console

Xbox Live just hit its 10th anniversary, and Microsoft is rewarding its most faithful members with a free Xbox 360 console.

Microsoft Xbox staffer Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, tweeted the news yesterday, saying: "I can confirm we're surprising some of the Xbox Live members that have been with us the longest with one of these." And by "these," he means a brand-new Xbox 360.

The surprise gift includes a custom controller, a logo on the console that reads "decade of entertainment," and a plate on the disc tray door that … Read more

Much like the former Xbox Live app, Xbox SmartGlass (free) gives you the Xbox 360 Dashboard experience, letting you do things like view your avatar and info, see your friends' bio and game lists, and track and compare achievements.

With this latest version of the app, you get a lot more ways to interact with your console. You now have the ability to type using your iPhone keypad rather than the old hunt-and-peck Xbox controller method; you can browse the Internet on your Xbox using your full iOS keyboard; you can play, rewind, and fast-forward videos; search the Xbox game … Read more

The U.S. Copyright Office published its new set of rules on whether people can jailbreak smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles today; it also outlined the guidelines on DVD copying.

Overwhelmingly, its conclusions were that besides smartphones, all of the above remain illegal.

Every three years the Copyright Office takes requests from digital rights proponents and opponents to re-examine the laws under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that dictate whether people can unlock or jailbreak their varied devices. Today, in a lengthy document (PDF), the government listed all of the changes it made.

The key developments are that people cannot … Read more

In the past week, CNET has reviewed three separate media devices, each costing $300, and one of them was a television. And guess what: the TV wasn't terrible.

The three products were the TCL L40FHDP60 ($309), the 3M Streaming Projector ($299), and the Apple iPod Touch ($299). Seeing them all together got me thinking: which one of these would I actually buy if I had the money? Is there something else I'd rather do with my $300?

Until we find out whether the Apple iPad Mini exists, I cast the net out a bit farther and two other … Read more

Nintendo Chief Executive Satoru Iwata recently sat down with a handful of engineers to discuss what went into his company's Wii U. And before long, the discussion turned into a teardown.

Dubbed "Wii U: The Console," the discussion centers on the technologies that make the Wii U tick. And chief among those technologies might just be the device's multicore CPU. According to Nintendo, this is the first time it has used a multicore CPU, though the company stopped short of saying how many cores are actually in use.

The Wii U is based on a multichip … Read more

Gaming is helping men close the gender gap on how much time is spent in front of televisions.

According to new data from Nielsen, the average American woman between the ages of 18 and 34 spends 4 hours and 11 minutes watching television each day. The average man of the same age spends 37 minutes less time watching television, tallying 3 hours and 34 minutes per day.

However, when it comes to using consoles for everything from gaming to watching video, men spend 48 minutes with the hardware, more than doubling the average woman's 22 minutes of daily usage.… Read more

Consumers bought 193,000 Xbox 360 consoles last month, making it the best-selling console for the 20th month in a row, according to Microsoft.

The company cites numbers from research firm The NPD Group. The units sold make up 48 percent of the U.S. market for current generation console sales. The research firm also found that consumers spent $196 million on the Xbox 360 platform, including hardware, software, and accessories.

"Consumers spent more on Xbox 360 products in August than they spent on the other two current-generation consoles combined," according to a blog post from Microsoft's … Read more

The upcoming Wikipad tablet, first spotted back in January at CES, now has an official release date and price. The 10.1-inch Android handheld gaming system will be available for $499 on October 31. Starting September 7, the system will be available to preorder through game retailer GameStop, although the Wikipad is expected to be available through other retailers as well.

Wikipad is part of a growing trend of independently developed game consoles outside of the major Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft axis.… Read more

We still don't officially know when the Wii U arrives or how much it costs, but a substantial rumor emerged today concerning Video Product Distributors -- a wholesale media distribution company that works with companies such as Amazon and Newegg -- supposedly listing on its intranet three Wii U bundles along with a November 11 release date.

Video Product Distributors and Nintendo did not immediately reply to CNET's request for comment.

The purported Wii U bundles, with prices of $249, $299, and $349, came with no real description whatsoever on VPD's site. Instead, the listings contained ambiguous … Read more