Move over “Beatles: Rock Band.” Step aside “Max Payne 3.” Look out “Resident Evil 5.” Twitter and Facebook are coming to Xbox. That’s right, on June 1, the people of Xbox 360 announced they are integrating these leading social networks to Xbox Live, the company’s online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service.

When pitted against the likes of a motion controlled system, Twitter and Facebook are fighting an uphill battle for buzz. In fact, from what I can see the news that these social networking giants are coming to Xbox has been met with virtual silence. But if you take a few minutes to glance over the official company statements concerning these integrations you will quickly discover why this move is one of pure genius. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Microsoft might have just have just announced what could be the real deathblow to the competition.

Says Microsoft: “By bringing Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm to Xbox 360, we’re not only extending the walls of your living room beyond your home to your friends all over the world, we’re creating the definitive social network, uniting more than 300 million people to share thoughts on music, play games and tweet.”

By incorporating these social-networking tools into their gaming device, Microsoft is uniting a passionate community that comprises hundreds of millions of people and, in large part, revolves around its brand. Just think about all the possibilities this creates.

First Microsoft’s Xbox team will be able to more efficiently interact with their audience, alerting them to new games and features, unveiling unknown secrets and hints and rolling out the red carpet to upcoming gaming events, all directly to the gamer’s couch. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

More interesting is the ability for Xbox gamers to easily and effectively communicate with friends (both gamers and non-gamers), advocating both the Xbox gaming platform and new games via Facebook mini-feeds and Twitter. The new Xbox additions will allow gamers to easily comment on games they’re actively playing and share in-game screen shots with ease.

Now thousands of new messages and game images will enter these services daily and in doing so will forever change the way games are marketed. But how will it impact the in-game advertising market when the likelihood of in-game ads getting more and more media exposure thanks to these shared screenshots? The fact is these ads are going to become a hotter weapon.

Even the most dedicated gamers have interests and passions outside of the games and Microsoft has made strides towards establishing the Xbox as the definitive media hub of your home. That’s where services such as Last.fm come into play. Now gamers can turn their Xbox into a music center that has access to millions of songs that can be streamed through their device, which undoubtedly is connected the best speakers in the house. Another soon-to-be-released feature includes the ability to watch movies as a group via Xbox Live and communicate via microphone and your avatars. Combine this with the recent addition of the Netflix moving streaming service and you have one very powerful device that is finally leveraging the power of a social, tech-savvy community.

Frankly, I’m sick of talking about social media. I’ve had a long-standing view that eventually everything online would have social functionality and that it would become a commodity function of the web. For me, this is a clear indication of how much I may have underestimated how far this could go. As more and more electronic devices become internet enabled and the concept of sharing our lives via the social web becomes more commonplace, how many other devices in the near future will take on similar functionality to what Xbox is pioneering? For example, adding this functionality to a DVR could change the broadcast or movie industry profoundly as it would allow them to use social media far more effectively as a marketing channel.

I was hoping that I wouldn’t be talking about social media in the next couple of years, but as this evolves from device to device maybe this is not the end but just the beginning. Stay tuned.

The ongoing debate over Flash on the iPhone appears to be over after Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen announced last week at the World Economic Forum that Adobe and Apple are working together in an effort to bring Flash to the iPhone.

While Narayen didn’t answer the question of whether Apple had strengthened its commitment to putting Flash on the iPhone he did point out that the ball was now in Adobe’s court. “We have the developer kit and the onus is now on us,” he said.

During the Bloomberg interview, Narayen said that Adobe plans to have over a million devices shipped by the end of the year that have Flash and he’s not just talking iPhone; the company is working on the Android platform, the Windows mobile and the Symbian platform.

Watch the five minute interview below.

Msnbc.com’s brand new inauguration video player features some innovative features: beyond streaming the live event itself, it features inauguration speeches stretching back for decades. Each has a transcript in a sidebar. Click a word or a tag, and you jump instantly to that location in the video. Highlight a sentence or two, and it spits out a little code, letting you embed that exact clip on your blog. Dynamic editing, right from the player… More about the player in the Wall Street Journal.

I stumbled across an incredible story today on the Playstation gamer message boards. A young paralyzed teen had an idea for how to build a rig that would allow him to play video games. The teen worked with Mark Felling who did the physical assembly of the gear and after a couple months they had a kit that allowed the boy to use the vast majority of the controls on a PS3.

In his own words:

“The main reason I put this on the PlayStation website was to show people that even the most limited person can still enjoy console gaming just as much… anyone else. the controller was pretty easy to make except for converting the analog signals into digital signals for when I use the various switches. this took about two months to build and get working effectively. here are a couple more pictures. this time much smaller,lol.I really want the Sony people to see this as well, because many years ago when I was asking about this they had no idea worked to send me.also I can see my television clearly with no instruction whatsoever even though it really works like I would not be able to see anything at all. if anybody knows anybody who could use assistance playing video games please let me know

Also each and every jack has a predetermined function and whichever one I plug into is what’s the switch becomes. so depending on the game I generally use the left analog joystick directions and the right analog joystick using my tongue. currently I can d 20/25 possible functions all by myself. I’m currently using 16 switches plus a joystick with my tongue. saving up money to purchase three switches that are activated by the torching of a muscle. once I have those three switches I will just have to have somebody take care of something like select which is almost never used.”

Ultimately this is about a teen who didn’t let his disabilities hold him back.  He was able to do something that most of the kids his age were doing everyday. I’m sure on some deeply fundamental level that isn’t obvious to all of us this one act allowed him to feel normal for just one moment.

He’s missing a few parts to help complete his rig. I’d love to help him in someway. Does anyone know anyone at Microsoft or Sony that we might be able to pass this story on to and see if we can get him some more gear and games?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this story, but if nothing else I hope it brightens your day. It made my day.

View The Inspiring Original Thread!

The main difference between the gPhone and the iPhone is that with Android, apps won’t be subjected to this (click to zoom in).