At CES yesterday Microsoft announced they've made a partnership with Directv and their Windows Media Center platform. I hope this turns out to be an awesome arrangement, as I currently subscribe to Directv and their HD service, and currently Windows Media Center lacks HD capabilities except of off the air broadcasts.
I realize it'll be a while before this all comes to be, but it should be an amazing platform once integration...
At CES this evening it was announced that the Xbox 360 will get a HD-DVD external drive attachment later this year!
Good news for 360 Owners. Now if they would just upconvert regular DVDs as...
Bill Gates' webcast is still on for his Keynote at CES in Las Vegas today.
So far they're just discussing Windows Vista, which I expected. I read a rumor online that they may announce an HD-DVD upgrade for 360s, it looks like that was just a rumor.
Sure I'm excited about Vista, but who really cares until it's available? I try a beta on a test machine sometime in the next few weeks, but honestly, I'm a what can you give me now kind of tech guy.
Hmmm, they made some sort of preview of MS Flight Sim, but of course my SBC DSL dropped the connection during that outage.
update: looks like Bill just announced the new Treo Smartphone is selling tomorrow. I don't know if that was announced previously.
update2: Awesome news! Directv and MS partnership! Media center is going to rock once you have Directv access as well!
update3: Xbox360 update coming shortly!
update4: third manufacturering partner announced for the 360.
update 5: external HD DVD announced for xbox...
Christmas was good this year! Natalie and I both spoiled each other rotten!
I just installer her new car stereo into the F350. The stock stereo was hurting! It only had AM/FM, no CD or Tape! I got her a nice Sony CD Player for the dash, two new kicker speakers for the front doors, and an XM Roady2 for the must have Satellite radio. There's no Sirius in this household, down with Howard Stern and Sirius Radio! I installed the CD player this evening and made sure everything worked. It's a very clean install, you have to love Crutchfield for including everything you could need to install a radio ordered from them. The new CD player went right in the old unit's place courtesy of the Crutchfield mounting hardware.
I also picked up some fine jewelery from Krekeler Jewelers for Natalie's Christmas gifts. Thanks to Jeff for all the help picking a few nice things out!
Natalie spoiled me with some new Oakleys, a cool North Face Jacket, and the Klipsch floor speakers I'd been asking for! The new speakers sound amazing in front of the 50" plasma! I've ordered the Klipsh C-3 center channel speaker from Best Buy using some great gift cards I received. Sometime later this year I'll get the new receiver and 4 surround sound speakers to complete my new and improved home theater setup.
My parents sent me money to purchase an aircompressor and some tools for the garage, so I was out looking at Sears today. I did realize however, I'm going to need to take the truck next time I go, as the air compressors won't fit in the 350Z!
Thanks to everyone for the great Christmas. Natalie and I spent our first of many Christmas' together, hopefully next year we'll be able to see our parents though, it was my first Xmas away from my family :(
More to come in...
Well, it's almost 1am and Thanksgiving weekend is almost over. I'll be getting up and heading back to the grind in the morning. Though this coming week will probably fly by for me. Natalie and I are headed to Vegas Friday evening. I bought a flight/hotel package early last week to take her out of town for the weekend. We leave on the 2nd of December, which is the date we've set as our wedding day for 2006, so this trip will be a little celebration of the year anniversary before our wedding.
I've never been to Vegas, bar a trip with the family when I was 12 or 13, so I look forward to getting to see all the Casinos, and of course see how much money I can come home with! Here's to hoping it's more than I started with! We've also got tickets to see the Blue Man Group, who I've always wanted to see, and Natalie's never heard of. They're at The Venetian, which happens to be the hotel we're staying at.
Other news. The Xbox 360 is going well, solo I've been playing Project Gotham Racing 3, it's got some great online action, and the single player so far has kept me entertained. Head to head I've been playing my future brother-in-law in some NBA Live 06, which is a great game to play when the other guy is in the room. After making a great play you can hit the replay button and rub it in their face. Other than those two games though I haven't touched much of the other software I picked up for the 360. I've also yet to get it working on my network to be able to stream files off my PC. Hopefully I'll get that working, I think it may be related to my PC being on a domain, but we'll see.
More news to come soon, lots going on in the Hammond...
Major Nelson has a post about availability over the next few months.
I'm not sure who Major Nelson is, but apparently he either works for, or with...
I've setup a new Category on my blog for XBOX 360 posts, to better organize...
You're going to need to download Windows Media Connect from here.
Once you have that setup you need to setup sharing, and setup the devices that can access those shares you create.
I've yet to get mine working properly, hopefully I'll get it going...
My Woot.com package arrived today, nice 6 computer speaker set, I'm sure natalie will enjoy the racket!
Also the 360 came today! Horray! Who needs sleep when you can game! Now I need to get out of work and go home to hook it...
So you're wondering how to get yourself an Xbox360 before Christmas? Here's a few tips.
Take 1:
On November 21st, head to your local Best Buy, Wal Mart or Circuit City, Target, Kmart.
Take warm clothes, some food, and a comfortable folding chair, you're going to be there a while.
Wait, wait, wait, until 8am on November 22nd.
Go in the store and buy one! If you're lucky enough to be one of the few in line that will get one.
Take 2.
Bid on one on Ebay.
Take 3.
Try finding one on Black Friday. (yeah good luck with that.)
Take 4.
Wait till after Christmas!
Any of your own tips on how to find a 360 before Christmas? Post them...
Cnet has an article about the Xbox360 sale that CircuitCity.com had on Friday. Let's just say that I know someone who got one after the "three" hour mark. It has a tracking number, and we'll see if it ships tomorrow or not!
http://news.com.com/Xbox+360+mania+slams+CircuitCity.com/2100-1043_3-5961443.html
Minutes after Microsoft's next-generation game console went on sale Friday afternoon at CircuitCity.com, the site was hobbled by a deluge of traffic.
A representative for the online counterpart to electronics retailer Circuit City said the company's site saw a "tremendous" traffic spike at 2 p.m. ET, when the company began taking Internet orders for the eagerly awaited Xbox. (Specific traffic numbers were not immediately available from Comscore, which tracks Web use.) Microsoft has predicted it will sell 3 million consoles within the first three months following the Xbox 360's release.
Other retailers had taken preorders for the Xbox, but Circuit City was the only online store selling the consoles Friday. Previous Next "The Web (store) did become slow for the majority of customers," acknowledged Amanda Tate, a Circuit City spokeswoman. She declined to specify how many Xboxes were sold or how many the company made available through its Web site.
CircuitCity.com sold out of its available consoles in less than three hours, Tate said.
The Xbox goes on sale at brick-and-mortar stores at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Those customers who purchased a console from Circuit City's site will have to pay extra for shipping to receive the machine by Tuesday, Tate said.
Shoppers will likely be camping out in front of their local electronics stores and long lines are expected....