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Xbox 360 dashboard update goes live in U.K.

by Steven Williamson on 1 November 2010, 13:53

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa2sl

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Boot up your Xbox 360 dashboard this morning and you’ll discover a new update. It takes around 5 minutes to install and, in Microsoft’s words, "enhances the interface, navigation, and responsiveness" of the console.

After installation, you need to watch an introduction to the dashboard, which is obviously aimed toward any new Xbox 360 owners who have purchased the console for Kinect, which launches in little over a week’s time.

The dashboard has a much crisper and less cluttered look that makes navigation simpler and along with adding Kinect compatibility brings with it a few enchancements, including improvement to voice control. The major new feature, however, is the introduction of the Zune Marketplace which you'll need to download to access. Alongside movies, you can stream music videos through the Xbox 360 from the likes of Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.

For anyone who's somehow managed to avoid all the Kinect advertising, the new peripheral launches in the U.K. on November 10, 2010.


HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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Posted by Mike Fishcake - Mon 01 Nov 2010 21:49
Anyone else having issues with the update?

No response from anything - the system itself appeared to freeze. Using internet connection on the PC happily, but nothing happening on the xbox. Was stuck on the screen for about 15 minutes, locked up. The B button to cancel the update did nothing, and the clock stuck on 20.36 until I just thought “oh sod it” and turned it off, despite the warning. Running on a 360S 250GB.
Posted by Terbinator - Mon 01 Nov 2010 22:02
My non-slim upgraded fine, then again that was this morning when the servers weren't being butt burgled.
Posted by atmadden - Mon 01 Nov 2010 22:30
Went ok for me to very uninspiring update
Posted by BlackDwarf - Mon 01 Nov 2010 22:54
It's not supposed to be the same ‘Wow!’ dash update like from the blades to the NXE (I sometimes miss the blades).

I think it's nice. Sharp, more focused, easier to find what you want.
Posted by crossy - Tue 02 Nov 2010 09:17
Mike Fishcake;1999180
Anyone else having issues with the update?
I updated last night (Monday) at around 8pm and wasn't that impressed - the update process lost my internet connection initially (the “Can't connect to XBoxLive” message when trying to download the update) and I had to retry, after which it worked. Update seemed to be much slower than the (bigger?) NXE update. Like you, I've got one of those new-fangled “slim” XB's rather than the older “white box” that I had previously.
Alongside movies, you can stream music videos through the Xbox 360 from the likes of Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.
Well, there's a good reason to trade the XBox in for a PS3! :surprised:
It takes around 5 minutes to install and, in Microsoft’s words, “enhances the interface, navigation, and responsiveness” of the console.
Nah, mine took longer than five minutes to install. And I'll certainly disagree strongly with the responsiveness “enhancement” - sure, it seems slightly zippier to switch from heading to heading, but download/installs are a lot slower - at least based on the limited tests I did last night.

I downloaded PinballFX2 last night (I've already got v1, so it seemed like a good idea for a free upgrade) and the download process seemed to take an age to get to the point where it actually popped up the downloading bar. And even when the bar came up (finally!) it seemed to take an age to actually get started. Downloading the tables (some of them <1MB) also took an age, and in two cases the XBox locked up and had to be cold-started.

Yes, I realise that some of this could be the load on XBL because of having to serve the update to folks, and maybe the rest is down to PinballFX2 being buggy. But on the experience so far, I'm unimpressed.
brings with it a few enchancements, including improvement to voice control
Voice control? For Kinect only presumably - although the :geek: in me just loves the idea of being able to do "play dvd movie … skip to chapter 2" etc. Should be fun to see what Kinect can actually do “out of the box” (i.e. to the normal XBox features) when it hits the streets next week.

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