Microsoft - Page 153 of 238

Microsoft on Foxconn: We’re “Committed to the Fair Treatment and Safety of Workers”

An earlier piece on the mass suicide threat at the Foxconn electronics manufacturing factory reported how 300 people there nearly jumped off a building in a labor dispute. Microsoft’s responded to the situation and you can see the full comment by going back to the original story

By Evan Narcisse Published January 10, 2012

Report: Mass Suicide Threats at Xbox 360 Plant [UPDATE]

On Jan. 2, over 300 employees at a Foxconn plant in Wuhan, China threatened to throw themselves off a building in a mass suicide. Foxconn makes Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony products. These workers manufacture Xbox 360s. According to Chinese anti-government website China Jasmine Revolution (via Watch China Times), the workers were protesting denied compensation they…

By Brian Ashcraft Published January 10, 2012

Kinect Coming to Windows on February 1 (and Costs $250??) [Update]

Microsoft has announced that Kinect is coming to Windows on February 1. While you’ll of course be playing games on it, as has been explained when the crossover was first revealed, there’s more to it than just waving your arms to play Microsoft Flight. There are a number of office and communications uses for it…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 9, 2012

There are now 66 Million Xbox 360 Consoles In the Wild

Microsoft announced just ahead of its CES keynote that the Xbox 360 has sold 66 million units worldwide. Kinect has sold 18 million. And there are just under 40 million Xbox Live users. That’s…a lot of people not connected to Xbox Live!

By Luke Plunkett Published January 9, 2012

The Country That Shut Down Xbox Live for Kids

Every night across the globe, kids log into Xbox Live and game online. They should be studying or sleeping, but they’re gaming. Except in South Korea. Last year, South Korea enacted a “Shutdown Law” designed to block online gaming for a nightly six-hour block. It was apparently created with PC gaming in mind, hoping to…

By Brian Ashcraft Published January 9, 2012

Analysis Alleges Microsoft Gimped Third-Party Video in the New Xbox Dashboard

Shortly after the new “Metro” dashboard for the Xbox 360 was released to the public, Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry noticed that in-dash video was of a poorer quality than the same video played elsewhere. Investigating further—as Microsoft remained totally silent on the matter—it’s discovered why: They say the software development kit given to third parties is…

By Owen Good Published January 7, 2012

Microsoft Refunds Money Lost in Xbox Live Phishing Scam, Promises Better Customer Service

Microsoft said it has intervened to restore the Xbox Live account of a customer hit by an overseas phishing scam, and refunded all unauthorized charges the scammers were able to make as her complaint got lost in customer support and was never properly locked down. Further, a Microsoft spokesman tells Kotaku that the company is…

By Owen Good Published January 6, 2012

Patents Show that the Next Xbox Might Be a DVR, Too

Xbox 3, Xbox 720, NextBox… whatever you call it, lots of rumors are being floated about Microsoft’s next home console. Some say it’ll output Avatar-level visuals while others say it’ll lean heavily on cloud architecture. But the latest hint as to Microsoft’s gaming future point to their ever-increasing ambition to fuse TV, film and gaming…

By Evan Narcisse Published January 3, 2012

Xbox Live Pries the Guns from Your Cold, Avatar Hands

This announcement oughta go over like a turd in a punchbowl. Seems that on Jan. 1, Xbox Live is taking guns away from all avatars. That is according to Epic Games’ community manager, who in a reminder to Gears of War fans said that if they don’t have the Lancer or Hammerburst avatar props, they…

By Owen Good Published December 24, 2011

The New Xbox Dashboard Is Stopping Some Users from Getting Online

Ever since the release of Microsoft’s new dashboard the other week, some unlucky users have been unable to get their consoles back online, something the company is promising to “resolve … as soon as possible”. “We have recently identified an Xbox Live profile data error that results in Error Code ‘801540B7’ for a small number…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 23, 2011

Video Playback Quality Poorer Under New Xbox Dashboard: Report

The Xbox 360’s video player does not display video properly, a problem that testers reported during the new dashboard’s beta period, and one confirmed by Eurogamer this weekend. The issue seems to be that the new dashboard forces videos to display at limited-range RGB levels, which in layman’s terms means the color looks washed out.…

By Owen Good Published December 18, 2011

Those Awful “No Sue” Clauses, In Plain English, So You Can Understand Them

The gist of many big company’s new “No Sue” clauses are that you can’t sue them, but beyond that, aarrggghh, there’s so much legal wish-wash it makes your head spin. So thank you, website EULAgony, for translating them into something we can understand. The site, whose name is a play on the term EULA (End…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 16, 2011

Fruit Ninja Kinect’s Christmas DLC Is Live

A new Christmas DLC pack for Fruit Ninja Kinect is now available for free on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade. The pack includes a Santa’s Workshop, Snow Globes to smash and a Candy Cane Blade.

By Brian Crecente Published December 14, 2011

This Xbox 360 Sleeps with the Fishes. No, Really.

The Red Ring of Death claimed many original Xbox 360s. Some of them were fixed. Some of them were recycled. And this one ended up a saltwater aquarium with live corals, fish, crabs, snails, and shrimp. Spencer of Blue World Aquariums purchased and gutted a broken Xbox 360 for the purpose of turning it into…

By Brian Ashcraft Published December 14, 2011

Microsoft’s Furry Kinect Mascots Take a Trip to Apple Land

Once the poster lovable wild animals for Microsoft’s motion-sensing Kinect peripheral, the Kinectimals now appear to be feline ambassadors of goodwill to the iPad and iPhone. How very odd. Released last month for the Windows Phone 7, Kinectimals for iOS devices retains all the functionality of that version, right down to the ability to transfer…

By Mike Fahey Published December 13, 2011

Indie Developers Unhappy with their Placement in the New Xbox Dashboard

If you count the directions keyed on the D-pad (or the left stick) it takes 17 button presses to reach the Indie Games section of the Xbox Live Marketplace under the new Xbox dashboard, which released this week. It takes only eight buttons to get to the Xbox Live Arcade and Games on Demand catalogs.…

By Owen Good Published December 10, 2011

Xbox Live is Free This Weekend in Europe [Corrected]

On the heels of the new dashboard rollout this week, Xbox Live’s Gold level services are free to all this weekend. In addition to multiplayer gaming, features like Video Kinect are also available to Silver (free) subscribers. The weekend includes free previews and discounts on downloadable films (like The Hangover) as well. Enjoy. [Correction] I…

By Owen Good Published December 9, 2011

Should You Buy Gears of War 3: RAAM’s Shadow? Yes.

RAAM’s Shadow is the second piece of downloadable content for Epic’s terrific action game Gears of War 3. It drops on December 13th, and is much more substantive than the last DLC, mainly in that it’s a prequel-style three-chapter adventure starring Michael Barrick (of the Gears comics) and Zeta team in place of series protagonist…

By Kirk Hamilton Published December 8, 2011

Xbox Verizon FiOS Viewing Will Be Weighed and Measured by Nielsen

Later this month Verizon will be launching 26 channels of live streaming cable content through the Xbox Live dashboard for users of its FiOS TV service, a brand new way to watch cable made possible in part by the support of North America’s ancient television audience measurement system. Measuring television audience size since the 1950s,…

By Mike Fahey Published December 8, 2011

Apple iPhone, iPad Get Official Xbox Live App

A surprise, official Xbox LIVE app just hit Apple’s iTunes I’ve spent a few minutes with My Xbox Live and so far it’s very slick, featuring full 3D avatars and plenty of content, though it is a tad bit slow at times. The app has three categories: Home, Social and Games. In Home you get…

By Brian Crecente Published December 7, 2011