One day prior to the E3 Expo 2010, Microsoft announced the updated version of the Xbox 360 console. Simply called the Xbox 360 250GB, the new console features a number of changes, including smaller design, larger internal hard drive and Wi-Fi 802.11n support, among others.

For the new design, Microsoft has gone for a more angular look compared to the curvy design of the previous model. The new Xbox 360 250GB features a glossy all black design, which reminds us of the first generation PlayStation 3. It is now significantly smaller than the older version. Other aspects of the design are the presence of touch sensitive buttons instead of the mechanical buttons for the power and disc eject functions. Microsoft has also gone for a single larger fan design instead of the two smaller fans for lower noise during gameplay. Those who witnessed the console first hand noted that the new model is significantly quieter than the older one. For those who don’t know, the older Xbox 360 was criticized for its higher noise levels during operation.

The new Xbox 360 250GB features a lot more connectivity options than before. You get five USB 2.0 ports, two of which are up front under the sliding panel and three are on the back. There is an AUX port for connecting accessories such as the Xbox 360 Kinect. An HDMI port is standard and so are the optical audio out and the proprietary AV connector found on the older consoles. And finally there is Wi-Fi 802.11n (the PlayStation 3 has 802.11b/g) built right in.

The new Xbox 360 250GB comes with a much smaller power brick compared to the older model. It is also much lighter than before and uses a new connector to connect to the console. Still, we would have preferred an internal power supply unit as on the PlayStation 3.

The new Xbox 360 250GB has already gone on sale in U.S. and is available for $299. The older Xbox 360 is also on sale for $199 but may get an update. We hope the new console arrives in India soon.

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Microsoft Corp is trying to make Hotmail cool again.

The free Web mail service soon will be switching to a new approach that Microsoft hopes will give Hotmail an edge over rival offerings from Yahoo Inc and Google Inc

The upgrade is expected to be available by July or August and it will automatically sort incoming messages into different categories devoted to users’ key contacts and Internet social networks. It will also provide previews of incoming photos, videos and other material without having to open an attachment or click on a link.

Other tools are being added to make it less cumbersome to send photos, videos, documents and other attachments to e-mail recipients. Another tweak is supposed to make is easier to sync Hotmail on mobile phones.

It’s all part of the most extensive overhaul to Hotmail since Microsoft bought the service 12 years ago, said Chris Jones, a Microsoft executive who is overseeing the renovations.

“Our service wasn’t doing the best job that it could,” Jones said during a Monday preview of the makeover.

The new features are supposed to enable people to spend less time managing their inboxes and more time enjoying and digesting what’s in the messages.

Microsoft is hoping the added convenience will help the users overcome the perception that Hotmail was growing stale as Google and Yahoo added more bells and whistles to their free Web mail services.

Even as it made relatively few changes, Hotmail remained the world’s most used service with 360 million users, according to statistics complied by comScore Inc, Yahoo ranks second globally with about 284 million users followed by Google’s Gmail at 173 million users.

Now Microsoft thinks it might have shot of supplanting Yahoo as the top Web mail service in the US (Yahoo’s e-mail service has 95 million US users compared to 47 million for Hotmail and 43 million for Gmail, according to comScore).

Hotmail’s most significant changes will provide new ways to look at photos and videos sent through e-mail. Microsoft expects this feature to be particularly popular because it says 55 percent of Hotmail’s storage is consumed by photos sent as attachments.

The new technology will detect when an e-mail contains a photo attachment and automatically display a thumbnail of the image (or images) at the top of the message. Hotmail will provide similar previews when it detects links to photo-sharing sites Flickr and SmugMug or to video-sharing sites YouTube and Hulu.

Other changes are designed to make it easier to send photos, video and other Web content. A new insert bar will allow users to send up to 10 gigabytes — about 200 photos each containing 50 megabytes — by uploading them to Microsoft’s free online storage service Skydrive, where they can only be viewed by the recipients of the e-mail.

Videos and other Internet material can be found through a new panel that will connect Hotmail to Microsoft’s Internet search engine, Bing. The videos and other Bing-generated content can then be inserted into an e-mail with a mouse click. The e-mail recipient will then be able to see the video or other material without having to click through a Web link.

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A new Windows 7 graphics flaw has been exposed that could expose users of the 64-bit OS to experience non-responsive systems, restarts and unauthorized code execution.

Microsoft detailed in Security Advisory 2028859 that the vulnerability is to do with the Canonical Display Driver (cdd.dll), which is used by desktop composition to blend the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) and DirectX drawing, and affects Windows 7 x64, Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, and Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium systems.

Microsoft says that there isn’t a big worry because code execution would be “very difficult due to memory randomization both in kernel memory and via Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR).” Still, those who are worried about security can simply disable Aero visual effects to keep this security flaw at bay until Microsoft issues a fix.

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Microsoft released for download on April 26 a public beta of the Windows Home Server ‘Vail’ release.

In January, a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Vail leaked to the Web. According to the description of that download, Vail, the next version of WHS built upon “both on-premises and cloud technologies” for home and SOHO (small office/home office) users.

Today, Microsoft officials shared some high-level overview information about the Vail release, but very few specifics.

Officials did confirm that Vail will be a 64-bit product only, according to a blog post on the Windows Home Server blog. Company officials said to expect Vail to include improvements “in four key areas,” including the extension of media streaming “outside the home or office”; improvements of multi-PC backup and restore; simplified setup and user experience; and expanded tools and customization capabilities for partners.

The beta is available in English only, and includes a new software development kit (SDK) who want to create add-in applications for Vail. Vail requires systems with a 1.4 GHz x64 processor, 1 GB RAM, and at least one160 GB hard drive. The product is expected to be sold preloaded on OEM/system builder PCs only.

According to one customer who has been dabbling with early builds of Vail, Vail will be built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2, and will support “transparent ‘virtual’ (remote) applications.”

“Windows Media Center currently does not support transmission of some protected content – for example HD premium content from a cable card – on remote systems, with the exception of xbox,” said the customer, who asked not to be named.

“That’s because the DRM chain gets broken by conventional streaming,” the source continued. “If you combine a trusted media chain in the server with a virtual app which can verify the integrity of the DRM chain on the client from the transport through to the display, then you can display protected content just as Xbox does. Then you can watch that high def football game in your hotel room, if you have the bandwidth. That’s pretty cloud-like. The same mechanism would support other cloud-style apps if they are enabled on the server. The combination of an untouchable virtual app and the ability to verify client side security capability is powerful – it gets around many thorny issues.”

Microsoft officials are not providing a final ship-date target, but I’ve heard it the product is likely to ship this calendar year.

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Microsoft has launched “Fix It” software that keeps an eye on a PC and automatically repairs common faults.

The software basically adds the automatic diagnostics system in Windows 7 to older versions of Microsoft’s operating system.

The software, currently available as a trial or beta version, is intended for users of Windows XP and Vista.

The package also tries to anticipate how security updates will affect a PC before they are installed.

Once installed, the software gets updates about known issues with Windows or any connected devices, and regularly checks to see if a host machine has fallen victim. Once fixes become available it will tell users they are ready or attempt to apply them.

The software has onboard fixes for about 300 of the most widely encountered problems that stop Windows working as it should.

The software also maintains a list of the hardware and software on a machine so if the automatic fix does not solve a problem, it will be able to help users supply detailed information to Microsoft’s support staff about what has gone wrong.

Those signing up and downloading the Fix It software can use it on several different machines.

The free software can be downloaded from Microsoft’s support pages. Windows XP users wanting to use it must have Service Pack 3 for the operating system installed.

The Fix It service began in late 2008, when Microsoft began using the logo to highlight automatic fixes on its support pages that dealt with very common problems.

Anyone clicking on the logo kicked off a download that tried to fix that problem automatically.

Microsoft, like many other software firms, has built a vast database of faults and problems as technology built into Windows reports back about crashes and other bugs that machines encounter.

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