Been wondering when you were finally going to get your eyes on that fancy new Xbox 360 experience? Well the secret is out -- come November 19th, your dashboard will never be the same. The good folks at Joystiq have delivered this wonderful news live-and-direct from the Tokyo Game Show, where they're blogging the Microsoft press briefing while undoubtedly enjoying the finest cowboy rolls known to man and hob-nobbing with other glorious gamers. Feel free to check into their live coverage via the link below, and start prepping for serious avatar creation.

PS.- Check out our earlier gallery of the new dash here.

Read - New Xbox Experience coming Nov. 19
Read - Joystiq live from Microsoft's TGS 2008 press conference

Seems that the bickering over which Canadian carrier would land the Storm has drawn to an end -- either that, or Telus is gearing up to jump the gun and just declare itself the preemptive winner in the hopes of elbowing Bell right out of the picture. Whatever the case, the CDMA giant now has a page up on its site encouraging folks to sign up to find out when the 9530 is available -- which according to Boy Genius Report's leaked press release, should be "just in time for the holiday shopping season." If that unnecessarily nebulous statement means November, that puts 'em right in line with Verizon to the south and Vodafone to the east; so much for preferential treatment on the home turf, eh?

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Update: What's this -- a truce? Could it be? Bell has now also announced that it's getting the Storm, so if there's any sort of exclusivity going on here, it's for an awfully short period of time. Thanks, everyone!

A storm's arrival typically isn't something to celebrate, but we're going to make a notable exception here seeing how the BlackBerry Storm is less of a destructive weather pattern and more of an incredibly hot smartphone -- arguably RIM's hottest to date. Fit to its business-savvy roots, the long-rumored handset comes equipped with the most comprehensive global roaming capabilities of virtually any wireless device you'll find anywhere, featuring EV-DO Rev. A, quadband EDGE, and 2100MHz HSPA for Europe. Beyond that, the Storm becomes RIM's very first touchscreen phone, mounting a 3.26-inch 480 x 360 glass display on a unique clickable surface so that the entire thing can be pressed downwards -- just like a real button -- for tactile feedback when making selections. It includes a full HTML finger-navigable browser, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint editing capabilities, Bluetooth 2.0, 1GB of on-board storage with an 8GB microSD card bundled in the box, 3.5mm headphone jack, automatic orientation and ambient lighting sensors, and a 3.2-megapixel autofocus cam with dedicated flash, making it a legitimate jack-of-all-trades that seems likely to be able to handle even the most chaotic personal and professional lives users can throw its way. It'll allegedly do 15 days of standby or 5.5 hours of talk time on either GSM or CDMA networks. No word on pricing yet -- we're told all will be revealed "in the coming weeks" -- but it'll launch on both Verizon and Vodafone in November.

We're still waiting on Verizon to stop teasing us about this thing, but Vodafone (who's been hinting at the phone since last month) just announced the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's touchscreen flagship. As if you didn't know already, Vodafone is confirming a 3.25-inch 480 x 360 touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, automatic orientation flipping, 1GB of built-in storage and a host of multimedia capabilities, including iTunes sync.

[Thanks, Bob]

AMD just issued a release saying that president and CEO Dirk Meyer will be making a "significant corporate announcement" tomorrow, which sounds ominously like those breakup rumors are coming true -- particularly since Dirk's on record saying that the chipmaker plans to spin off manufacturing and fabrication into a new company. We'll see in the morning -- anyone planning on throwing a blowout "last night of the old AMD" party in the meantime?

Update: The WSJ confirms it's a breakup -- but don't worry, they'll still be friends. [Thanks, aztalon]

Update 2: Official PR is here. How's "AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Company of Abu Dhabi to Create New Leading-Edge Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Mubadala increases investment in financially-stronger AMD, which is simultaneously unlocking the value of its manufacturing assets" for an exciting title?

We've long since known that RIM's BlackBerry Bold was AT&T bound, but in case you haven't noticed, the rumored October 2nd release date has come and went, and there's nary a Bold on any of AT&T's store shelves. According to RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, the handset is still undergoing testing at AT&T, suggesting that it wanted to avoid the complaints that arose when the newest iPhone hit in July. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel remained mum on the subject when asked, only affirming that the handset would eventually be available this year. Ah well, you've been looking for a reason to vacation in Chile, haven't you?

[Via phonescoop]

The 5800 XpressMusic is stealing the lion's share of the spotlight today, but the first S60 5th Edition handset out there actually isn't the first to get hooked up with Nokia's all-you-can-eat Comes With Music service. That honor will instead go to the lowly 5310 XpressMusic candybar, which will get access to about 2 million track downloads when it hits Carphone Warehouse in the UK in prepaid form for £130 (about $228) on October 16, a day earlier than rumored. Other models will have to wait, though Comes With Music versions of the N95 8GB and 5800 are both planned.

While it may not be Nokia's first touchscreen phone (anyone out there remember the 7710?), the 5800 XpressMusic is certainly the first to come out of Finland with a mainstream appeal. What we've alternately known as the "Tube" throughout much of its development cycle is the first production device to run S60 5th Edition -- the fourth major overhaul of Nokia's ubiquitous smartphone platform since 2002 and the first to support fingers, styli, and high-res displays. Speaking of high-res displays, the 5800 comes equipped with an impressive 3.2-inch 640 x 360 resistive touchscreen to go along with its 3.2-megapixel autofocus cam, Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash, GPS, WiFi, 3.5mm jack, and a microSD slot with support for 16GB cards. It'll be available in three versions -- European HSDPA, North American HSDPA, and GSM only -- and ships this quarter in black, red, and blue for €279 (about $392) unlocked with an 8GB card thrown in for good measure. Music fans with voracious appetites for new tunes might want to hold out, though, for the Comes With Music-equipped version that follows on "early next year" at a to-be-announced price.

Yeah, the solution seemed pretty obvious to us, and now it looks like Nintendo's willing to admit it. Nintendo will be solving its little Wii Shop game storage overflow problem by opening up the SD card slot for storing and playing games from (with DRM galore, we're sure). The update will hit in the Spring of next year, and don't forget that 2GB maximum when stocking up on the little buggers. It's not exactly as exciting as a new DS, but we're really glad Nintendo's going to do the right thing here, instead of building yet another peripheral to clutter our lives with.

As expected, Nintendo has announced the new DSi at its Fall presentation in Japan. The device features a dual touchscreen layout almost identical to the DS Lite, though the company is calling it a "third platform," which means it's complementing the existing system, not necessarily replacing it. Looks-wise there's not much different happening, but it's some 12 percent thinner -- partly because it omits the GBA cartridge slot. The displays are slightly larger, at 3.25 inches apiece, and there's an external three megapixel camera as well as a front-facing camera located on the inside hinge. The DSi has an SD slot and internal storage -- we're not sure how much at the moment -- but photos can be taken directly to the Wii Photo Channel on the card. Nintendo's also launching an online "DSi Shop," which will sell content directly over WiFi, including a free browser app and "DS Ware" game -- and the company will offer free wireless connectivity at "Nintendo Zone" hotspots located in Japanese McDonalds. The shop will take the newly-renamed Nintendo Points (formerly Wii Points), 1000 of which will come free with the handheld until March 2010, and content will be priced in 200 / 500 / 800 point brackets. The DSi will come in white or black finishes, and will cost ¥18,900 ($178) when it launches in Japan on November 1st -- the rest of us will have to wait until next year.

Update: We've added the official Japanese DSi site link, check it out! Our brothers at Joystiq have done a comprehensive spec-check of the DSi compared to the PSP-3000 and iPhone / iPod touch. Be sure and take a gander. You can also watch Nintendo's DSi demo video after the break, and trust us, it rules.

Update 2: Joystiq is liveblogging Nintendo's San Francisco media event.

You know how it goes -- first comes the far-out rumor, then comes something a touch more believable, and then the company itself issues an all-too-familiar non-denial denial. According to MCV sources, the next step in the process will happen tomorrow, as a revamped DS storms into action at 5:00AM GMT on the 2nd of October. As for specifics, we'll have to wait for Iwata's supposed announcement to find out more, but we'd be utterly shocked to see this ship after Christmas. That is, if this isn't just some elaborate scheme from the Big N to distract us all from realizing that Wiis will still be impossible to find this holiday season two full years after launch.

[Image courtesy of Parade, thanks Michael]

Apple's insistence on locking down iPhone developers with a restrictive NDA has been controversial from the start, and it looks like the company's seen the light -- it's just posted up a tersely-worded letter saying that the NDA is being dropped. It's a strange little note, actually -- the first paragraph comes off as a little defensive and whiny, if you ask us -- but we're not going to complain about anything that makes developing apps easier and faster for devs. Now let's work on not capriciously rejecting and deleting apps from the App Store, and maybe we can go back to focusing on the iPhone platform's actual merits instead of all these paperwork shenanigans -- we've got some suggestions if you're having a hard time figuring this out on your own.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Microsoft couldn't let the gory, highly-anticipated launch of Gears of War 2 (chainsaw duels! Rhhhahaararggg!) pass without bloodying a Zune or three in the process, Halo 3-style. Specifically, Microsoft has laser-etched that pesky little "Crimson Omen" onto a glossy black Zune 120, pre-loaded the device with 244 pieces of "Gears of War" media -- the soundtrack, concept art, behind-the-scenes vids and so forth, nothing you won't be able to find elsewhere -- and squeezed it all into some "collectible" Gears packaging, featuring our testosterone-addled protagonist pondering the meaning of life. The whole kit will run you $280, with pre-orders at Walmart.com and Amazon.com (and a whole mess of Canadian shops) starting at 3AM PT / 6AM ET. It'll start shipping on November 7th. And still can't sync to your Xbox. Close-ups after the break.

We thought he probably would've at least stuck around long enough to see the Tube get announced later this week, but Nokia CTO Bob Iannucci has announced that he's stepping down from the world's number one cellphone maker effective immediately for undisclosed "personal reasons." Though it might seem that the move leaves a gaping hole in Espoo's senior leadership, the company actually says that Bob will continue on in an advisory role while it decides whether it even needs a CTO going forward. Bob also served as head of the Nokia Research Centre -- also known as the place where you get to play with Haptikos -- where Henry Tirri, current head of the center's Systems Research group, will be taking over.

[Via mocoNews]