshots?

[Kenshin]

Since when did "screenshot" mean "photograph of a physical object"?

A screenshot is a capture of what's on a computer screen...

(One of those web annoyances...)

Gah - fake "leaks"

[dustmite]

I'm so tired of marketing departments pretending their press releases are "accidental leaks" to generate "buzz" and excitement that people are supposedly seeing something they weren't supposed to be privy to. "Can't tell you how we got our hands on this image"? Oh please, it's a product launch (this was a product launch party), they want everyone to see the new XBOX and talk about it. It's called "advertising", "branding" and "hype". These pictures don't even look like they were taken surreptitiously, some of them look like they were taken in perfect diffuse-lit studio conditions and retouched with Photoshop. (This is not a Microsoft rant - almost everyone these days is issuing fake 'leaks' to media outlets.)

OK, that out the way .. it's not really ugly, although it looks a bit uninspired. The white colour is probably just following a trend set by someone else. Most important thing though is ultimately going to be the games.

Re:Gah - fake "leaks"

[dustmite]

Come on mods .. overrated? Off-topic, maybe! ;)

meh....

[AngryScot]

The case design Could have been worst

Re:Alright! More of Microsoft's design "Innovation

[tofucubes]

theory: fanboys sell consoles no matter how brainless they are

Re:Alright! More of Microsoft's design "Innovation

[SunFan]

Microsoft is an expert at observing the trends set by everyone else, integrating those trends under their brand, and selling them as an innovative product with millions of dollars worth of marketing.

I don't think Microsoft has ever been first to market in any significant market segment.

Looks like a Dell

[doctor_no]

The Xbox360 looks a lot like a white version of the Dell Optiplex GX PCs that can be found in office cubicles everywhere.

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 3

Size

[tini1212]

For those wondering how big it is, check out http://media.xbox360.ign.com/articles/608/608394/i mg_2748824.html .
It was made by comparing the CD drives.

It's

[Turn-X Alphonse]

It's a PS2 with a gamecube controller.

But hey MS stealing others idea isn't new is it?

to applease the /. crowd

[tofucubes]

PR guy 1: "how can we promote our console to the /. crowd?"
PR guy 2: "we could tell them that it is absolutely impossible to install linux on it."
PR guy 1: "good idea but we haven't released the console yet."
PR guy 2: "maybe we could brighten up /.ers' days by painting our console white like apple"
PR guy 1: "yeah that's great they'll be flaming us for days and talking about every aspect of our product and how it rips off this company and that company."
PR guy 2: "that and they'll be trying install install linux onto the system"
- - -
well it could happen :-P

Maybe

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't really look Apple at all. It looks like a coffee pot from 1998. There's a huge difference between white plastic light sinks into moulded into convex curves and flat white plastic that glares at you from concave curves. Apart from white, there's very little similarity.

Let me guess...

[SharpFang]

There's no subscription fee.
You get 2 games a month free.
The console itself is undersold.

But the wireless controllers run on proprietary Microsoft batteries which run out of power after 10h of use and you can obtain a new set for $30 from your local Microsoft Golden Partner dealer.

Re:Let me guess...

[Anonymous Coward]

But the wireless controllers run on proprietary Microsoft batteries which run out of power after 10h of use and you can obtain a new set for $30 from your local Microsoft Golden Partner dealer.

Hey! That sounds more like the Apple console!
*ducks*

Re:Let me guess...

[HaydnH]

There's no subscription fee.
You get 2 games a month free.
The console itself is undersold.

But the wireless controllers run on proprietary Microsoft batteries which run out of power after 10h of use and you can obtain a new set for $30 from your local Microsoft Golden Partner dealer.

You forgot to mention that it wouldn't communicate properly with your television set until M$ figure out a way of making a profit from television sales.

Haydn.

Re:Alright! More of Microsoft's design "Innovation

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's see here...

Console: Current Wintel PC technology with Apple's sense of style.

Sorry, no windows nor intel.
IBM, ATI!

Controllers: Nintendo already showed us that first party wireless is the way to go. Way to be #2 Microsoft!

and nintendo inovated the wireless controller technology how?

Camera: Oh Look! It's Sony's Eyetoy in white!

oh no it's not used for jumping around ur living, but omg it's used for video chats? if anything it's nothing like eyetoy but a simple PC webcam.

Headset: At last, something borrowed straight from their own previous product. Doesn't look like any innovations were made here though.

Well mister inovator create headphones that do not look like headphone!

And this is supposed to be the NEXT generation of console gaming?!?

At least they got the name right... XBox 360! Bringing gaming full circle to where it is today!


let me guess if i made original NES look super duper sexy, made headphone look like 2 ipods on ur head added a full fledged video camera, and made the console super sexy!

you'd say that the NES system is up to todays standards?

give me a freakin break! if you actually look at a picture of a box and few of its' periferals and u can conclude that the console has made 0 progress, well then u got ur own problems to deal with.

Oh, you guys

[realmolo]

First of all, it looks fine.

Secondly, who cares what it looks like? How good are the games?

I'm just amazed at the hate for Microsoft. The Xbox is the coolest console at the moment. It does pretty much everything right. Shouldn't we be a little excited by the Xbox 360? Isn't competition GOOD?

Re:Oh, you guys

[grumbel]

### The Xbox is the coolest console at the moment. It does pretty much everything right.

Well, everything beside the price (even so they fixed that soon after the release here in europe), the size of the console, the controller and the games... That said, yes the XBox has still the most power of all the consoles on the market, but beside from that it really doesn't have all that much to offer. Its just to much a brute force attempt to enter the market.

### Isn't competition GOOD?

Microsoft doesn't do fair competition, they can invest basically as much as they want and then just wait till the others die out due to lack of money. See their investment into Rare or Bungie, that wasn't much like 'Lets make a good console and wait till people jump the train', but more like 'Which game companies do we want to buy today'. Luckily they didn't seem to have all that much success with their stratagie so far and the other parties are still holding well, but Microsoft really hasn't much to do with fair competition.

Re:OMG LMAO ur 22222 teh funny!!!11!

[geekboy642]

I give a flying monkey what people think...

xbox 360?

[Tibor the Hun]

is that then, an xbox circle, or an xbox sphere?

Re:MS copies Apple AGAIN...

[KillShill]

it's not like everyone and their dog are releasing white electronics products this year...

white as a product is plain ugly IMO.

reminds me of those godawful 50's 60's style garbage they used to sell.

Re:OMG LMAO ur 22222 teh funny!!!11!

[FidelCatsro]

The image "<a href="http://www.worth1000.com/entries/64000/64015 EJMI_w.jpg">http://www.worth1000.com/entries/64000 /64015EJMI_w.jpg</a>" cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

I have to give it a 350/1000 right now ;)

Here's the media center remote control

[Mostly Monkey]

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000040042613/
The start button looks like the XP start button. :O

Also note the open/close button. The 360 probably uses a tray.

Trackball

[Staats]

Was that a trackball in the middle of the controller?

Hi Res pic

[deep2k]

http://pictures.xbox-scene.com/4/xbox360/xbox360or g19iz5ow_b.jpg

Thought....

[fozzmeister]

This XBox was meant to be smaller than the last (no making it concave does technically make it techincally smaller, but its not really) but it looks pretty much the same size.

That pad looks well cheap and nasty.

In any case these could be
a) not to scale
b) preview controllers, to test how they feel or something, and will be more polished in the final version.

I do like the XBox a lot, hopefully #2 will be just as good. Although I'm waiting to see what the big N is doing first to be honest!

Re:Hello G5

[izzo nizzo]

The look isn't all they're trying to copy - also the performance. Remember that they are using the G5 chip for this little toy. Three of them if I'm not mistaken. But if they are hoping to play the library of existing Apple games natively, then I must say that that seems a bizarre strategy. Of course this is absurd and I don't know why I even bring it up.

The New Item - 3d Position Marker?

[RandomRob]

So... as for the new "button" on the controller... the one with the rather appropriate "X"...

Given that it doesn't LOOK like it is supposed to rotate (note the aligned X that points to 4 (unreadable...) letters in the photo, how about:

A 3d orientation sensor... similar to a 'bubble level' on a carpenters tool... useful in games to allow the handset to replicate 3 degrees of freedom (pitch, roll, yaw) in games.

Of course, from a HCI/Usability point of view, the question would be whether using the OTHER buttons without shifting the 3 degrees of position information (jiggling the controller) would be possible...

Note that IBM has for years sold a 6-degree-of-freedom mouse (3 translation, 3 rotation) for VR and CADCAM applications. And many VR apps have 3dof or 6dof controllers.

Of course, it would be even cooler if it was 6dof but... probably too high tech.

RandomRob

X-Box branding

[squidsoup]

Is X-Box 360 the official name of this console?

If so, it's both amusing and accurate - I like the suggestion that Microsoft are going around in circles.

Adding more processing power isn't going to make for a new gaming experience. Nintendo really seem to be the only console developer interested in creating new and innovative ways to interact with games.

Raytraced shadows and the like aren't particularly exciting - novel ideas, and gameplay concepts are.

The biggest question

[hakr89]

If it's a PPC based processor, does that mean that it can run Mac OS?

Re:The biggest question

[gerardrj]

No.

Re:The biggest question

[Kaelem]

Well, if someone gets Linux running on it, then you might be able to pull off Mac on Linux.

Re:The biggest question

[reiggin]

that's like asking if an IBM Power5 server can run Mac OS X. the answer is an obvious "no" since the Xbox 360 will lack an Apple ROM or even an Apple designed mobo architexture.

Just b/c it shares ONE similar part to an Apple computer, doesn't make it Apple compatible. That's like saying b/c your Toyota and your Honda both use 10w30 oil that you should be able to swap out pistons or spark plugs.

Re:The biggest question

[hakr89]

Apple has used open firmware since the G3. And according to your analogy, just because Macs and PCs both have PCI, the PCI cards are not interchangable, which would be completely false.

Re:The biggest question

[reiggin]

The PCI cards are NOT interchangable unless a driver exists for both platforms. And having the ability to make that driver requires a certain amount of information about the archetecture and OS in order for it to be supported. So the analogy actually stands.

Re:The biggest question

[reiggin]

Oh, one more thing... PCI is an industry standard... the Mac platform is NOT.

xbox 360?

[not-enough-info]

So... this is gonna run all my IBM DOS/360 software right?

FAKE

[spir0]

I call bullshit.

from tfa: Can't tell you how we got our hands on this image, but what you're looking at is a real live shot of the Xbox 360 that someone sneakily snapped with their cameraphone at Microsoft's Xbox360 Revealed launch party in Los Angeles last night.

several things give it away.

1. the image quality is too good for a camera phone
2. they can't tell us, yet they go on to say where it was got and how.
3. the launch party/reveal was supposed to be live on MTV.
4. this looks really, I mean really, crap.
5. if it wasn't a public reveal, MS would have banned cameras and cellphone cameras.

Re:FAKE

[MBraynard]

There are a lot of multi megapixel cameraphones out now. My next one will be one.

Multitap

[Tweak232]

looks like they are gonna force u to buy a multitap. It also looks unbearably ugly, and bulky.

Re:Multitap

[FishermansEnemy]

As I have been lead to belive from all the leaked info about the 360, all the controllers/headsets etc. are supposed to connect via wireless.

PS3 not quite so fast after all

[Namarrgon]

Don't forget this one too.

Sadly, IBM, who is manufacturing the chips for Sony is having problems fabbing an eight-SPU version of the chip for the console.

Re:Ew.

[Adrilla]

There's not much else in the article. It IS a story about leaked pictures.

Thanks, I want to know when there's funky bacteria

[backslashdot]

Thanks, I want to know when there's funky bacteria!

I am going to prefer the white controller so I can keep it clean.

Seriously .. I rather a controller lets me know when the controller is all nasty by turning color.

Re:Ugly!

[Jozer99]

Evidently you are a robot, or wear gloves a lot. I work in a school computer lab sometimes, and the paper white apple eMac keyboards are crap colored after two weeks. Even the eMacs themselves start to brown after a little while.

compared to XBOX 1

[sjf]

it's sex on legs. Then again, name a console that is sexy ? PSP is maybe the closest, but that's not saying much.

Re:compared to XBOX 1

[Pxtl]

Idunno, once you get passed the fisher-price appearance, I think the gamecube is decidedly hot. How many consoles have a carrying handle? The PS2 is pretty smooth, I've always thought. Nobody's ever made a sexy controller tho.

Re:compared to XBOX 1

[acd294]

Nobody's ever made a sexy controller tho.

I beg to differ.

Re:Ugly!

[harlemjoe]

My concern is that those paperwhite controlers are going to turn a disgusting brown as dirt and skin acids build up over a couple of months. Grey would have been a better choice, cause nobody is gonna want to touch the thing after a year of use.

yeah, then you have to go buy a new set!
available in white only -- at least from MSFT

Doesn't matter too much...

[Yolegoman]

... Something like this will come out for it, I'm sure.

Re:Ugly!

[Impotent_Emperor]

Oh, good god, a school?! That's an environment where the kids seem to take delight in not caring for school property.

There are probably kids who are typing on the keyboards with their filthy, Cheeto-stained fingers. And that's assuming they aren't already wiping cottage cheese on the chairs for other unsuspecting kids to sit on.

Really, they are all disgusting.

The X-Box Squished Edition

[SuperKendall]

To me (and perhaps it's just the angle, but I do not think so) it looks like someone took a really boring white box and sat on it, thus bowing it in the middle.

Also, in another flaw it frontloads (good) but if it's really all curvy the way I think you can't stack things on it (very bad!!). Not everyone has an entertainment center with individual shelves.

Re:The X-Box Squished Edition

[Lovesquid]

Normally, setting things on top of electronics components = overheating = dead equipment = bad. Time to invest in those shelves.

Re:Ugly!

[Hadlock]

Nah, I just wash my hands once or twice a day :) I do remember the LCIIs having grimy as hell keyboards back in elementary school though.

Re:stop flaming just because you don't like micros

[jleq]

I support microsoft and it's flamebait? Then why are so many "OMFG IT IS UGLY LOLOLOL!!!11oneone" posts not modded down, even modded up?

Oh well, my karma just hit the floor faster than you can say "stalinism".

Sex on legs?

[freakmn]

Sex on legs? Do you mean that like it stands up, or like my neighbor's dog has sex on legs?

Re:Thats the ugliest thing I've ever seen

[Meagermanx]

Yeah, I hate that about my iPod. I just wish it were a bit smaller, you know?

This isn't news

[StormKrow]

...the Xbox 360, including photos of the machine and peripherals was featured on MSNBC, CNN, FoxNews, and TechTV (or whatever techtv is calling themselves.)

jesus

[oldwolf13]

do you come every time you see a macintosh?

karma be fucked.

Re:stop flaming just because you don't like micros

[oldwolf13]

The idiots come out whenever the xbox (new or old) is mentioned.

I personally love my xbox (1) as ugly as it is. XBox Media Center, and the emulators for it make it one wicked litte transportable tv-centric box.

Once in awhile I even run Damn Small Linux on it with a usb keyboard/mouse.

The joystick (s-controller) is (IMO) the best one I've ever used.

I try to stay away from MS products, as I don't agree with a lot of their business decisions, but I got this thing for super cheap with a dead dvd-rom. It's dead-ass simple to mod, and there's a lot of really good homebrew stuff for it.

It's a great media machine.. even if the braindead MS tried to make it limited (I can't believe they didn't come out with their own XMBC.. the one crap product they released which needed an XP Media Center box was retarded).

I've never played any madden games, and Halo 1 & 2 pretty much bored me.

Oh yes, and I have a number of BSD and Linux boxes, so I guess I must be a traitor.

Call it XBox 2 * PI

[__int64]

Fools, they should have called it Xbox 2*PI. They are loosing out on a significant sect of mathimaticions and engineers who think it's low to work in degrees.

Seriously though, I'm one of them, but I also think the name is just inherently dumb. 360 has been overused by skateboard and rollerbladers anyway. Although since that is their primary market, the name makes sence. Also 360 > 3, which is > playstation 3. Which was probably the true reason it was picked over the other name canidates.

It's shame we won't ever see a Xbox*Xbox, Xbox^2, log Xbox, lim x->oo Xbox, box (x) though.

Who cares?

[Retroneous]

I might be missing the point here, but who really gives a rat's ass what it looks like?

I thought it was a games console. It'll go beneath me TV if this is true and pump pretty pictures onto my TV screen. If I don't like the controller, there will doubtlessly be a hundred third-party controllers to choose from.

Whether it makes me hard or not doesn't really matter. Meh.

Start/Back buttons? :(

[AlexMax2742]

Are those the Start and Back buttons on either side of the silver logo on the controller?

WHY? Putting the start and Back buttons in their current Controller S configuration was the best idea the new controller had. It's a LOT more comfortable to reach than the PS2's and SNES's (and let's not mention the godawful placement on the origional controller), and now you went and changed it to somewhere else?

*sigh*

Re:Ugly!

[Kirby-meister]

Funny thing is the SNES itself (which is the same color scheme as the controller) starts turning a yellowish color because of the material used to make the case...(at least that's what is happening to the top part of my SNES)

With IC3 batteries...

[rsilvergun]

they can easily get 12 hours (asuming no fancy LEDs) and 15 minute recharging. If Sony can do it with a CD player, Microsoft can pull it off with a gamepad. And there are advancements comming down the pipe that increase battery life and reduce charging. Why anyone would use regular batteries for devices with frequent power needs (PDAs, mp3 players, etc) is beyond me.

Disc Tray x2?

[goodenoughnickname]

The width of the black disc tray is around half the size of the console. Using that as a guide, this thing looks only a little smaller than the current XBox. Unless of course that is a laserdisc tray...

But pictures are never a good indication of size -- I was amazed the first time I saw a tiny PSTwo with my own eyes.

do you reckon its a fake?

[tnhtnh]

The pic looks to be too good from a camera phone... I'm not convinced.

Re:Ugly!

[TychoCelchuuu]

It'll only get as ugly as an iPod.

Start of a grander plan...

[whitepony02027]

I would not be shocked in MS started to lean in the direction of Apple and started to make there own machines. I think this new Xbox and the Media center are the foot holds for such a divice. that way they can implement their security at the processor level and over all clean up all of the holes they have...... or at least try to.

Re:Well, it's true... UGLY.

[elrous0]

Leave your original opinion at the door, and follow the line of sheep into the group-think machine.

In Soviet Russia, group-think machine follows sheep into you.

-Eric

That's why they have feet

[SuperKendall]

Most electronics equipment comes with feet to ensure a decent spacing - and is usally designed so that stacking is OK, since that's how many consumers do it anyway!

That's why the 360 seems such an odd design, it doesn't like to share.

PlayStation 3

[Smobien]

PlayStation 3. 'Nuff said.

I'm guessing the next "advancement" in consoles

[Magius_AR]

Will be this fancy device known as a "mouse" that makes FPS games 500% more usable and fun.

I'm unbelievably sick of seeing "newer" consoles doing nothing more than moving closer and closer to the PC market that already exists (network adapter, hard drive, blah blah blah) whereas the PC gaming market has taken a downturn.

Frozen

[alexo]

> This is solid proof that Microsoft is on the side of the terrorists and
> must have their assets frozen [...]

I agree, Microsoft must have their asses frozen.

Will it be software moddable?

[Jagasian]

The question is, will it be software modifiable, like the current Xbox? Will it have a built in harddrive and crappy security that allows for people to mod their Xbox 360 without a modchip? I sure hope so. Until then, I will continue to use my Xbox on a daily basis, for watching xvid movies and playing emulated classic games.