If you read gaming news every so often, there's a fat chance that you've already heard of new Xbox 360 units codenamed Jasper and Valhalla on the way. In the latest buzz about these shadowy new versions of the console, it was reported that IBM and TSMC have already received orders from Microsoft to start manufacturing the chips. More details follow after the jump.

Gamers who are looking for a unique perspective into their video gaming habits will definitely get a kick out of Emotiv Systems' Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset. This unique gaming accessory allows you to control in-game characters using the neuron signals transmitted by your brain. Other details about this neat gadget can be found in the full article after the jump.

Intel might have missed out on the current gen consoles, thus allowing IBM to lend its hand to the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii. No doubt, IBM has proven itself to be more than capable of moving mountains - or at least map interstellar space with the help of eight PS3 units. But will this faze Intel? Not by a long shot. They approached video games console makers and presented their microchips that could be incorporated into future consoles. Read more for details from Intel's chief tech officer. Hint: it's about motion-sensing and markets.

Are you a daily user of Bluetooth headsets? Well, IT staff members at Morrisville State College have discovered that "strange signals" emanate from Microsoft's Xbox 360 while plugged and the said signals can cause problems for Bluetooth headsets to synchronize with other phones.

More details regarding this news after the jump.

Mercury News journalist Dean Takahashi has just reported on Microsoft's alleged new move to counter Sony's recent price cut for the PlayStation 3. The strategy will be under the codename "Falcon" and, according to Takahashi, will center around the latest internal electronics in the Xbox 360.

The said internal electronics will be composed of an IBM microprocessor and an AMD/ATI graphics chip that are manufactured in a 65-nanometer production process. We've already talked about this one before. Basically, these chips are similar to the 90-nanometer ones but are smaller and more efficient.

Takahashi added that this will ultimately solve the console's problems with overheating. Quite interestingly, the journalist also noted that Microsoft may opt to do a lot of things: put in the unsightly brick-style power supply inside, make a smaller version of the core or beef up the console even more.

Dean Takahashi spoke with one representative from Microsoft but the spokesperson declined to comment. However, when he asked Head of Games Division Peter Moore regarding Falcon, the following was the response he got:

We have a bunch of different projects that cost reduce and improve quality as you find issues, as does our competition. Once you get millions in the field, you learn about the box under all kinds of different circumstances, you can adjust and tweak what you do accordingly.

A recently conducted study by the Kelley Fay Group, sponsored by Jack Morton Worldwide, pranced into the business world of marketing and the facets of business to business (BtoB) and business to consumer (BtoC) conversations. Top in the list of the study's findings is that "word of mouth" marketing is the topmost influence on business buying decisions.

 

In fact according to the study, when one business executive shares marketing relevant information with another executive, such a means has been far more effective for the business ranks than any other communication channel available to them.

The report found that 50% of business executives claimed they would more likely by a product or service based on word of mouth, while around 49% will just pass the word on to others. According to them, person-to-person information sharing has twice more influence than that of advertising.

Click on Full Article for more findings and suggestions of the study.

 

Given that the 2007 Online Game Development Conference (OGDC) is just a few more days away, we'll be updating the previously reported speaker list with a fresh new 8-pack. This latest announcement includes the presence of industry bigwigs like GameSpy director Todd Northcutt, as well as PopCap Games business development director James Gwertzman. Here's the full list:

• JJ Richards - GM, Xbox Live, Microsoft
• Charles Merrin - Vice President, RealArcade, RealNetworks, Inc.
• Brett Close - President & CEO, 38 Studios
• Todd Northcutt - Director, GameSpy Technology, GameSpy / IGN Entertainment
• Tom DuBois - Producer, Global Online Studio, Electronic Arts
• James Gwertzman - Director of Business Development, PopCap Games
• Victor Wachter - Online Community Relations Manager, Cryptic Studios
• Craig T. Dalrymple - Community Relations Manager, EverQuest II, Sony Online Entertainment
  

Also confirmed to be arriving at the event are groups like IBM, Nvidia, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, Cartoon Network, K2 Network, Multiverse, DigiPen, Pearl Research, Fox Interactive Media, Gas Powered Games, Midway Studios, WildTangent, High Voltage Software, Flagship Studios, and Ensemble Studios.

Keep posted in case more information on additional speakers is announced, as this year's OGDC goes down this May 10 to 11, at at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle.

As you all know, online site Llama.com stripped down Xbox 360 Elite to its bare naked essentials literally. Quite unfortunately, it was found out that the new SKU still doesn't have the much-talked about 65nm GPU. Semiconductor Insights (SI) did the same recently and was able to provide some good inputs about the matter.

SI, just so you know, is one of the more reliable technical advisers to the microelectronics community around the globe. Some products that benefited from its expertise include Infineon, Intel, TSMC, and Texas Instruments among many others. Going back to 360 Elite, SI's technology analyst Rob Hilkes noted,

The CPU in the Xbox 360 Elite seems to be assembled in Canada whereas the CPU in the previous Xbox was marked "Taiwan." This may indicate that while the previous CPU was built on Chartered's Fab7 in Singapore and assembled in Taiwan, the CPU of the Elite may be built in IBM's Fab B323 in East Fishkill, New York and assembled at IBM's assembly facility in nearby Bromont, Quebec.

Hilkes added that the new system is using both sources. Also, the analyst added that Microsoft redesigned some aspects of the power architecture that results in a lower component count. For more info on this, watch the whole video analysis below.

The  battle for next-gen format supremacy rages on as HD-DVD takes the lead in the European front by virtue of positive reception shown by independent studios.

Studio Canal, Filmax, Pathe and 32 others have decided to use Toshiba's medium for carrying High-Definition material. The Blu-ray disc brings a much more hefty storage capacity to the table with 50GB of space so that everything fits in. However, Blu-ray players can run the cost of about US$ 900, making it hard to purchase for the average user.

Analysts say that the battle is still in its early stages and anything can still happen. The price point lure of the HD-DVD is met by the PS3 strategy from Sony. By selling next-generation consoles, Sony also racks up the ownership of Blu-ray players as the game machine uses that specific drive. This is reminiscent of the Netscape-Internet Explorer war a decade ago, with Microsoft ending up as the winner by bundling IE to Windows. Blu-ray still has the advantage in North American markets, though.

"I have met much more commitment from partners involved with HD-DVD than Blu-Ray. I met Sony in mid-2006 but the support was far below what was offered by the HD-DVD partners," said Rudolphe Buet of Studio Canal.

On a side note, Sony and Toshiba once worked together with IBM to develop the PS3's proprietary Cell Processor for the high-end game machine.

How many times have we reported that IBM is the true winner of the console wars? Well, we have mentioned that twice - last November and December to be exact. Now, the company has recently taken the wraps off its newest creation - the world's fastest eDRAM.

At the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), IBM revealed a pioneering on-chip memory technology that is blessed with the fastest access times ever recorded in an Embedded Dynamic Random Access Memory (eDRAM). This is the same type of memory used in the daughter-die of the Xbox 360's graphical processing unit (GPU). IBM also helped in creating the console's three-core Power PC CPU.

The new eDRAM from IBM improves on-processor memory performance in one-third the space with one-fifth the standby power of your usual, garden-variety RAM. With that, this technology would improve microprocessor performance in multi-core designs. It would also speed up the graphics movement in gaming and other multi-media applications.

It is expected that this new eDRAM would be an integral part of IBM's 45nm microprocessor and will become available in 2008.