According to ArsTechnia journalist, Ben Kuchera, there’s a strong indication that all Xbox 360’s will begin to have the HDMI port standard. The rumor goes back to E3 where Microsoft announced their special edition Halo Xbox 360 unit. The unit was a traditional premium model with a Halo paintjob and an HDMI port.

The rumor goes that once all existing inventory is cleared out, you’ll begin to see specially marked boxes of Xbox 360 units on the shelves showing that it comes with an HDMI port. On top of this, these new boxes will be using the cooler running 65NM processors as well as quieter DVD drives. Good news all around!

Update: This is now officially confirmed. All models will begin to have the HDMI port. The HDMI cable is not included in the package, but Microsoft will be offering an “official” HDMI Cable for $49.99 which will include the adapter to split the audio out via Optical. Systems that include the HDMI version will have the HDMI logo on the package. The HDMI models should hit Europe “in a few months.”

Blade Runner Ultimate. You want every version of the movie in Hi-Def? Blu-Ray and HD-DVD?

It’s coming. And it’s coming in a metal briefcase.

Amazon has both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD versions up for pre-order.

What should you be playing this week? There’s really not a whole hell of a lot coming out, but there should be plenty of stuff in your catalog worth checking out.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (PSP) - If you have a PSP and haven’t checked out this greatest hits title, now is your chance. I picked this up last week and simply amazed by how well it plays and looks. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Spyglass Board Games (XBLA) - Kick it old school with Chess, Checkers, Reversi and some game with pebbles I’ve never played. These games are the true classics because they never get old.

Sam and Max: Season 1 (PC) - Sam and Max Season 1 should be on store shelves will be on store shelves soon and is available via Gametap. Classic adventure gaming with some modern flair. How can you go wrong?

It’s Friday, that can only mean one thing. Evil Avatar Radio! But alas, during all the shuffle last week with the server outages and whatnot, you may or may not know that the last Friday show of EvAv Radio was broadcast last week.

That’s right, Evil Avatar Radio hosted by Philip “Kefkataran” Kollar is no more. No more late Friday nights in the chatroom listening to Phil and Amanda talk about Draygons and Horse Carcass. Phil is moving sidways and taking on more responsibilities at 1UP.

Fear not Evil Avatarians! Our newest Red and host of In-Game Chat, Scott “Psykoboy2” Benton has picked up the reins of said horse carcass and rode it, and the Evil Avatar Radio name, to Monday nights.

So what ever shall we do on Fridays? Us gamers SURELY can’t go OUT. We definitely can’t be social in public. So instead I bring to you, EvAv Arcade Fridays!

What is it? Every Friday night starting at 10PM Eastern we’ll be playing some specific games over Xbox Live and Playstation Network with the Evil Avatar Community.

So this week we’ll have 4 games lined up to play:
Bomberman Live (XBLA)
Carcassone(XBLA)
Spyglass Board Games (XBLA)
Calling All Cars (PSN)

I’ll be keeping the chatroom up, so if you need to try to get in a game, be sure to head over there and ask around. I encourage people to use it, or even just hang out on Friday organzing ANY kind of gaming activity.

So last night I finally fired up my PSP and downloaded the latest firmware release. I was quite a few releases old, so with the new update I was able to access the Remote Play functionality for connecting the PSP to the PS3. What is remote play? Remote play allows you to use your PSP as a virtual XMB of yours PS3. That mean, you can see and access almost anything that is on your PS3 via your PSP. The coolest aspect of this is the ability to connect via the internet, so technically you can connect to your PS3 from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection.

After a few glitchy starts, I got the system up and running and it was absolutely slick. I was able to stream 1080p movies in realtime over the internet to my PSP. At one point I was literally browsing pictures that were stored on my Windows Vista Computer. Let me run that by you again. My PSP was connected via the Internet to my PS3, which was connected via my local network to my Windows Vista PC and streaming digital pictures back. God I love gross misuse of technology.

Unfortuantely you aren’t able to run any games via this method, it basically is like a remote desktop connection to your PS3. But the fact that you can stream videos and such, or listen to music is pretty awesome. And with the upcoming PS3 DVR, the ability to stream shows anywhere, anytime is huge. You are even able to adjust quality settings based on network performance, even on the default quality the videos look fairly crisp and sound great.

Finally I downloaded Syphon Filter for the PSOne via the Playstation Store and checked it out on the PS3. The title definitley shows it’s age, but it was still a blast. The really great thing is the ability to copy the game to the PSP then and play it on the go. Take note Nintendo, Sony has the pricing done right. $5.99 for a PSOne era game, something Nintendo charges $12 or more for), with the ability to copy and play it on your portable device. That’s value right there.