Xbox

After nearly two weeks of persistent outages and other problems, Microsoft says it has solved most major issues with its Xbox Live service, an online portal that allows video gamers to play with others from around the globe and download movie trailers and other media. The outages inconvenienced untold thousands of users before, during and after the Christmas holiday, a period of heavy traffic for Xbox Live with new and existing subscribers flocking to play online versions of the latest gaming…Press: Record, The (Hackensack, NJ)

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MICROSOFT CORP. WILL further connect the worlds of Windows and Xbox 360 by letting people on computers trade instant messages with those using the company’s video-game console.Microsoft plans to expand its Windows Live Messenger service to the Xbox 360 through a software update early next month. The move creates a new bridge between two of Microsoft’s biggest user bases and adds another PC-style function to the game console. However, for the best experience with the…Press: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)

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M icrosoft Corp. will sell a version of its Xbox 360 with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and a souped up high-definition video connection, in a bid to broaden the appeal of its popular console beyond video games. Earlier versions of Xbox 360 came with 20 gigabytes of storage. But that filled up too quickly with movies, TV shows and games from the Xbox Live Marketplace online store, said Peter Moore, a corporate vice president in Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment group.The new…Press: San Juan Star, The (Puerto Rico)

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Jan. 8 LAS VEGAS Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video-game console can’t pop your popcorn or brew your coffee yet, but the list of what it can do continues to grow as the company seeks to expand its franchise in home entertainment. When paired with a next-generation television network, still to come in most of the U.S., the console will work as a set-top box for tuning in Internet-delivered TV, recording programs like a TiVo and downloading video on demand.Microsoft is making…Press: Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News

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With enough hardware horsepower to deliver movielike graphics and high-quality sound, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 is setting a new standard for video games, but the console isn’t just about shoot-’em-ups and virtual sports. Like its predecessor, the Xbox 360 can serve as an “extender” to a PC running Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system. Nearly every type of media that plays on the PC can be…Press: Ventura County Star (CA)

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With enough hardware horsepower to deliver movie-like graphics and high-quality sound, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 is setting a new standard for video games. But the console isn’t just about shoot-’em-ups and virtual sports. Like its predecessor, the 360 can serve as an “extender” to a PC running Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system. Nearly every type of media that plays on the PC can be piped -…Press: Ocala Star-Banner (FL)

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Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 video game console got a lukewarm welcome in Japan on its debut weekend with fans buying fewer than half the games available in stores, a market researcher said Tuesday.Microsoft, which started selling the Xbox 360 in Japan on Saturday, is trying to break into the world’s second-largest video game market and challenge the longtime dominance of Sony’s PlayStation. Microsoft sold 62,135 machines over the weekend, or just 39 percent…Press: San Jose Mercury News (CA)

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The first Xbox was a chunky and heavy piece of black hardware that seemed to yell “bigger is better.” Its successor, the Xbox 360, is more subtle and svelte, all white and chrome and curvy contours. It also has a ton of new features, such as USB device support and the ability to connect to a Windows PC for media sharing. Aside from its own titles, the new system also can play many, though not all, of the original system’s games. (However, downloaded…Press: Sacramento Bee, The (CA)

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It only took Microsoft Corp. two tries to get it right in the video game console business.The new Xbox 360, which hit stores Tuesday, is a stylish, powerful improvement over the previous model that largely fulfills the company’s promise of making a next-generation game system that can serve as an entertainment hub. There are two flavors of Xbox 360, but I can only recommend the pricier $399.99 version. It includes a remote control, a headset enabling you to chat with buddies in…Press: Times Union, The (Albany, NY)

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They began arriving at 3 p.m. Monday with tents, lawn chairs and the conviction they would be among the first to own an Xbox 360. By midnight, the line at the Timonium Best Buy snaked around the building.Not everyone would go home happy. The store, like so many others, did not have nearly enough Xboxes to meet demand on their first day on the market. The early arrivals were allowed in at 8 a.m. yesterday - an hour before official opening time. By 9, all the Xboxes were gone….Press: Sun, The (Baltimore, MD)

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