Microsoft has announced that starting on May 7th, Xbox Live users will be able to text message with the over 260 million Windows Live users on PCs or mobile devices. This marriage of all things Microsoft messaging has been a long time in coming and has been at the core of the Xbox Live business plan.

To help you text, this summer Microsoft will unveil a keyboard attachment for the Xbox 360 controller, as you can see above. It's actually a pretty slick add-on and I applaud the design.

What I don't understand, though, is the desire to text people while playing a game or watching a movie. What's the point? If I'm watching a movie, I don't want to be disturbed.

There are many more enhancements coming with this May 7th update, and you can read the entire list at Xbox.com.