Tamero IT Consulting & Services

Most of the current hype about Microsoft Corp.'s new Xbox 360 centres on the action imagery of next-generation gaming graphics.

Microsoft sees Xbox as a magic bullet to extend the maturing Windows franchise into the emerging digital entertainment market.

This second-generation gaming machine has been designed as part of an elaborate home entertainment network At the centre of Microsoft's entertainment system lies the PC, running an operating system specifically designed for digital home entertainment, Windows Media XP Center.

Xbox 360 can link to the PC hub and wirelessly sling music, photos and videos stored on a hard drive onto TV screens around the house, providing up to five separate streams of content simultaneously.

One of the huge leaps forward with Xbox 360 technology is that it supports high-definition television. HD TV boasts six times the resolution of regular television, which means content still looks sharp in HD when it's moved from a small computer screen onto a large flat-panel TV.
Bill Gates has suggested that Microsoft intends to integrate Xbox Live with the Windows platform as a whole, opening up huge new areas of functionality.

Microsoft wants your living room, make no bones about it. The ability to tie together yourWindows PC, your Windows Media Center machine and your Xbox 360 will enable Microsoft to do some pretty powerful stuff.