When Xbox Live becomes available in India on November 5th, it will offer rentals of 360 games, and educational content, with Video Marketplace content soon to follow.

Thanks to Microsoft’s partnership with Seventymm (India’s version of Netflix), Live subscribers will also be able to rent the latest 360 titles for a set number of days.

“Education specific learning aids for grades 1-12” will also be available, though I’m not quite sure what that means just yet.

Once the Video Marketplace is up and running, users will be able to download pre-released UTV Bollywood films, as well as content related to upcoming films like Hanuman.

Given Microsoft’s spin that the 360 Arcade is for families, might we see educational material show up on Live in North America soon?

I’m personally more interested in that game rental service, though. The guarantee that the title you want would be available, 24/7, is really appealing.

The Guitar Hero III demo is now available on Xbox Live, though you may have already tried it if you picked up Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground or the December issue of Official Xbox Magazine.

You may even have downloaded a less-than-legal copy from various websites last week, though I don’t encourage such behavior. Yarr.

You don’t need a guitar to play the demo, but obviously it’s more enjoyable if you use one.

The demo includes five songs:

• Lay Down (Priestess)
• Rock You Like a Hurricane (Scorpions)
• Even Flow (Pearl Jam)
• Hit Me with Your Best Shot (Pat Benatar)
• The Metal (Tenacious D)

Guitar Hero III is going to be one of the best selling games of 2007 I believe. Thoughts?

For the last week I’ve been browsing gloomily though the new edition of Gerald North’s “Observing the Moon: The Modern Astronomer’s Guide.”

Gloomily not because the book itself is depressing, but because I don’t have a telescope or camera that will let me take advantage of its instructions. Yet.

For anyone with an inclination towards amateur astronomy, and a few dollars to spend, this book reads like a geeks’ dream.

It’s not light, but it has detailed, clear instructions and explanations covering everything from digital camera’s CCD chips to finding and understanding specific moon formations. A user’s manual to the moon, if you like.

My favorite bit so far is a plug for using sub-$200 webcams to get extraordinary clear lunar images. From the book:

A webcam costing less than a couple of hundred dollars and a computer of post-1998 vintage, perhaps most conveniently a modern laptop, fitted with a USB port, will be enough for you to potentially get nearly diffraction-limited images from your telescope… Add a bit of final image processing and voila: a picture of a planet or small part of the moon that could have astounded even the best amateur or professional astronomers of not that many years ago.

The book is hardcover and pricey, but beautifully illustrated with professional and amateur lunar photos. If you’re a moon buff, and don’t mind the dense style, it’s worth picking up.

I actually knew this a few days ago, but Capcom has officially announced that Lost Planet, previously a Windows PC and Microsoft Xbox 360 exclusive, will be coming to the PlayStation 3 early next year.

The PS3 version benefits from the delay by including 16 different multiplayer maps and new playable characters that weren’t available in previous retail versions.

Overall I found Lost Planet to be so-so, but tooling around in those Vital Suits was a bundle of fun.

If you missed the Nintendo conference because you’re not a member of the media and don’t live in Japan, never fear.

The ever-thoughtful folks at Nintendo have translated the whole thing into English and posted streaming video on their web site.

Tune in to hear Iwata speak as if he is in a bad old dub of a Godzilla movie, and watch videos of the Wii Ware games, Mario Kart, Monster Hunter 3, and everything in between.

It clocks in at about 45 minutes. You can even click through the slideshow that Iwata had behind him.