Most Xbox 360 failures in first two years due to RROD

With any consumer electronic device that is manufactured be it a mobile phone or a game console, there are bound to be some of the devices that fail for one reason or another. This is particularly true of game consoles like the PS3, Xbox, and Wii.

While some failures are to be expected with game consoles, it came to years ago that the Xbox 360 was failing at a very significant rate with the so called RROD failure. DailyTech reported details of the failures due to RROD previously. Microsoft acknowledged the failure rate of the console and extended the warranty for RROD failures to three years.

Microsoft, however, has not denied recent reports that the Xbox 360 has a 54.2% lifetime failure rate.

SquareTrade has released the results of a study (PDF) into the failure rates of game consoles on the market today. The three major consoles were included in the study. SquareTrade looked at failure rates over the first two years of ownership and found that the most reliable console of them all was the Nintendo Wii with only a 2.7% failure rate. The PS3 was next with a 10% failure rate, and the Xbox 360 has a 23.7% failure rate over the first two years.

The major catch with the SquareTrade numbers is that the company acknowledges that it believes the failure rate of the Xbox 360 to be much higher than it is posting because many consumers reported the failure to Microsoft directly and SquareTrade wasn't notified of the failure. It would be wise to assume that the failure rate on the other two consoles is probably a bit lower than the actual numbers as well.

Despite the fact that the numbers in the study are admittedly skewed on the low side, the Xbox 360 still failed within two years for 1 in 4 consoles. That is nearly nine times the rate of failure for the Wii. SquareTrade reports that a bit more than half the reported Xbox failures were due to the RROD issue. When the RROD failures are taken out of the mix, the Xbox 360 failure rate dropped to 11.6%, still making it more likely to fail than the PS3 and the Wii.

SquareTrade expects the failure rate for the Xbox 360 to decline significantly with the Jasper update. The study acknowledges that the amount of use a console gets is related to its failure rate, The Wii is used on average 516 minutes per month, the PS3 is used 1053 minutes per month, and the Xbox 360 gets used 1191 minutes per month. That makes the Xbox 360 the most commonly used of all three consoles.

Xbox consoles fail for reasons other than the RROD issue with the second most common failure being disc read issues followed by display issues. SquareTrade found that once the Jasper update for the Xbox was released the percentage of RROD failures dropped dramatically after spiking post Falcon update.

Xbox 360 Failures Over First Two Years (Source: SquareTrade)


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



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Thin is in at Facebook. It introduced an alternate front door for the social network called "Facebook Lite," a slimmed-down version of the site, optimized for those with slower Internet connections. Facebook Lite features a serious design revamp and is available only to users based in the U.S. and in India.

Facebook Lite brings a simplified, faster-loading experience in comparison to the traditional site. Part of the new Facebook Lite design, the news feed includes a simple top toolbar and buttons for posting status updates and media uploads. Facebook Lite can be accessed by visiting

The profile page on Facebook Lite removes many of the bells and whistles from the traditional version and keeps only the basics: your wall, info, friends, and photos and videos. The status and sharing interface is unchanged; however, you can't view wall-to-wall posts or invite friends to an event.

The most notable omissions from the new Facebook Lite interface are the third-party applications. Only a handful of Facebook's own applications are available, so that you can get a reasonable experience from the site. Other changes include birthdays and contacts moved at the top of the feed and real-time updates at the bottom of the page.

Facebook Lite was initially available as a beta test with a limited number of users in August. It is yet unknown when or whether the Facebook Lite interface will be available to users outside the U.S. and India.

The introduction of Facebook Lite is widely seen as stab at Twitter's simple interface, which is focused more on messaging and status sharing in real time. To better compete with Twitter's surge in popularity, Facebook has already introduced real-time updates to the news feed and acquired rival FriendFeed.

In the latest move to become more Twitter-like, Facebook also introduced on Thursday status update tagging, a feature that works in a similar manner to "@" replies on Twitter.

Source PCWorld



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Heralding the new X series range, the Nokia X6 is the latest edition to Nokia's touch-screen device portfolio. Bursting with features for people who love music, socializing and entertainment on the move, the slim design makes carrying and listening to your favourite tracks a breeze.

The Nokia X6 is a ‘Comes With Music' device, so it provides unlimited access to the Nokia Music Store. Its superb image quality comes from a 5 mega-pixel camera with Carl-Zeiss optics. With its built-in features to edit videos, show them on TV or online, sharing your memories has never been easier.

The large 3.2-inch display enables you to fit 20 shortcuts onto a personalized home screen - offering one-touch access to the web, your photos, videos and music library - and favourite social networks such as Facebook, Flickr, MySpace and more.

16:9 widescreen interface providing a slick, finger-sensitive touch operation, optimized to give a great viewing experience

Key Features

• It's all about your music - the Nokia X6 has a superb quality music player and built-in FM radio. Listen over Bluetooth stereo audio with a compatible headset like the new Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-505 with its cool, sporty headband. Or plug your choice of headphones into the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

• Nokia Music Store is all yours - As a Comes With Music device, the Nokia X6 gives direct access to millions of tracks online. Download for free and yours to keep forever. Stores thousands of tracks with 32GB out-of-the-box memory.

• 5 megapixel camera with Carl-Zeiss optics autofocus and dual LED flash for truly fantastic image quality.

• Customisable homescreen - add up to 20 shortcuts for one-touch access to Facebook, Nokia Music Store, Email, Contacts, Maps, Games - whatever you choose!

• Stroke-sensitive touch-screen interface - Nokia's smoothest, slickest interface ever - with a 16:9 widescreen made specially to give the best photo and video viewing experience.

• Social networking - supports easy access to Facebook, Ovi, Windows Live!, Yahoo IM, YouTube, MySpace and more.

• Brilliant web browsing - built-in Flash player and auto-landscape orientation means you really get the best out of online video and movies.

• 3 premium games on-board - Nokia X6 ships with Asphalt4 and DJ Mix Tour by Gameloft and Spore by EA.

• Nokia Maps - The Nokia X6 comes with A-GPS with compass and integrated Maps so you can find your way to friends and venues quickly and easily with turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation. Geo-tag your photos with Ovi to remember and share those great moments.

• Other Ovi services include push-email and IM with Nokia Messaging, N-gage games, downloadable Java applications and widgets, Ovi Contacts and Ovi Files for keeping your personal stuff safe and sound.

• Easy email - simple steps to set-up your email and combine multiple accounts into one inbox. Supports popular email clients such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail and most other POP3/IMAP email - plus a lifetime license for Nokia Messaging, Nokia's mobile email and IM service.

• Video editing and sharing - includes video center and video editing plus support for online-share and TV-out. So, you can make your clips perfect, then upload them to your social network page or play to friends and family at home.

The Nokia X6 is a tri-band UMTS 3G device that will support either the 850, 1900, and 2100MHz bands, or the 900, 1900, and 2100MHz network bands - depending on the configuration.

All versions are quad-band GSM. The Nokia X6 is expected to ship in the fourth quarter for EUR 459 (US$652).

Courtesy:
[Submitted by MaTiCa]



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