Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

After announcing it earlier this year, from the middle of October, Sky will be coming to your Xbox 360. Inside the Sky Magazine an article from Rupert Murdoch’s men confirmed the date and gave some info on this upcoming feature.

Already up is sky.com/xbox360, now it hasn’t got anything on the site as of yet but the article in the magazine gave us plenty of info. Basically if you have an Xbox Live Gold Account, you can receive basic access to the “Sky Player” If you are a Sky customer to boot you will be granted access to “premium content” probably live streams of the football and Sky’s exclusive programmes and movies.

We have no details on the pricing as of yet and overall this could cause the service to stumble but once again Microsoft are pushing the boat out with the content supplied through your xbox and obviously teaming up with a media giant like Sky it surely can’t disappoint.

There has been a lot of rumours flying around about the Zune HD in the recent weeks, and it has now been officially announced.

So far the specs are a little sketchy but Microsoft have revealed that the Zune HD will include a 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED capacitive touchscreen display, built-in HD Radio receiver, HD output (utilizing a new dock -- not on-board).

However the specs do conform to the leaked specifications a few weeks ago which includes:

• NVIDIA Tegra processor/gpu
• 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB versions
• HDMI Connection to stream straight to your TV
• HD Radio.
• Web Browser.
• WiFi compatible, with wireless marketplace.
• Released, early fall.
• International Release
• Home AV packs, Car packs, Charge packs.

Microsoft are getting rind of the squircle in favour a full multitouch device and they have suggested that some new touch-friendly apps and games would be released.

The device will boast an IE-based, customized browser, but little else was said in the way of software.

Zune integration is coming to the Xbox and Xbox Live, as the Zune marketplace will step in to replace the current Live video resources, expanding the library and offering all kinds of new perks.

It is also believed that the Zune will be released internationally!

Press release after the jump

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There are currently several rumours flying around the net that there could be a large price drop for the Xbox 360.

Rumour has it Microsoft might be planning another rather significant slashing of prices for its console again, with the 'entry-level' arcade model suggested to be a bargain basement $199 (£100).

The PS3 seems to be gaining momentum recently so this could help Xbox maintain sales.

Microsoft have been having a lot of problems recently with its live service however it has not stopped them selling a whole load of 360s during the Christmas break.

Apparantly the company has shipped 17.7 Million Xbox 360 Consoles since its launch 2 years ago. On September 30 the figure was apparently at 13.4 million meaning they have sold over 4.3 millions units from October onwards. Pretty impressive really.

I think it was only the other week when ASDA screwed up and had bottles of beer available for 1p. This time is the turn of Tesco, they have been accidentally offering Xbox 360 consoles online for just £33.24.

The pricing slip-up would have meant a giant saving for customers, as the Xbox package was meant to cost ten times as much.

Sharp-eyed shoppers were quick to spot the bargain on the supermarket giant's website. At least one customer ordered 39 of the knock-down consoles online and had the payment accepted - but they have not been delivered.

The deal offered the Xbox 360, the Forza Motorsport 2 and Viva Pinata games plus a wireless control pad.

According to Trading standard it is illegal to raise the price of a product if the customer has already had their offer accepted. However the Tesco website says if they make a mistake with the price, they are not obliged to stick to it. It is not clear if Tesco will honour the order however the Asda mistake mentioned above was apparently not honoured.

Vista powered homes here in the UK are finally set to get a taste of Extenders for Media Centre, letting them stream live TV and myriad movies, photos and tunes to multiple boobtubes.

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Ok so the Yanks have had it for ages, dam you Microsoft for giving the Americans all the cool things first. Anyway, Microsoft has confirmed you'll get a whole five free HD-DVDs when you splash out a mere £114.99 on an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive. With hi-def movies clocking in at around £25, you're basically getting the drive for free. When you hand over your cash, you'll fill in a form choosing five out of thirteen films. Films include Serenity, Children of Men, Swordfish, The Prestige and  Full Metal Jacket. Having to wait 28 days is a bit annoying but I think I am sold, I already have a 360 so I am only forking out £114.99 for a HD player AND 5 films, bargain! Read the rest of this entry »