Xbox 360: Popular Science's top innovation for home entertainment this year

by Dan Choi { Nov 8th 2005 at 1:15PM }

In the the December issue of Popular Science, which will go on newsstands November 15, the Xbox 360 is reported to have taken top honors (that is, the Grand Award) for the Best of What's New in Home Entertainment, one of twelve different categories considered.

"The first of the next-generation gaming consoles, the new Xbox 360 is not just about games — the 360 is poised to take over the living room as well. The 360 is the first Media Center extender that receives and plays back HDTV from Media Center PCs, and it comes with a free lifetime subscription to the Xbox Live online service."

According to the editor: "The Best of What's New awards honor innovations that affect the way we live today and change the way we think about the future." Despite lacking a qualifier regarding the subscription basis for Live multiplayer support, we're sure MS must be pleased by the accolade.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

joss @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Awards and award shows are always fickle and meaningless on the whole, although im not sure how reputable this particular one is. Anyone know any winners from previous years?
but that isn't going to stop me picking the console up (hopefully) on release. Not long now...

p.s. Please no trolling just because 'Xbox' is mentioned, regardless of news post content :/

lol @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Where's the innovation???

TheBigUnit622 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Lifetime subscription to Xbox Live? I wish, shows how educated they really are.

River Runs Red @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

The Xbox Live Subsciption is lifetime, they just fail to say that it is a silver account which is basically just a way to have access to downloadable content, not online play. As for the innovation, bringing PC media into the living room is a plus. Its not the first time its been done, but it is definately going to make it more accessible to more users. Not a huge leap, but a significant one. Lets face it... Nothing is mind blowing anymore.

Sense @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Popular Science is no rag. It's a reputable magazine. Still, I'd rather see this from a more "hip" tech magazine like Wired.

And "innovation" is used solely in the technological sense, not just gaming in this case. Say what you will about the 360, but it's technical abilities--many of which are really not related to games--are innovative.

It says right in the post that 360 is the first Media Extender to receive and play HD. That's an innovation, though it has nothing to do with gaming.

It does bother me that they don't really understand the whole "free" LIVE subscription though.

Mo @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Is playing back HDTV from your Media Centre (of course assuming that you have an HDTV, *and* a Media Centre) really considered innovation in Science?

The1 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Go X360 .....go x360.

Riley37 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Meh.

sandro @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Microsoft is buying everything that has a price. It will be a shame (way greater than the previews one)if M$ does not dominate the console war this time around.

darryl @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Innovation? What innovation?

"Hey, IBM, can you jam 3 PPC cores together?"
"Hey, ATI, can you supply a generic ATI GPU?"

Then, there was xbox360... Microsoft reviews what it has created and says... "Man, we are just so innovative! We contributed 0% to the design of the 360! Profit!"

That's innovation, folks.