Five things the Xbox 360 is (still) missing

With a headline like this you'd think I had a serious hate-on for this popular console, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. The Xbox 360 remains my favorite box out of the three. In other words, if I'm not reviewing games for work, chances are I'm playing on the Xbox 360. You can't deny it has some seriously solid first- and third-party games (Mass Effect and BioShock, anyone?), plus games that are also playable on other consoles tend to look better and run smoother on Microsoft's machine. And it also has the most comprehensive online experience, too, be it head-to-head or cooperative play, Xbox Live Arcade games, Gamerscore/Achievements, the Marketplace and other features.

But for all it has going for it in this current gen's console war, there are a few things missing from the console. Some are blatantly obvious, while others require a bit of toying around with the box for a while. Here’s a few of my beefs I hope will be fixed with the next hardware refresh, or if possible, firmware update.

Built-in Wi-Fi
The Xbox 360 is the only current-gen console to be missing built-in wireless connectivity. This is ridiculous. Heck, even the Nintendo Wii has built-in Wi-Fi -- so why does an Xbox 360 gamer have to buy an expensive Xbox 360 Wireless Networking Adapter accessory just to have the console join a wireless network? I don't have my Internet connection in the same room as my HDTV, so Ethernet is useless to me (yes, I know you can use those "Powerline" products to connect an Ethernet jack to a router in another room via AC outlets, but that also costs money). Wi-Fi should have been included. Period.

Free multiplayer support
Offering both Silver and Gold Xbox Live memberships -- the former being free for everything except multiplayer gaming -- is a step in the right direction by Microsoft, but I have many gamer friends who opted for a PS3 instead of an Xbox 360 because they didn't want to shell out an additional $$50 a year to play online. And I can't say I blame them, especially given the state of the economy right now. Now that Sony and Nintendo are both offering free multiplayer gaming, so should Microsoft, but the Redmond, Wash.-based giants wouldn’t dare as it means many millions in revenue.

High-def movie playback
OK, so this doesn't have anything to do with gaming, but if you're a gamer staring at both the PS3 and Xbox 360 at your local electronics retailer, and you know the PlayStation 3 also doubles as a Blu-ray player, it just might sway you over to Sony’s console. Sure, Microsoft tried to jump on the HD bandwagon with its external HD-DVD drive, but the format failed (and once again, you had to pay for the add-on, as you do Wi-Fi), plus downloadable high-def movies won't likely take off given hard drive space restrictions (see below). As much as I roll my eyes at yet another Sony proprietary format, Blu-ray has won, and despite Microsoft's assertion that the Xbox 360 isn't going to add Blu-ray support, perhaps they should reconsider before they lose too much market share.

Swappable hard drive
Speaking of hard drives, the Xbox 360's hard drive might be easily swappable, and without requiring tools, but the proprietary-shaped drives cost a lot of money: $$99 for 20GB or $$179 for 120GB. Say what? PS3 owners who want to upgrade, however, can pick up a 320GB 2.5-inch SATA notebook hard drive for a cool $$80 or less. While it requires a Philips and flathead screwdriver, and a couple of minutes to back up your saved games, swapping out the PS3 drive is easy peasy, and there is no shortage of printable walkthroughs on the Net to help you along the way. Hopefully, the next Xbox won't require gamers to buy drives only from Microsoft -- or at least they should keep costs to a minimum.

Comprehensive video file support
Finally, another nongaming feature the PS3 handles much better than the Xbox 360 is playing multiple video files, such as downloaded flicks burned onto a disk or copied to a memory card or USB stick. It's hit-and-miss whether the Xbox 360 will read a burned disc (about a 50-50 chance, based on my experience), but I’ve yet to find a downloaded/ripped DivX/XviD flick the PS3 can't play. Anecdotally, my three kids have learned on their own to use the PS3 for movies, whereas they used to use the Xbox 360 exclusively. Chalk that up to Pavlovian conditioning.

DXG USA debuts an affordable HD camcorder

Not surprisingly, the success of Pure Digital's The Flip has inspired a slew of other inexpensive pocket-sized camcorders, including the Creative Vado and the RCA Small Wonder. But the latest one has something the others do not: high-definition recording.

Available at Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart is DXG USA's DXG-567V HD camcorder, a pocket cam that shoots 720p high-def video (1280 x 720, at 30 frames per second) and lets you connect the gadget to a PC's USB port with its built-in connector to directly upload video to a blog or YouTube.

The catch? The 32MB of built-in memory is solely dedicated to the "Rapid Blog Manager” software, so you'll have to pick up SD cards to store your video (a 1GB card can hold up to an hour of HD video, says DXG). At least you can keep a few of these postage stamp-sized cards in your pocket while, say, vacationing, instead of running back to your laptop at a hotel to dump the video and start again.

Available in black, red, pink and blue, the DXG-567V also ships with cables (composite and S-video) to connect to a TV, rechargeable AA batteries and ArcSoft's TotalMedia Extreme software to create, edit and watch videos.

Work hard, play hard on the same monitor

ViewSonic's new VA2626wm, a huge 26-inch high-definition (1920 x 1200) computer monitor, is ideal for work or play. For a productivity boost, this widescreen display offers more real estate to see more information on a given document, spreadsheet or Web site -- or to view multiple windows at once instead of constantly minimizing and maximizing apps.

When it's time to relax, however, this monitor houses multiple HDMI input jacks with HDCP support -- perfect for a Blu-ray machine, HD cable/satellite box or high-def gaming console. Plus, the 2.5-watt speakers with decent bass and SRS WOW HD mean you don’t need external speakers to enjoy movies, games, TV shows or music. (You can remove them if you want.)

Other features of the aggressively priced monitor include a dynamic contrast ratio of 6,000:1, 6-millisecond response times, and DVI and VGA connectors.