News about what is happening in technology today!

Two Hollywood video game store owners (ACME Game Store) and a third man who were charged in December for allegedly pirating video games and installing them on modified Microsoft Corp. Xbox consoles were indicted on Thursday, according to the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.

The men installed mod-chips and larger hard drives into Xbox consoles to allow them to play pirated games. The group was caught when private investigators working for the Entertainment Software Alliance conducted a sting during which they bought a modded Xbox for $265, complete 77 pirated games and a mod-chip.

The three have been accused of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and face up to 17
years in prison.

They are scheduled an initial appearance in United States District Court in Los Angeles on Jan. 30.

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

Of all the Xbox 360 launch titles, the one I was most looking forward to playing was Sega’s Condemned: Criminal Origins. Which makes it kind of odd that I only got the game yesterday. But I sunk a few hours in last night and I am sufficiently creeped out.

The first fifteen minutes of Condemned saw me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was scared out of my mind walking down the incredibly detailed darkened hallways, wondering if every little noise I heard was a crazy two-by-four-wielding madman sneaking up on me from behind. On the other hand, I was grinning from ear to ear at just how atmospheric the game was. The hell with King Kong’s wet shiny rocks; the HD era really arrived in my home with Condemned’s dilapidated crap-filled hallways.

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Despite the obvious preference for HD-DVD, it seems Microsoft isn’t willing to completely tie its fate to the format just yet. During CES 2006, Microsoft’s Xbox corporate VP of worldwide marketing and publishing Peter Moore told Japanese site ITmedia that a Blu-ray Xbox 360 peripheral could appear for the system if the need arises. Moore admitted that Microsoft isn’t sure of the next-generation format war’s outcome, with the worst-case scenario being a repeat of the Beta vs. VHS war of the ’80s.

However, he suggested that whatever the outcome of the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war, the Xbox 360 can adopt the dominant format since its uses an external drive. He also suggested that it’s a weak point for PlayStation 3, saying Sony’s system is stuck with Blu-ray. Microsoft hasn’t announced how the HD-DVD peripheral will connect to the Xbox 360, but it’s most likely going to use one of the system’s USB ports. While the PS3 may come with Blu-ray out of the box, there’s no apparent reason an external HD-DVD drive couldn’t be hooked up through that system’s USB ports.

Here is the first official photograph of the new X3 IR hardware. As you can see there is a serial programmer module which enables to ability to update the hardware with new infra red codes via the learning function. The software (X3 IR Manager) is currently at v1.1.6 and tweeks are still bing implemented. You should expect these in stores within the next couple of weeks - remember the first batch of customers will receive an X3 Pro Switch ($20 RRP) completely free of charge as a thank you for your patience and loyalty!

Xbox 360
It is great to see such a huge community input into the openeing up of the 360. Two websites of note (one a returning old freind) are worth keeping bookmarked, they have some interesting discoveries and observations.
www.xboxhacker.net
www.free60.org
Of course for the latest news and updates you should be looking at www.xbox-scene.com but we shouldn’t have to tell you that.

For a completely “hacked” 360 don’t expect anything on the scale of the first Xbox - at least not for a long, long time, however you can expect to see a hack of some sort soon - not only from Xecuter(info) but from at least one other group of guys we have spoken to. Unsigned code is looking unlikely atm but booting of raw dumps maybe quite possible - but no where near as much fun or scope as Xbox1 mods. Kudos to M$ for their security on this one, however there is always a way…..

On a non-hacking note, we have licenced a number of Xbox 360 hardware add-on designs to a couple of companies ready to be announced soon.

* X3 Config Live
We just noticed a nice Xbox 360 skin over at allxboxskins - go check it out if you have an X3
X3CL 360 Skin

In the meantime we hope you all have a successful new year.