Microsoft has been drawing up plans on how to one-up their rival Sony in the next leg of the console race. In a recent meeting both companies had with major global telecommunications companies, they recognized the importance of IP delivery content in the next generation of consoles that they plan to manufacture. More information about this in our full article.

 

Thanks to some new partnerships announced by Microsoft Australia during yesterday's Vista launch, a lot of new stuff are in store for Xbox 360 owners down under.

According to The Age, new deals with Telstra and Sanity will give Xbox 360 owners access to over a million  tracks and thousands of movies and TV programs downloadable through the Media Center, which comes with most Vista versions. Users can now access and control the BigPond Movies service via a 360 connected to Vista Media Centre.

Telstra estimates that users with a typical BigPond cable internet subscriber can download a film like The Da Vinci Code in 80 minutes. While BigPond's download offerings are still limited and can only be watched once, Telstra says that the media library is growing rapidly and that negotiations are going on to let users own the films rather than renting them for single use. Prices range from AU$ 1.95 to AU$ 5.95 for new releases, with BigPond customers receiving a discount.

Music junkies also get a little something with the upcoming Sanity service, which will offer over a million tracks for a monthly subscription fee when launched in April. Initially, Xbox 360 users will have to download new music using Windows Media Player on their PCs before streaming the tracks to their consoles. A Microsoft spokesperson, however, suggested at the launch that users will soon be able to download music directly from the Media Center interface on 360.

A dedicated Xbox 360 movie and television download service will still be launched this year in Australia via the Live Marketplace, but with the Microsoft console's limited storage capacity, the Vista option might prove to be more appealing at the moment.