Son of a B 360! Delays. Delays. Delays.

By: David "DR. G" Galanter

Pissed about the delays in "today's" 360 dashboard update? Even more pissed you have no idea why your 360 isn't updating? Well, it seems like the update itself is having some problems getting its ass server side for download. There isn't much info on what's going on, but you can follow Larry Hryb's (Major Nelson's) Twitter to stay up to date.

The latest update, as of now, states that they're still working to get the new dashboard live and there will be more news about it in the afternoon. It's afternoon now and still no news. There is no mention of the big update getting pushed back to tomorrow (or even later), so hopefully it's still coming today.

Keep an eye on Major Nelson's Twitter for more info. We'll post an update on this story when (or if) the download goes live today.

Some Features Pushed Back in Tomorrow's 360 Dashboard Update

By: David "DR. G" Galanter

Waiting for that sweet 360 Dashboard update tomorrow? Well this might piss you off slightly. Earlier in the year, Microsoft claimed they were releasing an update for their console that would enable YouTube, HBO GO, and a few other apps. When the big M announced a big update for 360 on Dec. 6th, most of us assumed this would be the one to carry all of the fancy new apps. Unfortunately, that's not happening.

It appears that quite a few apps won’t make it into tomorrow's update. YouTube will launch "later in December" and HBO GO is looking at a release date in "early 2012." About a week ago, we ran a news story about Verizon FioS coming to 360. Unfortunately, this functionality is getting pushed back as well.

Of course, Microsoft never really promised these apps would come on the 6th. We all simply hoped. Seemed like a safe bet considering a lot of these functions were discussed months ago. Guess it's gonna take longer to work out the kinks.

The list below details when each app should be coming (approximately):

Dec. 6:

•	EPIX. United States
•	ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States
•	Hulu. Japan
•	Hulu Plus. United States
•	LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom
•	Netflix. Canada, United States
•	Premium Play by (MediaSet). Italy
•	Sky Go (SkyDE). Germany
•	Telefónica España – Movistar Imagenio. Spain
•	TODAY (MSNBC). United States

Later in December:

•	4 on Demand (C4). United Kingdom
•	ABC iView (Australian Broadcasting Corp.). Australia
•	AlloCiné. France (AlloCiné), Germany (Filmstarts), Spain (Sensacine), United Kingdom (Screenrush)
•	Astral Media’s Disney XD (Astral Media). Canada
•	blinkbox (Blinkbox). United Kingdom
•	Crackle (Sony Pictures). Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
•	Dailymotion. Available in 32 countries globally
•	Demand 5 (Five). United Kingdom
•	DIGI+ (CANAL+). Spain
•	GolTV (Mediapro). Spain
•	iHeartRadio (Clear Channel). United States
•	Mediathek/ZDF (ZDF). Germany
•	MSN. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom
•	MSNBC.com. United States
•	MUZU.TV. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
•	ninemsn. Australia
•	Real Sports (Maple Leaf Sports). Canada
•	Rogers On Demand Online (Rogers Media). Canada
•	SBS ON DEMAND.Australia
•	Sky Go (SkyDE). Austria
•	TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States
•	TVE (RTVE.es). Spain
•	UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC). Canada, United States
•	Verizon FiOS TV. United States
•	VEVO. Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
•	Vudu (Wal-Mart). United States
•	YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally

Early 2012:

•	Antena 3 (Antena 3 de Televisión). Spain
•	BBC (BBC). United Kingdom
•	CinemaNow (Best Buy). United States
•	HBO GO (HBO). United States
•	MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media). Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States
•	Telenovelas/Sports (Televisa). Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom
•	Xfinity On Demand (Comcast). United States

New 360 Dashboard Update December 6th

If you've been in the preview program, this might not be that exciting to you (it might not even be that exciting to you anyway). The new 360 dashboard update is being released officially on the 6th of December and will carry a few changes.

Bing will be added to the console allowing people to use Kinect to simply say the title of a game or movie and have the Xbox find it. The dashboard will also have some aesthetic changes. It will embody Microsoft's new "Metro" design and the Kinect Hub and standard dashboard are one and the same now. There are a few other random changes (like being able to post achievements to facebook) but this update doesn't sound as content heavy as some of the dashboard updates in the past.

I was also under the impression this update would let you save your profile to the cloud, allowing you to avoid recovering your account at a friend's house. However, I'm not sure if Microsoft will follow up on that. We'll find out on December 6th!

Sign up to be a Guinea Pig for the New Xbox 360 Dashboard Update!

Love suffering through glitches and freezes so the rest of us don't have to? Sign up for the Xbox 360 dashboard update preview program! You'll get to download the new dashboard and try out all the new features before release (which still has no confirmed date).

You can sign up for the preview program on Major Nelsons's blog here. The blog entry also contains details of the new update. You'll be able to play around with the new Kinect controls, better Facebook integration, and the new "beacon" function (Allowing you to send mass invites to all your friends. That totally doesn't sound annoying at all!). The feature i can't wait for is cloud saves. You can back up your Xbox Live profile and game saves to the cloud, and easily access them from any console. The perfect weapon against forgetting your damn memory card or flash drive.

The new update should be completely compatible with the older versions of the dashboard. So, engaging in party chat with friends who don't have the new dashboard yet should still work seamlessly (should).

The date for the preview program hasn't been announced yet, but you should be notified via email when it does (if you signed up).