E3 Schedule Released

-from gamewad
E3, or at least the shadow of the former expo, “min-E3,” will be held this year from July 11th to the 13th at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. The ESA recently released a schedule of events for the show on the official E3 website.

Microsoft will get things started this year with their pre-E3 conference at 8:30pm on July 10th. Nintendo will be up next, hosting their conference at 9:00 the next morning. Sony will take up the rear with a conference at 11:30am on the 11th.

Third parties will be granted conference time, as well. The full show schedule follows:

7/10/07:

* 8:30pm – Microsoft Press Conference

7/11/07:

* 9:00am – Nintendo Press Conference
* 9:00am-5:30pm – Meeting suites open at the Fairmont Hotel
* 11:30am – Sony Press Conference
* 1:00-6:30pm – Barker Hanger open to view games
* 2:00pm – Electronic Arts conference
* 3:15pm – Activision conference
* 4:30pm – Midway conference
* 5:45pm – Konami conference

7/12/07:

* 8:00am – Take-Two conference
* 9:00am-5:30pm – Meeting suites open at the Fairmont Hotel
* 9:15am – THQ conference
* 10:30am – Ubisoft conference
* 1:00-6:30pm – Barker Hanger open to view games
* 1:00pm – Namco Bandai conference
* 3:30pm – Disney Interactive conference

7/13/07:

* 9:00am-3:30pm – Meeting suites open at the Fairmont Hotel
* 11:00am-3:30pm – Barker Hanger open to view games

On the hangar floor, booths will be set up for over 30 companies. Some notables who won’t have formal conferences include Capcom, Square-Enix, and SEGA, among others.

*Eddie R Inzauto – Senior Editor, GameWad.com

NeuroSky Gamer Headset Reads Brain Waves

-from gizmodo

A US company has come up with a headset that reads your brainwaves – and they plan on marketing it to gamers. NeuroSky’s prototype measures a person’s baseline brain-wave activity, including signals that relate to concentration, relaxation and anxiety. So, if you’re playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour and you lose concentration, you could find your shot buried in the rough if you fail to keep your Zen-like concentration.

The company has already developed a version based on Star Wars. Don the Darth Vader helmet, which contains a sensor that reads the brain’s signals and, if you concentrate, your light saber remains illuminated. Start thinking about your girlfriend dressed as Princess Leia, with Danish Pastries over her – oops – and you lose the force, Luke. The headset is expected to go into production later this year and could cost as little as $20. – Ad Dugdale

News from the Front

News from the Front

Xbox Live is back up and from what I’ve heard the halo 3 is still unavailable, I’m, going to try it tomorrow after all my classes, so I’ll just edit this one with my attempt at it, unless you readers beat me to the punch.
Next I have heard about Microsoft making some kind of announcement yesterday and today.
From the announcement yesterday: The Xbox 360 Elitehas been confimed.Now on to the details

• It’ll cost $479.99 to be released on the 29th of April
• will have everything that you need to play it straight out of the box so that means HDMI and Component.
• It’s not known whether it supports PCM 5.1, TrueHD, etc.; it will obviously support 1080p, though.
• There also will be an adapter so if you haver optical surround sound or 5.1 you’ll be able to split the audio cables.
• The 120 gb HDD will be released for $180 ($179.99) with cables to transfer all your stuff from your original.
• There is no price cuts with the other two versions of the consoles
• The marketplace will begin to release Paramount and News Line
• It will have everything the others came with including a black plug and play charge kit

If you hear any rumors about say Halo 3 only come out for the Elite or that Microsoft will do something to make you upgrade, laugh at them in the face please. But really, they claim that they will continue to see most of the market still as just people who have the 20 gb premium version. Now if you are some one who will go out and trade away your old 360 for a fancy black one, then according to Microsoft they are working on a way to transfer data between boxes, I would assume that it will be almost similar to the HDD transfer cables, using the USB drive. More to come as this story develops.

Halo 3 Beta Possible Release on 3/27?

-from My Arcade Planet

Gamers have been waiting for the day of the Halo 3’s Beta release, since registration of the Halo 3 Beta is closed expect for buying Crackdown with the beta invite, gamers have been wondering when the beta will be released. Now spring time, and with an upcoming Xbox Live Maintenance which will take 14 hours. Rumors, hints, and evidence help prove that after the maintenance the Halo 3 Beta will finally be released.

Possible Hints

Xbox.com has released an Official FAQ of the 14 hour Xbox Live Maintenance, a fan of the community on the Bungie forums have posted up a possible hint between this and the Halo 3 Beta. This is his complete post he made,

“Dear Bungie.net Members,

If you have browsed through xbox.com recently you might have noticed a link referring to the Xbox Live Maintenance for 14 hours on March 27, 2007. A lot of people are probably wondering what the update is for and it is not stated clearly in the article. It says it is not a dashboard update, just a maintenance. The question is could this maintenance be preparation for the launch of the Halo 3 Beta. The download is expected to be over 1 GB, so maybe a maintenance is required to allow more “bandwidth” so Xbox Live won’t crash when thousands of players are downloading it at the same time. Who knows? If you want to read the Xbox Live Downtime Newsflash click HERE!

-Lucky Sniper 08-

THREAD FAQ UPDATE (Last Revised: 03.24.07)

Q. What details have been given about the Xbox Live Downtime?

A. The Xbox Live Downtime is expected to start at midnight, Pacific Daylight Time, on March 27, 2007 and last for approximately 14 hours. During this time, xbox.com will be off line and unavailable as well. A message saying we are currently down for maintenance will appear on the website and over Xbox Live.

Q. What is the maintenance for and will there be an update?

A. The maintenance is just supposed to be a regular checkup and an update for the servers. A notification was sent out through a message over Xbox Live on March 23, 2007. As far as a required update that you would have to download, I am unaware of at this moment. However, it is not a dashboard update.

Q. Is the Xbox Live Downtime related to Halo 3 in any way?

A. Maybe. There is no information that has been officially announced saying that it is or isn’t related to Halo 3 or the Halo 3 Beta. This update for the servers could possibly be to allow more bandwidth and better connection for the Xbox Live Marketplace. Keep this in mind because Microsoft may be afraid that their servers may shutdown if thousands of gamers all over the nation are trying to download the Halo 3 Beta as soon as it is released.

Q. Will the Halo 3 Beta be released on March 27, 2007 after the Xbox Live Downtime?

A. Possibly, but it is most unlikely. Usually Bungie.net gives us information regarding scheduled releases in advance. I don’t think they would plan to release the Halo 3 Beta without telling us prior in the Weekly Update. However, they may do this so that there won’t be a huge “rush” of downloads happening simultaneously.

Q. Why would they shutdown Xbox Live for 14 hours if it wasn’t related to Halo 3?

A. I know for us, Halo fans, that is the only thing that is running through our minds especially during the spring. However, the maintenance could be related to other issues such as the following.

* The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™ (Shivering Isles Expansion Pack)
* Halo® 2 (New Map Pack for Spring)
* Security Update (Help Servers prevent hackers)
* Excessive New Content (Movies, Videos, Demos, Other Game Content)
* Nothing (Allow the server to rest and maybe fix other technical problems)

POSSIBLE HINTS FOR HALO 3 BETA

Posted by: Xbox.com Newsflash

2. Cruise Pacific City. Have you found all 500 Crackdown™ Agility Orbs? Yeah? How about all 300 Hidden Orbs then? Check out tips on how to find ’em all.

6. Study up on March 27 history. Here are some examples of momentous events that occurred on 3/27:
* 1884: The first long-distance telephone call was made, between Boston and New York.
* 1958: Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier and first secretary of the Communist Party.
* 1964: A 9.2 magnitude earthquake hit 80 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska, killing 117 and producing a 50-foot tsunami that traveled over 8,000 miles.
* 1973: Marlon Brando refuses his Oscar for The Godfather in protest of Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans.

10. Get experienced. Register for the Old Spice Experience Challenge. It’s part of the Xbox Rewards program, and there are still cool prizes to be won! After you’ve done that, go check out the redesign at Bungie.net!

When more information is released I will add it to this FAQ. Thank you.”

There is also other news reports from a forum user from Xbox.com Forums have posted up a threat containing possible proof that it will be released tomorrow, he does have reasonable proof as well.

“Ok look I know that everyone is curious about the Halo 3 beta being launched on March 27. I have a reason that this may be the date. Now before everyone goes why??? I will tell the reasons from the http://youtube.com/watch?v=fTGyK0zr6dg Halo 3 alpha video. If you look carefully at 1:01-1:02 a guy pops up from his friends list and if you look very carefully the guys name is SirLagsAlot711. You cannot clearly read it but you can tell it is that from the legnth. Now obviously this guy knows the alpha guy. Well I know SirLagsAlot711 very well. I have talked to the halo 3 alpha guy a while back like in februaury or late january and he does have the alpha. This guys uncle supposedly works for bungie and that is how he got the alpha. I did not believe him, but after seeing the video I know it is true and SirLagsAlot711 told me he did. Now about a month ago I was talking to SirLagsAlot711 and I was like “Man, I want the beta so bad!” and then he said to me March 27 is when the alpha guy’s uncle says. I did believe him because SirLagsAlot711 doesn’t lie. Now that the servers will be going down on March 27 I think that is perfectly reasonable and that it could be true. I am not saying that it is but I think it could be a strong possibility. So hopefully this guy is right and it comes out tomorrow.”

“Uploaded By koldskillit From Putfile.com”

Also there have been small reports from Crackdown users that when they go to the download section to see the option to download the Halo 3 beta is not grayed out yet you still can’t download.

Update: Seems Crackdown users when putting in their Crackdown games have been recieving a message of a new download but there is nothing new to download, possible sign of the Halo 3 Beta launch tomorrow?

More information on this as it progresses.

Xbox 360 Elite spied in production

-from engadget
Look, we know it’s coming and all, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun getting ourselves all excited over spy shots and the like. A forum member over at the China’s TGFC has managed to sneak some shots of the Xbox 360 Elite in production, and it sure is looking… black and silver. We’re not sure how “Wangsososos” got the shots, and we sure hope his machine-translated statement doesn’t mean what we fear it might: “As mobile phones, cameras can not be brought into plants. The key to reaching the buttocks no plans, joy!” But we digress. For some up close and personal pics of that 120GB drive, peep the gallery.

Boot linux on the 360

-from MydediBox
Here is a crappy help to boot linux on the 360.

First, you need :

– 360 xbox with an exploitable kernel (4532 or 4548).
– Dvd drive flashed with xtreme firmware.
– Serial adapter (http://mydedibox.homelinux.com/1.jpg).
– King kong patched.
– Xell loader (thanks tmbinc).
– A powerpc toolchain (http://kegel.com/crosstool/)

– Install NFS server on your linux box, and make a share available for the 360 linux kernel to load the filesystem (eg. /tftpboot/x360). You also need portmap installed.
For help if needed :
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NFS-HOWTO/server.html
http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&q=nfs+server+howto&btnG=Recherche+Google&meta=

– Now we need to make the filesystem, i choose ubuntu 6.10 powerpc64 livecd iso (ubuntu-6.10-desktop-powerpc.iso), mount it, install squashfs-tools then extract the compressed livecd content :

ninux$ sudo mount -t squashfs -o loop,ro ubuntu-livecd/casper/filesystem.squashfs mnt/
ninux$ cp -a mnt/. /tftpboot/x360

Note that there isnt enough device copied from the ubuntu compressed file system to our nfs root file system to boot correctly. Copy your current “/dev” folder to the nfs share :

ninux$ cp -a /dev/. /tftpboot/x360/dev”

– Edit the .config file from tmbinc (http://mydedibox.homelinux.com/downloads/x360/.config) so the kernel find the filesystem on your computer ip : “root=/dev/sdb1 ip=10.0.0.204 video=xenonfb console=tty0 nfsroot=10.0.0.1:/tftpboot/x360”

– Recompile the kernel (of course with the xenon patch applied) :

ninux$ alias smake=’make ARCH=powerpc CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc64-unknown-linux-gnu-‘
ninux$ smake

– Now upload the Xell loader via serial to boot your newly kernel (either by tftp or cdrom, i prefere tftp), it should load the filesystem from your NFS server. You can then chroot an usb disk from there so you dont need the NFS server anymore (a lot tricky).

– I had a probleme with the password from the livecd to pass the prompt so i added the option “single” to the kernel config line (“root=/dev/sdb1 ip=10.0.0.204 video=xenonfb console=tty0 nfsroot=10.0.0.1:/tftpboot/x360 single”) so i can change the root passwd then removed this option.

Now i should look to make an initrd so my usb disk will be available when the kernel is booting. It would prevent all this tricks.

Edit : You can also install linux on your 360 hard drive, so you dont need the nfs part anymore. Note that its not sure that you will be able to use it again after format it to a linux filesystem.
Anyway if you want so, mount the “filesystem.squashfs” file under your nfs share (“/tftpboot/x360/mnt/fs” for exemple) so it is available under your 360 linux box.
When logged on the 360, use cfdisk for exemple to make a partition on your 360 hdd (/dev/sda), format it with mkfs.ext3.
Mount it (mount /dev/sda1 /temp) then copy the filesystem on it (“cp -a /mnt/fs/. /temp).
Now recompile your kernel with this option : “root=/dev/sda1 video=xenonfb console=tty0”. You now have linux installed on your hdd !
Finnish the work .. (edit /etc/fstab, /etc/hosts, /etc/network/interfaces etc …).

Wii – Hold on Tight! 2 – The Wrath of Nunchuk

PS3s already pwning Folding@Home leaderboard; tonight’s Foldathon to bring total dominance

-from engadget
If you want to try it you can download the program here, just remember to run it when your not using the computer.

Well we knew that the Cell processor — which makes the PS3 a pretty cheap supercomputer,along with its myriad other roles — was well suited to the task of crunching numbers for Stanford’s Folding@Home project, but there’s no way we could have expected the unbelievable impact made by 35,000 some gamers in only a few days. In what can only be described as a total hijacking of the leaderboard, PS3s are currently accounting for 734 of the 990 teraflops Folding processes at peak capacity; in other words, Cell processors have more than tripled the project’s power even though they only account for around 13% of the total machines grinding away at any given time. Now keep in mind that Sony’s boxes have only been pitching in since midweek, and with tonight’s Sunday Night Foldathon — an event which encourages PS3 owners to simultaneously run the app while they sleep — we should see even more impressive performance as the slumbering masses donate record numbers of cycles. This would also probably be a good time to direct you towards instructions for joining Team Engadget, and also to suggest that even though this is primarily PS3-centric, that shouldn’t stop other PC-equipped team members and owners of even bigger supercomputers (we’re looking at you, IBM) from participating.

Microsoft To Announce The Xbox 360 Elite

-From The Mercury News Interactive
By Dean Takahashi
Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 2:15 pm in Dean Takahashi, Gaming, General.

Rumors have floated in the past month that Microsoft will launch a new high-end version of the Xbox 360. It’s true that Microsoft is preparing to announce the Xbox 360 Elite, a version of the game console with black plastic and advanced features. Several sources confirmed Microsoft plans to add this box to its product line.

The new box will go on sale in limited quantities soon for $479. The details may not be precise here, but I believe it will have an HDMI connector so that you can connect at the highest speed to a high-definition TV. It will come with a 120-gigabyte hard disk drive and will have IPTV capability.

Bill Gates announced in January that the Xbox 360 was capable of serving as a set-top box for IPTV, or Internet Protocol TV, which phone companies such as AT&T are using to offer high-definition movies and scores of channels in competition with TV.

The Xbox 360 Elite will apparently not come with a built-in HD-DVD drive, which will remain an option for playing high-definition movie disks. In the spring, the new machine will be available in limited quantities and it will reflect a redesigned motherboard. Tina Conley, an outside spokeswoman for Microsoft, declined to comment on Saturday. How solid is this information? Some details may be wrong. I’m not looking at any press release right now that describes it all. The details will be announced soon enough.

I’ve been waiting for Microsoft to make a move like this. The company has scheduled a motherboard redesign and cost reduction for every year, but this is the first major change to take the costs out of the inside of the Xbox 360. By the fall, the company will also implement a chip redesign, shifting from 90-nanometer production to 65 nanometer production. That will bring costs down fairly dramatically and will enable Microsoft to make the box in larger quantities by the fourth quarter.

Every other year, the company plans to shrink the size of its chips. It is overdue for a shift from the 90-nanometer chips that it started with in 2005 to the 65-nanometer chips commonly in production elsewhere. That transition isn’t yet complete but it should be by the fall.

Why is it important to miniaturize a chip? When you make the width between circuits in a chip (the difference between 90 and 65), the technology gets better. The electrons travel shorter distances, the circuits are more reliable, defects can go down, yields go up, and you can fit the same chip design in a much smaller area. Since chip costs directly relate to how much material you use, a smaller chip is cheaper to make.

Every console maker will have the opportunity to reduce the costs of its chips. But how the console makers capitalize on that decision depends on strategy. Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, said in an email that he believes Microsoft will launch its elite box, but he isn’t sure how it will position the other boxes, especially the Core unit. I expect the Xbox 360 with the 20-gigabyte hard disk drive will continue to sell for $399 and the Core unit, which has no hard drive, will sell for $299.

At $479, the Xbox 360 Elite will still be cheaper than Sony’s $499 20-gigabyte PlayStation 3 and the $599 60-gigabyte PS 3. But it will match the Sony box with the HDMI connector feature. The Sony box is not yet capable of IPTV.

It is interesting that Microsoft hasn’t added the HD-DVD drive as a permanent feature. The format war with Blu-ray is still going on, and that drive would add considerable cost. Microsoft sells it separately for $199.

The larger hard drive on the Xbox 360 Elite will make it much more useful for downloading movies and serving as a digital video recorder, which is one of the primary uses of an IPTV set-top box. High-definition movies can take up five gigabytes or more, while standard movies take about a gigabyte of storage space. Hence, 120 gigabytes is enough for, accounting for 10 gigabytes used by the system for other things, about 22 HD movies.

In any case, this is going to put some pressure on Sony and it will enable Microsoft to patch some holes in the technological capability of the Xbox 360. It will enable Microsoft to please the relatively small group of hardcore gamers who care about having the highest-end technology in the living room. It’s those gamers who are most tempted by the PS 3. HDMI, for instance, will enable someone to view games and movies the way they were meant to be seen in either 720p or 1080p resolutions.

News from the frontlines of the console wars

well I just heard that Devil May Cry 4 and Ace Combat 6 are headed over the to 360 now, which would make the good exclusive, in my opinion, Metal Gear solid 4. This hoilday season wll be Sony’s make it or break it time, because if they fail here it’s over.