Microsoft's X Factor

When Microsoft's Xbox 360 shows up in stores this week, it will offer more than just life-like graphics and improved online play for such games as Madden NFL 2006 and King Kong. The 360 will have enough processing power and network connectivity to bring streamed and downloaded video straight to a TV screen. The Xbox 360 - not to mention Sony's PlayStation 3 (due to arrive next year) and other hard-drive-based, next-generation gaming consoles - is moving well beyond basic gaming. Built into Xbox 360 are Windows Connect, which lets users access music files and pictures from a PC, and Media Center Extender, which allows users to stream content from a Media Center PC to an Xbox hooked up to another TV in the home. The Xbox 360 and PS3 are intended to achieve what computer manufacturers have largely been unable to do for the past decade: Bring the PC into the living room.