Xbox 360 Dashboard Update Detailed
Xbox 360 Logo
The Xbox 360 Dashboard update that people have been waiting for is coming, and includes many of the features that people have been excited about for quite some time now. Kotaku has released a three part post that details the Last.FM, Twitter and Facebook services that are to be added to the Xbox 360. But little do you know, some fees and other notable information may apply.
Well, I should first start off by saying that these features are only made available to Xbox Live Gold users, meaning if you are a silver member and plan on staying one, you have no business even wanting to read this, unless you want to make yourself jealous. The Twitter and Facebook service do not seemed to be programmed to work during game play, which is a pretty sad lacking feature. Incorporating the ability to twitter and update Facebook during game play would be something quite notable. The Facebook app takes you to a new screen with a whole dashboard dedicated to it, where you can examine updates, see or upload photos, check out which friends are online, and many more basic features. The Twitter application has a simple feel to it. You sign in, and you are taken to a simple blue screen, with your avatar appearing in it, with a series of messages to the right on the topic of your choice.
Also less impacting, but still probably interesting to some of you, the Xbox 360 video marketplace brand has been replaced with the Microsoft Zune brand.The Zune Marketplace is said to support the party viewing of movies, which sounds like a pretty amazing idea, being teased with release for a while. Also an MSNBC.com news feed, the distribution of New Yorker and Dilbert cartoons as well as Video Game music specific online stores, are said to be unreleased as of yet, even to the testers.
One of the more interesting features of the upcoming Xbox 360 Dashboard update, in my opinion, is the Last.FM service. Last.FM is a free music-streaming service available online that allows you to find songs that you like, then be offered a group of similar music to hopefully match your tastes. This service is being incorporated into the Xbox Live, though it sadly seems that this will not be able to stream music during actual game play. The service seems to be basic on the Xbox Live, however , by not having a vast selection of music that is. Gaming music is also highlighted here, honing a vast gaming library of music.
All in all, you are in for a treat when the new Xbox 360 Dashboard update gets released sometime in next month, November. It is bringing in new features that will certainly widen the gap between the Xbox Live and other video game networking services.
