Xbox 360 'Spring Update' Available Monday

[Marsh]

Bank holiday Monday sees the release of Microsoft's free 'spring update' for the Xbox 360, bringing with it a host of tweaks and improvements to the system.

Most significant will be the ability to chat with friends on Windows Live Messenger using a virtual on-screen keyboard or a new Xbox 360 Text Input Device, which will be available in the summer and is essentially a controller with a built-in qwerty keyboard and a new wired headset.

A number of interface tweaks will also be featured in the update and when a user sends a message a pop-up window will appear allowing you to quickly send a reply.

Some of the improvements featured within the update will include:

Enhanced family settings features for Xbox Live communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.

A new Xbox Live Marketplace blade lets Xbox Live members access the content they seek—whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States).

Updates to Xbox Live Arcade allow owners to see which Xbox Live Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox Live members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and achievements directly with all friends on their friends list.

A new option in auto downloads will provide access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox Live Arcade games.

New download controls provide access to viewing options by letting users fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace.

Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

Switchable aspect ratio will become available during video playback (Auto to Letterbox, Zoom, Stretch, Native).

Bookmarks will now be stored for each video that the user plays remembering the last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio.

Video trick modes (fast forward, rewind, chapter skip) can now be used while downloading Video Marketplace content.

Skip forward and backward functionality has been updated to skip to the next or previous chapter. Each video is divided into 10 chapters allowing users to skip around video content.

[Dan]

You can use any USB keyboard with the 360 so it'll be handy to have a little chat with friends while waiting between GoW say or organizing a game on pro evo.

[The Kraig]

I have friends who are constantly on MSN and Xbox Live, so people WILL use it. And I also have friends who can't access their PC and Xbox as the same time, so they'll use it too. Much faster than the current message system I bet.

There's not much to update really. Just another set of improvements like all the previous ones.

[Guest xmovingpicturesx]

On May 9th, 2007 at 5.00am Microsoft released the Xbox 360 Spring Dashboard Update. This update implemented a myriad of features, key among them the Windows Live Messenger functionality. This functionality enables you to chat with your Windows Live contacts via the Xbox 360 console... if you signed up for live when you were 18. See, I'm 16. In two months I'll be able to drive. In two months I still won't be able to IM. Make sense? No. My brother's account on the other hand... he signed up for it in February of this year, exactly one month before his 18th birthday. Can he IM? No. He doesn't even get the Xbox Live Marketplace ads. What's he gonna do with those ads? Irresponsibly give out his address? Microsoft made no mention of age restrictions when the sent out dozens of press releases to dozens of magazines and websites. How do they fix this problem? Customer support is *TELLING* their minor/underage users to sign up with a new account and *LIE ABOUT THEIR AGE!* How f**ked is that? I may sound pissed about this, but I'm really not. I just feel that MS/XBL has dropped the ball here in not giving *all* XBL users what they promised, and in turn XBL customer support is making it worse. So I did what I was told. I signed up for a new XBL account. Which meant I needed a new email address. Which meant I needed to use that address to sign up for a Windows Live ID. 2.5 hours later I was wear I wanted to be, chatting with some friends on my 360 with my new Gamerscore-less account/Gamertag. I have no contacts on my Windows Live messenger and none on my Xbox Live account. It took a while, but now I'm happy. [sarcasm]Thank you Microsoft, you've done great![/sarcasm]

EDIT: I probably sound like an ass her. Actually, I know I do. I just wanted you guys to know. A lot, meaning hundreds, of people have this problem over at the Xbox forums.

Edited May 9, 2007 by xmovingpicturesx

[Marsh]

Ouch - that sucks.

It all worked for me, but it doesn't help me at all because A) I don't have a USB keyboard, and B) when signing in on the 360, it signs you out on the PC. I'd rather get a message on the PC, so that I can respond via keyboard and also keep all my chat logs in the same place.

[Kaney]

It's a nifty update, I like the new marketplace but I wish I hadn't bothered with the Live Messenger stuff now. It automatically signs you into messenger when you log into your profile, even if you're only wanting to play games. I for one don't necessarily need Ass or whoever sending me inane stuff when I'm trying desperately not to get owned at Gears, so does anyone know a way to turn off automatic sign-in?

I know you can sign out from the messenger menu but it's still a bother having to do that every time. I don't want certain people to know I'm online >_>

[Marsh]

When you're on the default screen that loads when you turn on the Xbox, and it automatically logs you in- select your gamercard (where it previously asked you to sign in) and the option is in there.