Microsoft Corp. unveiled a new slim Xbox 360 console at the E3 press conference which also saw the launch date for Kinect and other goodies revealed. The new Xbox 360 console comes with a 250GB hard disk drive and built in wireless capabilities, including 802.11n support, the "fastest WiFi in any console."

The new Xbox 360 console does not come with a new price tag (remains at $299), and for the lucky audience who watched the event, Microsoft generously gave away one free to each. The console ships today and will be available later this week in stores.

You do not need the new Xbox 360 console to use "Kinect for Xbox 360" as has been speculated, and the add-on will launch in every country that the Xbox 360 console is currently sold in.

Among other announcements made alongside the launch of the new slimmer Xbox 360, it was also revealed that all add-ons and map packs for Call Of Duty will become available first on Xbox 360 up until 2012. An exclusive deal between Microsoft and ESPN to bring 3,500 live sports events (mostly in HD) to Xbox Live was also announced, including NBA, MLB and soccer content.

Everyone from home viewers, to people who have traveled to watch their team in South Africa and even many of the footballers themselves have voiced their absolute hatred for the beehive-like buzzing that is being broadcast throughout the world due to rampant use of Vuvuzelas during the World Cup matches. The noise is so loud that professional players have complained they cannot even communicate with each other on the pitch.

While there has been some talk of banning the evil instruments from the stadiums altogether, some of us just cannot wait that long. If you are watching the World Cup through your computer, or if it is possible for you to route the audio through a computer/laptop/htpc, then you might be able to get rid of that annoyance nice and quickly with the help of some information online.

Basically, if you can filter out sound at 233, 466, 932 and 1864 Hz you will have killed 95 percent (estimated from my own experience) of the noise and can save your liver from the copious amounts of pain killers you need to get rid of the headache after the game.

Filter in Windows

Microsoft has reportedly confirmed that the Project Natal motion sensing system for the Xbox 360 console, first announced at last year's E3 event, will retail as "Kinect". The new name surfaced online on Sunday night with most sites pointing back to a USA Today article that was taken offline but it has since been confirmed.

In addition to the new name for the motion sensing system that Microsoft has asserted will be as fundamental to the Xbox brand as Xbox Live, a short list of Kinect games was also revealed. Kinectimals is a title that will allow the player to train and play with 20 different feline members of the animal kingdom, including lines and tigers.

Kinect Sports is basically an answer for the popular Wii Sports titles with boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field and soccer activities included. Joyride is a kart-style racer title where the player grips an imaginary steering wheel while using his/her feet for accelerating and braking.

A new Microsoft Italy advertisement has surfaced today on Console Tribe showing off a Slim Xbox 360 console, next to a Project Natal system, which has been apparently renamed Kinect.

The Slim device will have built-in Wi-Fi, a 250GB HDD and compatibility with Kinect.

Interestingly, the ad was created by Atlas Solutions, an ad company owned by Microsoft, so it seems legitimate.

Microsoft has not commented on the speculation.

We will likely know more about the console, and "Kinect" tomorrow during the E3 event.

Video by Joystiq:

When Apple finally officially launched the iPhone 4 last week, the older iPhone 3GS had its price cut as a way to clear inventory.

If you purchased the Apple device in recent weeks, the company is now price matching, giving refunds back for the difference between the old price or the new price.

Additionally, users can get an upgrade to the new, improved iPhone 4 instead of the refund.

The policy is in effect for anyone who has bought a 3GS after May 7th.

Owners with a 16GB model will get a $50 credit and 32GB owners will get a $100 credit.

Anyone who purchased the smartphone between May 7 and May 14 are running out of time, however, and will need to put in a request at the store they bought the device by tomorrow, Monday the 14th.

To get an iPhone 4, the device is a straight trade, unless you are moving up in storage capacity (such as 16GB to 32GB models).

Cablevision, the fifth biggest cable operator in the U.S., has announced today the acquisition of Bresnan Communications for $1.36 billion USD.

The ISP had to beat out bids from TPG Capital, BC Partners Ltd., Suddenlink Communications and Ascent Media Corp., say sources close to the negotiations.

The acquisition gives Cablevision a bigger piece of the broadband market, which is expected to continue to grow exponentially over the next few years.

Bresnan is a large force in the Midwest, with roots in Minnesota and now the Rocky Mountain states.

The ISP has little competition in its territories, and should be an inexpensive way for Cablevision to expand out from their bread-and-butter states of New York and New Jersey.

PlayOn, the popular streaming service used on the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles has announced the addition of ESPN3 World Cup live-streaming to the service.

It is important to note that only certain ISPs have access to ESPN3, but those include most of the largest providers, such as Comcast, AT&T, Cox and Verizon. You can check if your provider offers the network here: http://espn.go.com/espn3/channelFinder.

To get the service to work, you must buy and download the PlayOn software on your PC, and then you can stream the content to any DLNA-compatible device, including the aforementioned gaming consoles.

Current content available includes Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Comedy Central, Adult Swim, NHL, PBS.org, MTV.com and VH1.com and others.

It was reported on Friday that the start of the World Cup has led to record Internet traffic levels, with users flocking to news sites for results, or live streaming the games and highlights.

Native applications for the Apple iPad have reached their first milestone today, 10,000 apps available, with almost 1000 being added each week.

In the iPad library, there are 2100 games available, with the rest being a plethora of other categories.

A majority 78 percent of the native iPad apps are paid applications, slightly smaller than the 80 percent reported when the iPad store opened on April 3rd with 3000 choices.

The overall iPhone app store, which has 225,000 titles, has 75 percent paid applications.

In 2008, when the iPhone app store launched, it took five months to reach the 10,000 app milestone.

Until this week, the answer to whether the upcoming Chrome OS could run Windows apps was "no."

The Chrome OS is completely in "the cloud," so all apps had to be accessed through the Chrome Web browser, and installed and "saved" to the Chrome OS.

This week, however, Google software engineer Gary Kačmarčík has announced "Chromoting", a feature that will give users a chance to access "legacy PC applications" through a remote desktop connection process.

Says the engineer: "We're adding new capabilities all the time. With this functionality (unofficially named "chromoting"), Chrome OS will not only be great platform for running modern web apps, but will also enable you to access legacy PC applications right within the browser. We'll have more details to share on chromoting in the coming month."

While that leaves details on Chromoting scant, most believe that the process will be a sharing function that will require a home/office computer to be kept on, while the Chrome OS computer uses remote access.

Boxee has announced that the D-Link Boxee Box will hit North America in November, finally putting a set timetable down on the much-anticipated set-top box.

Initially, the company had hoped to release the box by June, but production delays set shipments back.

The goal of the Boxee Box is to give users a way to play 1080p HD videos from the Web or their local network while using hardware acceleration.

Additionally, the box will "provide a TV browser experience that can handle almost everything you throw at it, including Flash 10.1."

Boxee also wants the box to be affordable and "not feel obsolete 12 months after you buy it."

Earlier in the year, a Google Street View car caught two teenagers in Staffordshire, England in a provocative pose on their front lawn and the picture became the default for street view for Common Rd. in the town.

Today, Google has taken down the image, leaving the simple words: "This image is no longer available."

On Wednesday, The Daily Mail reported on the teens, Hayley Moss and Eddie Bateman, who admitted the picture shows their first kiss.

Says Moss of the event: "I couldn't believe it, I wouldn't admit to it being me at first, as I was worried it looked quite bad, as it looks more than it is, but it really was just a kiss. I think it's amazing that our first kiss has been in the paper."

Google has captured kidnappers, and other bizarre sightings through its Street View cars but the latest begs the question of how users feel about their personal privacy being invaded.

The Food Network and YouTube have teamed up for a new challenge this week, asking YouTube users to submit video applications to be considered for a spot on the upcoming The Next Food Network Star.

You can enter the challenge now, and entries are accepted until July 16th.

The winner of the challenge will then be given a one-on-one audition with Food Network executives in New York City, with the chance to become a contestant on the show.

"The Next Food Network Star" is a reality series that pits contestants against each other in food-based challenges with the winner getting their own series on the channel.

In the past, other networks have tried similar challenges, with Fox starting a "Glee" casting call via MySpace and "America's Got Talent" doing auditions via YouTube.

According to new measurements by Akamai and reported by ZDNet, World Cup fervor has translated to record Internet traffic levels.

The Akamai Web traffic meters have classified the action as "heavy" since yesterday, with traffic to news sites around the world reaching a peak of 12.1 million visitors per minute (vpm) yesterday at noon.

After dipping in the afternoon, traffic held at after 6 million vpn, 130 percent higher than average, with above average traffic coming from every continent but most notably from Europe and Africa.

The traffic numbers seem to imply that traffic to news sites was most active during the South Africa vs. Mexico game, but remained strong for the France vs. Uruguay game.

Previously, the record for vpm was 8.5 million, which was set on the day of President Obama's election.

The international newspaper The New York Times has announced today that the word "Tweet," used to describe the action of writing a message on Twitter, has been banned from the paper, in print and online.

'Tweet' can of course, still be used to describe the sound a bird makes, notes Phil Corbett, the Times' standards editor, who announced the change. "Someday, 'tweet' may be as common as 'e-mail,'" says Corbett, but for now it is banned "outside of ornithological contexts."

The ban was made because the word tweet, outside of bird noises, isn't "standard English and standard English is what we should use in news articles," adds Corbett.

Additionally, Corbett says that not everyone uses or has even heard of Twitter and therefore may not be familiar with the new use of the word "tweet."

How will The NY Times describe tweets now? "Let's look for deft, English alternatives: use Twitter, post to or on Twitter, write on Twitter, a Twitter message, a Twitter update. Or, once you've established that Twitter is the medium, simply use 'say' or 'write.' "

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States has launched a probe into an incident that led to the exposure of personal information of AT&T Inc. customers. Among the affected customers were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and the mayor or New York City Michael Bloomberg.

A group calling itself Goatse Security was able to get information on over 100,000 AT&T iPad subscribers by exploiting a major bug on a script at an AT&T website. The group simply needed to insert an ICC-ID as part of a HTTP request to the vulnerable script which then returned the e-mail address associated with the specific iPad device.

AT&T has stressed that only e-mail address data was actually retrieved by the group and nothing more sensitive was at risk. Still, a collection of 114,000 active e-mail addresses has value by itself without even including the personal e-mail addresses of celebrities or government officials that were revealed.

"The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation to address the potential cyber threat," FBI spokesman Jason Pack said. Apple's iPad, which launched in April this year, has already sold over 2 million units.