Microsoft: These are our Competitors…

Microsoft succinctly and clearly identifies many of its major competitors. Why should anyone outside of Microsoft or among shareholders care about this information? Partners can identify areas of Microsoft strength or weakness that could impact their businesses. For IT organizations, Microsoft loosely identifies alternatives to its own products through its list of competitors. Read more.

Japan Explains: Why Xbox 360s Heat Up and Crap Out.

Face it: the Xbox 360 isn’t quite up to snuff. The design is flawed, leading to an abnormal number of machines konking out. Since Microsoft won’t reveal the details of what exactly is causing the problems, Japanese news source Nikkei had a thermal design expert analyze the 360’s heat radiation system. Two Xbox 360’s were used for the investigation: one purchased in 2005, and the other that was repaired in May 2007. Their findings? Read more.

Bach Sold Stock as Xbox Problems Mounted

Market Watch reports that filings lodged with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Bach sold $6.2 million in stock between May 2 and last Thursday when Microsoft officially acknowledged it would be necessary to fork out around $1.15 billion to cater for an “unacceptable” number of Xbox repairs. Bach had sold no stock for eight months prior to May. Read more.

Xbox 360 class action lawsuit filed

We knew it was only a matter of time until someone brought a class action lawsuit against Microsoft and the Xbox 360, but we thought it would be related to failure rates and the red ring of death, not scratched discs. But, here it is before the ink is even dry right after being filed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The plaintiff and his lawyers are seeking more than five million dollars. Read more.

Peter Moore discusses new three year Xbox 360 warranty

Peter Moore discusses the new plans for Microsoft to extend the warranty for all Xbox 360 consoles from one year to three years, and discusses reimbursement for all who’ve had to pay for warranty repair due to the the three red lights error.

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Microsoft deletes 900 forum messages about crashing Xbox 360s

In what appears to be an effort to conceal the over 900 replies gamers provided on the official Forzamotorsport.net forums about Forza Motorsport 2 crashing on the Xbox 360, Microsoft has deleted the long thread, now stating that it’s “exclusive content for registered forum users” only. However, the thread was removed entirely, even to registered members. Read more.

A tale of 11 broken Xbox 360s

Justin Lowe is your average hardcore gamer. He’s fully embraced the HD era, owning both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and loves his Nintendo DS and PSP for gaming on-the-go. He even helps run Aggravated Gamers, an indie gaming podcast. What’s special about Justin, though, is he’s currently on his twelfth Xbox 360. Read more.

The first iPhone theft

Remember the problems with game consoles being stolen at launch time? Remember armed holdups on people waiting in line with cash in pocket - to buy 360’s, PS3s, and Wiis?

Has anyone stopped to consider what may happen on the 29th with the iPhone?

Popular Science: Microsoft Security Grunt #6 worst job in Science

Do you flinch when your inbox dings? The people manning secure@microsoft .com receive approximately 100,000 dings a year, each one a message that something in the Microsoft empire may have gone terribly wrong. Teams of Microsoft Security Response Center employees toil 365 days a year to fix the kinks in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office and all the behemoth’s other products. Read more.

If Microsoft made toasters

I believe that Microsoft’s domination of the PC software market has dulled and altered our expectations of the ‘fit for purpose’ and ‘use from the box’ aspect of all - not just computer software - products we now shell out our hard earned for. Read more.

Xbox 360 Failures Explained

In response to the recent Mercury News interview, a man who has had 8 consoles fail so far explains what he believes the issue with the hardware is.

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Xbox 360 Vice President on hardware failures: “No comment.”

Q: I’m sure you’ve seen some of these complaints that we’ve written about from the guy who went through seven machines. There are a lot of people posting on the blog saying they still have problems. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that the quality of the Xbox 360 isn’t there. How can you paint the bigger picture for me there?

A: We’re very proud of the box. We think the vast majority of people are having just a great experience. You look at the number of games they are buying, the number of accessories they are buying, the Live attach. They love the box.  Read more.

Microsoft pays $50 million for Grand Theft Auto exclusive downloads

Microsoft is paying an unprecedented $50 million for exclusive rights to publish two episodes of the forthcoming game, Grand Theft Auto IV, on its Xbox 360 games console, according to statements from a senior executive at GTA IV publisher, Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two has already recorded the payments in financial filings as deferred revenue, explained Lainie Goldstein, Take-Two’s newly appointed CFO, in a conference call with analysts. Read more.

Microsoft responds to European inquiry on scratched 360 discs

Even though Microsoft seems to be dragging its feet when it comes to addressing the EU’s anti-trust concerns, the software-giant-cum-console-maker was quick to respond to European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs Meglena Kuneva’s inquiry regarding accusations of faulty 360 hardware.  Read more.

Microsoft secretly modding broken xbox 360s for more cooling.

French Xbox 360 owners who’ve sent in their defective or broken Xboxes to Microsoft to fix are finding that the return console have a little extra “wooooosh” in them. Read more.

Humour: Microsoft bans Hitler’s 360 from Live. [video]

Stumbled across this. Thought it was funny. Now I share.

Is Microsoft Trying to Kill PC Gaming?

Judging by the lackluster game releases and the attempt to suck the blood from PC gamers with “Games for Windows Live,” it starts feeling like Microsoft is doing all it can to actually kill PC gaming. Maybe my ideas will make no sense to them, or they’re just plain stupid ideas, but at some point, Microsoft needs to “cowboy up” and get serious about this. Because frankly, if it wasn’t for gaming, a whole lot of us would already have Macs, or be running Ubuntu Linux and never looking back. Read more.

Picture Of The Day

Pray your xbox 360 never gets the dreaded “3 Blinking Red Lights of Doom” like mine.

If it does, there’s still a chance for you if it happens within one year of purchase and you have the original receipt.

Xbox 360: 61% failure rate!

Everywhere you turn, there’s another story of a broken 360 and anyone you speak to has either had their console fail on them, or knows of many others who have. It really is the problem that simply won’t go away.

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Microsoft Games Losses Down, Still Substantial

Even though sales are up on the operating system side of things, Microsoft’s games division is still struggling. The Entertainment and Devices division lost $315 million, with sales slipping some 21 percent. That’s 22 percent down from last year.

A good question: Where ARE the Microsoft fanboys?

“Why doesn’t Microsoft have a cult religion?” The answer is simple: cults don’t form in the mainstream. Should Microsoft be concerned, though?

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Connect360 adds H.264 video support

Nullriver Software has released version 3.0 of its popular Connect360 program, which previously allowed streaming of music from iTunes, photos from iPhoto and limited WMV only movies to Xbox 360. This new version (coupled with the Spring Update for your console) allows movies to be streamed directly from iTunes. Forget blowing cash on AppleTV!

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Xbox360 Tells Customer “I Am Laughing At You” And Hangs Up

“Is there anything else I can help you with… and by the way I am laughing at you.”
I responded, “you are what?”
And he enunciated, “I am laughing at YOU.”

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Analyst: “The Vista Content Protection spec. could [be] the longest suicide note in history.”

Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry. Read More…

ExtremeTech.Com: Microsoft is Screwing Up Live on Vista

This month, the first two Live PC games hit the market, first Halo 2 and then Shadowrun, and boy did Microsoft ever drop the ball on this one. Microsoft has set everything in place for Live on the PC to be a failure, and what’s more, they’re continually showing that their PR-speak claiming “we really care about the PC as a gaming platform” is B.S.

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Microsoft VP Peter Moore Talks Xbox 360 Failure Rates

The Microsoft corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business recently sat down to answer a extensive list of questions given to him by inquiring Xbox 360 gamers.

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Mac OS X on Xbox 360

Is there anywhere else, it hasn’t tried going yet?

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Open Letter to Apple from Lifelong Gamer

Fileplanet Editor-in-Chief bemoans Apple’s hands-off policy to securing great Mac game content, which he feels is costing the company. “For nearly a decade I’ve been a Mac fan who hasn’t bought a Mac, solely because of the game situation.” He makes some suggestions on what Apple should do, including - gasp - copying Microsoft. Just a little.

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Halo 2 for PC sucks

Halo 2 is due for release on the PC but has anyone questioned whether it is worth releasing. It’s 3 years old, only runs on Vista but doesn’t use directx10 and costs full price. Ripp-off.

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Xbox 360 Elite Prone to Same Problems as Others

We’ve had numerous reports coming in of users getting 3 red lights on their brand new Elite consoles this morning. The disc scratching issue is back as well. Microsoft has introduced another new product that is failing at a higher than normal rate. Seriously Microsoft, did you completely get rid of your QA department?

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An Avatar for your use.

In honor of my recently deceased Xbox 360. I’m releasing this image of him for your free use. It’s the last pic I have of him, and it’s how I will always remember him.

R.I.P. 360

Feature: Eight Reasons Why the Xbox 360 Elite Isn’t Elite

On April 29, Microsoft will release their third flavor of 360 ice cream — the black Xbox 360 Elite. Let’s not be coy; the reason in adding a third, more expensive 360 is solely due to the existence of the $600 PS3. Since the inception of game consoles, prices have traditionally dropped with age, not increased. But If Sony can sell 3 million….

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SwitchingToMac.Com: Killing The Myth - Games Galore For The New Mac

I have been a gamer since the days of the Atari 800 console. My first real computer was a Sinclair ZX-81, quickly followed by the master of all game machines, the Commodore 64. Then In logical progression I moved on to the Amiga A500, then onto the A1200 and finally in 1995 I moved over to the PC. What caused this method of progressing through the computer world? Why choose one over the other? The answer for me - as it was for many - was Games. Simply put I was following the platform that supported the best Computer Games. Back in those days it was easy to see what was better, which computer to choose, and which was not so impressive. This can be seen happening today in the console industry, but what about the Computer Industry? Read more.

TUAW Guide: Xbox 360 and Mac

In many reviews of the Apple TV, the Xbox 360 was often mentioned as a competing Media Extender product.I thought it would be good to discover the ways in which my two pretty white boxes can work together. In this Guide to Xbox 360 and the Mac, I’m going to discuss some of both the hardware and software compatibilities between the machines.

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Apple Media Center Planned

Diagrams suggest that a ‘modular controller’, most likely their new TV squirting device, would sit at the middle allowing you to hook up anything from branded hi-def DVD players, a PVR, a Mac Mini or even their own freeview box.

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EA employee claims 30-50% failure rates for XBOX 360

Is the Xbox 360 failure rate higher than we think? And is Capcom’s recent release of Dead Rising contributing to the problem? Microsoft and Capcom refute the claims of an EA employee who suggested that 360 failure rates were in the 30-50% range.

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Apple Eyeing Nintendo?

Chris Stevens from CNet.co.uk revives a long-standing rumor that Apple may be eyeing a merger with Nintendo. Stevens goes on to speculate that a Mac Mini that could play Nintendo’s Wii games could prove to be a formidible match to Sony’s Playstation 3 and Microsoft’s XBox 360, since the Mini can also play high-definition video, edit music and photographs, surf the web, word process, and edit video.
 Read more.

Dvorak: 8 signs that [Microsoft] is dead in the water

Let me preface by saying that Microsoft is not about to stop making gobs of money. It’s just that there is virtually nothing interesting or exciting happening (with the lone exception of the X-Box360) with anything the company is doing. To make matters worse none of the upcoming upgrades to the operating system or Microsoft Office appear to have any ‘must-have” qualities needed to boost sales in a meaningful way.  Compare what is going on at Microsoft to Apple. Apple is piling on with new TV commercials ridiculing all the viruses and security issues you buy when you buy a Windows-based PC. Microsoft advertising ironically highlights dinosaurs. Read more.