The kids at Xbox-Scene tipped us off today that they've received—from an anonymous source, natch—the above conspicuously blurry, but well compositioned photo. Their tipster claims we're looking at an Xbox 360 motherboard with a brand spanking new, not yet announced HDMI out port. Speculation leads one to believe that this may be an early look at a new version of the console; the oft-rumored but recently quashed HD-DVD internal drive, super-duper premium version Xbox 360.

So, is this thing real? Many of the Xbox-Scene forum posters believe the thing is fake—at least the ones who aren't reflexively going apeshit over the possibility that their $400-plus investment could be rendered second-tier, or at worst, obsolete. On the one hand, this is the typical blurred-out "I TOTALLY got this under duress in a secret lab!" snap that proves nothing. On the other, this is Microsoft, and they couldn't possibly be worse at keeping a secret. Initial guess? Bogus. But I'm no expert.

We'll let you know when we learn more and/or get the official denial from the MS spokesfolks. Michael McWhertor

New Xbox 360 Coming with HDMI port?

Send an email to Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at .