Microsoft will Launch Disc-Less Xbox One for Under $200 in 2019

Microsoft may launch a disc-less Xbox One in 2019 according to sources familiar with the company's plans. In addition to forsaking physical media, it also plans to allow Xbox One owners to trade in their existing games on disc for digital downloads. The reason for such a drastic move is to get the price of the Xbox One lower and ensuring its under $200 (around Rs. 14,000).
br />"Currently, it costs about $299 to buy into the Xbox One family of devices," writes Xbox insider Brad Sams. "Microsoft is looking to lower that price by possibly as much as $100; the new console price point is expected to be $200 or less."

If you're in the market for a new Xbox One that can play games without having to go online or worry about Microsoft's servers being unavailable, you're in luck. There will be another Xbox One S variant that ships with a disc drive. Sams states that "Microsoft is moving forward very carefully with this product as it knows that a sizeable portion of its users do prefer to buy physical games and not download them." Though if this was really the case, it wouldn't be exploring a disc-free Xbox One to begin with.

And while the company may allow Xbox One owners to trade their games on discs for digital downloads, it's not entirely new. Sony had a similar program for its PSP users in Japan during the launch of the PS Vita though it never saw the light of day outside of that country.

Previously Sams stated that Microsoft had two Xbox One streaming devices in the works. The first will be built along the lines of the Chromecast and priced at around $100. The other will be "like the Apple TV", possibly integrating with Windows 10 apps and supporting lightweight games. It could be priced between $150 and $175. These will help Microsoft target and hopefully win back the living room. It appears that these plans have been put on the back burner as it focusses on simply removing the disc drive from the Xbox One, which we hope doesn't come to fruition given that accessing your library of content depends on Microsoft's servers being online and having a super fast Internet connection is mandatory.

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Let us allow e-voting despite hack fears said by US JUDGE:

A judge in the US state of Georgia has approved the use of electronic voting machines - despite being "gravely concerned" that they could be hacked.

There wasn't enough time before November's mid-term elections to switch to a secure paper-based alternative, said District Judge Amy Totenberg.

Fears that e-voting machines could be hacked have caused some to warn against their adoption in some countries.

The judgement was a "significant" one, according to one e-voting expert.

A lawsuit was filed in May last year against Georgia's Secretary of State over the Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines.

There are now less than two months until the US mid-term elections in November, when many new members of the US Senate and House of Representatives will be elected.

Judge Totenberg said in her judgement the lawsuit had taken place at the "eleventh hour" and that switching to a paper-based voting system now could "just as readily jeopardize the upcoming elections, voter turnout and the orderly administration of the election".

However, she also acknowledged the seriousness of the threat posed by hackers, and rebuked state officials for not dealing with the problem sooner.
'Heads in sand'

"The court is gravely concerned about the state's pace in responding to the serious vulnerabilities of its voting system - which were raised as early as 2016 - while ageing software arrangements, hardware and other deficiencies were evident still earlier," she said.

Later, she concluded, "The state's posture in this litigation - and some of the testimony and evidence presented - indicated that the defendants and state election officials had buried their heads in the sand."

There are 14 US states which use machines to record votes. No paper record of the voting is made in the process.

"I think that judgement is really significant," said e-voting expert Prof Steve Schneider at the University of Surrey.

"The judge is asking for it to be addressed… saying that the 2020 elections are around the corner."

Prof Schneider told the luckycoders that there was a risk people using the machines would begin to distrust the democratic process if security researchers' concerns weren't taken seriously.

"I would hope that the authorities would take whatever steps they could to regain that trust while they're still using these machines," he told the luckycoders.

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