CES 2010: Final Thoughts

The Consumer Electronics show, the behemoth of tech, the Valhalla of gadgetry, has come and gone for yet another year. But this time, rather than arriving with a bang, it slinked into sight with something more like a whimper. CES…

CES 2010: Day 2 Round-Up

It may have gotten off to a dull start thanks to the lacklustre showing from Microsoft, but CES 2010 today threw up some really nice surprises. Keep an eye out for the Light Blue Optic's Light Touch here in today's…

RUMOUR: Xbox 360 to come with 1TB HD?

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Industry analysts are suggesting that Microsoft will soon be offering a huge terabyte hard-drive to support its forthcoming games on demand service.

Rumours suggest the 1TB Xbox 360 will be released at the same time as Project Natal – Microsoft’s camera based motion-sensor.

The games on demand service will allow gamers to download full versions of Xbox 360 titles directly to their hard-drive after purchasing them with a credit card. This means users will need a lot more storage – hence the 1TB rumours.

The largest Xbox 360 hard-drive currently on the market is the 120GB premium Xbox 360 Elite.

(via bit-tech)

Related story: New Xbox planned for 2010? Microsoft doesn’t even seem to know

New Xbox planned for 2010? Microsoft doesn't even seem to know

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There’s mixed messages coming out of Microsoft with regards to Xbox developments. First off CEO Steve Ballmer hints that there would be a new Xbox coming out in 2010 with motion sensing Project Natal cameras built-in. Now Microsoft’s Xbox boss, Aaron Greenberg, has stated that there are no plans for a new console.

Greenberg was keen to play down any talk of an entirely new console and insisted that Ballmer wasn’t referring to a new generation Xbox: “We are saying that the Natal will run on the Xbox 360, so there’s no new hardware to purchase. We’re barely halfway through this generation. We’re happy with the Xbox 360, so there are no changes from that standpoint.”

Project Natal was unveiled at E3 at the beginning of June and Microsoft hopes that the technology will allow them to compete with the Wii in terms of motion based games. If they can match the Wii’s fun factor then the Xbox certainly contains the hardware to blow the Japanese firm out of the water. Not literally.

(via Kotaku)

Microsoft unveil motion sensing controller – Project Natal

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Microsoft has unveiled its much rumoured motion controller at E3 along with 1080p video-streaming, facebook and twitter integration, and Premier League football as part of Microsoft’s deal with Sky.

“Project Natal” is not as many were expecting a hand-held controller but rather a motion sensing camera, like the Eye Toy, but hopefully substantially less crappy.

Steven Spielberg lumbered on stage to demo the new technology, with his avatar moving in real time as he controled the UI. Unlike the Eye Toy which wasn’t really developed with any great vigour, Microsoft seem to have gone to town with Natal and look to have created a very immersive and interactive experience.

Maybe too interactive, because in an Orwellian overstep, Microsoft have included face recognition technology which will allow you to use the meat, sinew and cartilage, on the front of your head to as your password to log in to your Live account.

But Natal isn’t just for gaming: As Microsoft start to push the Xbox 360 as the home entertainment mega-hub, you’ll be able to use Natal to flick through your films and songs and use voice recognition to issue commands.

The demo came complete with a very Wii-esque trailer of a family enjoyed the delights of Natal’s motion capture, although all the voices had been dubbed so grimly that the whole thing takes on this sort of uncanny and unnerving ambiance, like they’re trapped. It’s weird – watch it. It’s a far cry from the light-hearted japes of the Rednapp clan.

Microsoft look to have created an amazing and deeply immersive piece of kit here, but they still can’t make adverts. Not for toffees.

Watch this till the end – it’s a good advert and then in the last 10 seconds the way the light on the Natal unit switches off is so creepy!

Has no one at Microsoft seen Space Odyssey 2001? It couldn’t be more menacingly Hal-esque.