Xbox Live UPDATE Preview?

Thoughts anyone? I got my email this morning and am switching the xbox on
Will report back soon..

Downloading now.

I got in

But my memory card has stopped working now .........

Ah bad times Marty!
Erm it's not bad all the additions work well- shame you can't have last.fm embedded into the guide, but works well nontheless!
Problem with facebook is there isn't a notification section- and the settings bit gives an error.
The Zune area doesn't seem to allow me to buy films despite fCt I watched a video that did...

All good stil! (on iPhone)

Originally Posted by MartyG I got in But my memory card has stopped working now .........

Is it a non microsoft memory unit if so it will never work again sorry mate

Utter bag of ----e if you ask me - no integration at all into the Xbox 360 guide is a real killer. I really can't understand why you'd bother taking the time to use this stuff given it isn't available off the guide, or linkable to the fiends list. The twitter stuff is the worst of all - not even counting how many characters you've spent for-bloody-ever on the virtual keyboard entering.

Did anyone else find the last.fm feed sounding really poor quality? It was like it was feeding at less than 128 kbps on my set up, I know I don't get that with the PC. This really needed to be streamed seemlessly in games and all as a custom soundtrack for it to be any use - I use my console mostly for playing games!

The only thing I thought, hmm, that's quite nice, is the picture browsing of FaceBook, that works quite well.

Overall though, this update takes away more worth than it introduces - that is third party memory support. Thankfully it seems my Xport device is stil working quite happily

Very very gimmicky I think.

The last.fm streaming for me is as good as PC quality. Sure, Facebook and Twitter are a "try once and never again" type thing unless you want to browse pictures on your TV say.
But Last.fm is definitely the best feature. I just wish you could stream it during games.

Marty, might be your setup, my Last.fm sounded great.
And it does suck about no integration so on the connect site, that was one of the suggestions I said

Definitely not my setup

I have a Sony reciever with some very nice Eltax speakers, and nicely wired too - I've had this setup for a long time and it is audio heaven - perhaps just a bad connection to last.fm, but I usually get 6 Mbs+ on my ADSL.

I submitted the feedback to MS too via the connect program, then had some ashat telling me it's a beta and I shouldn't be complaining ... even told me I should buy an iPhone if I wanted to tweet in game :/

Originally Posted by MartyG Definitely not my setup I have a Sony reciever with some very nice Eltax speakers, and nicely wired too - I've had this setup for a long time and it is audio heaven - perhaps just a bad connection to last.fm. I submitted the feedback to MS too via the connect program, then had some ashat telling me it's a beta and I shouldn't be complaining ... even told me I should buy an iPhone if I wanted to tweet in game :/

Someone from MS replied with that? Clearly they dont know what a beta is, its there to test for bugs and opinions.

No, don't think it was a MS person, the feedback comments go public to anyone in the preview program and anyone can reply, no option to submit privately that I can see - still and ashat though

Edit, This was it:

"its a beta, instead of complaining TBH this appears to be, with no positive points , why not add this 'why isnt there functionality whilst in game with twitter and FB?

and its tweeting

buy an itouch or ipod, thats how i tweet and fb whilst living daily life"

I submitted this:

----

The lack of integration at all into the Xbox 360 guide makes most of these features rather worthless (Twitter, Facebook, Last.Fm). I really can't understand why you'd take the time to use this stuff given it isn't available off the guide, or linkable to the fiends list, which makes it somewhat useless. The twitter stuff is the worst of all - not counting how many characters you've spent for-bloody-ever on the virtual keyboard left for entering in your update.

I also found the last.fm feed sounded poor quality wise. It was like it was feeding at less than 128 kbps on my set up, I know I don't get that with the PC with Last.fm or Spotify. To be of any real use this really needed to be streamed seemlessly in games and all as a custom soundtrack, or at least allowing you to navigate the rest of the dashboard, rather than be stuck in there.

The only thing I thought, hmm, that's quite nice, is the picture browsing of FaceBook, that works quite well.

Overall though, this update takes away more worth than it introduces - that is third party memory support, for which I am extemely angry. This come across purely as anti-competitive and greedy on Microsoft's part - excuses that it is for piracy or cheating reasons simply will not wash given that the official memory cards can be used in exactly the same way. Thankfully it seems my Xport device is stil working quite happily, allowing me to back up my saves that would struggle to fit on overpriced MS devices. You also seem quite happy to allow other "unathorized" 3rd party devices like the Turtle Beach headsets to continue to work - this is very hypocritical.

i wont be happy unless i can use facebook and the rest fromt the guide in game, espically last fm would be brillant for custom sound tracks

It simply doesn't work like that - you even have to download the applications for facebook and last.fm seperately.

MS really need to make the virtual keyboard QWERTY optional too, it drives me mad that Q is A.

Well to be honest guys I think its the best thing ever. I'm going to stop using the Xbox for games now and purely use it for Facebook and Twitter.

Maybe I'll get another Xbox and play games on that one. That way I can game and twitter at the same time!!

I couldn't actually see a way of creating a new account, meaning you'd need access via a PC before you could use these features - I was about to play devil's advocate and say, well, if you don't have a PC then this is a wedge into these services without having to fork out for a laptop or desktop.

So, yeah, meh - but happy to be corrected on this point - I may have just been a little bleh.

Excuse my ignorance, but where do you go to access FB, Twitter, Last.fm extra on the 360 interface?

Do I need to download anything from the Marketplace, or has it been pulled for the time being?

You need to become part of the Beta which happened a few weeks ago. Only chance now is waiting for the full release on November 17th.

Originally Posted by MartyG MS really need to make the virtual keyboard QWERTY optional too, it drives me mad that Q is A.

It turns out that there is a way to make the keyboard QWERTY - but it's hidden away down in the language options and you need to drill right down a number of times to find it - you'd have though it would have been made quick switchable from the keyboard screen itself.

I have the update and to be honest i havent used any of its features yet, specially when i have my ipod touch with me.
And amazing my hard drive still works! I origionally had a 20gb hard drive but with the previous update i needed more room to download games and i wasnt paying 100 quid, so my cousin changed the hard drive inside with another westgate laptop hard drive and downloaded some files and whatnot, transferred save data and voila!
So glad it still works though, ive your willing to invest a lot of time and effort, and a bit of cash for a laptop hard drive, well worth a go, like i says, mine still works

For the moment, until MS find an excuse to cripple those too, and assuming they're able to differentiate them.

I haven't used the new features since the first time I took a look, though I did quite like the album photo browsing on Facebook.

Originally Posted by MartyG For the moment, until MS find an excuse to cripple those too, and assuming they're able to differentiate them. I haven't used the new features since the first time I took a look, though I did quite like the album photo browsing on Facebook.

Well the excuse would be that they are against the Live ToS I would assume. They would class it as a 'modified device'. So I would say they can't differentiate between real and fake or else they would have done something by now.

they can tell