The Xbox 360 Spring Update brings a range of great new features to the dashboard, topping the list is access to Windows Live Messenger.
From the week beginning 7 May you can chat via Xbox 360 to friends and family using Windows-based PCs and Windows-based mobile devices. Text chat is possible with up to six people at once, bringing together your Windows Live Messenger contacts and
Xbox LIVE friends. You can also check if your existing Windows Live Messenger contacts have Gamertags. All this can be done while playing a game, watching a movie or listening to music.
To help with your text chatting, this summer Microsoft will make available an ingenious QWERTY text-input device that clips to the Xbox 360 controller. Not even Joanna Dark has one of those (at least as far as we know). Family settings for
Xbox LIVE have been enhanced to enable various defaults for video chat and voice chat.
During gameplay the Achievement notifications now include Gamerscore value alongside the name as part of the description. Speedier access is granted to
Xbox LIVE Marketplace too, which now has a blade of its own. While downloading video, you can fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume. If you’ve plenty of downloads lined up, your Xbox 360 can power down automatically when all downloads are complete. Auto Downloads also provide faster access to trial-version
Xbox LIVE Arcade games.
LIVE Arcade will offer more competitive fun too, starting with the ability to see which games friends are playing and maybe join them. Leaderboard standings and Achievements can be compared with everyone on your friends list. Tell a Friend has been enhanced to extend your bragging potential!
So, a pretty terrific Spring Update even if we say so ourselves and available free via
Xbox LIVE the week beginning 7 May.
