Discontinued. The only way to get them now is in the play and charge kit or with a new controller/kit bundle.

If I remember correctly, someone is/was selling two packs of the pink batteries on Amazon for $10. If you're okay having a pink battery.

Also, if your battery isn't recharging via the play and charge kit, try using the Quick Charge kit. All my batteries that are "dead" via P&C, charge all the way up with the QC kit.

Ah ok. Thanks,

Yes Amazon has the blue and pink. I'll have to figure out what I wanna do with that... yikes.

Just use a thumb drive and save some money/hassle.

OK, help me out.
I'm looking at the Xbox Live Family Pack. I missed the deal where you get a straight up free 800 points, so the two current deals are 13 months and Maw for free, or 14 months. Plus 400 points through Xbox Rewards. Even though there would only be two main users, it's a decent way to go gold since they kicked up the price.

But since it comes with four accounts, and I don't really know anybody to share them with [although I have a couple coworkers I'm going to ask], I was thinking about adding my boy onto Live. Even apart from online gaming, I like the idea of the activity reports.
He's 8.

* Is this a foolish thing to do? I could see him hopping online to play kinect or Lego games, that stuff. Is Xbox online experience pretty much still a vile hive of scum and villainy?
* If it's at least OK with kiddy games, or if there's a way to block scumbags [I think you can turn off speech?] how do I go about setting him up?

Right now he's not even Silver. He has a gamertag and some gamerscore, and he recently got a [well monitored] email address. How do I join the two and get him connected to Silver, first? I think once the Family pack is bought it's a pretty simply process to add an account to it. If his gamertag is taken by someone else, do they charge to change it, or is that just if you change one that's already made an online presence?

I wish that the Family pack was 48 total months, mix and match. It looks like you can change members at any time, which is flexible, but I'd see more value in 2 24 month subs than 4 12 month subs.

Decided to get a PS3 instead but thanks for that idea. I'll keep it in mind when i do do the upgrade in the future.

Hey what USB flash drives are you guys using? I'm still using a 64 MB (!) memory card, and I figure I need to go ahead and make the upgrade, but I don't know anything about them. Just wanted to get some recommendations on brands, mostly--if there are any that work better/faster with the 360 than others or whatnot. And I guess I'm looking at a 16 GB, if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance.

I use a Sony USB stick. I believe CAG has a thread tracking which brands work best.

I have a Kingston 16 GB. No issues here.

We're getting a 360 for Christmas (very excited!), but we have a very curious toddler in the home who loves to push buttons.

Anyone know of any way to lock the 360's power button and/or DVD tray so it can't accidentally be turned off or on?

I looked online for some sort of plastic guard, but don't see anything.

No offense, but what about just being a parent and making sure the kiddo knows that it's off limits?

My daughter used to do that and my Xbox survived.

My only suggestion is to unplug it when you are done.

LOL believe me--the kiddo knows. But curiosity is very strong in young padawans. I don't think it'll happen often, but you'd hate to be half way through a level and suddenly have everything go black because you didn't catch them in time. Just wanting to take precautions.

EDIT: Someone just mentioned to me that there are no vents in the front and I could just put a piece of hard plastic in front of it (like the plastic stands they sell at office supply stores with the lip at the bottom that could go under the unit). Sounds like a plan!

This is why I've sold all of my children. Have you given that a thought?

I'd rather you just not reproduce. Hopefully nurture wins out over nature in those cases.

Every kid handles limits differently and as a parent, sometimes you want to pick your battles.

I've been pretty successful so far with "no touching!" with my daughter (she's 3 now)...well, except for these smears I can't get off of the LCD TV screen (can't really see them when the TV is on thankfully).

Having said that...

My xbox is a release date model and there was a period where she was turning it on and off a lot (when I wasn't playing) and it didn't seem to do much harm, so I let her have her fun. She never tried opening the dvd drive. I would have yelled at here for that though.

I'm waiting to see if they're going to make an achievement for it.

It's "great" that you're back.

Acceptable.

What kind of gaming would an 8-year-old do online? My son is 8 as well. He has a gamertag and while we often play Madden Arcade or Plants vs. Zombies together (mainly so I can unlock the co-op achievements, but don't tell him that), I can't imagine him jumping online to go head-to-head with strangers yet.

I guess if the 360 has something to the equivalent of NFL Rush (a Club Penguin-type community) I'd let him jump on by himself, but in the meantime, online play is off-limits for him.

Thanks fellas. Believe this is the CAG thread that was referred to:

XBOX 360 USB Compatibility Thread

That's usually pretty effective.

That's part of it too. Basically I want to renew my wife's and my Gold, and the Family pack is cheaper than two regulars, so I was going to set him up as well so we'd get "more for the money" - but unsure what the benefits are for a kid his age, or if there are "safe" places to play online. The Netflix is linked to my account, and he doesn't use Last, FB, twitter, or any of those other things.

Any reason why the NFL Monday Night Football game wasn't available to watch live on the ESPN channel on the 360? I figured whatever they showed on the regular channel would have been avail on the 360.

ESPN on the 360 is mainly content from the ESPN3 web site. I have seen games from the main channels show up On Demand on the 360, but not live.

Subject to blackout.

They want you to tune in to see the television advertisements. The six they have on ESPN3 (mostly ESPN commercials) isn't enough for them.

I get sick of not being about to watch ESPN-original content like Gameday or the BCS Selection Show.

ESPN3 is not meant to replace ESPN or ESPN2, but meant to supplement for events they can't necessarily fit in those time slots.