Ian Paul, PC World

Jul 21, 2010 12:04 pm

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New Xbox 360 gets official at $299, shipping today, looks angular and ominous (video hands-on!)

By Nilay Patel posted Jun 14th 2010 4:12PM

Breaking News

At first we were doubtful that a edgy box appearing in a little Flash ad from Italy last night could be legit, but Microsoft just got real with the new Xbox 360. (That’s all it’s officially called — just “the new Xbox 360.”) It’ll launch today priced for $299, while the old Elite will stick around for $249 and the Arcade will drop to $149. The new box is crazy sexy in glossy black with touch-sensitive buttons, and Microsoft says it’s “whisper quiet,” with one large fan instead of two — the new 45nm chipset undoubtedly generates less heat to begin with. On the features front, it’s got integrated 2.4GHz 802.11n WiFi, five USB ports, and 250GB of storage on a removable hard drive, although it’s not a standard drive or same drive as the old console, and older Memory Units won’t work, either. Upgraders can use a USB-to-Xbox hard drive connector cable to migrate to the new box, however. There’s also a “custom Kinect port” on the back that looks like an HTC-style ExtUSB port, and it also seems like the power supply has moved inside the case, which is a welcome change. New Xbox 360 units are shipping to retailers now, with availability expected later this week, and MS conference attendees are actually getting theirs shipped today.

If you’re in Europe, don’t fret, as yours is coming soon. Microsoft’s official Xbox Twitter account has confirmed the console hits there on July 16.

Update: We just got the official fact sheet, check it after the break. Oh, and we’re calling it the “Stealthbox” to keep all the models straight. It just feels right, you know?

Update 2: According to a Microsoft representative, the Xbox 360 Original will still be sold while there’s stock, but they’re not making any more of them. Once they’re gone, they’re gone — and we’d assume a new $199 variant of the new design will eventually be released to fill the void.

New Xbox 360 press shots

Slim Xbox 360 eyes-on

More new Xbox 360 eyes-on

Xbox 360 is fully loaded with new features and still comes with everything you know and love. Here’s a feature list to make sure you don’t miss any of the newest Xbox 360 250GB parts.

Form Factor: Sleek, lean and gloss black finish with chrome accents. Place vertically or horizontally in any living room entertainment center.

Touch Sensitive Buttons: Turn the Xbox 360 video game system on/off and eject a disc with the swipe of a finger.

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Oksana’s Rep: Don’t Blame the Victim

7/18/2010 1:00 AM PDT by TMZ Staff  

Oksana Grigorieva‘s spokesperson is lashing out at Mel Gibson‘s camp, claiming his client is the victim of a smear campaign.

Spokesperson Stephen Jaffe tells TMZ, “While Mr. Gibson’s camp has floated a variety of false claims in the press to try to distract the public from the true facts at hand, it is telling that his camp has not once denied that it is Mr. Gibson’s voice on the published recordings.”

Jaffe adds, “It is common in such cases for those who perpetrate domestic violence to vilify the victim of that domestic violence.  One would hope that those who are close to Mr. Gibson would take a more constructive approach.”

Jaffe is partly reacting to a TMZ story which cited an expert who claimed there was evidence Oksana’s injuries were self-inflicted.

Another expert familiar with the case tells TMZ, “It is obvious not only from the photograph of Ms. Grigorieva, but from other evidence, including Mr. Gibson’s own admission, that he struck her in the mouth and temple, that she sustained injuries as a result of his blows.  The notion that her wounds were ‘self-inflicted’ is ridiculous and not credible.  No legitimate, independent expert photo analyst could reasonably draw such a conclusion.  Her injuries are consistent with her account.”

Filed under: Oksana Grigorieva, Mel Gibson, Celebrity Justice

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Mel Gibson scored his first major defender today in Whoopi Goldberg, who says she’s spent enough time with the disgraced actor to know that his racial slurs that have come to light are misleading. “I don’t like what he did here, but I know Mel and I know he’s not a racist,” Goldberg said on The View. That didn’t sit well with Joy Behar — or most people in the entire world, I’m supposing. Video after the jump, God help

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Thought 1080p video on YouTube was big? Think bigger.

YouTube on Friday announced that its player now supports 4k, a standard resolution for films that measures 4096×3072 pixels. As YouTube Engineer Ramesh Sarukkai explained in the announcement on YouTube’s official blog, “4K is nearly four times the size of 1080p,” and it dwarfs even Imax, which projects films in the slightly smaller 2k format, with its 2048?1080-pixel resolution.

Of course, the proof of 4k’s merits is in the pudding, which is why YouTube has a special playlist of five films that can be played back in their original 4k resolution. As Sarukkai warns, viewing these properly requires considerable bandwidth speed, as well as the right gear.

Speaking of which, even with a fast connection, home users will need the proper equipment to enjoy 4k videos in their native resolution. This means a large display, or 4k-capable projector–neither of which can be had on the cheap. It’s also worth mentioning that while quite good-looking, streaming 4k video still has to jump through some of the same compression hoops that lower resolutions of HD video must do, meaning that they’ll be playing at a much lower bit rate than you’d see, if you were to watch it from the source. On smaller videos, this can be less noticeable, but when blown up big, compression artifacts can be easier to spot.

1080p remains top size in most consumer HDTVs, as well as the service’s previous resolution limit. Newer-model phones like the iPhone 4 and HTC Evo are just now becoming capable of shooting in the lesser 720p resolution, leaving 1080p and above to dedicated filming hardware.

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