New Xbox Live Dashboard (2010) Beta

[Vector]

Anyone else in the Beta for the new Dashboard? I applied a couple weeks ago and got in, and was prompted for a download last night. Absolutely loving the new Dashboard. It's incredibly sleek, so much easier and quicker to navigate. The slight lag that appeared when navigating through the Dashboard menus is now gone, and everything seems much more responsive.

There's a new logo and sound that plays when you boot up the system, the same thing that shows in new Xbox commercials. Avatars seem to be taller and more 'life-like' and less avatar-ish when it comes to height. Haven't tried out ESPN or anything new yet, but I'll post impressions once I get that.

[Carnivol]

The shop is a mess, entries on most lists are way too huge (like how you now only see two friends on the friends viewer and the lack of angle makes it all very... stiff), the 50 first entries listing for the various sorting options (especially the alphabetic ones) are completely pointless and the option for browsing full lists shouldn't be all the way at the end, after the first 50 entries (which in mostly consists of music game DLC songs starting with "(" or some other non-alphabetical character).

The lack of customization is still really annoying me (since I could do without most of the entries on the dashboard - let me hide those darned things!)

But, yes, the faster detection of crap on the HDD is nice. The new audio codec for Party Chats is also pretty sweet (this will be going global once the preview program is over, so not just party chats that'll have improved quality)

And, oh, title update sizes are now listed when you're prompted to download them (+you can see a flashing "Save to..." option that you don't get to pick sometimes... hmm... maybe they'll actually finally let you keep title updates outside the Cache folder in a not too distant future?)

[DONNIemo]

When is it avalible to us normalites??

[James]

When is it avalible to us normalites??

I'm hearing when Kinect launches, so November?

[Branden_Lucero]

what could actually be better than the Media Center-like dashboard?

edit: saw a preview on youtube and i have to say it looks like shit. really is downgraded.

[Carnivol]

I might be able to give it a spin with Kinect before kinect launches (I might get one early).

But, yeah, so far, besides the performance improvements, the new design is kinda meh-ish and I really don't like the new shop and friends browsing (but the way it displays entries now is much more neat)

[Vector]

So umm...my Xbox was doing a background download of the L4D DLC for four hours(turned the system off but the green light was blinking to show that it was background downloading) yet the download is ONLY ONE PERCENT complete? What the FUCK? I'm actually pretty pissed off about this. Think it has anything to do with the new Dashboard? I've never had this issue before.

[Carnivol]

Had no problems with background downloads so far.

Only thing I've encountered, since I just upgraded to a Slim, was that my download queue (via marketplace.xbox.com, anyway) just piled up with a bunch of stuff, going all "HAY! THIS IS THE WRONG XBOX FOR THIS DOWNLOAD! WOULD YOU LIKE TO MANUALLY ACTIVATE THE DOWNLOADING OF THIS ITEM IN THE QUEUE?")

[Guest]

I'm in the beta, and I don't like the new style of the dashboard, but it does run faster, and it is esentially the same as before, can't wait for kinect!

[Branden_Lucero]

When is it avalible to us normalites??

damn, you are awesome. thanks for finding that sig website with the dual thingy. i've been trying to find that site since i was looking for FFXIII tips, when i came across a user who had that same sig. now i don't have to look anymore, woot!

[Stu]

Here's a weird one...

Does anyone's dash update EVERY time they log on, or every so often, or what?!

I'm not using my 360 too much lately since i got the new dash, so less so that every time i'm turning the damn thing on, i have to download a new update? Is it constantly updating itself or is it just me?

[Vector]

^ Yup. I've had to download A LOT of updates.

[Carnivol]

They've been updating it a lot. Seems like it's the main dashboard itself that controls the marketplace layout (which is where they've been doing most of the tweaks lately - presentation wise)


I'm surprised to see that they've fixed some of the stuff I reported last year (after some bitching and moaning this year.) Will be very upset if they're gonna spend and equal amount of time before bothering with stuff I've commented on and/or reported this year though.

[Stu]

Glad it's not just me then! haha

Very annoying being treated to the introduction every time you need to install the update!

[Agent_Wong]

Along those same lines, did anyone have nothing but My Xbox and Friends list last night for about an hour or so? I logged on to watch a movie and those were the only two things on my dashboard. There was a pop up message that said "some items are not available right now they will return automatically later". After I was done playing my game they were back, but that was the first time that had ever happened to me.