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XBox Live Update Preview, or How I Learned to Love My Xbox Just a Little More
So just a few hours ago Jolly, Bender, Vash and I finished the Borderlands campaign in co-op (look for Jolly’s and my upcoming tandem review) and waded into Playthrough 2 with our seasoned bounty hunters. Foraying into a tougher (and suitably more lucrative) Pandora busied us nearly until midnight, when those who have early work decided it was time to end the session. I exited out of the game in order to save my progress, returning to the Dashboard to check for any missed Xbox news while I continued to speak to my companions in Party Chat. I immediately lost connection. I assumed this was due to my wireless connection (as I’ve been able to achieve a weak signal at best between my wireless router and Xbox wireless adapter whilst at home), but this was refuted when I was informed that I had an Xbox Live update to install. Thinking nothing of it, I accepted the somewhat lengthy install, busying myself with internetting until the update finished its nigh 8-minute installation. When I signed back into XBL, however, I initially noticed that my XBox Live channels looked…different.

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Microsoft confirmed yesterday that they will be launching the ZuneHD this fall.  The new Zune featured HD video output (720p), HD radio, a web browser and a touch-screen – essentially making it a direct, yet more full-featured, competitor to the iPod Touch.   

Microsoft will also be replacing the Xbox Live Marketplace with the Zune Video Store, increasing their integration of the Xbox & Zune brands.  There’s no word on pricing yet, but expect more info/details at E3.

Could this be the precursor to a Zune Phone to challenge the dominance of the iPhone?  I guess we’ll just have to wait & see. 

Game on!

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While nothing seems able to topple the King of portable media players: The iPod, the Zune has done a respectable job of increasing their PDMP market share (up 33% from 2007-2008).  Even during the current economic slowdown, the Zune continues to sell well and sway new users with features the iPod just doesn’t have: a bigger screen, an FM tuner, built-in wi-fi capabilities, etc. 

Since before the Zune first appeared, however, there has been speculation that it was merely MS’ prelude to a portable gaming device or even, possibly, a Microsoft phone.  Microsoft has repeatedly denied such rumors, but the rumblings have started again across the web.  Will there be a Zune phone?  How about a portable Xbox?  Microsoft still denies it, but here’s what we’ve been hearing:

Zune Phone:

Rumors of a Zune phone first started appearing in mid 2008.  Here is the first ‘mock up’ of the supposed Zune Phone, which appeared in December 2008:

There were few details, other than it was supposed to be MS’ ploy to compete with the insanely popular iPhone.  Since these early images, I havent seen any more recent mock-ups to compliment this rumor. 

Xbox Portable:

An even earlier rumor was that MS was woring on some sort of portable gaming device to compliment the Xbox 360 and compete with the PSP/Nintento handhelds.  Some thought that the Zune itself was going to be a portable game device rather than a competitor for the iPod. 

Once the rumors began, however, it seems everyone went crazy with photoshop.  Here are several mock-ups of a supposed Xbox portable game system:

Very creative – but obvously not real.  Every one of these was spawned from the imagination of gamers who were speculating on what a portable Xbox gaming device might look like. 

MS denies these rumors as well, and with the stonghold Nintendo has on the handheld market (with minor competition from the Sony PSP), many believe that MS won’t gamble in this arena. 

Zune/ Xbox Phone/Gaming Device All In One:

The latest resurgence of the Zune phone or portable Xbox rumors is that it will be an all-in-one device that will tackle both tasks at once – gaming & phone capabilities; an ambitious plan, if true. 

We still have no proof, but here are the latest image appearing on the web of what could be the Zune/Xbox Phone/Gaming device:

This one is still most likely a mock-up, as it has been around the web for a few months now:

Even as just a mock-up, however, I like the design of this one better than the others shown above.  It looks more like the basic Zune design, wich is more what I’d expect. 

This could be it.  Again, these could easily be mock-up images, but they are what I consider to be the most believable images yet of a possible Xbox Portable/Zune phone device.  There are even a series of images detailing the specs and showing someone actually holding/playing one (and they do not appear at first glance to have been made in photoshop):

The New ZuneX(?):

A supposed closed presentation, showing the ZuneX.

The ZuneX

Doesn’t look Photoshopped to me (but the graininess of the photos is troubling).

Spec Sheet Images:

Image1

Image2

Image3

Image4

Take this info with the obligatory grain of salt.  The Xbox portable and Zune phone may still come out as seperate devices, but for an Xbox portable, this is the most believable images/info I’ve seen yet.  It’s also prudent to consider the following facts:

-In late 2008, MS split the Zune team at MS into hardware and ‘software-plus’ services (MS has been reminding everyone lately that software-plus services as the future.

-Craig Eisler, manager of Zune software-plus services, is involved in creating a new platform for digital media delivery across Windows, Windows Mobile and Xbox. Essentially, MS it taking the Zune software and using it as the jumping off point for digital delivery/playback across all of their procucts. 

If the rumors come to pass, some analysts believe we could see the ZuneX on the market as early as Fall 2009.  Hopefully, with E3 aproaching fast, MS will make an annoucement to either confirm or squash these rumors once and for all.

Game on!

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