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Reminder: Xbox 360 Twitter, Last.fm And Zune Video Live Today

John Herrman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:33:36 +0000

Today is the day, people! The day that your Xbox 360 will prompt you for a dashboard update, so you can awkwardly Twitter from your console and listen to Last.fm radio! And a few more things.

The update should propagate sometime today, but if your Xbox hasn’t given you the good news yet, here’s what you’re in for:

•Facebook – Update your status to share what movie, game or entertainment you’re enjoying, connect with friends and view their Facebook stream, status updates and photos on the big screen – all seamlessly integrated and custom-built for Xbox 360. You can even compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends lists to see which of your friends are on LIVE.
• Zune – Zune video on Xbox LIVE offers a full fidelity experience with instant on HD in 1080p and 5.1 channel surround sound. No waiting for downloads or buffering, it’s there at the press of a button. You can also share the experience with up to seven friends through voice chat and Avatar integration on the TV screen – it puts a whole new spin on “movie night.”
• Twitter – Stay in the know by discovering, posting and replying to Tweets right on your Xbox 360. You can even view friend profiles, trends and conversations, or search to see who’s tweeting about your favourite game.
• Last.fm – Discover more music and explore endless personalised radio stations with Last.fm on Xbox 360. Skip, “ban” or “love” tracks to create your perfect mix-we’ve even built in “Gamer Stations” with game-related types of music selected specifically for the gaming community (Available in the U.S. and UK)

In addition to these social features, Xbox LIVE will also be debuting “News and More,” a new section of the “Inside Xbox” channel, transforming Xbox LIVE into a full-fledged media portal. With a regularly-updated stream of content from MSNBC, The New Yorker and Dilbert, “News and More” brings the latest in current events, arts and entertainment right to your fingertips.

Verizon Launches Dashboard Flash-Based Mobile Storefront

Sean Fallon — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:40:00 +0000

Verizon has quietly gone live with their new Dashboard flash-based mobile storefront. So far, the app is only available on the LG Chocolate 3, but more phones are expected to be added by the end of the year. That would make it one of the largest implementations of Adobe’s flash in the US. The service will allow users access to widgets that function as most widgets do—offering up easy access to news, weather and entertainment. If only the iPhone would get on the Flash bandwagon. [Washington Post]

Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard Update Comes in November

Jason Chen — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:20:00 +0000

Microsoft’s just gone on the record with RPG-TV and said the Fall Xbox 360 Dashboard Update will be hitting in November, which technically is still a part of Fall. Previous updates have also been released in late November (as close to Winter as you could push it while still being Autumn), but all those new features coming this time might be cause for delay, even though they skipped the Spring update for this reason. Seriously Microsoft, will we have to wait another three months to get the ability to make a little avatar that looks like ourselves? You’re forcing us to turn on our Wiis? [RPG TV via Kotaku]

New Xbox 360 Dashboard Experience Installable On Hacked Xbox 360s

Jason Chen — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:41:10 +0000

Some leaky monkey at or near Microsoft has just dumped the new Xbox 360 Dashboard “Experience”, also known as the fall update, onto the internet. For most of us, this means that that we’ve got new videos like the one above that illustrate some of the features we didn’t get to see at E3. For people who have a hacked Xbox 360, it means they can actually install this and try it out for themselves, but risk brickage in the process. This reminds us of the story of the tortoise and the hare, except instead of animals you have super nerds that want to install stuff months too early. [Xhavok87 via Xbox Scene]

Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard Update Details

Jason Chen — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:16:04 +0000

Here’s what we just learned from Microsoft in their round table discussion on Xbox Live and the new Dashboard. First, the impetus for re-designing the dash was that the current content navigation is too difficult. They only planned on a couple hundred/thousand items, but they currently have 20,000+ pieces of content in their marketplace. There needed to be a change, and the change is the streamlined dash. Here’s what else we found.

• There might not be any de-listing of content from the marketplace now. MIGHT. Microsoft says they haven’t de-listed anything “yet”, and the whole point of the new dash is to make things easier to find—the problem that de-listing games was going to solve.
• Playing from the hard drive still requires games to be in the drive while you play, which means you can’t just load all your games onto your Xbox and swap games from your couch.
• Hard drive gaming is mostly for saving load times.

• The current blade-based dash design still exists inside the Guide, and they’ve ported a lot of the current dash features there so you can actually access much of it from inside games. No browsing marketplace though.
• The new dashboard is fast and fluid, getting rid of the delays that come up when you’re switching blades (occasionally) and loading up the thumbnails of your XBLA games. There’s also an Apple TV-like reflection under each icon representing games, and the whole thing looks vaguely Cover Flow-like.
• There’s a new Quick Launch feature from the Guide (the thing that pops up when you click the Xbox button on your controller) that lets you switch to any game you currently have installed. XBLA games or retail (if the disc is in your drive).
• Avatars will be used in XBLA games, Xbox 360 retail games and Xbox Primetime games.
• Avatars will be available for everyone, even Xbox Live Silver members. If you don’t like them, you can still use gamerpics instead.
• “Primetime” games are like gameshows and will be more of a streamed experience rather than a boxed game or an XBLA game. It’s a third type of game on the Xbox.
• All of the marketplace content will be listed on xbox.com so you can browse and queue up downloads for them to your Xbox. If your console is on, it seems like stuff is downloaded as you add them to your queue.
• The 8-people party system lets you basically chat with all your friends no matter where you are in any game, and then be able to drag each one through games with you. People who don’t have the game the party leader loaded will get a screen telling them to go buy it.

Old School Digital Car Dashboard Roundup Is an LED Light Show

Jason Chen — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:40:00 +0000

Motive mag takes a look at the digital dashboards of the 1980s; a time where men were men and electronic car computer technology barely made anything fancier than some green LEDs. Despite this handicap, auto manufacturers came up with some fancy displays, as typified by this predecessor to my own 350Z, a Nissan 300ZX Turbo. Man, we’d like to see more of this kind of digital Knight Rider-esque readout in modern cars, but we have a feeling that the tach on the Prius would look pretty pitiful. [Motive Mag]

Take Your In-dash Satnav With You Thanks To Pioneer

Nick Broughall — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:36:49 +0000

Pioneer have announced that they can kick it with the big boys when it comes to satnav, thanks to their new AVIC-F500BT. It’s an in-dash unit – complete with all the power options and amplifier that comes with in-dash satnavs – that can be popped out and used as a portable unit whenever you wish.

So, ultimately, it’s the holy grail of satnavs. When it’s in your car’s dash, you can use it not only as a satnav, but as a control system for your iPod, MP3 player, Bluetooth handsfree kit and, with the right connections, even as a screen for an installed reverse camera.

When you pop it out, you get to take the latest version of Where is mapping on the 5.8-inch screen anywhere you wish, including other vehicles. The text-to-speech navigation is also available in portable mode.

The entire setup can be installed in practically any car, and will be launching in Australia at the end of Autumn. There’s no word on pricing just yet, but don’t expect it to be sub $1,000.

Knight Rider iPhone-Inspired Interior Officially Revealed

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:20:33 +0000

The new KITT’s dashboard has been officially revealed, confirming the previously leaked image (in high resolution after the jump, along with a gratuitous—but necessary—photo of the new car and the Hoff at the Playboy Mansion) and Knight Rider’s producer David Bartis’ words about the interior design’s similarities with the iPhone:

You look at the iPhone and you go—thats the coolest phone out there. It’s just a flat screen that you can touch and access anything. So the iPhone interface was actually a big inspiration for the way the interior of this car would look because its very simple, it’s very streamlined, it’s very clean.

Looks like Bartis is right: aluminum on leather, check. Touchscreen, check. Glossy surfaces, check. Simplicity, check. Almost no knobs, except the new driver, who makes the Hoff looks like Olivier, Marlon Brando, Pacino and DeNiro combined, check. Voice spectrometer that look like an iTunes’s visualiser? Check. Apple Bluetooth keyboard? Not checked, but looks like it. What do you think? Is it really iPhone-inspired?

[Net Car Show, Knight Rider Online, Shadow Flight and io9]

Google Gadgets For Dashboard Available Now, Fairly Unnecessary

Jason Chen — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:00:13 +0000

The Google Gadgets Dashboard integration we told you about yesterday is here, but the bad news is that you’ll need to install Google Desktop to use it. With Spotlight, (pretty great) Widgets, and other applications already native to OS X, is there really a need for Google Desktop just to use Google Gadgets? If you just want that functionality, you can actually get it separately as well. But if you swear by Google as a platform, check out the video to see what you’re getting. [Google]

Google Gadgets Getting OS X Dashboard Compatibility Tomorrow

Jason Chen — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:30:05 +0000

Google Gadgets, the widget-like plug-ins for your Google start page, is getting a huge port onto the Apple Dashboard platform starting tomorrow. G-Gadgets are nice, and actually have been port-able onto the Dashboard using another widget for a while now, but official support is always welcome. Google slobberers will definitely be happy, but Apple slobberers will probably just throw up a collective “meh.” [MacWorld]