That darn Dean Takahashi, the Merc’s well-connected tech columnist and Xbox Xpert, has once again complicated the deliberations for those still trying to decide whether and when to add an Xbox 360 to their gaming hardware. Back in July, he broke the news that Microsoft had Project Falcon in the pipeline — new 360 guts featuring a cooler-running, 65-nanometer CPU and offering the likelihood of increased reliability (see “The Falcon and the snow job“). That likely put some buying plans on hold. Then in August, he reported that Falcon machines would be quietly slipping onto the store shelves in the fall (see “Hottest Xbox 360 game for the holidays? ‘Find the Falcon’ “), giving the fence-sitters a rough idea of when it would be safe to jump in.

Now, however, there’s another twist. According to Dean, right behind Falcon is Jasper, a new motherboard for the Xbox 360 that, among other things, will use a 65-nanometer ATI graphics chip rather than the larger, hotter 90-nanometer version that’s currently in the machines, including the Falcon models. Thing is, the Jasper boxes probably won’t be coming until August, in time for the next holiday season, and when they do show up, Microsoft’s cost savings could show up as price cuts. All of which leaves potential customers with the classic gadget geek quandary involving the time value of pleasure.

News-Source: svextra