Xbox 360 Update Released; Adds Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM

[modeps]

Major Nelson (http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/11/17/xbox-360-system-update-now-available-twitter-facebook-zune-video-and-last-fm.aspx) posted a little while ago that the new Xbox 360 update is now available for everyone in the world. It's an automatic update when you connect to Xbox Live and provides some new features like a Facebook application, a Twitter application, and a Last.FM application (none of which can be used while actually playing games).

We’ve just released the latest new features for your Xbox 360. In case you’ve been off the grid for the past few months and don’t know what is in this update, allow me to give you the some of the highlights: Facebook, Zune Video, Twitter and Last.FM. Here is how to find ‘em: Facebook and Twitter will appear automatically on your dashboard in the new My Community channel, Zune Video is in the Video Channel and Last.FM will be found under the Music Channel.

Assuming you have the latest Xbox 360 system update from Xbox LIVE, these new features will automatically appear sometime over the next few hours. Availability of these features will vary by region.

[Fyd]

Automatic update? i had to download myself the software from the dashboard

[gzsfrk]

Now everyone else gets to experience the lackluster FB and Twitter implementations! Yay!

Fortunately, with the PS3 rolling out its own FB support, that will hopefully prod MS into going beyond the half-assed attempt they put out with this update.

[thejeromer]

Has anyone found if last.fm is available for Canadian Live accounts?

[modeps]

Now everyone else gets to experience the lackluster FB and Twitter implementations! Yay!

Fortunately, with the PS3 rolling out its own FB support, that will hopefully prod MS into going beyond the half-assed attempt they put out with this update.

The Facebook integration with PS3 actually auto updates your FB status... which can be annoying but at least the option is there, unlike on the 360.

[Fyd]

i havent lastfm

[gzsfrk]

i havent lastfm

That's a shame. Last.fm was the one feature added with this update that I really liked.

[gzsfrk]

The Facebook integration with PS3 actually auto updates your FB status... which can be annoying but at least the option is there, unlike on the 360.

Yeah, hopefully the PS3 version will allow you to specify which events you want to auto-post to FB. For example, I wouldn't want it to post everytime I pop in a game, but it might be cool to have it post every time you unlock a trophy, or beat a game, or won a match in a multiplayer game.

Surely they'll let you set filters for the kinds of stuff that auto-posts, right? Or is it likely to just be an on/off switch?

[Johan]

Is this the update that makes console owners less retarded? ;)

I kid, I kid. I own a console, a handheld, and a PC for gaming. Platform agnostic here.

[gzsfrk]

Is this the update that makes console owners less retarded? ;)

I kid, I kid. I own a console, a handheld, and a PC for gaming. Platform agnostic here.

You're either agnostic or self-loathing. Actually, the self-loathing option would explain all that bitterness and cynicism you so frequently exhibit. :p

[Johan]

You're either agnostic or self-loathing.

Oh, I'm just "loathing." It's not about "self" at all. I like to think of others first. If I have time, I'll loathe myself later.

Fortunately, with the PS3 rolling out its own FB support, that will hopefully prod MS into going beyond the half-assed attempt they put out with this update.

I've heard that there is a fully-implemented source for FB features. Don't tell anyone, but I'll point you in its direction.

:PC: ;)

[caenelgren]

I hate to sound like a noob but has anyone found a way to make the video browser more like what it was before the update? For example, I normally download a decent number of game videos for previews or episodes of The Guild and will keep ones I like on my hard drive a little longer. However, with the new update to "Zune Video" the video browser takes the form of the video marketplace. I get tabs for "All," "Movies," "TV,", "Music Videos," and "Game Videos." The annoying part about this is that these tabs are showing me the entire history of videos I have ever watched/downloaded on Xbox Live and my Zune software. This means scrolling down through my "All" tab forces me to go past videos I may have downloaded and hated, or things that I downloaded once with no intention to watch again. It also means I have no idea if it's a video I have actually saved to my hard drive or if it's something I will need to stream/re-download since some of the videos were older and I would have to both remember what I have saved and scroll past dozens of things I have not.

If there's no way to modify this then I think it's a horrible change to the video browser. The new episode of The Guild doesn't show up on any tab other than "All" for instance without finding its sub-category under "TV", and I'm not interested in having to scroll through videos I downloaded during ComicCon and no longer have on my hard drive to get to my copy of Dr Horrible under the "TV" tab.

If anyone has any input on how to improve this it would be very much appreciated. I haven't even checked out the other updates yet since the first thing I did was download some game videos to watch with the girlfriend when she comes home.

[gzsfrk]

I've heard that there is a fully-implemented source for FB features. Don't tell anyone, but I'll point you in its direction.

:PC: ;)

Oh, don't misunderstand. I have no interest in having features already present on the web browser version of FaceBook added to the 360 FB implementation. What I wanted were features that leveraged both systems to do things you couldn't before:

Being able to post in-game screenshots from whatever game you're playing directly to your FB profile
Having an FB auto-update posted whenever I unlock an achievement, improve my ranking on a leaderboard, or win a multiplayer match.
Making FB chat available through the Guide button interface
Of course, that's just a few of my wish list items from the FaceBook side. There's several other obvious things they should have done with Twitter and Last.fm as well, but I won't go into those here.

[automaton]

Yeah, hopefully the PS3 version will allow you to specify which events you want to auto-post to FB. For example, I wouldn't want it to post everytime I pop in a game, but it might be cool to have it post every time you unlock a trophy, or beat a game, or won a match in a multiplayer game.

That would actually be the opposite of cool. I would mute a friend immediately if their FB status updates recorded their video game accomplishments. I want to know what my friends have to SAY, not automated crap spamming up my news feed.

[gzsfrk]

That would actually be the opposite of cool. I would mute a friend immediately if their FB status updates recorded their video game accomplishments. I want to know what my friends have to SAY, not automated crap spamming up my news feed.

What's the point of achievements or trophies, then? Isn't the whole purpose behind them to let people see what games you've played and what goals you've achieved in them?

Sure, not everyone would want that showing up in their FB, so it should be like any other application updates you can hide (Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc.). But I for one would actually leave that one enabled, since it's actually interesting to me to see what my friends are playing and what goals they've recently accomplished.

[Kragg]

What's the point of achievements or trophies, then? Isn't the whole purpose behind them to let people see what games you've played and what goals you've achieved in them?

Sure, not everyone would want that showing up in their FB, so it should be like any other application updates you can hide (Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc.). But I for one would actually leave that one enabled, since it's actually interesting to me to see what my friends are playing and what goals they've recently accomplished.

It still irks me that Microsoft didn't implement something along those lines after there has been a 3rd party FB app for 360 which does this exact thing (as well as the Raptr IM client if you link it to FB) for easily over a year now. Seems like they set it up to do pretty much everything EXCEPT have some kind of unique integration.

[spdiscus]

Does this include the official move to the Zune store? I really hate it so far in the beta version I'm running.

[spdiscus]

To expand on the Zune marketplace complaint:
I have a tough time telling what I've already downloaded, and I can't delete items. Using The Guild as an example, with the old marketplace only two or three showed up - the few that were resident on my drive. With the new marketplace, all three seasons show up, and I have to fish through for a new one I haven't watched. It's also tough to tell what I've already downloaded and what is new.

[shadow763]

I want to know what my friends have to SAY, not automated crap spamming up my news feed.

Most of the stuff the people I know say stuff I would consider stupid, or maybe unimportant is a better word. Unless your friends are genius' or are curing cancer, I doubt its any better.

[bowie]

Yeah, hopefully the PS3 version will allow you to specify which events you want to auto-post to FB. For example, I wouldn't want it to post everytime I pop in a game, but it might be cool to have it post every time you unlock a trophy, or beat a game, or won a match in a multiplayer game.

Surely they'll let you set filters for the kinds of stuff that auto-posts, right? Or is it likely to just be an on/off switch?

The video going around shows some of this. The PS3 will auto update, subject to turning it on, your Trophies. Though it seems like it aggregates and posts I earned 5 trophies in Uncharted 2' rather than post individually as you earn them. It may also, again subject to turning it on, your purchases on the PSN.

Lastly there is an option for game specific events which will allow games to update in a way that makes sense to them. So it would be easy to imagine a game sending an update when you start playing multi-player along the lines of "I'm playing multi-player in Uncharted 2. Feel like a game?"

I imagine as time goes on the controls and features will get refined.

[Syl]

The Facebook integration is pretty much rubbish.

I'm REALLY impressed with the Last.Fm integration, i actually prefer it over the official last.fm website. That's saying quite a bit, considering i've been a member of Last.FM for over 4 years.

I'm mostly going to use the facebook integration to meld my facebook and xbox live friend lists and that'll be about it.

[pwnophobia]

I haven't tried the last.fm integration but I did sit down with Twitter and Facebook for a whole 30 seconds each. Its very underwhelming.

[Blackwing]

I wonder if they ninja'd in a fix for the few of us who play XI on the 360. Brand new disc worked ONCE...then gave me the dreaded "check disk, may be scratch etc" message the next time I attempted to log on. -_-