Microsoft just can't get it right - XBOX 360

I'll start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and hope you had an excellent Christmas.

One of the new additions to our household was an Xbox 360. My son has had an Xbox since they came out, and was looking for a new console. Since he was always happy with Xbox and enjoyed the Halo series that's the path we stayed on. After opening it, setting it up and playing with it we were very happy with it, and he loved it.

Then we went to a friends house whose son got the PS3. Well, it too looked like a nice unit and we started comparing notes. I know his unit was more expensive, but right off the bat that was offset by the fact that it has built in wireless connectivity, and uh...we don't. But for another $100 we can buy a proprietary wireless adapter. (Why I wonder am I not able to use any standard USB wireless adapter - even support a few of the major players. How tough could that be to add for half the price!)


So now we are on even footing cost wise. Well I'm sure the Xbox is still the superior console. My friend points out that his console has a Blueray player built in. Nice, but I can't see myself spending a lot of cash at this point on Blueray movies so not a huge loss.

Then he points out how he can just hook up his external drive to the PS3 and copy over movies and play them from his console. Can the Xbox do this he asks. I tell him that I'm sure it can - afterall its made by the PC people right?

Well to my shock I find I don't have this option available to me. I pay the premium for the 120GB drive, and can't put anything on it. Talk about useless. Yet Sony (of root kit infamy) can do this without a problem. To say that I'm disappointed with Microsoft and their narrow minded approach to home entertainment would be a great understatement. Maybe they are bowing to the copyright people out there and think they're gaining some favor and maybe avoiding more lawsuits. In reality all they are doing is loosing market share and irritating their customer base.

Maybe they will wake up in time to save their product line, and reverse this line of thinking. Until then they just leave me shaking my head wondering once again 'what happened to microsoft'.