Remember those Facebook and Twitter capabilities that would be available on Xbox Live for Christmas? One paragraph from a Microsoft's Xbox price-cut announcement this morning stirred up headlines by implying that Facebook and Twitter integration for Xbox Live users would only be open to Gold members. An official statement from Microsoft, however, appears to have back-peddled from that claim and leaves a morsel of hope for non-paying players on XBL.

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For the first time since its inception about, oh, 2 months ago, the Lunchtime Twitter Poll has been stymied by a catastrophe: Twitter has gone down. Who would've seen that coming!?!

Much like the DoS attack that hit Gawker earlier in the week, I'm pretty sure hackers have targetted Twitter with a mind to shut down the LTP for good. Well it won't work! Unless they succeed in bringing Twitter down permanently, in which case, well, yeah, it would probably work.

Since we're sans input today, enjoy this hilarious cat video.

Even though the Xbox 360 update that's coming on August 11th isn't the one you're looking for (i.e. the one with all the awesome features listed during MS's E3 presentation), that other one is still coming, and should drop sometime before Christmas.

Eurogamer's interview with James Halton confirmed that the huge update, which includes Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM, is on its way. "It will be before Christmas. A lot of the background work's been done for a lot of applications that are coming."

Good news, I guess. For now I'll be buying hats and fake toys for my avatar.

My iPhone has gotten me out of a lot of jams. Like the time my subway got stuck underground for 30 minutes. Or when the doctor's office was full. Or when I was in a meeting about the best times to have meetings. Few things in the history of the world have curtailed the spread of boredom like the iPhone. Personally my go-to "I'm bored" game is a match-three with the ridiculous moniker of "Smiles." It's polish, smooth and oddly compelling. But I put it to you guys! What iPhone game do you guys play to kill time?

nickchester @multiplayers Haven't had an iPhone/iPod Touch for long, but Drop7 is a simple, polished, addictive drug.

Lisa_Mason @multiplayers I have no shame, so I'll admit publicly that my weapon of choice is often Yahtzee. But I'm pretty good at it!

filthyvillain @multiplayers I have to go with paper toss, but zombieville USA is also really addictive.

JohnLHardin @multiplayers Jelly Car. Simple concept, maddeningly difficult.

mescalineeyes @multiplayers geoDefense made me miss my subway stop. more than once.

Cronotriggers @multiplayers Zenonia. 16-bit action-adventure goodness. Only game to get me to stop playing Peggle:)

Oh, and exciting news about tomorrow's Lunchtime Twitter Poll! I'm gonna choose my top 3 submissions (based on cleverness/awesomeness) and send you each a code to download a free copy of "Droplitz" for XBLA. Sorry, only 360 versions available this time, but we'll try to mix it up in the future.

The only shocking part of this story is that it took so long for this to happen. Someone has made an in-game Twitter app for "World of WarCraft," allowing you to quest while staying abreast on minute-to-minute thoughts of Ashton Kutcher.

Called TweetCraft, the program is free and is designed to look like any of the other windows in "WoW." A cool touch, though, is that you're able to take a screenshot in "WoW" and post it instantly into Twitter...a feature that's sure to please friends who enjoy that sort of thing, and drive everyone else crazy.