154w ago - At their E3 2010 conference today, along with Kinect Microsoft also revealed a new XBox 360 Slim redesign dubbed XBox 360 S with a propietary 250GB HDD and built-in 802.11n WiFi for $299.99.

This new Xbox 360 Slim Black Edition is 10 to 20 percent smaller than a regular Xbox 360, incapable of RRODing according to JoyStiq and confirms the leaked Italian advertisement in the video below.

It's also equipped with a smaller power supply, a dedicated connector for Microsoft's upcoming Kinect motion control system, and five USB ports.

Currently the XBox 360 Slim is available for pre-order from Play.com with the console hitting retailers in North America today.

XBox 360 Slim details include the following, with teardown pics available HERE:

• Smaller And Quieter
• Integrated CPU/GPU based on 45 nm fabrication process
• Internal...

169w ago - According to Ve3tro.com, Final Fantasy XIII is confirmed to have an optional 18.3GB XBox 360 HDD installation for those curious.

To quote: "Just in case you've been planning to get Final Fantasy XIII on the 360, here's some info that will help you with playing the game on the console - the size of each discs' optional install.

The three of them sum up into 18.3GB, as you can see. I'd say the option of installing your games is one of the finest features the 360 offers, cutting load times and reducing disc scratches to a zero, since the DVD drive doesn't spin at all if the game is installed... and now that you know how much space each disc takes up, manage your HDD space accordingly."

182w ago - There's been a discussion about a way to uncripple your XBox 360 harddrive AFTER you got banned.

As you know Microsoft decided to 'remove' some HDD features (like play games from HDD, etc) when your console gets banned.

Microsoft does this by modifying data in the secdata.bin on the NAND (that's why write-lock the NAND was a way to prevent HDD-crippling).

But people found out the NAND has older (backup?) copies of secdata.bin stored on the NAND as well. Now the hack consists in making your Xbox 360 use an old version of the secdata.bin.

All secdata.bin are tagged with a date stamp so you can easily find out which one is newer or older. As your console is already banned, it does not really matter if MS can detect this or not.

Thwack wrote a good tutorial with a method to do this (below).

This is pure HEX editing in the NAND image, no CPU-key or whatever is needed. However, for those new in dumping the Xbox 360 NAND... if you do via LTP with nandpro, make sure to dump it a few times and check to make sure your image is good.

Before wild stories go around... this does NOT unban your console from LIVE.

To start with,...

184w ago - As a follow-up to the recently posted Guide on unnbanning 8955 XBox 360 consoles from Live comes another countermeasure against HDD crippling.

Godzivan has made available an XBox 360 NAND write protection diagram which simply write-protects the NAND Flash in the XBox 360 by connecting WP to a ground pin.

To quote: "While this modification will certainly be against the terms of service and get you banned if you perform it, you wont be hit as hard as the 1,000,000 users that have had their boxes and respective HDD units rendered useless.

This modification does not stop Microsoft from banning a console but only prevents the deletion of the HD installation certificates required by games which means you can still install them on the hard drive.

Note: In order to update the kernel this mod must be disabled; a simple switch solution comes to mind."

185w ago - Update: As expected, Microsoft has defended their stance on banning modified XBox 360 consoles.

Reports now indicate that the fresh wave of Microsoft bans on modified consoles has resulted in systems not only being banned from XBox Live, but also removing the ability to install games to the HDD, forbidding the use of Windows Media Centre extender, and not allowing the retrieval of achievements from backups without corrupting profiles.

Thus far, Microsoft has disabled 600,000 accounts (up to 1 million according to MSNBC) in the US and Canada.

To quote from Kushan: - What does this mean for you and what can you do about it?

Firstly, and most obviously, you cannot connect to Xbox Live on this console any more. This means no more game updates (aka title updates), XBLA games, marketplace content, netflix/sky player and so on. There is no way around this, all online capabilities are now disabled PERMANENTLY.

In all likelihood, your gamertag has NOT BEEN BANNED. When...