Conan O'Brien's deal with TBS may have thrown every TV pundit and pontificator for a loop, but here's one that will make your head spin clear around your neck. (WARNING: TV Squad and its parent companies will not be held responsible for any head and/or neck trauma that may occur while reading this article).

While everyone thought Conan would simply jump to Fox because it was the last remaining network without a strong late night slot, Coco and company were being courted by all sorts of networks and media outlets, including ... Microsoft???

That's right, the technology giant had been talking to Conan about a deal that would have brought his nightly talk show to their XBox Live service.

Is there anything that Jane Lynch can't do? The comic actress -- who some people are already declaring is a shoo-in for the Primetime Emmy as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama series for Glee -- has veered into a new venue.

In addition to her television characters, Jane's brilliant performance as Sue Sylvester, her semi-regular shrink role, Dr. Freeman, on Two and a Half Men, Constance on Party Down, she's now doing commercials.

Yes, the latest triumph for La Lynch is a set of XBox 360 commercials that are all about fun.

There is nothing inherently wrong with turning a TV series into a video game spinoff. It can fill in the gaps between seasons to quell the viewers' hunger, let audiences explore characters from new perspectives and even give the more hardcore couch potatoes some much needed exercise even if they only burned 1/100ths of a calorie solely through their thumbs.

The problem is video game developers pick TV shows that should never even become a travel sized board game. Developers have given the greenlight to games based on shows like American Idol, Desperate Housewives and even ... Grey's Anatomy?!? I hope that last one was a first-person shooter.

There are far better shows that offer far more entertaining elements for a kick-ass video game. These are the shows that should be next in line for a pixelated re-treatment.

Too many anguished nights have I spent watching Showtime's Dexter, wondering aloud, "Why can't I control Dexter's actions through my Xbox like so much Lara Croft?", and I know you have too. Believe it or not, we freaks are in luck, because it looks like there's going to be a Dexter video game. Finally! Another few months without it and I would have killed someone.

Okay, I think I have reached my sarcasm quota of the day, so let's get serious here. Dexter is a fantastic show and I have watched it faithfully through its run so far. However much I enjoy it, I cannot imagine it becoming a video game, let alone playing it. The show is built around blood, self-tortured deception, and internal monologue.

It seems we're hopping all over the weekdays recently to make room for more giveaways. Oh come on, who's complaining? Anyway, today we've got something a little different. How about winning a copy of The Simpsons Game, which just came out in stores on November 1st? We've got one copy for the following three platforms: Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. All you've got to do is leave a comment below mentioning which platform you want this game for (out of the three mentioned) before next Wednesday, November 14, and we'll pick three random people, one for each platform.

Some other details:

• To enter, leave a confirmed comment below stating what platform you want The Simpsons Game for (Xbox 360, Nintendo DS or Nintendo Wii).
• The comment must be left before November 14, 2007 at 5:00PM Eastern Time.
  
• You may enter only once.
• Three winners will be selected in a random drawing, one for each platform (Xbox 360, Nintendo DS Lite or Nintendo Wii).
• One winner will receive a copy of The Simpsons Game for Xbox 360 (valued at $59.99), one winner will receive a copy of The Simpsons Game for Nintendo DS (valued at $29.99) and one winner will receive a copy of The Simpsons Game for Nintendo Wii (valued at $49.99).
  

Click here for complete Official Rules.

According to a CNN article, Microsoft is going to partner with Nickelodeon and Warner Brothers to produce a library of family games and entertainment for XBox LIVE. This will include kid-friendly games as well as video entertainment

I have to admit that I don't own a gaming console of any kind, mostly because I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to tear myself away from it. This sort of merger of video-on-demand and games-on-demand with a gaming console would no doubt make it harder.

Windows Vista has been available to the public since January. And while there are some nice upgrades including visual candy in the Windows Media Center Application, media center extenders that worked with your old machine won't work with Vista.

A media center extender is basically a box running software the lets you access content from your Windows Media Center in another room. So far, the only v2 media center extender has been the Xbox 360. If you're not a video game fan, you've been out of luck.

But Microsoft has finally announced that three companies plan to release new v2 media extenders. Linksys, D-Link, and Niveus all plan to launch devices that will act as media center extenders. The new platform allows increased functionality including:

• HD video
• Wireless networking
• Expanded support for audio and video codecs including DivX and Xvid

It's not clear yet whether all three companies plan to release devices with all three new features. There's also no word on pricing, or even what the new devices will look like. They'll "be unveiled later this month in a variety of innovative form factors and price points."

[via Chris Lanier]

FOX recently signed on with Xbox Live Video Marketplace, and the first series available for the digital download-to-own service is Family Guy. FOX joins other television networks and movie studios on the service, including CBS, NBC Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., MTV Networks and Lionsgate.

Family Guy was chosen to kick off the new content deal because of its attraction to the younger male demographic responsible for most of the downloads on the Xbox 360's Video Marketplace service. Starting next week, the series' first two seasons will become available, along with the Family Guy DVD movie/three-part episode, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. Newer seasons will follow, with fresh episodes hitting Video Martketplace the day after they debut on television.

It looks like Sony's got some big (and possibly desperate) plans for the Playstation 3. Not only has the company slashed $100 off the price of the 60GB PS3 gaming console, but Sony is also introducing a new version with an 80GB hard drive.

So what's the extra storage for? Sony tells Newsweek's LevelUp blog that it's part of a plan to let users download and play online games -- and also to download high definition video content.

Microsoft has already been selling HD video downloads for the Xbox 360 for the better part of the year. And seeing as how Sony kind of has its own movie studio, there's no big surprise here.

Few details are available regarding the planned video download service. But given that Sony announced its PS3 price cut and new model just days before the E3 convention, it's probably a safe bet that there'll be some news before the week is out.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

The Xbox 360 Spring 2007 update rolled out this week. There's been a lot of attention given to the integration of MSN Messenger and support for 1080p MPEG4 and H.264 video. But it looks like the media extender capability's been tweaked (a little) as well.

If you think of your Xbox 360 first and foremost as a way to access content on your Windows Media Center PC, and secondly as a gaming device, you might want to boot into the media extender interface very time you press the power button. Now you can.

Of course, when it comes right down to it, this isn't that exciting. If you have a media center remote, you could always have just pressed the green button to load the media extender when your Xbox 360 powers up. But if you're a bit old fashioned and like walking over to the box to turn it on, now you can.

[via Aaron Stebner]

If you didn't think that the creation of new programming for alternate delivery systems like the internet, cell phones, and other devices was here to stay, perhaps this announcement might turn your opinion, if only a little:

Microsoft and our friends at the New York Television Festival have struck a deal to co-sponsor a contest where contestants will create five to fifteen minute pilots suitable for the software company's Xbox Live, which allows Xbox 360 users to play online games and watch movies and TV on demand. The winner of the contest will receive $100,000 to produce six episodes, which will be made available to Xbox Live customers. Also, the pilot will be screened at the festival, which will be held from September 5-10 this year.

Animation or live-action pilots will be accepted. It will be interesting to see what will be produced for this contest, and ultimately what wins. Suffice to say, knowing the Xbox's audience, I doubt it will be something along the lines of Desperate Housewives or Ugly Betty. That is, unless those housewives or Betty are shooting down aliens or bending iron bars with their minds or something. The full press release is after the jump.

Looks like Microsoft wants to give you a good reason to buy that new Xbox 360 Elite with the 120GB hard drive. So they're pumping up their offering of HD video content available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

New content from Paramount, New Line, and Warner Brothers will include Braveheart, World Trade Center, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Snakes on a Plane, and Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.

There will also be new content from A&E, National Geographic, Totalvid, and anime from ADV Films.

While there's been a lot of talk these last few days about the AppleTV, the truth is you can only purchase programs with VGA resolutions from iTunes, while Xbox Live offers up HD content (with a hard-to-follow pricing scheme based on "points.")

Orb has been a great utility for streaming audio, video, and pictures from your PC to pretty much any machine with a web browser. We've already told you about how you can use Orb to (sort of) turn your PS3 or Wii into a media extender.

But what about an Xbox 360? This week, Orb added support for that console as well. Sure, the 360 is already designed to be a media extender. But it's always nice to have choices, right?

With the PS3 and Wii, you have to use Orb's web interface. Xbox 360 users just have to make sure their console is connected tot heir LAN. Then all you do is go tot he media tab in your Xbox 360, select the media type you want to play (music, video, or photo), click "computer," and select the PC you want to stream content from.

[via EngadgetHD]

Move over Xbox 360 (well, at least make room for some competition), Sony appears to be working on a video download service for the PS3. In an interview with 1UP, Sony exec Phil Harrison strongly hinted that a video download service was on its way.

Asked whether Sony users could expect a service like Xbox Live Marketplace, Harrison responded "we have a hard drive, we have a commerce engine, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we will have that on the network very shortly."

Sony pushed the PS2 as more than a video game console due to its inclusion of a DVD drive. The goal was to make it a multimedia center. The PS3 steps up the game with the inclusion of a Blu-Ray drive, a hard drive, and network interface. But to be honest, this is the second time Sony has played second fiddle to Microsoft. First, they launched the PS3 a year after the Xbox 360, and now, three months after Microsoft launches its download service, Sony's is still in development.

[via Engadget]