Microsoft announced today that they will be releasing yet another new dashboard, this fall. Images of the dashboard are included below, and you can see that it has a pretty big resemblance to the WP7 interface. It features the same style ‘panels’, and has different tab for all your Xboxing needs. In addition, it will have complete Kinect functionality, so you can navigate with your hands, or just your voice.
Microsoft also revealed that they will be adding three new services to the dashboard
- Youtube on your dashboard – Allowing you to browse and watch all and any videos you please. This will be a welcomed feature to the dashboard, and it is a damn good idea. Helping the Xbox turn itself into an entertainment system, and appealing to a larger audience.
- Live TV – Expanding on the ‘on-demand’ services that are already present, the new dashboard will allow you to watch live TV. Microsoft said this will be available in all countries, not just US, like Netflix etc., as they partner with companies like Sky. It’s unclear whether this will require another paid subscription, but again, it shows Microsoft are trying to appeal to a larger audience, and transform the 360 into an entertainment system.
- Bing Xbox Search – Bing on the Xbox is not as you expect, so don’t get too excited for a web browser. However, it’s still a pretty neat feature. Bing allows you to type in anything, and search everything Xbox for it. For example, we were shown searching X-Men. The search found all X-Men games, XBLA games, videos, themes etc. So this could come in quite handy for finding something you like, and wonder if it’s on Xbox in some form.
The new dashboard will drop Fall 2011, but expect a beta test before then. I look forward to it.
