LlamaChili

swag bag ftw

my pokemons. let me show you them.

(not original, but doesn't have to be, does it?)

Free except for needing a two-year agreement to use it! Awesome!

@kingofwale: For them to see your gamertag, they'd already have to have your passport account's email address (to add to Windows Live Messanger), which is really the unique identifier... I don't think this aids social engineering at all...

@3: It plugs into the current controller. I'd really really doubt it will cost an arm and a leg, and while I'm sure they're not losing any money on it, it won't be a money grab because you won't need it for games.

@10: I don't think it'll get that much in the way. Holding a 360 controller in my hands, my fingers don't really wrap around all the way, so they'd probably just barely hit the back of this. We'll have to see when it comes out however.

@author: "Unfortunately, this officially marks the point where the Xbox 360 just has too freaking many peripherals, and starts to look a bit like it's grubbing"??? As far as I can tell, every single peripheral that Microsoft makes, including this one, has been hotly requested by the community, including Engadget and partner sites Joystiq and Xbox 360 Fanboy. It would be grubbing if all of them were required to play something, but with the exception of TotemBall, is there any game that requires anything other than a controller (wired or wireless) and either a HD or MU? I think it's like J said way back at E3 '05... it's all about choice, right? If you want your 360 to just be a game system, it is, but if you want to make it your living-room hub and have everything connected wirelessly, you can too...

Also, marketplace codes are always 25-alphadigit codes, just like Microsoft product IDs, not 6-digit silly little codes like that. The official name for the "Premium" package is just "Xbox 360 Console", though I think Microsoft does use "Premium" from time to time, but never "Pro" in official communications.

Zune owner here, but I don't have a remote so I won't be using this.

#4 (Josh): You can turn that off in the settings on your 360.

Did anyone else notice that the new List view is stolen directly from Windows Media Player 11? Or am I the only one who notices when Apple copied Microsoft?

#10: Windows Live ID is the name for the next version of Passport... they're just moving the branding over to the 360 as part of this update so it's consistant with Xbox.com, Live.com, Hotmail.com, etc... Windows Live itself is the blanket brand-name of a bunch of new web services and applications... Microsoft is trying to create some brand recognition around the "Live" name with Xbox Live, Windows Live, and Office Live. See http://ideas.live.com/ for more info on Windows Live.