Didn't see this earlier, but, anyway, by power pack did you mean the rechargeable battery or the 'plug and play' one?

There's two different ones and most people seem to not realize the better option and end up buying the stupid plug and play one which is a rechargeable battery but you have to plug it in with the wire while you play to charge it, which is essentially defeating the purpose of a wireless controller. If I recall, that's what you do on PS3 to recharge your controllers and I really really really hate it.

There's an actual charge station you can buy for like $20-30 that comes with 2 rechargeable batteries. You just pop them in the charge station for an hour or two and then pop it in your controller and you're good to go 100% wireless. Keep one battery in the charger and one in your controller. When one battery dies, put it in the charger and pop the second battery in. Wash rinse repeat and you'll never have to worry about a battery dying and having to wait on it to charge etc.

Hopefully that's what you got and meant when you said 'power pack'. Just putting it out there just in case because I see WAY too many people by the wired plug and play one due to ignorance on the latter and it's such a waste of money. They both cost about the same price too.

Also, there's a few other charge stations out there but some of them require your actual controller to be put into the station which is lame if you only have one controller and still pretty lame overall even if you have more than one.

And for easier reference:

Bad

Good

All I need know to be perfectly content is for the 360 to get BBC iPlayer already. I think it's coming in January.

Do not buy those offical charge and play pack from ms. those batteries have low recharge cycle and couldn't hold a charge after 6-12 month of moderate use. thats my experience from previously and the same for those nyko charge station pack for wiimotes.

now i just go get a pack of AA energizer rechargeable battery. not getting any rechargeable packs anymore, learn my lesson. ;/

The Nyko pak I linked to I've had for 4 years now and they're still going strong. I use my 360 daily and only have to change my battery pak once every 2-3 days. Used to last me a week or two but after 4 years obviously the charge doesn't last as long. But, still, 2-3 days a part between switching batteries is still pretty solid after 4 years of continuous daily use. And again, all I have to do every 2-3 days is pop one pak out and put in the charger and put the other pak in and I'm ready to play again. So that's like 5 seconds of downtime every 2-3 days. Can't complain.

I also have the nyko charge station for the wii, which never gave me any problems. However, I almost never use my Wii so I can't really comment on whether they last or not a year+ later of continuous use so. But, I know the 360 one does.

I prefer wired controllers anyway so I use the cord plugged in most of the time, since it's so hard to find a real wired Microsoft controller these days.

That's the beauty of the console and it's community aspect though. You can hop in a party, chat about all while playing and doing different things. It's rare I'm on the Xbox anymore and not connecting with someone, even when doing my own thing. It's really fun. Became a lot closer with various members and such because of it.

Yeah, if Yama's online on XBL, you can guarantee he's whoring himself out on party chat to anyone and everyone he can ;)

I've got a pair of play and charge packs that I have been using for a good two and a half years and they still hold their charge for at least a couple of weeks.

YouTube app is up, along with the FiOS TV app. Both are pretty good. Best console YouTube app by far. If there is anything I like about the new Xbox Home, it's that all of the apps are aesthetically cohesive with it.


Ugh... lol.

Maybe I should try out my headset and have a chat with a few of you folks.