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An unnamed source is telling video game news site Kotaku that the next version of Microsoft's Xbox will not play used games.

The person, identified as a "reliable industry source" also told Kotaku that Xbox 720 will be able to play Blu-Ray discs, an option not offered on current versions of the Xbox. The next generation of Xbox is expected to be released later this year or early in 2013.

VideoSurf, a search engine for online video content, has been acquired by Microsoft, it was announced today. The service's sophisticated, multi-source video search technology will be built into Microsoft's XBox Live platform, which will see several new entertainment media partnerships in the coming months.

The acquisition, which cost Microsoft a reported $70 million, brings facial and object-recognition video search to the XBox, so it no longer relies solely on descriptions and other meta data when conducting searches. It works across services, so a search for "Lady Gaga" will return results from Netflix, Hulu and a variety of online video sources.

If you thought cable companies were in a panic about the threat the Internet poses to their business model, think again. Rather than sit idly by as Web content makes its way to television screens via set top boxes and smart TVs, companies like Comcast will instead try to position their traditional offerings alongside that streaming content. How? By adding it to set-top boxes.

Specifically, Comcast and Verizon are talking with Microsoft about the possibility of including cable subscriptions via the Xbox 360, according to a report from Digiday. The tech giant's gaming console, which already streams content from sources like Netflix, Hulu Plus and others, could in effect become a cable box if Microsoft manages to strike a deal ahead of its upcoming release of Xbox TV.

Boosting STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education has become a priority for the government, for schools, and for tech companies. In emphasizing the importance of doing so, many point to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor that note that while there will be more than 2 million job openings in STEM-related fields by 2014, fewer than 15% of U.S. college undergraduates now pursue degrees in science or engineering.

It isn't enough to convince college students to major in science - or rather, by the time students hit college, it may be too late to pique their interest in the field. So many STEM efforts are aimed at encouraging the scientific and technical minds of younger students.

One way to ignite that interest is to give kids the skills so they can build and play their own video games. That's the idea behind Microsoft's Kodu, a visual programming language and game development tool. A product of Microsoft FUSE Labs, Kodu Game Lab enables children as young as five to design, build, and play their own games on the PC and Xbox.

Earlier this month, hardware hacker Hector Marcan released his open source Kinect drivers, wining the $3,000 in prize money put up by Adafruit Industries, a NY-based company that sells DIY electronics kits. Since then, a lot of people have been posting hacks made possible through the release of these open source drivers - something which may have inspired you to hack your own Kinect peripheral.

Many non-technical folks have become more comfortable with hacking, thanks to the ease of "hacks" like jailbreaking the iPhone or rooting an Android. However, hacking Kinect isn't as easy as you might think. But if you're if you're a fairly advanced user, comfortable with the command line, Python, GitHub repo's, reverse engineering and more, this is one Weekend Project you're going to love.

When Google announced this morning that it would be delivering search results to users in real time as they type a query, it rightfully generated quite a bit of chatter and intrigue in the tech world and beyond.

The changes are certain to fundamentally change the way people interact with the world's biggest search engine. But what is less clear is how this game-changing update will affect search engine optimization and search traffic referrals to Websites.

Last night Microsoft unveiled Kinect, the company's foray into motion activated controls for the XBOX 360 gaming console that was previously known as Project Natal. Users can play games and navigate menus and web apps by waving their hands or by using their voice, but the camera in Kinect can also be used for social communication. Announced this morning at Microsoft's keynote at E3, Xbox Live users will also be able to video chat from their TVs with friends and family using Windows Live Messenger.

Update: It's official.

Joystiq reported today that Microsoft's motion-capture camera and gaming controller, code-named Project Natal will be called Kinect.

The news came from an Italian ad for the product that was pushed out by Atlas, an ad agency owned by Microsoft. The news was originally broken on USA Today's Game Hunters blog in a post which has since apparently been redacted.

Microsoft's Saudi Arabia marketing manager, Syed Bilal Tari, said on Gamertag Radio that the motion-capture camera and gaming controller Natal will be released in October.

"Definitely it is going to be October 2010," he said about the highly-anticipated camera that will capture gamers' motions for the Xbox 360, allowing them to play without controllers. The only problem? He's not a Microsoft employee.

While the rest of the world was caught up with Google Buzz, Apple was quietly granted a patent for a virtual reality App Store. The store patent encompasses details such as seasonal and time-based lighting, color schemes and a basic storefront representation. A few bloggers have already criticized the patent as a relic from SecondLife past, the store may have more use when we consider it in the context of the XBox Live marketplace.