•  He states, "the trouble is that the $300 base system can't play odler games designed for the original Xbox."
•  "If you don't have Windows Media Center running on your PC, this extender functionality won't work."

The first is wrong because the core system CAN play the older games from the Xbox, provided you purchase the HDD for $100.  But at that price, you're better off buying the 360 system and not the core.  Sure, not all games are backwards compatible (yet).  But the point is that you CAN do it IF you purchase an accessory.  He fails to mention this and gives the impression that the core is totally incapable of doing it.

The next: this is true, but he fails to mention that you can stream audio and photos from your XP based machine using windows media connect (see page 19 of the manual, Walt!).

I pointed these out politely to Mr. Mossberg and he responded:

 He responded:
Neither of those is an error.

1. You cannot run media center extender on a plain XP machine, only on a PC
with the Media Center edition of XP.

2. The core system, out of the box, can't run legacy games, period, just as
we wrote. The fact that you can add a $100 hard disk doesn't change that
fact.

Apparently, being a journalist means you can write, but reading and comprehension are accessories, available for purchase at your local university.  Come on Walt, can you read?  Or are you too stuck up to admit that you were wrong and FAILED to read the manual that came with your 360.  It's in plain English, French, and Spanish for you to read.