Hot New Xbox 360, Just a Year Too Late

I don't mean to be negative but it's really hard to stay positive about what Microsoft has been doing with Xbox 360 lately. It looks like one step forward and three steps back. Guess what, the original Xbox was black. The Playstation 3 is black. Why Microsoft thought a white console was a good idea when almost every TV and stereo component in THE WORLD is black is beyond me. Black is the new black.

Built in Wifi!!!! Oh wait, everything for the past three years has wifi built in. My phone, my portable game devices, and my laptop. Nintendo managed to put it in their console that was $100 cheaper and in their hand held device that was $160 cheaper. Oh wait, the free phone I got from IWireless(Iowa's t-mobile affiliate) has built in wifi. There is no good reason that the Xbox 360 up till now hasn't had built in wifi. This is really just unacceptable PERIOD!

It's smaller! Once again, WTF!? Why the Xbox 360 was so huge is beyond me. I've opened the original machine and there is a ton of open empty space in the case. So much so that there is ducting in the case to ensure good air flow due to all that empty space. If MS has taken a little more time to think out their system layout they could have released the original as a much smaller package to begin with.

The final, actually positive, piece is Kinect and the leap forward it represents for motion gaming. No controller, the thing can determine depth and track on things as small as fingers. Seems to be pretty spectacular all around but it still remains to be seen if this is going to be put to truly good use or if we're going to get the same flood of gimmicky games on the Xbox as the Wii has received.