I have been privileged enough to have been selected for the Xbox 360 Dashboard Update preview program. This update is due to be rolled out on the 11th August to Xbox 360s when they next sign into Xbox Live.
The new update is no where near as radical as the last update, but does address a few minor niggling issues. The biggest area of change is in the systems settings, which have been simplified, and are now easier to use.
Community Games are now Indie Games, a much better name, as it gives a better indication of what they are, content can now be rated using a five-star system, and a little number appears in your profile, saying how many years you have been a Gold Member for, though mine only says 2 as I spent 3 months without Gold Status, otherwise I would have 6!
Games on Demand have been added to the Games Marketplace, where full Xbox 360 games will be available for download, the only games available at the moment are the classic original Xbox games, but soon the likes of Halo 3 and Assassins Creed will be available to purchase.
And for Avatar lovers, the Avatar Market place has been added, where you can buy Monkey Island themed stuff for your Avatars, and soon games will have unlockable Avatar items as well, so an option for this has been added.
My Xbox 360 also boots much faster now and takes a little less time to sign into Live, so there are obviously some under the bonnet changes as well. All in all this is an incremental update, but a good one with some notable performance improvements.
A new update is due later on this year which will add Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM to Xbox 360, and for Sky Subscribers, Sky Player will become available, and as a bonus to Sky Max Broadband customers and Multiroom subscribers, Live Sky TV will also be available, now that’s an update to look forward to!
Have Fun
Michael
(AKA Geordieracer82 on Xbox Live)
