360

Microsoft may be looking to integrate Internet Explorer 9 into Xbox 360 consoles sometime in the near future, according to The Verge. Redmond is also said to be testing the use of Kinect voice and motion control to help users browse the Web.

This move would bring Microsoft closer to integrating more of its products into the same ecosystem. Right now, Xbox 360 has Bing video search and Kinect voice recognition. Although some users are pleased about not having to type in TV show and movie names, the feature has gotten mixed reviews from consumers who say they have to speak loudly and use very specific commands.… Read more

Better firewall technology, smarter bandwidth monitoring, and Windows 8 compatibility are the hallmarks of the latest Norton betas, now available for download.

The Norton AntiVirus 2013 beta, Norton Internet Security 2013 beta, and Norton 360 v7 beta all include support for Windows 8, though the company has yet to reveal what the specific Windows 8 enhancements are. Savvy Symantec observers will note that Norton 360, usually a first-quarter release, has been moved to the company's fall schedule.

Norton has updated its firewall, too, so that it uses the suite's Insight analysis technology to detect and block suspicious Internet … Read more

It turns out the rumors suggesting Microsoft would reduce the price of its Xbox 360 and change how it charges for its console were true.

The software giant today announced that customers can now buy the Xbox 360 4GB console with Kinect for $99. However, in order to get the $100 savings, they'll need to sign up for a two-year Xbox Live Gold membership, costing $14.99 per month.

The Verge first reported last week on Microsoft's plans to offer a special-price Xbox 360 bundle, saying that the deal would be available exclusively in Microsoft's U.S. retail stores. According to Microsoft's Web site, customers will be able to redeem the offer by bringing a code to a Microsoft Store, seeming to corroborate The Verge's claims.… Read more

It's a rare Windows user who has never deleted the wrong file. But the data you delete isn't really gone until you overwrite it, and even then it's sometimes possible to recover the data without expert help. Undelete 360 is a free tool that can recover deleted data from your hard drives, USB drives, floppies, and digital cameras. It can recover files that have been deleted from the Recycle Bin as well as those too large for the Recycle Bin that have been deleted directly by Windows. Of course, there are no guarantees your data can be … Read more

It's all too easy to delete critical files accidentally, though viruses, uninstallers, and running programs can also delete data you'd prefer to keep. When you delete files and folders in Windows, they go either to the Recycle Bin or, if they're very large, are deleted directly, bypassing the Recycle Bin. But deleted data isn't really gone until it's overwritten, and even then it's sometimes possible to recover data. While forensic labs use expensive equipment and software to recover deleted data, there's a free tool that can recover deleted data from hard drives, flash … Read more

The world of mobile gaming and console gaming might soon converge on one area of the market: freemium games.

Speaking to VentureBeat in an interview published today, Todd Harris, chief operating officer of online-game developer Hi-Rez Studios, said that although consoles have by and large failed to deliver free-to-play games, his company is currently in talks with Sony and Microsoft "about how best to support free-to-play on consoles."

Freemium games have become all the rage in the mobile-gaming space. Just yesterday, research firm NPD released a study finding that 40 percent of those who downloaded an upgradable freemium game … Read more

Sure, the future of gaming may see the end of used games, but it's also ushering in a wave of independent and download-only titles that may not have otherwise seen the light of day.

Current-generation consoles have provided independent studios with accessible platforms like Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) and the PlayStation Network (PSN) that exposes their work to millions of gamers, similar to what the App Store has done for iOS developers.

Microsoft has even taken it a step further with its XNA initiative, ensuring that literally anyone can create a game.

The widespread embrace of these titles has encouraged others to follow suit and has paved the way for indie classics like Braid, LIMBO, Bastion, Minecraft, and most recently, Journey.… Read more

Electricity costs on game consoles have soared into the billions with tons of energy being wasted, according to a study (PDF) by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. However, it doesn't have to stay this way.

The moral of this study: power down when done playing.

According to the research, 68 percent of all game console energy consumed in 2010 happened while in idle mode, which equaled 10.8 TWh of energy and about $1.24 billion in electricity costs. Overall, 1 percent of U.S. residential energy consumption in 2010 was spent on video game consoles, which is an … Read more

Crysis 3 will be released for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in spring next year, EA has announced.

The Crysis 2 follow-up, set in 2047, sees returning character Prophet discover New York sealed inside a dome by the nefarious Cell Corporation. Under New York's Liberty Dome, the city has become an "urban rainforest teeming with overgrown trees, dense swamplands and raging rivers," according to EA, and is split into seven distinct and treacherous environments known as the Seven Wonders.

Read more of "Crysis 3 announced for spring 2013" at GameSpot. … Read more