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Last.fm on XBL: free to gold subscribers, 3 hours per month for others

by Kevin Kelly { Jun 30th 2009 at 7:45PM }

Microsoft announced at their E3 keynote last month that Last.fm would be coming to Xbox Live. We're working on an interview with key players at both Last.fm and Microsoft to bring you more details about the collaboration soon. However, we can share one tidbit: today we spoke with Christina DeRosa, a general manager for XBL, and she let us know who the service will be available to.

"Silver users will be able access what we're considering a trial period of three hours a month, which comes with video advertising. Gold users will have unlimited ad-supported access, so they can use it 24 hours a day. There will also be a premium offering on a subscription basis from Last.fm, that will be commercial free and will also have more sophisticated personalization features, like Loved Tracks."

Last.fm's subscription prices are currently $3.00 US (€3 EU or £3 GBP) per month, so you'll have to shell out an additional $36 a year if you want to avoid the ads and have full access to their service. You'll also need a Last.fm account, in case you haven't set one up already. Luckily, that part is free.

Gallery: Last.fm (Xbox 360)

Major Nelson: Xbox 360 guide faster after next update

by Justin McElroy { Jun 22nd 2009 at 1:45PM }

Oh, you thought NXE was the last dashboard update you'd be able to sink you mitts into? No dice. Xbox Live spokesman Major Nelson said on his show this week that the next update for the 360 would increase the speed of the guide. "Whatever we call it (and it's not going to be called the NNXE), but whatever the next version of the dashboard is called, it's better with a lot of very cool new features," he said. "That update will be out later this year."

We haven't talked about this sort of thing in a while, so we're curious: What updates would you still like to see to the dashboard?

[Via CVG]

Job listing suggests Microsoft working on 300K-player game

by Majed Athab { May 30th 2009 at 5:00AM }

A job listing found on both Gamasutra and Microsoft's careers website is seeking out an engineer to work on a "game" that will support up to "300,000 players in real-time." The job ad states that Microsoft is working on "building an extremely high performance system to extend console games to the server in new ways" and that it's "creating a completely new set of web services" for Xbox Live and Xbox.com integration.

It sounds to us like Microsoft is planning to overhaul the Dashboard and Xbox Live service and combine it with an MMO-like system (given the 300K-player support). Or, it could be building a separate virtual world interface like Sony's PlayStation Home. What do you think Microsoft could be working on?

[Via CVG]

Mysterious dash update released. It's a mystery

by Dustin Burg { Jan 16th 2009 at 12:01AM }

A handful of loyal X3F fanboys just sent word (via carrier pigeon, no less) that a new Xbox 360 dashboard update has just been released. The update installs the new dashboard version 2.0.7363.0 (replacing the old 2.0.7357.0 version) and has been slowly releasing across all consoles connected to Xbox Live. Here at Fanboy Towers, we have yet to be prompted to download the new update. We are sad.

So, what new bells and whistles does the new dash update bring? Well ... we aren't really sure and nobody at Microsoft has announced the update's release. Those who have received it haven't been able to find anything new, so we're speculating that it's one of those behind the scenes / no new features dash upgrades. We'll keep you updated on the update once we're updated.

[Thanks, to everyone who sent this in]

Dashboard ad: New Xbox Experience coming in November [update]

by Justin McElroy { Sep 24th 2008 at 11:50AM }

As good as Microsoft may be at keeping secrets, the irascible dashboard just can't seem to keep its e-mouth shut. Reader Dusty just learned this first hand when a dashboard ad for an upcoming Rock Band 2 event proclaimed "Check out the New Xbox Experience coming in November!"

Now, the common man would think "Hey, I bet the New Xbox Experience is coming in November." But we savvy bloggers have learned that, often as not, the dashboard is just making crap up. We'll do a bit of digging and see what we can find.

[Update: Just got this from Microsoft: We're happy to see the excitement around the New Xbox Experience, but we haven't announced a specific release date. The New Xbox Experience will be released before the end of the year, and we will have more details soon!]

Gallery: New Xbox Experience

Video: Creating an Xbox 360 Avatar

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Sep 19th 2008 at 4:45PM }

Xbox Live's Major Nelson has posted a new video, showing just how we'll go about creating tiny, polygonal and considerably more handsome versions of ourselves when the New Xbox Experience (that's fancy for "dashboard update") arrives this Fall. If you've been wondering how you'll outfit your Avatar with virtua-threads or which button elicits a burp (yes, really), peer past the break.

Of course, if you're the impatient type and just want to get back to your space mareenz, you can skip the whole process by simply selecting a random Avatar. Just don't blame us if you wind up as Shane Kim.

Gallery: New Xbox Experience

Continued →

New Xbox Experience: 'Games Played' changes detailed

by Randy Nelson { Sep 12th 2008 at 7:00PM }

click to enlarge

Microsoft's own Gamerscore Blog is kicking off what it hopes will be a weekly series of New Xbox Experience primers leading up to the new dash's "late fall" release. For the first installment, the crew chose to focus on the newly revamped Games Played tracker, and what exactly makes it worthy of being part of a new experience.

As it's explained, selecting your Gamercard now displays a series of subsequent Games Played "slides" behind it, which you can fan through. The first card focuses on every game you've ever fired up on your console. It displays your current Gamerscore and the maximum possible Gamerscore you could hope to earn by unlocking every Achievement in every game you've played. Similarly, it displays the current number of Achievements you've unlocked out of the total number available in all the games you've played.

Subsequent slides focus specifically on single games, with similar Gamerscore and Achievement tallies just for them. Your most recent Achievements in each game are also displayed. The Gamerscore team says that if you've played 500 games, there will be 500 individual Games Played slides; let's hope there's an equally clever system for quickly sorting through them all.

Gallery: New Xbox Experience

360 system update goes live, new features don't

by Justin McElroy { Aug 6th 2008 at 8:30AM }

Most of our posts are based around whipping you into a frenzy about some product (any one will do) so you'll go out and buy, buy, buy, shooting some much-needed muscle juice into our flagging economy. We do this because 1. We're incredibly patriotic and 2. We need Uncle Sam to keep turning a blind eye to the tens of millions of dollars we've hidden away in offshore companies all over the globe.

But today we're actually trying to brace you for a disappointment: When you boot up your 360 today, Major Nelson tells us there's going to be a new system update. But, he adds, it does absolutely nothing. Well, it "prepares for future growth of the service," whatever that means. Sorry to be the bearers of bad news, we just didn't want to see your get your heart broken. Hey, maybe you could cheer yourself up with some spending? That always helps us.

Xbox 360 Avatars only in 'E' titles

by Justin McElroy { Aug 5th 2008 at 11:00AM }

Those among us who were less than thrilled at Microsoft's Mii Too avatars being integrated into the 360 dashboard had one modicum of comfort: That some day we would be able to find the overly-cutesy house they lived in in Grand Theft Auto V and murder them with a baseball bat ... until they died from it.

Sadly, it appears we won't be getting that chance. Speaking at Microsoft's Gamefest event, Xbox Live GM Eric Kilgore [/irony] said, "the final guide we have this year is to think of them in an 'E10' context. That doesn't mean it won't change – but this fall they won't be able to blow each other's heads off." Their heads don't explode, and our hearts break. We hope you're happy now, Microsoft.

Rumor: New Xbox 360 dashboard leaked

by Ross Miller { Jul 28th 2008 at 1:30PM }

Although we don't have a released date for the New Xbox Experience (i.e. the completely revamped Xbox 360 dashboard), the update has purportedly leaked onto the interwebs, and Xbox 360 modder xHaVoK87 has chronicled his efforts to install the new dashboard onto his modded console (note: so far it only works on hardware-modded Xbox 360s).

There's a handful of videos to show the installation process (embedded after the break), as well as one of the working dashboard (seen above). Despite all the footage and technical lingo, we remain, as always, skeptical. According to the posting, "Beta Stage 2 Release" is coming in mid-August.

[Via Xbox360Emu]

Continued →

Video: New Xbox 360 Dash leaked early

by Richard Mitchell { Jul 28th 2008 at 12:05PM }

"Who cares? I already saw the new dashboard at E3," you say. Understandable, but there is something magical about someone snagging the new dashboard early and uploading a shaky-cam video to YouTube for all the world to see. Even better, we get to see a few areas of the new dash that weren't on display at E3. That means you get the thrill of looking at the settings tab! One last thing: apparently it's possible for anyone to get their hands on the update right now, though it does require a modded Xbox. We're not suggesting anyone do that, of course.

[Via Engadget. Thanks, Tyler]

New Xbox Experience gets clarified by the Major

by Xav de Matos { Jul 21st 2008 at 12:00PM }

Last week we tried to answer your questions regarding the New Xbox Experience, but you still have concerns. Valid ones at that. What's the deal with these Avatar things? They are so not 1337. Will we be forced to install games to the harddrive? But we don't want to lose one of our PS3 laughing points! Thanks to Major Nelson's latest podcast some of those concerns are cleared up.

Addressing the two concerns above, Major assures Xbox 360 owners that they won't have to create an Avatar and that installing Xbox 360 titles will never be a requirement. Color us relieved so far. For more details and answers to your questions make sure to check out Major's latest episode.

[via Joystiq]

Gallery: New Xbox Experience

Almost everything you want to know about the New Xbox Experience

by Xav de Matos { Jul 18th 2008 at 4:00PM }

Looking for simple answers to your Xbox 360 dashboard redesign questions? Here are a few points to take away from the new Xbox experience:

"There's nothing to announce" right now regarding a keyword search for the Marketplace. We hope for some kind of searching option or a better layout for content
Playing games from the hard drive will work fine for multi-disc games; in fact, you can pick which discs you want to rip (but a disc swap for the correct disc in the drive is required)
As an example, Joystiq was told that Devil May Cry 4 is approximately a 4 or 5GB installation and takes about 10 minutes to copy onto a harddive: PS3 installation is roughly 18-25 mins
You'll need to keep the disc in the drive the entire time. This is about speeding up load times and to check if you own the title -- the disc will not spin so no more jet noises
Xbox 360 notifications look the same but are actually very cleaned up and look sharper -- the sounds are all the same
Yes, you can still use your gamertag pics and your themes (they look cleaner and more crisp now, an example of what it could look like is above) -- example of a gamerpic in action is in the top right corner of the image above

Gallery: New Xbox Experience

Continued →

Purchased themes will work with New Xbox Experience

by Randy Nelson { Jul 17th 2008 at 8:30PM }

Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has settled it. "It" being the question of whether Xbox 360 Dashboard themes downloaded (and even purchased) before the upcoming New Xbox Experience rolls out later this year will be rendered useless with the switch to a different UI. The answer's a welcome one: they'll work just fine with the new Apple TV-esque interface.

To (literally) illustrate the point, Major Nelson uploaded images of the NXE with an existing theme applied to his flickr gallery. It isn't explicitly stated in the accompanying captions, but we'd venture a guess that the background image will change as you page through the new category "frames." With this mystery solved, you can now go back to complaining about all of the things you actually wasted money on.

[Via X3F]

Video walkthrough: the new Xbox 360 Dashboard

by Randy Nelson { Jul 16th 2008 at 2:30PM }

GameTrailers has posted a very nice direct-feed walkthrough of the new ~~Apple TV~~ Xbox 360 Dashboard refresh, "hosted" by Xbox Live chief of staff Steve Willett. Every little detail is covered, including the new Guide, which looks like a super-condensed, zippy way to navigate all of the Dashboard features introduced since the system's launch. That includes everything from the games library to viewing active downloads. We like what we've seen so far, although it's a far cry from what some people were hoping for.