News: Xbox 360 Dashboard update hands-on

Posted on 21. Oct, 2009 by Mark Cullinane in News, Xbox 360

One of the defining features of Microsoft’s approach to the Xbox 360 has been the company’s commitment to incrementally improve the console’s capabilities not via hardware upgrades but through firmware updates. This was most dramatically illustrated by last year’s comprehensive overhaul of the dashboard in the form of the New Xbox Experience, which brought a bevy of new features to the table, not least a brand-new interface, game installing, and avatars.

However, just about all of the low-hanging fruit must surely have been consumed by now. Just about all of the features that Xbox owners have been crying out for have long since been delivered. So what do you give the console that seems to have it all? Increased social network functionality is Microsoft’s answer. Thanks to Microsoft’s technical wizardry, I’ve been able to put the new update through its paces around a month in advance of its release to the general Xbox Live community.

And whilst integration of social networks du jour Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm seem like obvious additions (everybody’s doing it, innit?, I was left just a little underwhelmed by the implementation.

Ah, Facebook. Anything that brought Farmville to the world can’t be all that good.

Considering that the NXE interface was designed in order to promote what Microsoft amusingly described as “serendipitous discovery of content” (read: more ads), the decision to develop Twitter and Facebook solely as discrete applications rather than into the core dashboard infrastructure may have been a mistake.

The distinction between an on-dash Facebook and a separate app Facebook may be subtle, but having to go through a blank screen, followed by loading, followed by more loading when you close the app is probably more time consuming than it should be. And definitely not promoting serendipity.

Twitter is definitely quicker, but then you would expect that from what is essentially a glorified RSS feed. The functionality, however, is limited to seeing and updating your own latest update, as well as a very basic list of trending topics and your friends’ updates. Maybe we should be grateful for the basic functionality- especially in the wake of the  Uncharted 2’s Twitter-spam incident.

One glaringly obvious omission is the inability to update either your Facebook or Twitter status by accessing the Guide in-game. You need to go back to the dashboard and open the app.

Another problem is the awkward interface. NXE’s card-based window system, while perfectly sufficient for browsing a list of game downloads, is hardly ideal for displaying Facebook data.

If you’re looking for a bare-bones Facebook client, it does the job, certainly, but is more suited towards an idle occasional browse rather than a serious portal like you might find on your computer browser or even on a smartphone. One nice feature in Facebook is the ability to find which of your Facebook friends are on Xbox Live. Although, being your friends, you probably know if they’re on it already.

But even aside from these two issues, the elephant in the room is the PC. While Twitter and Facebook’s expansion into the mobile app market makes plenty of sense, the raison d’etre for a home console version is unclear. The Xbox controller is a far from ideal tool for text entry (unless you’ve got the chatpad accessory), the applications can’t be open alongside other games or services, and the functionality is basic in both cases. It all feels a bit unnecessary, frankly, and the way they’ve been bolted on to the dashboard rather than integrated into it seems to suggest that Microsoft agree.

Incidentally, I wasn’t able to try out the Last.fm functionality- it hasn’t been activated in the beta yet- at least, not in Ireland.

Disclaimer: This is not me. My life is far more interesting.

The Xbox Live social update extends beyond those three social networks, however: the revamp also brings with it enhancements to the console’s movie content delivery network, which, in a typically Microsoftian example of cross-platform brand pollination, is now called Zune. The press blurb promises not only a greater selection of movies, but “instant-on HD in 1080p and 5.1 channel surround sound”. Outrageously, it goes on to assert that there will be “…no waiting for downloads or buffering”. My 2MB internet connection begs to differ, Major Nelson.

Still, those of us blessed with superfast internet will be pleased to hear that the update also brings synchronised movie-viewing, replete with voice chat, so you and up to seven friends can simultaneously view a Zune movie whilst listening to each other’s heavy breathing. It’s the future, dear readers: get used to it.

Amongst the other, more minor bits of spring-cleaning included in the update is a dedicated music channel which includes ‘music stores’, or convenient shopfronts for all the DLC-centric music titles currently on the market.

So, that’s about it. There’s certainly nothing mindblowing in the social update, but it does mark another step in the path from games console to jack-of-all-trades media device that Microsoft has manfully been treading for years now.

Those of us who play videogames to escape the ever-increasing white noise of modern, perpetually-connected life, won’t be cock-a-hoop with the new social features of Xbox Live. Just as well that the additions are all entirely optional and free of charge.

The rest of us will give Microsoft their dues for once again being ahead of the posse when it comes to system functionality updates- and then shrug our collective shoulders and go back to Facebooking and Twittering on our phones and computers.