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New Xbox dashboard public preview program


Steve

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The new 360 dashboard comes out in the middle of November and looks like this: -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76M_Xb70DAQ

 

It adds a bunch of new features, including: -

 

Bing search (including voice search)

A YouTube app

Full voice control for all of the dashboard functions

Beacons - kinda like updated game invites

Cloud saving for gamertags and game saves

Xbox Live TV

 

Plus a few other bits and pieces.

 

MS are running a public preview of this update and if you want to get in on it, you can sign up here: -

 

https://connect.micr...=XBOX-JJH3-FPVG

 

EDIT - Sign-ups for the preview program are now closed. The update is supposedly out for everyone on November 15th though.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

is anyone having problems with netflix playback? i have had no issues with the new dashboard whatsoever, but whenever i try and watch a movie from netflix its very low quality and eventually loses connection causing me to have to reset my modem and router for the whole network.

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It does make more sense to switch the buttons around that the image Dirk posted is referencing. When you hold the controller, your thumb natural goes over the A and X buttons and so they should be mapped to tasks that are used more often. I would say that they got it wrong in the NXE dashboard and fixed it in this one personally. You quickly adapt to the change.

 

There are some things I don't like about this dashboard though: -

 

1. Games and videos are mixed together in the game sections of the Marketplace. That's dumb, as there's a dedicated videos/trailers section, so why put them in the games section as well?

 

2. There's no option to filter your games library by full 360/GoD games. There was in the previous dash and I used that quite often.

 

3. The music player is still so bare bones. All these years and there's still no fast forward/rewind options!

 

I like the apps, although we don't have access to many of them in the UK yet. So far I've got the DailyMotion and LoveFilm apps and both work great. You can get a free 30 day trial of LoveFilm here (UK only): -

 

http://www.lovefilm....tners/xbox.html

 

Don't forget to cancel before the 30 days is up if you don't like it though, or LoveFilm will start billing you. The cheapest package is £4.99 a month for unlimited streaming. Unfortunately, while the app is great, the selection of movies is not so brilliant and all of the content is in SD (they're supposed to be adding HD stuff "soon"), but it's worth trying out for a month for free.

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They added a couple more apps for beta testers: -

 

Muzu.TV - This is a free music video service. It's a bit like VidZone on the PS3, but it's not ad-supported. You can choose from 25 different genres of music and the interface is well laid out, although it seems that none of the vids are in HD. I think this is UK only.

 

YouTube - This is a really good app and far better than using a web browser, considering you're using a game controller and not a keyboard to navigate. You can sign into your YouTube account and pair it with the app to see all of your videos, playlists etc.. I think people will be really pleased with this one once it rolls out to non-beta users (which shouldn't take long).

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  • 3 weeks later...

After having it a while I really dislike the new version, the old one was much better IMO. The thing I hate the most is the big adverts right in the center of the home screen and then there's another little ad right next to it! You can see it's been designed for kinect control (like the massive art in "my games" that only shows 5 games at a time. The new game marketplace seems really hard to navigate as well. I've had my xbox since just after launch and always had it boot to the dash - I've changed it to boot to the game now as I dislike it that much.

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