40 Days #14: Enable a full-time low-power connected standby mode

When I first set up my Wii, I really fell in love with a quirky little feature that made me hopeful that Nintendo might actually have some sort of viable plan for an online service. Those hopes were later dashed by a constant barrage of friend-code inconveniences, but I still adore that little feature. I am talking about that exciting blue glow that I sometimes see when I come down in the morning, and immediately think that something exciting must be going on in Wii-land. (Of course, unlike the early days of the console when the glow indicated nifty new features, nowadays it tells me to go judge Mii contests, which then leads to me voting in weird surveys, and the whole thing just feels like a chore.)

This functionality is made possible by the Wii's ability to stay in a connected standby mode, and still communicate with the aptly-named WiiConnect 24 service. The Xbox 360 launched with one not quite exciting standby mode: powered off and charging devices over USB. Sometime after the Wii made me jealous of quietly connected messaging, Microsoft added another mode: the low-power background download state.

That made me excited that the hardware was actually capable of such a power state (I feared it was not) and hopeful that one day they could take that feature to its logical conclusion: a Wii-like full-time standby mode where the console is constantly connected to Xbox Live.

In this state the 360 could notify gamers of new messages or new items from Inside Xbox. Two things would need to be considered here. First, some sort of visual indication that the console is in this state, and not just off (jet-like fan noise doesn't count). The Wii uses color-coded states of the power button (red for off, orange for standby). The 360 uses a blinking power button to indicate background downloading, so some other visual aid would be needed - can the power button display colors other than green and red?

Also, staying connected to Xbox Live requires a signed-in account, so automatic sign-in of one of the accounts on the console might be required, and removing that account in the middle of updates (e.g. by yanking a memory card) would have to be handled gracefully, but that probably already happens today (or it should, if it doesn't).

I would love to come down in the morning and see a pulsing power button telling me that there is a new message waiting. Of course, somebody would have to send me messages in the first place, but let's just focus on the technology.