Bill Gates and the Microsoft crew are rumored to be planning something big for next week's Consumer Electronics Show, but we've got nothing but speculation to tide us over until then. Gadget mag Stuff, however, thinks it has—or genuinely has—the scoop on what's coming down the product pipeline from Redmond. The Xbox 360 Ultimate, Stuff writes, will be hitting store shelves by this autumn and feature "1080p HDMI output, built-in Wi-Fi, hi-def audio output, cooler 65nm hardware architecture and a near-silent fan." On top of all that, the IPTV service that MS touted at last year's CES will be good to go.

Also included in the Ultimate, according to Stuff? A 320GB hard drive and HD-DVD drive. While we have our doubts about the authenticity of the details, the news seems a bit too matter of fact to ring false. Is someone at Stuff simply letting the cat out of the bag early? Perhaps we'll know more this Sunday, when we report directly from CES '08.

BIG IN 2008 - Xbox Ultimate [Stuff - thanks, Richard!]