Xbox 360 Fanboy

Update: Rumor denied! No Blu-ray Xbox 360 announcement for us and no WWDC spoilage. iPhone, you got lucky.

Coming from the folks over at CrunchGear and their tipster who supposedly has a "close friend" within Microsoft's E&D division, we get word that Microsoft is set to announce a new Blu-ray equipped Xbox 360 console Monday morning at 9:00AM pacific, an hour before Apple's WWDC. A Blu-ray Xbox 360 announcement that is said to confirm the new console's release this holiday at a price point lower than what the Elite currently sells for and an announcement whose aim is take the tech limelight away from Apple and their iPhone. Right ...

We have a few problems with this Blu-ray rumor, the first being that it's yet another Blu-ray Xbox 360 rumor. Seeing that EVERY time there has been speculation of Microsoft announcing this mysterious console, it never comes to fruition followed by MS's adamant denials. Our second issue with this rumor is the fact that the tipster links this MS announcement with Apple's conference where they claim MS will try to upstage the WWDC big reveals. Hmm, since when were MS and Apple duking it out in the video game market and since when have Apple loyalists ever been impressed by MS news? Seriously? We're beginning to think we should create a "Blu-ray Rumor" category to house all this "news".

[Via Gizmodo, Thanks Jon Oransky]

Word handed done from a few iPod owners is that Apple's latest firmware update has rendered iPod playback on the 360 iffy. Tony sent us a tip stating that his fifth gen iPod is no longer recognized by his 360 after updating the firmware on his iPod. We've also heard from various iPod / 360 owners that, for some reason or another, their iPods either never worked (in the case of the the iPod Touch) or just quit working (2GB iPod Nano). Something is fishy here kids and either Apple or Microsoft should get on the horn, kiss and make up and throw a new Optional iPod Support download on the XBLM or fix it via a firmware update. Who has Apple's number?

[Thanks, Tony Han]

We thought we heard the extent of how far Gears of War was willing to stray from its Xbox 360 roots, but now we're hearing about an even further departure. In an interview with Game Head's Geoff Keighley, Mark Rein talked up Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War and accidentally let the news slip that both games were headed to the Mac platform. Rein confirmed Gears' Mac-bound status when answering Keighley stating that "yes, Gears is going to come to the Mac and so is UT". The news was not followed by a release date or how far in development the Mac versions are.

Anyone willing to bet that Gears Mac will have even more content than Gears PC all of which won't be available to 360 owners? Anyone? Nobody? Shucks ...

It would appear that not everything about the latest spring update is all wine and roses. Application developer Nullriver is currently having to deal with the Spring Update with Connect360, the Mac solution to as according to tipster Rob Avery, checking your video shows your music, and there is an apparent 2000 viewing list limit.

Either way, Nullriver is working on the problem and will have addressed the different nuances as soon as possible. Once everything is in place things should definitely look up for Mac users, as the addition of H.264 support is music to our ears. Apple based X3Fanboys, do you utilize Connect360?

Our friends over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog posted quite the comprehensive guide for Mac lovers to get the most out of their 360s. True, it's not as easy to get the Xbox 360 to play nice with a Mac, but with the numerous programs and driver that have been released, you'll be able to get all the same PC streaming goodness in no time. TUAW talks about all kinds of subjects like sharing your internet connection through a Mac, using your controller, hooking up a Vision camera, and even streaming video/audio content through a Mac. And thanks to the Spring dash update, the H.264 format support will make Apple fans smile with glee. Like we said, the article is a pretty good read for Mac owners who may not know how to get the most out of their 360 or is just a great resource to find some good linkage. Xbox 360 and Apple ... love has no boundaries.

Better late than never, we have a workaround fix for the compatibility issues we reported earlier this month regarding the new Airport Extreme Base Station and Xbox 360. Go to your Airport Utility, then Option-Click the radio setting button to reveal a drop down menu, from there, select "b/g compatible", not "n (b/g compatible)". That takes away the benefits of an 802.11 n network, but it gets the job done with 54 Mbps.

Next up is to Option-Click the button for encryption setting and select "WPA Personal". In DHCP settings under Internet, using the 360's MAC address, reserve an IP so it stays consistent. Finally, in your NAT options, select the 360's IP address as the "Default Host" to prevent any Live functionality issues, and restart your Extreme Base Station. Once you go to the network settings on your System blade, you should see your WPA-encrypted network show up. So your 360 and Airport Extreme can work together with encryption, although you kind of neuter the Base Station in the process.

[Via CrunchGear]

While the Apple iPhone may have unexpectedly blown Microsoft's Zune out of the water at CES, the 360 looks as though it may have pulled an unexpected fast one of its own. What we're talking about here is Xbox 360 IPTV versus Apple TV. As noted by Beta News, it may have been the frothing Apple blogosphere itself that muted the announcement of Apple TV: "I got the feeling that as [Steve Jobs] was going through the iTV announcement, the blogger was going, okay, 720p ... yadda, yadda, yadda ... come on, let's get to the phone!" Meanwhile, Microsoft dropped something of a bomb by announcing that IPTV was coming to the Xbox 360. The reason that this is very different from Apple TV is that Microsoft has already established an Xbox ecosystem. They already have millions of customers with 360s in their homes. According to the article, Microsoft has a key advantage in the TV space because of its leverage with the gaming audience (you know, 18-30 year old guys who dig technology).

We have to admit, had we known that our Xbox 360 was merely a sneaky way of Microsoft solidifying its dream of creating the mythical "set top box," we would have been skeptical to say the least. But now that it's here, now that downloading movies and TV is possible (and having great games to boot), we're enjoying every minute of it. Microsoft has succeeded in an arena completely separate from games, and is giving similar services a run for their money (we wouldn't be surprised if the Video Mareketplace moves from its number 2 position to claim 1st place either).

So, maybe the iPhone did shoot the Zune in the face, but Microsoft seemingly struck a similar blow with the IPTV announcement. Then again, maybe the Apple TV and 360 IPTV shouldn't even be looked at as competitors, as Apple clearly isn't aiming for the HDMI loving, 1080p needing crowd. What do you think, will the 360 become the first mass market set top box that the tech industry has been dreaming of since the 90s? (Bonus question: has it already?)

[Thanks, Jonah Falcon]

It looks like someone may have finally hacked the 360 to run Linux. Xbox-Scene is reporting that during the German 23C3 Hacker Congress an anonymous presenter came on stage during an "open mic" type session. With 360 in hand, he (or she) proceeds to load King Kong and fiddles around for a minute or two. Then, on the screen appears the Linux penguin and the old Mac logo with the words "Coming soon...". Could this finally be confirmation that the volatile King Kong shaders were exploited and are the key to hacking the 360's OS? Only time will tell, but someone should have warned that anonymous hacker that this little experiment voided his 360's warranty ... joke's on him!

[Thanks, BlueStar]

Reuters has reported the altogether not shocking news that Microsoft is hard at work on a device to combat the iPod. Naturally, Microsoft hopes to beat Apple with better software. In reference to the upcoming competition between iTunes and Microsoft's new service, a source said:

"They [Microsoft] have been developing technologies that have really good music discovery and community, iTunes is the 7-11 (of music stores). You don't hang out there."

Could this be the truth behind the much rumored Xboy? As there is still no concrete evidence of the xPod's existence, I took the liberty of throwing together a concept sketch of what it might look like.

Would you buy an xPod over an iPod?

Update 1: Read link now directs to the actual Reuters article.

Here's an OS X widget that displays not only your gamercard, but stats like the last game played and total time. It seems like an improvement over the 360-related widget we pointed out last December, but I can't be sure on my dog-chewed PC. As always, we can't be held responsible if this stuff nukes your machine.

[Thanks Nick M.]

After reading here about TwonkyVision's MediaServer software to stream photos and music to the Mac, the mini Blog decided to write up a How-To on getting the not very straightforward software to play nice with the 360. It's a great step by step, complete with pictures; the only major downside is that the software ain't free, but with a little Automator script you can set it to restart every thirty minutes. Any other enterprising fanboys care to take on the task of writing up a script for the rest of us?