This is the brand new, redesigned Xbox 360. Announced earlier today at Microsoft’s first press conference of this year’s E3 Expo the overhauled Xbox 360 is already being shipped to stores and will be made available for sale starting this week (In the US anyway, no word yet on a worldwide release). See the full spec list after the break.

The all new unit has shrunken in size and comes in a glossy black finish, perfect for those who like to collect fingerprints. Those of you eagle-eyed enough to have already looked at the photo will notice that there is no longer an external hard drive. The unit now comes, instead, with a 250GB hard drive nestled in a compartment in the base of the unit. It can be removed much like that of the PS3 although I wouldn’t hold your breach for this being hot-swappable with any old hard drive. As with most Xbox products, these babies are likely to be proprietary Microsoft hard drives only.

In addition, the new unit sports in-built 802.11n WiFi and an all touch-sensitive button configuration making it even harder to distinguish when you may or may not have actually pressed the button which turns your console on. By all accounts a correct press gives an acknowledged bleep though. Call me old fashioned but if all a button is doing is on/off open/close, I think I’d be far happier with some sort of haptic feedback. I digress.

The power brick has also been given the ‘honey I shrunk the kids’ treatment and the rear of this things sports more connections than Tiger Wood’s Blackberry Messenger contact list. Now with five USB ports (why?), HMDI, AV, Kinect connector, Ethernet, digital audio and a redesigned power connector the new box seems almost bloated with connectivity options.

The new Xbox is ‘Kinect Ready’ meaning that unlike any of the old Xbox models which will require a separate power supply and USB connection for Kinect to operate, this new model requires only the dedicated Kinect connector.

There’s no denying that this new Xbox looks decidedly more bad-ass than the previous iteration and almost laughs at the Elite’s mimicry. If you’re in the market for a new Xbox then this is the model you should be holding out for. At $299, the same price as the current 120GB model, this is a bargain.

Via Engadget

If you thought today’s Apple WWDC was going to be all about the iPhone, think again. Much information has been swirly around the internet over the past few weeks about what other products Apple might unveil at 6pm GMT today. There has been talk of Apple TV getting a huge redesign, the launch of Safari 5, the next update for Snow Leopard but not necessarily this. The Apple Magic Slate/Trackpad, both names are guesses. Pictures and info after the break.

This would appear to be a brand net input device from Apple following on from the success of its multitouch trackpads on its Macbook Pro line and the Apple Magic Mouse. This device will connect to desktops using bluetooth much like the Apple keyboard and allows you to control your screen in gesture based fashion and support handwriting recognition also. Anyone who has used one of the latest Macbooks will attest to how much simpler this can make navigating and organising a screen. It seems Apple’s affinity for touchy-feely input  will be making its way to more and more products.

Is it real? It’s quite likely that it is given that Apple filed for a Trademark on the name Magic Trackpad earlier this year. Only time will tell. Until 6pm!

via Engadget

Some really interesting videos of when Steve Jobs took stage this week at D8 to answer questions from the Wall Street Journal and from the floor. Speaking about Flash Steve explains that when they took the decision to not include Flash on the iPhone OS when launching the iPhone, they spoke with Adobe, expressed their concerns about its speed and power consumption and asked Adobe to come back to them when they had a better product, they never did. He then goes on to say that whilst some users were disappointed nobody made too much of a fuss with the iPhone. When the iPad launched, Adobe were publicly outspoken about the exclusion of Flash from the iPad, regardless of the fact that they had not improved their mobile platform. In response, Steve published “Thoughts on Flash”. Here he mentions that Apple just got sick of Adobe trash talking their products even though they had failed to bring anything new to the table. The second video, after the break, aptly demonstrates just how passionate Jobs is about their products and is a real glimpse into why Apple takes some of the restrictive steps it does.

Oh and by the way, since launch, Apple has sold an iPad every 3 seconds!

via AllThingsD

Google Chrome OS is undoubtedly an exciting new prospect in the altogether stale consumer operating system market. It’s not often that a new and, well, good operating system hits the market, however Chrome OS is looking rather promising. When it was debuted last year Google promised a power on to fully functional time of around four seconds and appeared at that time more than able to deliver. Chrome OS was initially set to launch in late 2010, however today Goole tied down that launch window to autumn (fall) 2010 which puts it somewhere in the region of September to December. Expect to see simultaneous Google product launches at the same time like, oh, I don’t know, a tablet device.

via Yahoo

At this years All Things Digital show (D8) Microsoft had a little gizmo to show off, Project Natal. Whilst this version is quite clearly marked as a a developer unit, given how close we are to E3 it’s highly likely that the final product will look markedly similar to this. Of course, nobody knows as yet what the thing will be called as Microsoft are sure to change the name of the device, which is a shame really as the whole technology community seems to have grown rather fond of its pet name. Mt bet is on Motion-sensing-body-movey-thingy, quite a ring I know.

via Engadget

Google went on record this week stating that they were abandoning the Windows operating system within its offices and stipulating that employees must chose a machine running either Mac OS X or Linux. Word has it that Google will be replacing all machines running Windows within its headquarters due to the security risks the operating system imposes.

This move comes largely in response to the attack that took place on the company’s Chinese branch earlier in the year with IT leaders apparently viewing Windows as too much of a security risk to their enterprise. New employees are now only being offered Mac or Linux and any current employee wishing to continue using Windows will require ‘very senior clearance.’

At present Google’s business currently plays home to around 20,000 windows licenses which, much to Microsoft’s dismay, are now no longer likely to be renewed. Of course, the official Microsoft stance is something along the lines of Windows being just as secure as any other operating system. Google doesn’t seem to agree.

According to Superiphone.cz, who are claiming that they have managed to get their hands on parts for the next-gen iPhone, the newest model will sport a dramatic increase in screen resolution. Microscopes in hand, the sire counted the screen’s RGB elements to figure out the resolution.

In case you were wondering, 960 x 640 is quadruple the number of pixels found on the current iPhone which sports a comparably measly 480 x 320 resolution. This increases the the new iPhone pixel density to 320 dpi. How d’ya like them Apple(s) Droid (265) and Nexus One (252)?

via Superiphone.cz

This may look like an ill-conceived DS but what you probably don’t know is that this is undoubtedly the best handheld gaming console ever made

Three years after the Pandora team started selling this device it is finally beginning to arrive in hands of customers albeit in very few numbers. The Pandora is an open source handheld that runs on a form of Linux. It isn’t locked to any particular format and can run pretty much anything you care to throw at it. Whilst this baby will run numerous ports which are currently underway for the likes of games like Quake and Lemmings, arguably its main attraction is its ability to seamlessly emulate games for just about every console you would expect. If there’s a game for the NES, SNES, Neo Geo, N64, Dreamcast, PlayStation, Amiga or Game Boy Advance you fancy playing whilst on the move, the Pandora has got your back through.

The device may not be the prettiest, but then what device with a touchscreen, d-pad, dual analogue sticks and a full qwerty keyboard could ever look svelte. With WiFi, bluetooth, dual SD slots, TV out and a 10 hour battery life, this thing is sure to stir up the handheld gaming market.

Of course not every one will be too happy about this new device, I’m thinking Nintendo and Sony will have a little something to say. Get it whilst its hot (literally)! Check it out in motion below.

This kid has too much money.

Sweet Child O’ Mine (Swing Version) by plamere

Don’t Stop Believin’ (Swing Version) by plamere

via Gizmodo