Review: Xbox Live Update Preview: Zune, Facebook, Twitter
Yesterday was a big day for the Xbox, the arrival of one of the best (if not the best) racing game available – Forza 3, as well as the launch of the Xbox Live Update Preview Program.
If you applied, like me, then you may have received an email acceptance into the preview program.
Available in the update for Australia is Facebook and Twitter integration as well as the brand new Zune Video Marketplace.
Xbox Live Update – Zune Marketplace
Other than the Zune desktop software, this is Zune’s official introduction into Australia. The Zune Video Marketplace offers movies in 1080p that start streaming instantly. It’s recommended you have least 4mbps to get HD, given how Australia’s broadband speeds are tiered, 1.5Mb will be too slow, so your going to want at least an 8Mb connection.
Quality
I hired the movie Uninvited in HD to review the quality and was very happy. Let me precursor this with the fact I’m on an ADSL2+ connection. The movie did in fact start straight away, with lower quality, then after about 30 seconds, the quality kicked in and the video was indeed great quality high definition. Now this is still obvious a lower quality bitrate than Blu-ray, so for those HD purists out there, this may not be for you. But for me this is a great service.
With HD using a large amount of data, you may be concerned about your download quota being chewed up by renting movies. A number of ISPs will offer Zune Video Marketplace content unmetered. An official list has not yet been released, but expect most to do this, it’s the only feasible way this service will work for Australian consumers.
Catalogue
Lets make no questions about this, the current movie selection is horrible. It is important to keep in mind this isn’t a product that’s officially launched, so by the time this goes public, I’d hope the catalogue of movies to choose from is dramatically improved.
Australian Pricing
New titles
Old titles
Rent HD – 420 Microsoft Points (A$6.93)
Rent SD – 360 Microsoft Points (A$5.94) Rent SD – 300 Microsoft Points (A$4.95)
Xbox Live Update – Facebook
Xbox Live Update – Twitter
Overall
In terms of updates, this is a good one that actually ads a lot of functionality. As for Last.fm, there’s no sign of it.
The new Zune Video Marketplace with a better catalogue will become my movie rental service of choice. Compared to Blockbuster On Demand available through the TiVo, the Zune rentals are in HD and millions of Australians already have their credit card with Microsoft, lowering the barrier to entry. SD videos on Zune are 4 cents cheaper at $5.94 compared to $4.95 on Blockbuster or iTunes.
The social features are nice, but without the messenger kit add-on, i don’t see people contributing content via the Xbox much. It’s $29.99, will this be the new must-have accessory ?
Facebook now alive, with Live Feed
This morning I was greeted with a new option inside Facebook – Live Feed. This turns your news feed into an auto-update stream. This is a great addition, something I’ve wanted for a long time. I often run multiple browser windows across multiple monitors which let me get updated information at a glance. Now I can add Facebook to that list.
If you want to keep exercising your clicking finger, then there’s still the option to view the News Feed in it’s traditional fashion, and let you click refresh when your ready.
My only wish now is that Google Reader would follow suit.
Facebook Usernames, round 2: Fight !
Today (June 28 US time), round 2 of the Facebook username land rush begins. On one hand we have those users who were late to the game and signed up after June 9th, 2009 will now be able to create a username. There’s also those pages with less than 1,000 fans (and more than 25) will also be able to set usernames.
Of course this being round 2, those of you looking to secure a username today may be out of luck, with millions of names already taken.
There’s about 4 hours to go, so should be around 2pm AEST.
Update
Facebook have increased the minimum fans for page usernames to 100.
Update 2
Facebook usernames, round 2 has now gone live. I’m very happy to have secured http://facebook.com/techAU for the fan page.
More @ http://facebook.com/username
Facebook Redesign now available
After months of development, the new look Facebook site is now available. Facebook are progressively updating people’s accounts to switch to the new layout, so if you visit Facebook and you still see the old site, you won’t have to wait long (should be over the next few days).
For those of you who don’t want to wait for Facebook, then you can check out the gallery below of the new, updated look or head to http://new.facebook.com
The update is essentially a restructuring of the existing data, there’s not really any new features or anything to get excited about. They were clearly going for a much more lightweight sight, symptimatic of a site experiencing a massive volume visitors. The down side of this is the site looks to have far to much negative white space, especially if your viewing it on a widescreen monitor, the site actually looks a little empty.
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- New Home Page
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- New Profile Page
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- New Application Drop Down
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- New Inbox Page
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- New Photos Page
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- New Boxes Page
