MSLiveWatch

With the upcoming release of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Marvel has decided to put the power in your hands. No you won’t be selecting any new features, but you do get to select which box art you want (pretty exciting huh?). Here at MSLiveWatch, we’ve made our decision for Spidey on the right, with the crossed arms. You can head over to SeizeControl.com and pick the Spidey cover you want.

Beating Harmonix to the punch, The Who have released the upcoming DLC for Rock Band. The pack will be dropping July 15th, featuring 12 tracks. Pricing is set for $20 (1600 Microsoft Points) for the entire pack, or $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) per track.

Here’s the list of tracks being released:

• “Amazing Journey”
• “Baba O’Riley”
• “Behind Blue Eyes”
• “Eminence Front”
• “Going Mobile”
• “Leaving Here”
• “My Generation” (LIVE)
• “Real Good Looking Boy”
• “Sea & Sand”
• “Summertime Blues” (LIVE)
• “Who Are You”
• “Young Man Blues” (LIVE)

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It’s final, Microsoft acquires Powerset just as rumors predicted. After looking for suitors since May, Powerset finally decided Microsoft was the best fit. The acquisition will not fuel Microsoft’s search marketshare, but will give it new talent and search technology. The price of the acquisition isn’t being disclosed, but TechCrunch is reporting it was roughly $100 million.

“With an existing search infrastructure, incredible capital resources, unlimited data, a leading search team, and clear mission to revolutionize the search landscape, Microsoft can rapidly accelerate our progress in building semantic search technology and bringing it to full Web scale,” said Powerset’s Mark Johnson.

Microsoft Announcement

Powerset Announcement

With the release of this new “PinkGold” LifeBook, Fujitsu is aiming at a consumer market. This limited edition LifeBook P8010 features up to 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, 1.3-megapixel camera, and a dual-layer DVD burner. This notebook also includes 3.5G WWAN, 12.1-inch WXGA SuperFine screen, and Intel’s Core 2 Duo SL7100 processor. Expect to get about 6 hours of batterlt life. This model will be sold in Australia for $2,899. No info about a global release.

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This week’s XBLA releases will bring you SOULCALIBUR for 800 points and a DLC for Wits & Wagers for 320 points. Both will be available Wednesday , July 2nd.

If you’ve been holding out for an Xbox 360, today is your day. Over at Stootsi.com, they’re running a 24 hour deal on the Xbox 360 Pro for only $190 plus $6 for shipping. The console is refurbished and only offers a 60 day warranty.

If your Xbox 360 is loaded with a bunch of videos and games you bought off marketplace, they were pretty much stuck on the console. In other words,  if you wanted to transfer them to a different 360, you couldn’t due to DRM. Feeling your pain, Microsoft has released a tool to fix the DRM issue. To fix the problem, just head over to Xbox.com and visit the Restore Content License. The tool automatically recognizes the consoles, which content belongs to which console, and walks you through all the steps.

David Gosen, European VP of strategic marketing for interactive entertainment at Microsoft EMEA, told MCV that Xbox 360 has surpassed 5 million console sold in Europe. He goes on to state that the battle between Xbox 360 and PS3 is far from over with the 360 sales being three quarters of a million ahead of PS3.

“Anyone trying to call a winner this Christmas is calling too early,” he told MCV. “We are incredibly well positioned – our installed base in Europe is well over five million and contrary to what’s been reported we are at least, if not more than, three quarters of a million ahead of PS3.”

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A step down from last month’s 69TB update, the Virtual Earth team over at Microsoft added another 20TB of new imagery for the month of June. The update brings new imagery of the U.S., Canada, France, and the U.K. You can view a full list of the citties update on the Virtual Earth Blog. For the month of June, the Virtual Earth team was mainly focused on its new GoVE project, which allows you to upload your own high resolution images to Virtual Earth.

On it latest phone, the Portégé G810, Toshiba will skin the typical Windows Mobile UI with a more elegant one, using Spb software. The phone will feature Spb Mobile Shell that’ll be based on the Toshiba Touch Interface, a custom version of the Spb Full Screen Keyboard, and utilize Spb’s smart scrolling compenent available in Spb Pocket Plus. The Portégé G810 also offers other goodness such as Built-in GPS & A-GPS, 3 megapixel camera, and Windows Mobile 6.1.

So if you haven’t heard (or living under a rock), Bill Gates will step down as Microsoft’s chief software architect. Starting July, Gates plans to work full-time at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This doesn’t mean he will completely be disassociated with Microsoft. Gates will remain Chairman of Microsoft and will have his say regarding Microsoft’s big decisions. Taking a look back at how it all began, Fortune has put a 6 minute slideshow narrated by the big man himself, which is worth watching.

All I can say is about time. AOL finally realized what AIM users want and has released an AIM client for Windows Mobile users. The release is just a beta version and should be compatible with both Windows Mobile 5 and 6. One down side to the beta version will be no auto-updates (hopefully this makes it into the final build), so you’ll have to check on their site for new releases. In the meantime, download the .cab and give it a go.

A while back, we heard about the newest installment of Call of Duty, which is called World at War. The game will take us back to World War II, include new weapons, and feature two-player split-screen. The game will also debut with a four player online mode. Enough of this crap, take a look at the new trailer after the jump.

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This week’s Zune Marketplace freebie comes from artsits Sigur Rós. You can download, playback, burn to a cd, and because this track is DRM free, you can sync the song to your Zune or any other PMP you might have. Keep in mind that you need a Zune account and of course have Zune Marketplace installed on your PC.

Title: Gobbledigook
Artist: Sigur Rós
Genre: Rock
Length: 3:04

Earlier this month Spb announced the new the next version of it mobile backup software, Spb Backup 2.0. I’ve gotten my hands on it and have been testing it out for a while now. Like any other application Spb has produced, Spb Backup 2.0 is fast, reliable, and easy to use.

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