Xbox NXE Fall Update 2009 (with E3 announcements)

I guess we missed all the hoopla over SkyTV for our friends across the big pond. It's coming October 27 & it looks like they will be releasing a bundle for it too.

SkyB_EN_3DS.jpg

SkyB_FDO_EN_3DS.jpg


It contains one month's access to the Sky 360 player, three month's subscription to Xbox Live and a media remote – but no Xbox 360 console.
Click to expand...

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/36123/Microsoft-dates-Sky-on-Xbox-Live
http://www.wonderwallweb.com/news/3184/new-xbox-bundle-revealed-for-sky/

Tommy McClain
 
PC World has a good hands-on report with Facebook & Twitter. It's the first place I seen anybody mention this...

After installing itself, a dashboard Facebook rectangle appears at the top of the new "My Community" menu, followed by adverts for services like "Music Monday," "Tuesday Family Game Night," "Classic Costumes," etc.
...
Twitter comes pre-installed, though it's strangely relegated to the fifth spot along the "My Community" view list.
Click to expand...

173903-facebook-xbox-360_original.jpg


http://www.pcworld.com/article/173903/hands_on_with_facebook_and_twitter_for_xbox_live.html

Looks like the "My Community" menu sits between "Spotlight" & "Events". Unless of course you still have the "Welcome" menu still enabled. Maybe this is where Halo Waypoint is going too?

While looking for more info on "My Community" I came across this...

One of the other main additions to the dashboard is the Music Marketplace section, here you are able to get easy access to music for all your favorites such as Lips, Rock Band and Guitar Hero. The main addition in this section however is the Last FM app.
Click to expand...

http://www.wonderwallweb.com/article/831/first-impressions-xbox-live-update/

Tommy McClain
 
It'd be great if I could customize what categories (everything) I could see... With them adding new stuff all the time, I'll be lost trying to find the "play game" area. :p
 
AlStrong said:
It'd be great if I could customize what categories (everything) I could see... With them adding new stuff all the time, I'll be lost trying to find the "play game" area. :p
Click to expand...

An iphone like customizable button layout would be cool. Knowing them, they'll do something retarded like "honey comb" on Windows Mobile 6.5 though.
 
I think the update is going live. I have a 3 minute update downloading.

YUp it went live.


Zune Market place 4.81MB
Last. fm 6.54MB
Facebook 6.45MB


Twiter is already on it

Ugh loading out of facebook takes forever
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the heads up. I got it too. Still downloading...

I'm looking forward to Halo Waypoint & Twitter myself.

Tommy McClain
 
I got it shortly after I posted above & the first thing I did was play with Twitter. Not too bad. I like it. I'm sure I'll find more things I will want, but so far so good. [strike]BTW, if you do a Retweet, you can't edit it even though it shows it in an editor. Bummer.[/strike] EDIT: Looks like I was wrong. I was at max characters & didn't know it. Would be much nicer if they gave you a counter of how many characters you have.

Went to Facebook next. The Photos & Friend Linker are pretty cool. Facebook is a way nicer in the NXE UI. I can see myself possibly using this more because of the photos.

Finally checked the special Preview menu for the skinny on the updates. Didn't know about the new "News & More" section added to Inside Xbox. It's only for the US for now, but it includes MSN videos from MSNBC.com, Dilbert & The New Yorker. They're not HD and run in a small window, but at least there's no waiting for them to start.

Zune Marketplace looks at home on the Xbox. Very little UI changes but the ones it has are quite nice. Streamed an episode of The Guild in 720p instantly. Now that's cool. No wait whatsoever. Only thing I wanted it to do was download the video to the hard drive after it was finished playing. But then I realized they updated the Video Library section where that might not be necessary. It now shows every video you've streamed or downloaded even if you've deleted it off the hard drive. Now that's cool. You now get the option to re-download it, but no stream option for some odd reason on older content. It will allow you to get other TV episodes from inside the Video library without the need to go the Zune Marketplace, it's all seamless. Music section of Zune Marketplace will be much better once they add a way to access the songs and not just videos. Integration with the Zune HD is critical, especially the Zune Pass. Would be neat to not be tied to a PC to get all the content.

Music Games & Stores is a welcome addition in Music Marketplace. Unfortunately they only have 2 stores there(Rock Band & Lips) and they're both "Coming Soon". Hopefully when they're all setup I'll no longer see a deluge of "music" in the Game Add-on New Arrival section of the Game Marketplace.

Last.fm looks in-depth. Probably the most integrated/complex app of the bunch. I don't use the last.fm site, but registered an account the minute I heard it was coming to the 360. It's going to take some playing with it to get the hang of it.

NavNuc will probably like to know that the Recent Games section of the Game Library is still slow. Thought it might be a tiny bit faster, but not sure. Wished they would figure out how to speed that up some.

All in all, so far so good. Not sure what other major feature they can add without adding Natal support or a web browser. Which brings up the point that with them offering these apps I don't see them going in that direction. They will probably just add more apps.

Tommy McClain
 
Last edited by a moderator:
AzBat said:
NavNuc will probably like to know that the Recent Games section of the Game Library is still slow. Thought it might be a tiny bit faster, but not sure. Wished they would figure out how to speed that up some.
Click to expand...

:devilish: guide lagginess is my #1 complaint/demand to resolve. Couldn't care less about twitter and facebook.
 
Other than me & eastmen, anybody else get the Preview? What are your thoughts?

Tommy McClain
 
I got it. Not at all impressed by the Twitter & facebook integration. Didn't see Last.fm -- it might not be available in Canada?

1080p streaming is cool. But the pricing, as before, is too high
 
Asher said:
I got it. Not at all impressed by the Twitter & facebook integration. Didn't see Last.fm -- it might not be available in Canada?

1080p streaming is cool. But the pricing, as before, is too high
Click to expand...

Yeah, Last.fm is not available in Canada, but is available in the UK. I'm sure it will take time to get more country support. Anyway, Last.fm is really well done. Played music off it all night. I was really impressed with with the amount & quality of content. Just wished it could be used outside the app.

As for media support, I'm fine with getting my movie & TV content just from Hulu & Netflix. However, I do like getting The Guild free from the Zune Marketplace. It's the only thing I download from there.

Facebook is kinda neat, but I've never really used it on the PC anyway. Might use it more on the Xbox just because of the simple interface & bigger focus on photos.

Twitter is great, but needs some additional tweeks & features to make me use it a lot more(access outside the app, tweets achiviements & games playing, etc). Most likely be using it when the wife is using the PC.

Not a bad update, but there are a lot of little things that need attention to make it more robust. It highly needs a "Favorites" custom menu in the Guide to allow you to put your Top 10 or so games & apps in. Would make it a lot easier to get to stuff.

Tommy McClain
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

BRiT
The Annual E3 Microsoft press conference thread, 2019 edition
8 9 10
Replies
191
Views
25K
eastmen
E
BRiT
The Annual E3 Microsoft press conference thread, 2018 edition
9 10 11
Replies
213
Views
26K
Silent_Buddha
S
A
Xbox One Insider Dashboard OS Previews [2016]
3 4 5
Replies
99
Views
25K
Cyan
Cyan
BRiT
The Annual E3 Microsoft press conference thread, 2015 edition
17 18 19
Replies
365
Views
31K
Jwm
J
BRiT
  • Locked
Microsoft Xbox E3 2013 Events - Xbox: A new Generation of Games Revealed
36 37 38
Replies
743
Views
101K
BRiT
BRiT
Back
Top