The San Jose Mercury News' Dean Takahashi has a bit more details on the rumored Xbox 360 Elite edition that Game Informer reported on earlier this month.

Game Informer had already reported that the new, black 360 would come with a 120-gig hard drive and HDMI out and sell for $479.

Takahashi adds that the new 360 will habe IPTV capabilities, something I suggested would make sense, and that the new design will also implement the a chip redesign, shifting from 90 nanometer to 65 nanometer, resulting in a significant drop in cost to Microsoft.

Takahashi adds that he thinks the introduction of the new 360, which will be produced in limited quantities, will not effect the price of the current core or 20-gig models.

I suspect that this new model will hit in April, with official word coming as early as next week. I also wouldn't be surprised that if consumer interest shifted to the newer model, that Microsoft drops the price on their current models by this holiday season. Brian Crecente

Microsoft To Announce The Xbox 360 Elite [San Jose Mercury News]

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