In a recent article, myself and Jeremy Laird speculated wildly about what might be under the hood of an 'Xbox 720'. A massive hard disk? Certainly. Blu-ray? No. A multi-core Larrabee CPU/GPU with the collective power of a small supercomputer? Very possibly.

If there is another generation of console hardware coming from the big three, Microsoft will be keen to launch its new console before a PlayStation 4 or Wii 2 hits the market. Despite early manufacturing and reliability problems, much of Microsoft's success with Xbox 360 is down to getting its console out first. Global sales of the Xbox 360 are estimated to be over 20 million, compared to almost 15 million units sold for the PS3.

In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Microsoft's Entertainment & Device Division boss Robbie Bach said: "if you take the question of whether it was the right thing to try to be first, the answer to that is definitely yes. It has given us a leg up with game developers. It has given us a leg up from an economics perspective. It helped us expand Xbox Live quickly. At a strategy level, if you asked if we wanted to be first again, I would say yes."

Sod physics and photorealism

What about raw power? Is the tried-and tested concept of 'bigger, better, more' really the way to go? That used to be the case: each PlayStation offered a dramatic step-up from its predecessor in terms of graphics and processing performance.

But then the Wii came along. Nintendo turned the current videogame battle on its head with a console with barely more muscle than the GameCube before it.

Rather than compete in a three-way power-struggle, Nintendo opted to sit out the high-tech pursuit of photorealistic 3D graphics and real-time physics. Just as the DS reinvigorated the handheld market with touch-based gaming, Nintendo bravely jettisoned the traditional gamepad in favour of a unique motion-sensing system. It kept its manufacturing costs low and attracted a whole new gaming demographic beyond core Zelda and Mario players.

You can't argue with the numbers - Nintendo has sold over 31 million Wii's worldwide.

The 'ker-ching' of casual gaming

Both Microsoft and Sony have taken note. Microsoft is adding Wii-style Avatars and interactive game shows to its Fall Dashboard Update in November. It has also enjoyed great success with Rock Band, and there's a Singstar-style Karaoke game called Lips in the works. There are even rumours of a Wii-style motion-sensing control system.

Sony, meanwhile, is forging ahead with Home, which will add MMO-style social networking to the PSN experience. It's also resurrecting interest in the EyeToy/PlayStation Eye camera with the recent announcement of its new virtual EyePet project.

And like the Xbox 360, it's pushing the PS3 as a digital hub. Don't want to play a game? Then download an HD movie or a game, watch TV, DVDs or Blu-ray discs, listen to music, chat to friends and view photos.

Will a more powerful console improve anything beyond gaming? Will it actually improve gaming?

Better games, not better graphics

With regular hardware changes, there's a real risk that the games industry will be looking forward to junking the current consoles just as developers are starting to get the best out of them. There's a real risk that, with an Xbox 720 or PlayStation 4, we'll just get the same old game formats, spruced up with visual effects that most gamers won't appreciate (or even see).

Yes, any new games will be better-looking than the previous generation and far more realistic. We'll 'ooh' at perfectly simulated water. We'll 'ahh' at realistically modelled facial animation and clothes that crease. We'll then realise that beneath the sumptuous visuals we're just playing a 'next-next-gen' version of familiar franchises. The same driving game. The same first person shooter...

Instead, of higher (and higher) resolution visuals, the appeal of letting the Xbox 360 and PS3 last a little bit longer is that developers will have to wring the most out of the existing technology. Look at what can already be achieved with Gears of War 2, Fallout 3 and id software's Rage.

Without the lure of incrementally better graphics, perhaps we'll get better story-telling, better AI, new ways of playing and paying. Give us new worlds to explore, emotional stories, team-based gameplay and massively multiplayer engagements. Try out new control systems, micro-transactions, ad-supported freebies, DLC and user-generated content so we can get involved.

Don't merely dazzle us with newer technology. Give us something new to play.

One of the things I miss about my old TiVo PVR was its ability to record programmes based simply on a keyword entry and a channel.

It didn't matter if a show wasn't currently airing. Day after day, TiVo would sit there, methodically searching the weekly TV listings for any mention of Alias or The X-Files and automatically recording them. You could even set it to record everything starring a certain actor or anything helmed by your favourite director.

Part of the joy of TiVo ownership was that you didn't need to know when your favourite shows were on. You could set catch-all keywords months in advance and leave the PVR to get on with recording them.

It made life easier. And that's what the whole 'digital home' idea should be about.

Why I'm not choosing Media Center

Skip forward to 2008 and things aren't so straightforward. True, the Media Center software embedded into versions of Windows Vista can do much the same thing with keywords. Media Center has its uses, but I've long since abandoned it as a viable TV recording system in favour of a simpler, less fiddly Sky+ box.

That's not to say that Sky+ isn't without its limitations. You can't set recordings more than a week in advance, for example. How will I know when the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica begins? Or when cult US show Breaking Bad makes its debut on UK TV? I'd have to actually watch the trails and adverts between programmes – the very things I bought Sky+ to skip.

Similarly, I don't want to have to type programme searches into radiotimes.com every week. What I really need is a modern TiVo-like system that scans the schedules for me and then alerts me when the shows I want to watch are about to air.

So far, I can't find anything.

Web-based TV guides come close

As I've said, there's Media Center. But the old Shuttle box that I've now got running Windows Vista Home Premium has a gutsy fan that sounds like a small hairdryer when it wakes from standby. I'm not going to spend £500+ on a brand new (much quieter) Core 2 Duo system to replace it.

(I do like the look of the Sony VAIO TP2 though).

There's Digiguide. This started as a downloadable Windows program, but has since expanded its reach to include an online component. It has some of the functionality I'm looking for – favourite programmes, email and SMS alerts, smart keyword searches and RSS.

Testing is ongoing – at least until the free trial runs out (Digiguide charges £8.99 per year). But I can already see limitations – you can't assign email reminders to keyword/smart searches and Digiguide doesn't provide listings for some of Sky's more obscure channels, like FX. It's ideal for all you Freeview owners though.

How I hacked a solution (for now)

I thought I'd found a better solution in mytv rss, which can create a customised feed of TV shows, using XML data from tvrage.com. But it's US only.

The new series info page on tvguide.co.uk could prove handy. But it's a flat HTML page – there's no email option or RSS functionality. As a workaround, I'm trying out FeedWhip.com to create a custom RSS feed and send me email alerts when the content of the page changes.

Has anybody got a better solution for auto-searching UK TV listings? Leave me a comment below.

Read my previous posts:
Why my Xbox needs a bigger hard drive
When it rains on cloud computing

There's a video on Joystiq that gives us another peek at Microsoft's Xbox Experience, the Media Center-style revamp of the Xbox 360 interface. As an Xbox owner (albeit now far from hard-core), I'm looking forward to the upgrade. But it's also got me thinking about whether I should replace my old 20GB hard drive with a roomier 120GB model.

Microsoft's announcements at E3 this year confirmed its commitment to downloadable content over Xbox Live. It boosted the movie titles available and inked an interesting e-rental deal with Netflix. The customisable 'Avatars' are a blatant nod to Nintendo's Miis (and the casual gamers they appeal to), while Xbox Primetime promises interactive online game shows that Sony and Nintendo are sure to copy.

Blu-ray snubbed; it's DLC all the way

As the video shows, Microsoft will also be allowing Xbox owners to copy games to the Xbox 360's hard drive to shorten load times. And if Grand Theft Auto IV swallows up 6.8GB of HDD space, anyone with a 20GB drive (like me) is going to need more storage. Especially if you also want to store several full games, miscellaneous game demos, downloadable content (DLC), Live Arcade titles, music and video on it. Even now, I've only got 6.5GB free.

Microsoft is keen to push the Xbox 360 as more than just a games console. Increased storage is key to this 'digital home' vision, hence the roll-out of the new 60GB Xbox 360 Pro bundle that's on sale in shops today.

Blu-ray might well be the best available storage medium for today's mass market, but it could easily become obsolete as broadband speeds improve. If we already think nothing about downloading 1GB game demos and 2GB high-def movies from Xbox Live, how long will it be before we're able to download a full-priced game? How long before we bypass the disc-based delivery system entirely?

Increasing the size of the hard drive enables Microsoft to avoid releasing an Xbox model with built-in Blu-ray. It's telling that there hasn't been a significant redesign of the Xbox 360 for the 60GB Pro. As Tom's Hardware shows, Microsoft has removed the extra memory chips on the underside of the latest Xbox 360 motherboard and doubled the capacity of those soldered onto the top. The tweak apparently trims production costs and improves cooling (another anti-RROD measure).

Reinventing the Xbox 360 as a digital hub

With the ability to update the firmware and reinvent its console, Microsoft can easily push the Xbox 360 towards 2010. We might see Wii-style motion controllers in the future. But dramatic hardware changes seem unlikely.

As Jon Hicks, editor of Official Xbox 360 magazine points out: "Microsoft has a very successful, widely owned console that all developers know how to work with now. Significant hardware changes would throw all that away, so I can't see Microsoft introducing them – the only hardware changes I anticipate are based on cheaper components that would enable a smaller console, built-in extras like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or new controller designs that don't affect the core hardware."

Any hardware updates are surely reserved for whatever next-next-gen console Microsoft has on the Redmond test-bench. If there is an 'Xbox 720' pegged for a 2012 launch, it won't significantly improve upon the 360's digital hub talents.

Good all-rounder

The Xbox is already quite an accomplished all-rounder. It can play back CDs and DVDs and can hook up to a PC to stream audio and video files. It has access to online movie rentals (in both SD and HD), video chat, and it supports DivX and XviD playback.

What lets it down is the still patchy nature of the UK-specific content on Xbox Live and the lack of a web browser. I'd like to see Microsoft let me link into my last.fm profile, to catch-up with TV via the BBC iPlayer and to browse inane status updates on Facebook. I'd give my right arm for configurable RSS feeds or pop-up news updates. And I'd really like to see an Xbox equivalent of Sony's forthcoming PlayTV add-on.

In terms of technology, I want the moon on a stick. But in the gaming lull before the arrival of Fable II, Fallout 3 and a second dose of Gears of War, I need more reasons to switch on my console.

I've been moving into the 'cloud' recently. Device-independent, go-anywhere access to all your important 'stuff' (aka Software as a service or SaaS) is arguably the future of modern computing.

So I've got my daily To Do list, future article ideas and miscellaneous spreadsheets in Google Docs. I read my email on the move (via desktop, laptop or iPhone) using Gmail. It's easy, almost effortless; it's a life less tangible.

Personal cloud computing

I've moved by RSS subscriptions to Google Reader; my O2 bill is electronic, as is my Sky subscription. I've dabbled in the stock market with e*trade, networked via Linked-in and I back-up my digital photos on flickr.

I can catch-up with TV shows I've missed on the BBC's iPlayer and send invoices online via Blinksale. My musical tastes are now coded into last.fm and I'm thinking of backing up the data on my laptop with the online service Carbonite.

I'm increasingly adopting a Web 2.0 lifestyle – entrusting my data to the so-called 'cloud'. But this brave new virtual world can get a little dangerous when the services that you rely on go belly-up. For example, Google's Gmail service popped up a 502 server error last night. If a company as big as Google can suffer an outage, it makes you wonder if we're truly ready to store our important data online.

But what if it breaks?

To Google's credit, it looks like they fixed the problem pretty quickly. And the outage only affected Gmail, rather than knocking the lights out across the entire Google Apps range.

But even a small break in the service can have a big impact. The Telegraph newspaper, for example, recently switched 1,400 of its journalists to the Premier edition of Google Apps; Taylor Woodrow also migrated 1,800 people. The reason? The same go-anywhere online convenience that I've already mentioned.

"We heard loud and clear today how much people care about their Gmail accounts," Google said on it's the Official Gmail Blog.

"We followed all the emails to our support team and user group, we fielded phone calls from Google Apps customers and friends, and we saw the many Twitter posts. (We also heard from plenty of Googlers, who use Gmail for company email.) We never take for granted the commitment we've made to running an email service that you can count on."

What else can Google say, but 'sorry'? This is only a small tremor in the cloud computing idea. Heaven help us if there's a full-blown earthquake.

Microsoft has moved to clarify the situation around the Media Center update formally known as Fiji. It was keeping the details under wraps until the CEDIA trade show in September but due to some less than discrete beta testers Microsoft felt the need to release the details.

I know the main bone of contention will be the availability of the update, which is OEM only. This means that if you have built your own Media Center PC you will not be able to download the update from Microsoft.

Even if your machine is from an OEM like HP it's likely that you will not be able to get the TV Pack as it looks like OEMs are only going to offer the update on new machines (if they offer it at all).

All for the best possible experience

"In order to ensure that users get the best experience possible, this update will only be available from OEMs, as they are best positioned to provide the testing and hardware configurations for a great customer experience," explains Microsoft's Ben Read.

"This is due to the fact that in some geographies there are specific technical and hardware requirements for the Windows Media Center TV Pack that are best handled by the OEMs."
I am sure the enthusiast community will be very disappointed with this decision, especially as there are many features we've all been waiting for in the update.

Here is the official list of new features:

• The Windows Media Center TV Pack is primarily targeted at adding support for additional international broadcast standards including:
• Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial (ISDB-T) Digital television standard for Japan
• Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite (DVB-S) free-to-air satellite standards in Europe
• Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (DVB-T) digital television with improved user experience in Europe
• ClearQAM (Unencrypted Digital Cable) in the United States
• Interactive television with integrated Broadcast Markup language (BML) in Japan and Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group (MHEG) (MHEG5) in Europe

I have only been able to test DVB-T and the update has added subtitles, MHEG support, in band guide data and Favorites. While these are nice features, and do improve the experience, I wouldn't feel I was missing out much if I returned to the standard build.

What is not included in the update is H.264, and native support for subscription-based satellite tuners, which were pulled from the beta. There were no reasons given for this late removal and no information given on when, and if, it will be supported in the future.

The other major change is the TV file format, out goes DVR-MS and in comes WTV. My standard Media Center machines would not play the new format, which was a problem, as I share content between machines. Furthermore, the Zune software would not sync the WTV files to my Zune, nor would any of the 3rd party commercial skipping applications.

Problematic guides

Overall, there are a lot of nice updates to the TV side of Media Center and it's a shame it will not be available to all. Having played with the beta version and had some pain with it (including lots of guide data problems), I can see why Microsoft has gone down the OEM route.

But I still think it's a missed opportunity to improve Media Center for the existing customer base - especially as we have waited so long for the update. The silence around the beta testing has meant that the Fiji product has been built up to something that is not and will leave a lot of disappointed enthusiasts in the community.

I'll have more details on next week's The Media Center Show podcast.