Xbox 360 2.0 or something else?

Rumours are abound that Microsoft could be on the verge of releasing something new in the Xbox 360 stable.

Brier Dudley, from the Seattle Times, tells us that he believes Gates will reveal that Microsoft are working with Toshiba on "a digital video recorder with a hard-drive, high-definition HD-DVD drive" with "Xbox gaming capabilities".

What is that in plan English? To me it sounds like a Personal Hard Drive based Video Recorder (think Sky+ in the UK or Tivo in the US) with the additional processing capabitity to run 360 games, and connect to Xbox Live, and all your 360 accessories.

Sounds unlikely huh? What else could it be? Well it is clear that Microsoft, and Toshiba, want to shift more HD Players and right now Sony do have the advantage of having Blu-Ray as standard in the PS3 whereas you have to spend some money to get the add on HD Drive for the 360.

My money is on a new 360 spec which will arrive this fall along the lines of the Elite but with a bigger hard drive and integrated HD Drive.

I can't see MS confusing the brand by branching out into third party devices that can also play 360 games but I could be wrong, I does happen sometimes! ;-)