This was Microsoft's keynote announcement at E3: a new slimmer 250gb Xbox 360.  This means the fat Xbox 360s are cheaper and the Xbox 360 Arcade's days are numbered.  This is all in preparation for the release of Kinect (formerly Project Natal).  The slimmer Xbox 360 has a dedicated port for Kinect that supplies power and signal to the peripheral, but you can still use the original Xbox 360 with Kinect but you have to plug it in to power.

I have to say it's a damn sexy device, but I'm wondering why they left out Blu-Ray.  Oh, that's right: Microsoft is so pompish to think physical storage is going out of style and we're all going to download movies.  I don't have that much faith in my broadband.  Nintendo was so stubborn with the move from cartridges to CDs, but they turned out doing good in the end even though they moved to CDs late in the game.

Ok, the goods on it: it's quieter, it has more storage, and Microsoft got their heads out of their asses and put integrated 802.11n on board.  Here I am wondering how I'm going to run CAT-5e to my Xbox in my new house, when I could just get a new Xbox 360 (or not).  Apparently the buttons are a bit different, but I heard the indicator lights are kind of dim.  Combine that with the quieter console and sometimes it's hard to tell it's even on if you like to play with the TV turned off.

I'm sure everyone has it on their mind: are all of the cooling issues fixed with the new Xbox 360?  Is the RRoD been fixed? Time will tell.