The red ring of death is an inevitable conclusion for most Xbox 360 owners. But instead of mourning his console’s loss, U.K.-based student Jasper Stevens did something fun to give his lifeless and out-of-warranty Xbox 360 a second chance.

Stevens took it apart and harvested its parts to create a mechanical robot called Roboman.

“The copper wire used in the piece, the flexicable stuff and some other pieces of wiring is from outside,” he says. “Everything else is from the Xbox.”

It’s the first sculpture he has made out of gadget parts. And it took just about three hours to create.

“My recent art exam was around the theme ‘discarded’ ,” he says. “So I salvaged the parts and used some of the wire I had hanging around to make  this.” Stevens then clicked a few photos and sent it to the Technabob blog.

The entire piece is connected using wiring and there’s no glue or tape holding the parts together. The Xbox 360’s DVD drive founds its place as the base of the sculpture. The robot’s joints are flexible but it doesn’t have any batteries so you can only move it around like an action figure.

Check out more photos of his fun and creative re-use of electronic parts.

See Also:

• Old Hard Drives Get Sculpted Into Cars, Bikes, Robots
• A Mona Lisa Created from Motherboard Bits
• 1200 Pounds of Recycled Steel Form a Hulking Alien Queen

Photos: Jasper Stevens

Microsoft’s Project Natal lag calculated to be a tenth of a second originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple may have the iPhone, but the iPhone doesn’t have the Xbox. Today, Microsoft leveraged their most compelling entertainment asset, the Xbox 360, into Windows Phone 7 Series. But what does this mean, practically speaking?

(Note: If you don’t understand what the heck Windows Phone 7 is, read this first.)

Here’s the official word from Microsoft on how WP7 will incorporate Xbox Live.

“Games—This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.”

What we saw in Microsoft’s demo today fleshes that concept out a bit. There will be a Spotlight section, with your Xbox Live avatar and notice of friends’ achievements. And of course, there will be games—”premium titles” with achievements and multiplayer connected to other cellphones, PCs and Xbox 360 consoles.

Don’t let the simple interface fool you. Xbox Live on a phone is more than having your avatar on one more screen because of the three types of games I believe we’ll see on Windows Phone 7.

The Three Games of Windows 7 Phone

The first type of game will be a lot like an iPhone title. Powerful pocket hardware will push impressive graphics (that make the PSP and DS look sad). That’s a simple idea that I know all of you can wrap your heads around.

Now, some of these games may be released cross-platform, as Microsoft teased today. They’ll be what I classify as the second type of gaming on Windows Phone 7—casual, connected titles that allow anyone with a Live account to join in (no matter if they’re on a WP7, 360 or PC). You won’t see the most beautiful XBLA titles on the phone, of course, but something like Worms? Why not? A buy it once, play it anywhere model would make this type of game incredibly enticing. UPDATE: It appears that Windows Phone 7 will run XNA framework, meaning it should be (theoretically) compatible with the Xbox 360’s XNA games.

The third type of game—the one that will appeal most to the hardcore gamers—is the Xbox 360 expanded title, something unmentioned by Microsoft but that I see coming a mile away. Imagine a minigame accompaniment to Halo that could unlock more content/resources/anything. Now imagine that such a game is driven by some of the most powerful handheld processors in the world. (You should be picturing something that looks a lot like Call of Duty’s Nazi Zombies on the iPhone.) But with the iPhone, Nazi Zombies never leaves your phone—nothing about it will affect your Call of Duty experience on your home console.

Such no longer needs to be the case when the game is connected to Live. AAA franchises can make their way to the mobile space with Microsoft in a way that they never could with Apple. Put differently, pocketable games can have console-level repercussions.

Microsoft’s Mobile Trump Card: Nobody Else Has an Xbox Live…Not Really

While the iPhone is a treasure trove of pocketable amusements, they’re pretty much self-contained entities working in a closed box. Sadly, pretty much the same thing can be said about the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Nintendo and Sony have both experimented with connecting their mobile and home platforms on a title-by-title basis (and no doubt, the PSP’s early promise of Remote Play still sounds like a revolutionary idea today), but neither company has been all that successful in bridging the gap to create a seamless digital experience.

Plus, let’s face it, neither Sony nor Nintendo is relevant in the smartphone business—the present and future of pocket gaming. And while the iPhone is tough competition, it’s one phone. Windows Phone 7 Series is a specification (that includes baseline hardware specs and software specs) for many phones that could potentially be on many carriers.

Imagine if Nintendo let any willing manufacturer integrate Wii/DS services. That’s essentially what Microsoft is doing here.

But when it really comes down to it, is Microsoft selling us the Xbox 360 experience on cellphones, or are they pitching putting cellphone games on the Xbox 360? And will anyone want to create original, non-ported content for the Windows 7 Phone Series when there are 75 million iPhones and iPod touches out there already?

Time will tell. Despite what promises to be the most full-featured mobile gaming platform of all time, Microsoft must woo developers to create compelling mobile content before any of this matters.

Japan’s been Final Fantasy-ing for a while now, but it looks like an import FFXIII PS3 isn’t your only shot at pointy-haired excellence. Outside of Japan, Microsoft has the exclusive “official” Final Fantasy XIII bundles, in the form of a $399 Xbox 360 that packs a 250GB HDD, two controllers, a standard edition of the game, and some exclusive avatar downloads. Separately available will be some limited edition faceplates (pictured after the break) created by designer Tetsuya Nomura, but if you want a full console paint job you’re still going to have to turn Japanese and fork it over for a PS3 — or level up on your Bob Ross technique and paint it yourself. The bundle should hit stores March 9th.

Continue reading Xbox 360 retailing in a Final Fantasy XIII bundle for the rest of us

Xbox 360 retailing in a Final Fantasy XIII bundle for the rest of us originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been no secret that original Xbox games and systems have been the vestigial limb holding back much wanted XBL features including raising the limit on our friends list to over 100 or mobile tie-ins, and on April 15 Live access for all of them comes to an end. Even those Xbox Originals downloaded to the 360 or played via backwards compatibility will be cut off from online play, so we’d suggest getting those last few rounds of Halo 2 in now or at least look into an alternative solution like XBConnect. Affected users should keep an eye on their inbox, Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten has promised “details and opportunities” to come for you as partners in this process — we’re figuring a coupon or two or an extended XBL subscription as the lights are turned out is the least they can do. For the rest of us already living in the future? The timing of this announcement mere days before the X10 event in San Francisco February 11 can’t be coincidental, we should find out what comes next by then.

Xbox v1 games, systems no longer Live; Microsoft’s pulling the plug April 15 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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