Via Twitter, Major Nelson has confirmed that Project Natal is officially named “Kinect.” Meanwhile, an Italian website briefly featured an embedded advertisement that shows a redesigned Xbox 360, presumed to the Xbox Slim.

The ad, which can be seen above from Joystiq, states that the Xbox 360 Slim (looking like a Dell/Alienware tower PC) has a 250Gb hard drive and wireless built-in. Crucially, the Italian ad that appeared on Console Tribe (now pulled) revealed that the system was compatible with “Kinect,” thus outing Project Natal’s real name before Major Nelson’s Twitter announcement. I believe that the “Slim” is genuine.

The new Xbox is supposed to feature a redesigned motherboard, one that integrates the 360’s PowerPC G5 processor and the wicked ATi graphics card on one chip, thereby reducing costs, heat generated, and power consumption. I just bought an Xbox 360 Arcade this past week! Oh well, so long as the Falcon chipset in it (no Jasper) does not die in the next 18 months, I am fine with it.