14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console got a new flavor on Monday when the Redmond-based company rolled out Xbox 360 Console for Families, a special version of the device which targets whole families. In case you're wondering why this console is so special, please note that it includes five games, a wireless controller and 256 MB of memory to allow the consumers to save their content. The titles offered by Microsoft are pretty attractive: "PAC-MAN Championship Edition" (NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.), "Uno" (Carbonated Games), "Luxor 2" (MumboJumbo), "Boom Boom Rocket" (Electronic Arts Inc.) and "Feeding Frenzy" (Sprout Games). And now, the best of all: all I mentioned above is available for no less than $279.99 so hurry up and get your family console.
"As families gather together this holiday, it's the perfect time to launch a new low-priced, high-value Xbox 360 that plays games, TV shows and music for everyone to enjoy," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "In addition to offering an incredible all-in-one package for families to get right into the fun, the Xbox 360 Arcade system features the industry-leading Family Settings, which allow parents to control what their kids are watching and playing - and we know how important that control is to families around the world."
For more information about the game console, visit its official website available here.
Following Monday's special Xbox 360, the Redmond-based company continued the special week with a new version of its famous Zune player created in collaboration with Wisin y Yandel, Machete Music and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The limited-edition Zune comes with the new Wisin y Yandel album, "Wisin vs. Yandel: Los Extraterrestres" and will be available for no less than $199. Starting October 29, all the Wal-Mart retailers will sell the black limited-edition 30GB Zune device to all interested consumers, Microsoft announced on Tuesday.
"It was great working with the Zune team to create this custom device and come up with cool ways to promote our new album via their digital music platform. Connecting with fans digitally is really where music is going, and we're psyched to have this opportunity," said Edgar Andino, Wisin y Yandel's manager. "Wisin y Yandel are currently one the biggest Latin groups out there, so we are excited to have them customize a Zune device and offer exclusive content to their fans," added Javier Farfan, multicultural marketing manager for Zune at Microsoft. "Working together like this has helped us to connect Latino music artists with their fans."
Even if Windows Vista is described like a user-friendly operating system, some of the consumers might encounter serious problems with the latest Windows rolled out by Microsoft. James Bannan wrote on the APC Magazine page on Wednesday that following a simple hardware upgrade your Windows Vista can easily turn into a pirated copy of the operating system due to some unknown facts. "Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into "reduced functionality" mode, where you can't do anything but use the web browser for half an hour," James Bannan stated. "You'll then need to reapply to Microsoft to get a new activation code."
It all started when James decided to replace his video card with a newer one equipped with DirectX 10 abilities. But it seems like Windows Vista didn't like the new hardware: "Then a few days ago I got a Windows Activation prompt - I had three days to activate Windows or I'd be bumped back to RFM (Reduced Functionality Mode). What the? My copy of Vista was activated, and a graphics card change shouldn't have triggered deactivation... surely!" James wrote on the APC Magazine page.
After contacting Microsoft and installing the utilities they provided, it was revealed that the re-activation notice was triggered by a disk controller change which was never accessed by the Windows Vista user. "I had never changed my disk controller at any point. Apparently because I had upgraded the Intel Matrix Storage Manager application, this was reported as a major hardware change event," he added.
For the full story, please follow this link.
Although it might sound a little bit uncanny, a Korean company said on Thursday that it sued the Redmond-based giant for implementing MSN Messenger, Microsoft's instant messaging application, into the Windows operating system. According to Digital Chosunilbo, Digito.com claims that Microsoft move to bring MSN Messenger to Windows users infringed the Fair Trade Act and affected the competition. It seems like the Korean firm owns Soft Messenger, an instant chatting technology which was pretty popular until the Redmond software firm included its application into the operating system.
"If Microsoft hadn't bundled its instant messaging program with its operating system we could have reaped significant profits," said a Digito.com representative according to Digital Chosunilbo.
At the time of writing this article, there is no official statement from Microsoft so we're still waiting for comments from the Redmond giant.
On Friday, Microsoft made an important move for its evolution into the social networking battle by signing a deal with Facebook, one of the top players when it comes to this side of the market. The Redmond company is now the exclusive advertising provider for Facebook, Microsoft being supposed to bring adverts on all pages of the social website. The interesting fact is that the deal also includes the international versions of Facebook which is pretty impressive if we think that the social service gets approximately 200,000 new members every day.
"Making this investment and expanding this partnership will position Microsoft and Facebook to better take advantage of advertising opportunities around the world, and is a great win for not only for our two companies, but also our collective users and advertisers," said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft.
"We have partnered well over the past year and look forward to doing some exciting things together in the future. The opportunity to further collaborate as advertising partners is a big reason we have decided to take an equity stake, and is a strong statement of our confidence in the long-term economics of this partnership."
