Xbox 360 USB Storage support? XBOx 360 slim to be announced?

This is what the biggest rumor is on the new storage support on the XBox 360.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6253864.html

Source: Gaming blog Joystiq.

What we heard: Last year ended with British company Datel suing Microsoft after an Xbox 360 firmware update locked out all third-party memory units. Now, it looks like the days of the console's proprietary memory units and hard drives may be numbered.

According to screenshots and documentation obtained by Joystiq, Microsoft is planning to add USB memory device support to its console via a firmware update later this year. The blog selectively quoted a memo from a "senior software development engineer" that said "USB mass storage device support on Xbox 360" is necessary due to "increased market penetration of high-capacity, high-throughput USB mass storage devices." The update will reportedly allow gamer profiles, game saves, and entire titles ripped from a disc to be stored on said devices--although the latter requires a game disc to be in the console for verification.

Screenshots accompanying the memo show a software development kit formatting a 4-gigabyte memory unit for use with the Xbox 360. Most new models are larger than the biggest first-party memory unit's 512MB capacity; Datel's third-party memory units went up to 4GB. Microsoft's spec for the functionality reportedly said USB devices must be at least 1GB in size but could not be anymore than 16GB, thereby artificially blocking the use of high-capacity external hard drives with the console.

The inability to hook up to large hard drives will anger many gamers who consider Xbox 360 hard drive pricing exorbitant. The $300 Elite model ships with a 120GB HDD as standard, although higher priced limited edition bundles come with a 250GB HDD. Sold separately, the 120GB HDD was $150, but the stand-alone product is no longer available at GameStop, Amazon, or Wal-Mart. The sudden disappearance has been coupled with premature retailer listings of a 250GB hard drive being released on March 23 for $130. Currently, the only Xbox 360 hard drive sold separately is the 60GB HDD that is part of the $100 Xbox Live starter pack.



Here is the story on the possible XBox 360 slim.

Source: Pictures posted on a Chinese message board A9VG, as pointed out by Kotaku.

What we heard: Last August, Sony announced the PS3 Slim, a smaller, cheaper redesign of the PlayStation 3 system it launched less than three years earlier. The impact was immediate, as the Slim, which also received a $100 price cut, sold more than a million systems in less than three weeks.


Now it appears that Microsoft could be following Sony's lead with a redesign of the Xbox 360. Users on A9VG posted two images of what appears to be a redesigned Xbox 360 motherboard. One image shows the entire motherboard, which is more compact and closer to a square than the system's current configuration. A second image on the thread shows what's underneath the giant fan in the original picture: a single chip that is supposed to combine the functions of the Xbox 360's CPU and GPU.

While the Xbox 360 hardware has undergone several revisions since its November 2005 launch, those changes have been mostly internal and invisible to the average consumer (added HDMI port aside). Given the significantly different shape, size, and screw locations of this 360 motherboard, the system casing would need to be revised and almost certainly would undergo a change in outward appearance.

It's also worth noting that this motherboard appears to lack the current Xbox 360's specialized hard-drive port, but includes an extra SATA interface port. That has led to speculation that Microsoft will be making the system's hard drive an internal component, and possibly inaccessible to users.

This wouldn't be the first time a hardware redesign was leaked out from overseas. Last May, a Chinese hardware blog leaked pictures of the PS3 Slim, which were all-but-confirmed when media outlets started receiving notices from a Taiwanese law firm demanding the photos be taken down.


http://www.gamespot.com/news/6253740.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=hot-stories&tag=hot-stories;title;1



Now remember this is concept art, it might not be what the final product looks likes. I believe that since this console generation is going to last longer then previous, a XBox 360 slim and Project Natal are set to re-launch the XBox 360 this year.
Anyway I thought these stories were worth reporting a bit on.

Finally. Get rapped ps3.

I've been following this story too and this is the leaked picture of their "Valhalla" motherboard...




Sure, you might've seen the purported Xbox 360 Valhalla motherboard leaked yesterday... but have you ever really seen it? There's a subtle difference, one that requires you gaze through the ocular receptors of our dearest old friend (he hates when we call him that) Ben Heck. Joystiq sat down with him to deconstruct the pictures and get his take on all the hardware nuances. First and foremost, there appears to be no connectors that "look remotely like a Xbox 360 memory card reader," which lends credence to the thought process they might be going the way of the dinosaur. WiFi is still missing in action, and as for Project Natal integration, Heck's highly doubtful that's in the cards, though he shares our mindset that a bundle would make sense. The big question is size reduction, and to that our game console laptop guru suggests that, given the constraints due to a DVD drive, the best we can expect is a one-inch drop in height (standing console), 0.5 inches in depth, and just "slightly thinner." Sorry folks, looks like even in your wildest dreams, it'll still tower over the Nintendo Wii. A great read, don your thinking cap, give yourself 15 minutes, and hit up the source.

Here's the link tot he site too...
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/18/leaked-xbox-360-valhalla-motherboard-analyzed-by-ben-heck/

lol thats a mATX/ITX board built for an embedded device over a 360 board. Atleast it looks that way to me, the "Not sure" things are PS/2 / Serial device connectors for KB/Mouse. Also I highly doubt MS would use a stock cooling solution or even an air cooler like that for a console, its not going to happen, if they redesign it'll be using heatsink with thermal pipes and the basic rear fan for air intake.

HellHammer wrote:

lol thats a mATX/ITX board built for an embedded device over a 360 board. Atleast it looks that way to me, the "Not sure" things are PS/2 / Serial device connectors for KB/Mouse. Also I highly doubt MS would use a stock cooling solution or even an air cooler like that for a console, its not going to happen, if they redesign it'll be using heatsink with thermal pipes and the basic rear fan for air intake.

Somebodies nerd is showing!