2011 Xbox Dashboard Update

Microsoft’s new Kinect-friendly, “Metro”-feeling Xbox Dashboard is coming to all Xbox 360 owners on Tuesday, December 6th.

Free for all Xbox 360 owners, the new Dashboard utilizes the blocky “Metro” design aesthetic that Microsoft is so big on these days (it’s currently in use on Windows Phones, and is one of the predominant features of the forthcoming Windows 8), enabling it to be even more Kinect-ified with enhanced voice and gesture controls.

In addition to the all new look, this update brings loads of new content to Xbox Live users, including the much-hyped live TV feature. You’ll also get Bing voice search, cloud storage so you can access your game saves and Xbox Live profile from any Xbox console, and a brand new feature called “Beacons.” You know how your console lets your friends see what you’re currently playing? Beacons takes this notion further than before, showing your friends what you want to play, letting you to easily and quickly organize a multiplayer game. Beacons will even broadcast your desires on Facebook, so your friends can see what you’d like to play when they’re not logged in to Xbox Live.

Aside from live TV, all of these new features and services will be completely free.

Xbox Live with Bing integration

“Metro” is the codename of this Fall’s annual Xbox Live update, which among other things is going to make your dashboard look an awful lot like Bing mixed with Windows Phone 7.

Here’s a breakdown of the major changes you can expect.

The big focus for this update is the integration of Bing and giving greater power to Kinect. You’ll be able to navigate the entire dashboard using Kinect if you want, primarily with voice control. But the look and feel of the new interface comes directly from Windows Phone 7, using a Microsoft design called Metro (hence the update’s codename).

It sounds as if the integration of Bing is going to fundamentally change how a lot of people use their Xbox. Using Kinect’s voice control, you can easily tell your Xbox what you’re looking for, and Bing will bring up results from every media type you use: games, movies, TV, music, and more, from sources that include not just your own media collection but Netflix, Hulu, Zune, and more. Under each search result, you’ll see a rating and an icon, showing what form of media it is. The thinking is that this Bing search function is so simple and powerful — particularly if you own a Kinect sensor — that many gamers may just forego traditional tabbed dashboard navigation in favor of Bing-powered voice search.

Then of course there’s live television. It’s coming, but deals haven’t been finalized yet, so Microsoft’s not saying who they’ve got or when they’ll have it. But according to Gizmodo, some TV networks will be available to view live television, while others will simply offer their top shows as video on demand. No DVR recording function is currently planned, but you will be able to chat with friends while watching live TV.

Another major new addition is sharing Achievements on Facebook. Game developers can set their games so that they automatically update Facebook every time you get a new Achievement, but you’ll always have the option of turning this off. Or you’ll be able to set your system to prompt you each time you get an Achievement, to manually make the Facebook update yourself.

A beta of the new Xbox Live dashboard is supposed to happen sometime in October, with a final release sometime before Christmas.

Xbox always has a lively show, keeping things moving fast from one game to the next, never spending too much time on any one thing. For my money, they typically put on the funnest, showiest, and overall best media event at E3. Sure, it’s Microsoft and they’re nerdy, but at least they have lots of money to throw around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t6XegJtlns

Halo 4 was announced as the start of a new trilogy starring the Master Chief. A trailer depicted Cortana waking the Chief up from his deep-space slumber to help her escape a dangerous situation that threatens the entire universe. Halo 4 is set for a November 2012 release. In the meantime, that rumored remaster of the original Halo game turned out to be true. It’s called Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and it’ll be out this November.

A brand new entry in the Fable franchise was announced, but it’s not Fable 4. It’s called Fable: The Journey, the first Fable game constructed from the ground up for Kinect. It’s set 5 years after the events of Fable 3 and uses Kinect’s gestures to cast spells as you fight for the future of Albion. No word yet on a release date.

Mass Effect 3 will use Kinect for voice recognition. That was the big headline from BioWare. ME‘s dialogue trees can now be controlled by speaking directly to the game. It creates a faster, more fluid experience, further immersing you into the game. You can also direct your allies in the actions you want them to take, just by saying it.

The long-awaited Kinect Star Wars game was at last shown off, and it looks like everything in the game is controlled via gestures. Mime swinging a lightsaber, and your on-screen character does the same. Lean forward and your avatar uses a burst of Force speed to run fast to the next enemy character. The trailer shows off what it can do best, so take a look.

One game that’s going to come out of E3 with some new buzz is Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, because it’s going fully Kinect-operable. Future Soldier might just be the full-body FPS Kinect shooter we’ve been waiting for. GRFS provided a genuine “wow” moment when a demo player expanded his arms to explode outward all of the components of a weapon, so he could fully customize all of its inner workings. Movement and firing were also controlled via Kinect, using unique gestures. It looks like it might just be something special.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures is destined to sell millions of copies. It’s exactly what it sounds like: the entire Disneyland theme park in California reproduced — down to precise details — as a Kinect-friendly video game. Your Xbox avatar can enjoy everything Disneyland has to offer, ride all the rides, interact with Disney characters, and even do things you can’t do in real life, like fly with Peter Pan. There will be plenty of challenges and family-friendly activities built in. I know my kids will go nuts over this one.

Kinect Fun Labs, a new Xbox Live service that goes live today, expands the functionality of your Kinect sensor to be able to try out new technologies, such as performing full-body scans and translating the data into a customized avatar for you — complete with your real-world clothes.

Live TV is coming to Xbox Live, though Microsoft was mum on the details. From what we saw, it looked as though MS is partnering with networks to bring live television to Xbox 360 users. It’s an alternative to cable. But we have no idea on pricing or when it will be available.

Minecraft is coming to Xbox Live! It will also be Kinect enabled, to allow for a new kind of interaction with the popular indie game. You’ll also be able to interact between Xbox and PC versions of Minecraft. Xbox 360 has an exclusive deal to have Minecraft on their console, so don’t look for Wii or PS3 versions anytime soon.

Crytek announced a new game called Ryse, an action game set during the Roman Empire, and made for Kinect.

A major new twist was added to the Xbox UI: Bing search. It’s a new, easier-than-ever way to access all of your content, or content you can purchase. Search for “Harry Potter,” for example, and a series of results will come up showing all available Harry Potter movies, video games, and anything else available. Access it all simply by talking to it, using Kinect.

In addition to all this, new videos and previews were shown from Dance Central 2, Forza Motorsport 4, Gears of War 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Kinect Sports: Season Two, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, the new Tomb Raider, and more. Enjoy all the screens we could get our hands on, below.

When Microsoft first released Windows 7 in Japan, they shocked the otaku community by including the first ever official OS-tan, Nanami Madobe. Since then, Nanami Madobe fanart has been popping up on the internet every once in a while, but did you know that Microsoft has since released six more OS-tans?

On December 18, 2009 Microsoft began a month-long Bing promotion in Japan where users would be given a present for using the Bing search engine a certain number of times. That present turned out to be 5 more OS-tan themes that you can install on Windows 7. The new OS-tans (pictured below) from the left working clockwise are: Nanako, Nanae, Nanao, Nanami, and Nana.

In case you’re wondering, the word “nana” means seven in Japanese, but also makes up the beginning of several names. They all have either the Windows logo, “bing”, or “W7” somewhere on their body, but each of them represents a character archetype commonly seen in anime. Nanako is the childhood friend, Nanae is the office lady, Nanao is the tomboy, Nanami is the robot/android, and Nana is the little sister.

Those of you familiar with anime character types may be asking where the eyecandy girl is. Well, on September 27 Microsoft unveiled Hikaru Aizawa, the OS-tan for Silverlight. A busty blonde girl, Hikaru fits the eyecandy role perfectly.

She also seems to be more fun than the other OS-tans, even dressing up in a new costume for Halloween this year.

With Microsoft churning out all of these OS-tans, you have to wonder how many more are going to come out. Personally, I’d like to see Microsoft make a tsundere-type OS-tan, and if they do, I wonder what they’ll have it represent.

It’s not surprising, following Google’s use of the goo.gl domain name, that Microsoft might use something based on its Bing search engine, but while Google keeps it nice, short and from Greenland, Microsoft has gone for the more popular Italian .it TLD and then stuck a longer name on the front.

Binged.it

Presumably as in “I just Binged it”.

The thing is, although Microsoft has partnered with bit.ly (six characters), it has chosen to use a nine character name.

Bitly and Google both use six, Facebook’s version fb.me is even shorter at just five, while YouTube has gone Belgian with eight at YouTu.be.

Binged.it uses nine characters.

I suppose it’s worth noting that one of the original shorteners, tinyurl.com, used eleven characters, but people have demanded much shorter names since.

Microsoft currently isn’t offering the service to anyone outside the company, so presumably this is all an ego trip.

I can imagine the memos.

“Please ensure all links that you send to one another use our binged.it URL shortener. Other services, particularly goo.gl, will not NOT be tolerated.”

Via