Predictions and rumors are rampant currently with the advent of CES 2012 and numerous technological giants speaking at the conference but what’s got our eye right now is what might be coming next from Microsoft. On the firing line: the next-gen Xbox console. Gaming magazine Gamespot has a gallery of rumors surrounding these expectations and one of them hits the nail on the head by combining Microsoft’s obvious push into the mobile domain with their video game console powerhouse.

“If the rumors are to be believed, the guts of the new Xbox, presumably some kind of insane multicore CPU and crazy powerful graphics chipset, will be teased nice and early as part of Microsoft’s final showing at the Consumer Electronics Show this year,” writes Gamespot.

Strong indications seem to cleave heavily to the thought that Microsoft might be preparing themselves to get ahead of the avant-garde design of the Wii-U by presenting a tablet-oriented console. Looking at the new Metro motif draped over the newest Xbox dashboard has all the hallmarks of a touchpad UI and the addition of streaming and social interface gives many reasons to think that it would work well if projected from the screen and into the lap.

Gamespot posits rumors suggest that “…the core of the new platform will be akin to a tablet PC that wirelessly connects to a base station, which in turn plugs into your TV.” If anything, this is exactly what the Wii-U presents and with the attention that Microsoft is making to social networking and streaming this could be the next-gen of the entertainment design we’re seeing edge its way into the Xbox.

For example, discussions have been made about not just multiple people playing games via the Xbox and Kinect without a controller, but additional media displayed on tablets in the hands of users. Furthermore, it means that while someone is using the main TV to play a video game, another member of the household could be watching streaming media of their favorite TV show or movie on their tablet interface.

Jokes abound about cables, but really it’s the era of wireless when it comes to the Kienct. By removing the distraction of a controller with this amazing peripheral, the addition of a wireless connection to a dedicated dumb-terminal tablet that acts as a secondary display to the Xbox means that if it does go tablet-based there will be no wires involved.

However, keep in mind that the Kinect is distinctly also a detriment to tablet-based Xbox controls. Chances are if we see that the Xbox 720 has tablets involved, they will most likely be ancillary to the Kinect controls and will be presented instead as a peripheral to increase the usability and value of the Xbox itself. Microsoft has put a lot of focus into the Kinect itself—so far as to suggest that we might see Xbox-Kinect integration in the future console itself.

Stay tuned in, Microsoft is speaking later tonight at CES and all of these rumors will find their proper shape then.