August 11, 2009 Xbox LIVE Update truly cranks it up a notch – with features that improve your entertainment experience and give you new ways to express your individuality and connect with friends. With this update, you can download full Xbox 360® games and play them without a disc, and you and your friends will be able to party watch movies online through Netflix! Dress up your avatar to impress with premium props and branded apparel from fashion labels. And this update allows every piece of game content on Marketplace to be rated, so add your personal ratings and see what others think is cool. But that’s just the beginning. Check out all of the new features of the Xbox LIVE Update below.

Games on Demand

Enjoy the convenience of finding and buying new games right from the comfort of your own living room. Download a wide selection of full Xbox 360 games over Xbox LIVE. Games on Demand will be available for purchase on Xbox LIVE starting August 11 as part of the Xbox LIVE Update. You will be able to browse and purchase games through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web starting August 13.

Avatars

Avatars have seen lots of love! Check out the new Marketplace and Avatar Props. The Avatar Marketplace will be available on Xbox LIVE starting August 11 as part of the Xbox LIVE Update. You will be able to browse and purchase Avatar apparel through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web starting August 13.

Netflix

Now you can watch movies with your friends and find new movies to add to your Instant Queue without leaving your seat.

Party Watch – Catch a show with your friends! Bring your party into Netflix and watch a movie or TV show together

Parties

Everyone loves to Party! Check out the new and improved party reconnections and streamlined party invites.

Party Reconnections – If a user is disconnected from a party inadvertently, they will be automatically reconnected to the party without any user interaction.

Gold Member Veterans – Been here long? Show it off! Anyone looking at your gamer card will now know how long you’ve been an Xbox LIVE Gold member. And who knows, there might be other perks for you, too. Thanks for sticking around!

Many changes have gone into the account recovery process to speed it up and to increase reliability.

Video Display Options

Various improvements have been made to make it easier for you to see your game in the highest resolution possible when using an HDMI connection.

UI Improvements

Some parts of the dashboard have been slightly re-organized to make it easier to find the things you’re looking for.

Indie Games – We listened to our community and have decided to rename Xbox LIVE Community Games to Xbox LIVE Indie Games. This new name better represents the independent spirit of these titles. User ratings are also available for Indie Games, allowing you to share your rating for a game and use ratings from others to find great new games.

Achievement Browser – Launch a game directly from the Achievement browser making it even easier for you to max out your Gamerscore.

This fall, Xbox LIVE will see the addition of the following new features as well:

Facebook
Twitter
Last.fm
Zune Video

Gaming, News, Xbox Gaming, microsoft, Netflix, twitter, xbox 360

Peter S Kolmisoppi, one of the co-founders of Pirate Bay, tweeted sadly that, “According to leaked information from the court we lost (got the news last night). Trustworthy source as well.” The site’s 4 owners each face a year in prison and over a $3.5 million fine if the judgment comes through.

For those of you that don’t know, The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website that indexes, stores and tracks BitTorrent (.torrent) files, such a music and movies. They are charged with being accessories to copyright infringement, but Kolmisoppi says that, “nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file sharing what so ever”, although the outcome is still uncertain in my opinion.

I’m sure that the defendants will appeal the verdict and finally buy that island they were looking for, thus starting their own country… kinda like Waterworld, but with better acting.

Movie, Music, News, Rumor, Tech free, geek, internet, Tech

If you loved the first BioShock as much as I did, you have been waiting… waiting… and… waiting for some sign that BioShock 2 wasn’t just vaporware, and now you have it thanks to GameTrailers. I, for one, am very excited! Look at how even more beautiful everything is, including the already stunning water effects. What do you think? Comment below!

Gaming, News, Playstation, Xbox Gaming, ps3, xbox 360

Needless to say I’m not really very shocked, but Richard Thornhill found 4 ecstasy pills under the front cover in his second-hand copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, which he bought from Gamestation in Cheltenham, England.

Mr Thornhill said: “What made me feel the most distraught was the fact we let our 12-year-old play the game”… you know, that makes me sick as well… a 12 year old playing GTA IV? That kinda seems a little young. Don’t get me wrong, I love the GTA series, but the game is rated “18″ here in the UK, that’s actually worse than taking a 12-year-old to an NC-17 movie in the states. The fact is that Rockstar Games, the developer of GTA series, has to pass out free drugs to the kids so that they’ll play their games.

The local Gamestation manager invited them to hand the drugs over to the company so they could destroy them and also points out that they have rigorous procedures for accepting pre-owned titles and checking them before they are put back on sale… [just not for common street drugs apparently]…

Is the video game rating system so difficult to understand that parents can’t read them or do they just not care? How early would you let your kids play GTA or not? Why or why not? [via BBC]

Bizarre, Funny, Gaming, News Bizarre, Drugs, Funny, Gaming

Watch the Scarpar Powerboard take on sand, snow…even go off-road (watch around 1:34 where is climbs over a huge log! CRAZY!), this cross between a snowmobile and a skateboard gets a major thumbs up from me! I have been a Mountain boarder for years and it sure beats walking back up the hill after every run! On The flip side, I have serious doubts that this thing could actually move with me on top of it… like the time I tried to steal my little cousin’s Power Wheels Jeep and it wouldn’t move at all… Anyway, the Powerboard is still in development and no release date is set yet. I want it bad! [Scarpar via Engadget via Gizmodo]

Beta, News, Tech extreme, geek, sport

Hollywood actor Kal Penn has taken a job in the administration of President Barack Obama. That’s right, Obama and Kumar are going to White Castle House!

Kal Penn, who appeared in TV show House and is best known for his role as a pot-smoking student in the Harold and Kumar movies (Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle and Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay), will work in the Office of Public Liaison connecting the President with Asian, Pacific Island communities and arts groups. Sources also say he will also be part of the Whitehouse Hemp Advocate Committee, but that is currently unsubstantiated…

Read more…

Bizarre, Deals, Funny, Movie, News Bizarre, Funny

The guys over at AppleInsider have discovered that the boot script in the beta 3.0 version of the iPhone firmware alludes to the Broadcom BCM4329 wireless chip.

This new Broadcom chip, among other things, supports 8011.N wireless (including 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz) and the real shocker, FM receiving and transmitting, which 9to5Mac found out from the Broadcom spec sheet. 9to5Mac says, “[this chip] theoretically could be used to broadcast sound into car stereos..without external adapters.”

MobileDevDesign points out:

The BCM4329’s FM transmit capabilities enable consumers to stream music directly from their mobile devices to car stereos or home theater systems without special adapters or bulky cables. With the FM receiver, users can get real-time traffic information as well as music, news, and sports broadcasts on their mobile devices.

While FM radio frequency isn’t the newest technology, it does open up some interesting doors. For instance, the Nike+ in-shoe pedometer might finally work for the iPhone and I can finally listen to radio while I run … wait… I hate the radio… but I’ll tell you what I do like, not having to buy a silly, expensive FM transmitter to forget every time I go in my friends car. Now that’s progress! [via 9to5Mac]

Apple, Iphone, News, Rumor, Tech Apple, Iphone, Tech

OnLive delivers the hottest games from top publishers for instant, high-performance play on TV, PC or Mac over broadband…

Claimed to be in “stealth development” for years, OnLive works by using a server farm to do all work of your current console and then send it over broadband to your house. I’m pretty sure that means that even my single player games will lag now…

When it was first announced, my initial reaction was “Wow, that’s amazing” followed immediately by “But I don’t want to give up that much control over my games.”. And I don’t. I don’t want to rely on so many X factors to access and enjoy my games. I don’t want to rely on the OnLive service functioning, as well as the internet service to deliver it. What if I wanted to travel somewhere that doesn’t have internet? I could take my console. With OnLive I’d be completely cut off.

I don’t want to not “own” the game I’m paying for. I know more and more things are going digital these days, but there’s still a lot of comfort in owning a physical copy of something you paid for. You know it’s there when you need it. I imagine it’s the same reason people purchase the Ctrl+Alt+Del collection books even though all of the comics are available for free online. Sometimes you want tangible stuff that you know can’t disappear with an internet outage or a corrupt hard drive. [Tim at Ctrl+Alt+Del]

As for me and my house, we are keeping our beloved Xbox 360 and Wii for now, but in the future, who knows!

OnLive is currently recruiting for their Beta test. Interested in helping? Me too! More to come.

Gaming, News, TV Gaming, internet, Playstation, Windows, xbox 360

New details for Capcom’s Lost Planet 2 have surfaced revealing the story’s change of focus and a combined team power bar. According to a first-look article in the latest OXM, the game no longer includes a core character instead players create and fully customize their own solider for the ice cold war zone. Teams are comprised of four characters — with four player co-op — that each sport their own health bar (aka thermal energy reserves) but teams also share a combined power meter. The “Team Military Power Bar” reacts to team actions, depleting when a downed member of your squad respawns for example.

If you played the first Lost Planet (I’m sure you’ll remember… (I threw my controller quite a few times trying to beat expert mode), then Lost Planet 2 is shaping up to be everything you loved from the first one, plus a whole lot more. Lost Planet 2 going to be more team based with many different strategies and new various weapons, new melee moves (described as, “a little like the chainsaw in Gears of War”) and VS units (Lost Planet’s mech-like suits) at their disposal… not to mention more bitingly cold landscapes. Capcom just has a way of taking a proven game genre like the third person shooter, and giving it an arcade feel and I love it.

Lost Planet 2 is currently planned for the Xbox 360 but my PS3 is still holding out… but I think it’ll be a cold day (hehe) before it sees any Lost Planet action…

[via Joystiq via CVG]

Gaming, News capcom, Gaming, Xbox, xbox 360

Yep, it’s true. Canon has crammed the $1500 50D’s sensor and 5D-Mark-II-like 1080p video capture into an $899 entry-level Rebel. Gizmodo ran it through its paces for a few hours, but here is a brief summary.

Canon is using nearly the exact sensor from the 50D—a 15.1 megapixel CMOS with sensitivities up to ISO 12,800 at its top-end H2 boost setting, and nearly the same HD video capture from the 5D Mark II (1080p video is captured at 20fps, while the 5D Mark II’s shoots at 30fps). Gizmodo says the 720p video at 30fps looks great and is nearly identical to the 5D Mark II, and believe it or not, the video capture mode have actually been improved compared to the 5D Mark II.

As the specs go, it’s almost a pure hybrid of the 50D and 5D Mark II, two cameras that are definitely more pro than pro-sumer, and positioned at the top of the Rebel line (above the XS and XSi).

Some Specs (read ‘em and drool):

• H.264 video capture @ 1080p/20fps and 720p/30fps with mono sound
• ISO from 100 up to 3200, with high-speed ISO settings – H1: 6400 and H2: 12800
• DIGIC 4 processor
• Nine-point autofocusing
• 3.4fps burst shooting for 170 JPEGs or 9 RAW files
• The 50D’s lens peripheral illumination correction
• Three-inch, 920,000-dot LCD (same as the 5D Mark II’s)
• Built-in sensor dust removal system
• Live view
• Canon’s “Creative Auto” mode for light exposure tweaks on full-auto
• Saves to SD/SDHC cards (class 6 or higher recommended)
• $899 with kit lens, $799 body only, available early May

Canon Rebel T1i:
$899 MSRP with kit EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens
$799 MSRP body only <--- Amazon
Nikon D90: $1,149 (street) with kit lens, $889 (street) body only
Canon 50D: $1,389 (street) with kit lens, $1,199 (street) body only

Check out the extremely in depth review at Gizmodo [via Gizmodo]

Gadgets, News, Tech 1080P, 50D, camera, Canon, EOS, gadget, review, T1i, Tech