News about what is happening in technology today!

Peter Moore had a recent interview with the Japanese website ITmedia where he admitted that the Xbox 360 could possibly see a Blu-ray external add-on. Even though it was announced at the Microsoft keynote at CES that the HD-DVD add-on would be coming soon for the Xbox 360, Moore said this isn’t certain. Because the 360 will be using an external add-on it allows Microsoft to adapt whatever the hell next-gen disc format that it wants. Moore did confirm the fact that Xbox 360s will never be shipping with any kind of next-gen drive already integrated into the console. Biggest twist of the year in the next-gen disc war?

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Blu-ray Xbox 360 Add-on Possible

As expected, with the release of the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, Sony has some planning to do. The PS3 is due out sometime this year and PS2 sales are slumping. So Sony will most likely cut the price of the PS2 it seems from $150 to $130 to attract more buyers who can’t afford the high-end 360 or PS3. But Microsoft isn’t just sitting around either. Rumor has it that Microsoft will lower the price for the original Xbox to $99. A huge war between these two companies is heating up and it’s all about the gamers and price points. Expect to see dips in prices around May or E3. Ars Technica has a nice little idea of what the market will look like once the price reductions take place:

PS3 - Freakin’ expensive

Xbox 360 - US$299 or US$399

Revolution - US$299 or less

PSP - US$249

PS2 - US$130

Nintendo DS - US$129

Xbox - US$99

Gamecube - US$99

Not a bad guesstimate. We think that Nintendo will probably combat a little more by lowering the price of the DS to $99 and lowering the Game Boy Micro even more.

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There’s no denying the pull of satellite radio. And for the first time, it looks like major CE companies want a big piece of the new satellite pie. Enter RCA, which announced at CES that it would be using something called SiriusConnect to bring Sirius Satellite Radio content to a bunch of different audio devices. Basically, in the second half of the year, three of the RCA and GE home audio products, including an RCA Home Theater System and a GE under-cabinet Spacemaker CD System, will be able to receive Sirius programming. Although a neat idea, you’ll still have to go out and buy a Sirius Satellite Radio antenna/receiver for $50. Products range from $119 to $300.

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CNET News.com and ZDNet News report that security attacks over instant-messaging (IM) networks became more prevalent in 2005, according to a new study. MSN experienced the largest number of IM security incidents in both 2004 and 2005, while year-on-year incident growth rates were largest on AIM.

Via PCWorld the news that two new Metafile bugs have been found, just a week after the patching of previous critical WMF issues.” From the article: “All three flaws concern the way Windows renders images in the Windows Metafile (WMF) format used by some CAD (computer-aided design) applications, but these latest flaws are far less serious than the vulnerability that Microsoft patched last week, according to security experts. That vulnerability was serious enough to cause Microsoft to take the unusual step of releasing an early patch for the problem, ahead of its monthly security software update.