XBOX360 USB Pro
Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category
September 10th, 2010 | 
Author: Here are the US hardware sales for the month of August:
* Xbox 360: 356,700
* Nintendo DS: 342,700
* Wii: 244,300
* PlayStation 3: 226,000
* PSP: 79,400
Posted in 
From vgchartz.com:
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The two HD consoles, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, have both released a new slimmer model in the last year. The PS3 Slim released in 2009, September 1 in America, September 3 in Japan, and September 11 in Europe. The Xbox 360S was released in 2010, June 14 in America, June 24 in Japan, and July 16 in Europe. It won’t be a perfect comparison as they were released at different times of the year, however they both did launch at the same price.
Taking a look at worldwide numbers with each region aligned, it shows the PS3 Slim had a much bigger opening than the X360S, with sales of 585,000 compared to 356,000. However the PS3 Slim with the much bigger opening had a much bigger drop off in its second week as sales become equal between the two, both selling 322,000. The PS3 Slim did pull ahead slightly after the second week and has increased to 75,000 in week seven. The gap looks like it will grow as PS3 sales increased each week and as the X360 will decrease for a couple more weeks, before the release of Halo Reach.
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Full Story: vgchartz.com
From nexus404.com:
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Ever wonder why Sony and Microsoft don’t have the ‘traditional’ D-pads on their consoles? Microsoft has (had) the infamous disc and Sony has just the four buttons arranged like a D-Pad. Nintendo actually has the traditional cross-shaped D-Pad patented. (See US Patent 4,687,200). That’s why Nintendo products use it and others don’t.
So, everybody hates the “disc” D-Pad that the Xbox 360 controller uses. And video game hardware is such a low-margin segment of the industry to begin with, so licensing the patent from Nintendo is out of the question. So they come up with this brilliant rotating disc thing that lets you use a “traditional” D-Pad without infringing on the Nintendo patent. Major Nelson confirmed in his online YouTube video that Microsoft has this “hybrid” D-Pad patented, so don’t expect others to use it.
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Full Story: nexus404.com
From kotaku.com:
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Major Nelson even agreed to shoot this video, and while I put him to work he revealed that this is his own personal controller. The new d-pad is easy to transform and the alternate, raised-cross mode feels like it will be good for games that require precise horizontal, vertical and diagonal inputs — you know, like fighting games.
We knew about the transforming d-pad, but did you know the analog sticks have changed? They tilt the same, but the shape of the depression on top of them has been tweaked. The old raised bits are gone and the center has a deeper depression. I’m not sure what the consequences will be of the small change, but the new stick did feel comfortable under my thumb.
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Full Story: kotaku.com
From engadget.com:
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This seemingly repainted Xbox 360 250GB has been lovingly put together over in China and really makes us wonder why Microsoft is depriving us of such snowy good looks.
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Full Story: bbs.a9vg.com (via engadget.com)
From eurogamer.net:
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Microsoft has told Eurogamer Spain that Kinect voice recognition will be disabled for mainland Europe until spring 2011.
The company confirmed rumours that the voice-recognition software will only accept American English, British English, Japanese and Mexican Spanish at launch this November. Even Canadians will have to wait until spring 2011 to be able to control the system via voice.
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Full Story: eurogamer.net
The new controller with a ‘transforming’ D-Pad has now been confirmed by Microsoft:
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We’ve just made the Xbox 360 Wireless controller even better with a brand new version that includes a transforming D-pad. The engineers have come up with an ingenious solution with a d-pad that can go from a plus to a disc with the twist of the wrist.
In addition to the new d-pad, the matte silver controller also features concave analog sticks and gray A,B,X,Y buttons for added style.
The controller will only be available with the new Play & Charge Kit that will launch on November 9th for US $64.99.
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More Pictures: flickr.com
News-Source: majornelson.com
From joystiq.com:
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We’ve got it on good authority that sometime this Holiday season, Microsoft will launch a new Xbox 360 controller with a rather unique d-pad. According to our trusted source, when one rotates the d-pad ninety degrees on this new controller, it’ll raise up about a quarter of an inch — a modification apparently revealed to be targeted at fighting game fans.
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Full Story: joystiq.com
We received pictures from an “X-Scene friend” of the 4GB internal memory in the new Xbox 360 ‘S’ 4GB model. Unlike the old ‘Arcade’ units the memory is no longer located directly on the motherboard, but instead Microsoft uses a small addon-on PCB with a 4GB flash memory unit [3.2GB usable]. This probably makes production easier as all motherboards are now exactly the same … for the 4GB model they add the internal memory pcb-addon, for the 250GB unit they add the internal HDD.
I also added a picture of the Xbox360 ‘S’ 250GB and Xbox360 ‘S’ 4GB next to each other so you can see the glossy vs matte finish of both units. This hasn’t been covered much, but the 4GB model has a matte finish (vs glossy) and black borders (vs silver for the 250GB model). Which look do you prefer?
As always, hit the pictures of high-res 
From joystiq.com:
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That email purportedly sent out by Microsoft a couple weeks back inviting its recipients into a Kinect beta program? Yeah — it was legit. Joystiq has received corroborating evidence confirming the program, including pictures of the promised Kinect-enabled Dashboard update running on a participant’s retail console. In them, you can clearly see the flatter presentation, new mini-guide and revamped Avatar editor — complete with a re-proportioned Avatar.
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Full Story (with lots of pics): joystiq.com
