Wondering what ever happened to Microsoft's original plan for Live Anywhere? For some, it's been taking the company a while to fully finish the integration of the service across many platforms. Xbox Live Executive John Schappert said that the service is till going to push through. Know more after the jump!

With today's global community, it's important to get connected and to stay connected. Exit Games allowed players of various platforms to do precisely that with the Neutron multiplayer gaming platform, the latest version of which was recently unveiled at the Game Developer's Conference 2008. Get connected in the full article after the jump.

Microsoft Corporation chairman Bill Gates bid the Consumer Electronics Show a bittersweet farewell as he opened it for the last time in his legendary career. After showing a cool video of what he'll do after stepping down from Microsoft, Gates talked about the next 10 years in the electronics scene, earmarking touch screen, faster, and more accessible connectivity, and HD technology as the future's pillars. Head on to the full article for more details.

After Sony had its big ad campaign for the PlayStation 3, it's about time that Microsoft followed suit as well. The software and gaming mogul is said to be setting aside a hefty US$ 300 million in advertising most of its wares. More details in the full article.

Today the Xbox, tomorrow the world... well, the rest of the Microsoft products. In a recent interview with J Allard, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft - you may remember him from making a bet concerning dreadlocks - he explains that eventually Microsoft's online services will merge - like Zune and Xbox Live - and become one big network packaged in different forms of services (which is already true for most of their services anyway). Read more about it in the full article.

What would you do if your place doesn't have an internet connection? No internet for your PC or even for your Xbox 360. No Xbox Live. Well this guy went to great lengths to get his fix of the world wide web: he used his phone.

He connected his phone to his PC and gave it an Internet connection. That wasn't enough for him though: he then connected his PC to his Xbox 360 and that worked too. Now both systems have a connection through his phone. Go to the full article for more details.

Call this recommended reading: not really hard Xbox 360 news, but interesting to know about anyhow. bunnie Huang has a well-written story up on his blog about what happens when hackers and Microsoft security designers meet at The Spring Microsoft BlueHat Security Briefing 2007.

Dinart Morais (whose initials are "DRM" and is the designer of Xbox 360 security), Michael Steil, Felix Domke, Robert "RSnake" Hansen, David Maynor, Robert Graham, Kevin Mahaffey, John Hering, Rob Thomas and bunnie Huang of Bunnie Studios were there to talk about things regarding breaking into Microsoft Security.

Sessions had titles like: Death by 1,000 Cuts, Breaking and Breaking Into Microsoft Security Tools, Emerging Mobile Security Problems or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Windows Mobile, and Your Tamper-Resistant Hardware Makes a Great Sport for Hackers.

See? Interesting stuff.

It was reported that Microsoft was very receptive when it comes to working with hackers when it comes to fixing found vulnerabilities and exploits before they are published. It was noted that ultimately the event was a "constructive exercise" for all the involved parties.

Read more about the Microsoft BlueHat Security Briefings here, and for bunnie Huang's account of the event - which includes images of mock executions - feel free to head to his post via our read-link below.

We, as consumers, tend to complain a lot. If it isn't something about Goldilocks thinking the soup is too hot or too cold, it's a gamer feeling bad because something's hard to use or confusing. Unlike Goldilocks, we're lucky enough to talk to someone about those troubles, and some of our thoughts get into an improved build of that program which sports new features. 

Over at his blog, Major Nelson did just that, asking gamers what they thought could be done to improve the Xbox 360 Dashboard. One week later, he offers up an important article by Mike Calligaro: an explanation of how ideas get turned into features from the point of view of the developer's side. While the article was meant for Windows Mobile, the general principle behind the essay applies to just about anything requiring an upgrade, a patch or a tweak.

Want to know more? Click on "Full Article" below!