Spring Update soon...

[PeteJ]

http://www.gamespot.com/downloads/6168766

Coming May 7th
-Add Windows Live Messanger contacts to Friends list
-Marketplace gets dedicated blade
-Up to 600 messanger contacts to Live account
-Basic text chat functionality
-Audio and voice chat coming
-Chat with up to six friends while playing games or watching movies
-New sorting features for friends (due to larger list)
-Marketplace blade skinned independant of your own theme to reflect events and new stuff
-Achievement notifications now tell you the name and number of points of the achievement
-Low power feature for downloads; que them up and the system goes into "low power" mode (no fans). System turns off when downloads are done
-Can watch partially downloaded video files



Being able to download overnight is pretty sweet, kinda like Connect24 on the Wii. Also the achievement thing is long overdue.

Can't say I quite follow what all the chat things are about, I think they now mean 700 contacts on the friends list but not sure if it is limited to the Windows Live version. Also chat via MSN is welcome.

I stole all this information from Neogaf, and I didn't even ask. Hahahaa.

[chopemon]

here's a video of it in action

[hudson]

So is the rumour regarding the option to run the disc drive at half speed in order to reduce hoover-like noise not true?

[ChrisF]

I'm not a tree hugger or anything but this one appeals to me :

"-Low power feature for downloads; que them up and the system goes into "low power" mode (no fans). System turns off when downloads are done"

[Matt KB]

What's the point of the windows contacts one when you can't even change the stupid .net passport. I haven't used that account for ages, last thing I would want would be to import all the contacts into it.

[MJ]

So is the rumour regarding the option to run the disc drive at half speed in order to reduce hoover-like noise not true?

I heard it was a fix that had been given to devs and that it makes the console determine how fast it needs to spin the 360 game discs rather than just spinning at full speed all the time. I hope it's true and that it's in this update.

Hopefully we'll finally have the HD DVD add-on audio fix in this update too.

I'm sure Microsoft will publish the full features list soon.

[sj33]

I'm pretty sure there's going to be a separate HD-DVD update.
This will include the DTS/WMV Pro encoding too.

[Paulos G]

The group chat is something I've been hoping they'd do for a while. Be interesting to see the sorting feature for the friends list.

[Extra Terrestrial]

You can call me daft but I wish there was a feature where you can bring up and view the list of all the games (retail and arcade) and be notified if there is an update for it by indicating using a symbol of some sort next to the game and state what the update actually does.

Another niggle is the achievements page. As your gamer-score grows and the number of games you own increases, it takes up to 3-4 minutes (on my profile at least) to show up and reveal all the achievements you have. Can it be done quicker?

A percentage ratio would be nice too!



The MSN stuff doesn't appeal to me when you already have voice, message and video chat already.

[Spatial]

Same here on the group chat - I'm guessing that was the thing that Major Nelson hinted at by saying it was something he'd wanted for a long time.

I've been hoping they'd allow you to be more specific in which notifications you can turn off. For example when I'm playing Guitar Hero I don't want to be distracted by `XXXX is online`, so I turn them off. Thing is that also turns of the Achievement Notifications.

With the Messenger integration I hope they'll allow you to be a bit more specific, such as splitting it into Online Notifiers and System / Game Notifiers.

Bet they won't though (that'll be the Autumn update)

[Concept]

Sounds good. Useless without a keyboard though. Maybe MS will see the light and deliver a new peripheral, as an ordinary USB hub won't solve the problem of using one keyboard over the 360 and PC (most USB hubs seem to be designed for multiple connections to one device).

Edit: Most probably MS will release their own keyboard device for the 360, but that's just going to be a hassle for most people's setups I'd imagine due to size/convenience. I know I wouldn't want 2 keyboards closely together.

[SubparMario]

I doubt most 360s are near enough to the owner's PC to share a keyboard.

[Jebus]

I can't help but notice the one thing I want isn't mentioned.

SAVING photos/videos you're sent by a friend.

Seriously...the rest looks pretty cool but when my mate sends me a photo I want to save it! Also, I want to be able to send video messages, and save those as well!

Did you guys mention group chat? It would nice if that were enabled also, rather than having to create a private game and invite your friends in, it'd be easy at dash level to just invite everyone into a chat!

[Yoshimax]

Yeah it has group chat - Very nice to see

The lower speed drive was something which they were releasing to devs for coding into software it's not something that'll appear on the menu as a user option !!!

[Concept]

I doubt most 360s are near enough to the owner's PC to share a keyboard.

I just think it's lame if MS release a keyboard peripheral specially for the 360 without use on anything else.

The easiest solution is a wireless adaptor, but not using one myself, where do you put it? Is the current 360 wireless adaptor compatible with anything other than networking? Do MS release yet another adaptor following this release date? Or do they release a keyboard you can use wirelessly with both the PC and 360 at the same time?

The more you integrate IM text functions (which judging by the news on this update seems to be the path the 360 is treading down) into the overall community in Live, the more these problems are going to have to be managed. On-screen keyboards won't get anyone very far in text-based IM, and thinking back to the DC, I don't think console-specific keyboards will work out either.