Xbox 360 Specifications

2 types of Xbox Live:
Xbox Live Silver (no subscription required)
Xbox Live Gold (subscription benefits)

Features for Gold service
* Also for Silver
# Also for Offline

- Seamless transition to Xbox Live account from Xbox to Xbox 360
- Access to MMOs (additional fees may apply) *
- Free Xbox Live weekends *
- Multiplayer online gameplay
- Avatar for gamer profile * #
- Motto for gamer profile * #
- Personalized look for Xbox System Guide * #
- Offline achievments * #
- Online achievements *
- Access to other players’ Gamer cards via Live *
- Cumulative gamer score * #
- Location/language profile * #
- Reputation *
- Enahnced matchmaking using above
- Skill level matchmaking
- Gameplay style profile (casual, competitive, etc.)
- Recent players list *
- Free and premium download game content *
- Free and premium downloadable movies, music, tv *
- Downloadable demos/trailers *
- Microtransactions *
- Custom playlist in every game * #
- Play music from portable devices * #
- View images from digital camera * #
- Stream media from Windows XP * #
- Interactive screen savers * #
- Track info for CDs * #
- Communication with voice, video or text *

360 HW:
1. Support for DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 cd, JPEG photo CD
2. All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing
3. Customizable face plates to change appearance
4. 3 USB 2.0 ports
5. Support for 4 wireless controllers
6. Detachable 20GB drive
7. Wi-Fi ready

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
- 3 symmetrical cores at 3.2 GHz each
- 2 hardware threads per core
- 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core
- 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance
- 9 billion dots per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor
- 500 MNz
- 10 MB embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point shader pipelines
- unified shader architecture

Memory
-512 MB GDDR3 RAM
- 700 MNz DDR

Memory Bandwidth
- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s frontside bus

Audio
- Mulitchannel surround sound output
- Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32 bit processing
- 256+ audio channels

Source: Engadget and Team Xbox

At the time that these specs leaked out most people thought they were too good to be true. Since Microsoft has made the Xbox 360 public I can now tell you that most if not all of the above is going to be what you'll get with the next Xbox.

MSN on the alert with MessageCast acquisition | The Register

MSN on the alert with MessageCast acquisition | The Register:

"Microsoft has bought MessageCast, the messaging and alerts technology startup that provides the foundation for its MSN Alerts service, for an undisclosed sum.

MSN's Alerts has been based on MessageCast's technology since 2003, but this move will allow Microsoft greater access to the technology, and means the alerts service will be extended to new content channels, the company said."

--

The blog alerts that I configured through Message Cast a while back haven't worked since news of this merger came out. I visited the new MSN branded MessageCast website and accepted their new TOS. As far as I know that didn't fix the issue. I was assured by MSN that the service would remain free, however I had to make agreement with MSN which allows them to insert ads into the alerts.

I'm sure the alerts will start working again soon. Maybe one will pop up after I submit this post. It's hard to tell. The merger/buyout of MessageCast will have to push through a few bumps.

#HolidayInn Digest

#HolidayInn Digest: "#HolidayInn Digest

New Look! Same Crap!"

haha wow this looks great matt :) good job ! but now it looks kinda like we should actually put meaningful stuff on here lol :P

360 Degrees of Entertainment

See the Our Colony Video

Visit the Xbox 360 Website

Discuss at the Team Xbox Forum

Cable News withdrawal Symptoms ie. Fox & CNN

Im not sure how this is really going to make me sound as a person on a global scale. I do care what happens in this world I do want the world to be a better happier place. I do want freedom and peace to prevail. On that note however I still am not watching the news . I will get the occasional blurb of news from say froggy 101 in the Wilkes barre Scranton area or read a little of the USA today's that come free here to the guests at my job. At some points I feel rather guilty I used to know what was going on I used to "care". On the other hand does not knowing every little detail of every moment of this beautiful worlds existence mean that I don't care ? Or that I have finally realized that for me as a person , I can not exist happily with all this information. I have to say its amazing its been around a month since a cable news channel has filled my apartment with gloom and doom and I am a happier person already. Now of course there is the other side to that which I have mentioned before where after being plugged into the world for so long how do I now just walk away from all of it ? I guess in the end its simple I have to for the greater good of my heart and my soul. Over the years as well I think I may have fallen victim to the programming of some of these channels. I used to care what happened to the environment I found myself saying one day hey who cares if they cut down that forest it will give jobs to the local economy of the area. LOL This is true I suppose but a younger me would have been out there fighting to save the creatures of that forests habitat because in the end we cannot exist without them. I have Learned a great lesson over these last 5 years . Mainly that I am not the center of the universe and that what others believe does matter , and that my views are just that views on the a way that I perceive my existence. I realized that I don't like the way I've been looking at the world. Hell I don't like the way I've been looking at my local community I've felt lost and withdrawn to small to do any good. I guess all I can really say at this point is stay tuned... Watch me grow .... Im not going to let things change me . I finally have found the courage to be myself and I will never ever ever ever lose that again. :)

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