Hasta La Gadget!

Anyone can take a hammer and rib-spreader to a new piece of hardware. But it takes someone like Anand Shimpi, the man behind Anandtech who has personally suffered through four out-of-warranty Xbox 360 failures, to bring sage analysis to a teardown of the new Xbox 360. His reluctant sixth Xbox 360 is the new slimster (codename Valhalla) which, for the first time, combines the CPU, GPU, and eDRAM onto a single chip — previous Xbox 360 motherboards featured two discrete packages that split the CPU from the ATI designed Xenos GPU and eDRAM. The design allows for a single heatsink to be cooled by a single, larger fan making the new Xbox “noticeably quieter,” measured at 45dB when idle or 51dB with the 1.5Gbps SATA Hitachi HTS545025B9SA00 with 8MB buffer spinning at 5400RPM — that’s down from 50dB and 54dB, respectively, as measured on late 2008 through 2010 Jasper-class 360s. Regarding power consumption, Anand measured a 50% reduction from the original 2005 Xbox 360 (25% less than Jasper-class rigs at idle, or 20% to 17% less under load) and pulled just 0.6W when “totally off” compared to the 2W of vampire power pulled by older 360s. Anand speculates that Microsoft might finally be using cheaper 40nm components. However, we shouldn’t expect to see a price cut anytime soon as it will take Microsoft awhile to ramp up the material and manufacturing cost savings. Regardless, with Kinect and several new game titles on the horizon, Anand concludes that there’s still plenty of life left in the old Xbox 360 platform for those looking to make the jump.

New Xbox 360 gets a proper teardown analysis: power and noise reductions confirmed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve become so familiar with the “Project Natal” codename over the years that our tongues are still having a little trouble wrapping around Microsoft’s new Kinect moniker for it. Still, what’s in a name? Microsoft has finally shown us what matters with real games, real gameplay, and real hardware, and after spending some time with it using our very own human flesh to control the on-screen action, we feel like we’re starting to get a pretty good grip on the experience. Follow after the break as we break down the complicated workings and emergent gameplay of Kinect.

Continue reading Kinect guide: a preview and explanation of Microsoft’s new full body motion sensor

Kinect guide: a preview and explanation of Microsoft’s new full body motion sensor originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox 360 Arcade reduced to $99** during Walmart Father’s Day sale originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It may not have a new name, but the Xbox 360 certainly has received quite a facelift on this the fifth anniversary of its unveiling. The new Xbox 360 (aka the “Xbox 360 250GB”) makes up for its familiar name by offering a starkly refreshed and, in our eyes, significantly sexier design than its predecessor — which honestly was quite the looker in its day. Despite only just being made official, we’ve already had time to unbox and play with one, a dizzyingly fast-paced unveil that might have left you with some questions about just what here is new and what here is old. Click on through, dear reader, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know.

Continue reading New Xbox 360 guide: Microsoft’s slim console explained

New Xbox 360 guide: Microsoft’s slim console explained originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already gone a bit more in-depth with the likes of Kinect Adventures, Dance Galaxy, and Your Shape, but we also had a couple brief thoughts on Microsoft’s motion-centric sports pack and cartoon racer. With Joy Ride, you’d think holding your arms out pantomiming steering would be burdensome, but in our time with Joy Ride, it really never became an issue. In fact, the one control aspect we were hesitant about going into the race — power sliding — turned out to be quite effortless. It made perfect sense tilting our bodies around sharp corners. It’s during the windows where stunts were allowed that we discovered the full-bodied parallel to button mashing. Seriously, people were instinctively ducking jumping, twisting, and flailing hoping for some bonus points.

As for Kinect Sports, Microsoft wasn’t showing much of its track-and-field centered Kinect Sports title, but what we saw didn’t fill us with confidence. The bowling game was particularly troubling, with numerous very random throws (that ended up in the gutter a lane over) and a very finicky depth-perception that wouldn’t let us really wind up or step forward very effectively. Meanwhile, the 200 meter hurdles worked just fine, but it was also a pretty simplistic running-in-place experience that was possible a couple decades ago with the NES’s Power Pad — although Kinect makes it a lot harder to cheat. Miller vs. Miller video after the break.

Continue reading Kinect Sports and Joy Ride previewed, in brief (video)

Kinect Sports and Joy Ride previewed, in brief (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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