Hands-on with the Xbox 360 Fall Update

The Xbox 360 fall update went live early this morning, and I've been busy giving it a spin. I've already written about two of the big features in the update: original Xbox game downloads and the ability to see the friends of your Xbox Live buddies. But several more features have come to light in the past few days, including expanded gamer profiles, several interface tweaks, a new "Inside Xbox" feed, and IPTV support...well, sort of.

First, let's tackle the IPTV news. We first heard way back in January that Microsoft wanted to turn the Xbox 360 into an set-top box for watching and recording TV shows over the Net, but then...silence. Now we're hearing that with the fall update, the 360's IPTV functionality is ready on our end—unfortunately, we won't be able to use it until local IPTV providers roll out Xbox support on their respective sides, and there's no telling when that's going to happen. (And indeed, many of us—myself included—don't have a local IPTV operator at all.) Still, a lucky few will eventually be able to watch and record shows using their Xbox 360s, as well as accept gaming requests while watching a show, then come back and pick up the program where they left off once the fragging is done. Nice. (Check out Engadget for screenshots of the 360's IPTV service in action.)

In addition to the there-but-unusable-for-now IPTV support, the 360 Dashboard now boasts several interface tweaks, including new, clearer-looking icons, as well as several instances of Microsoft's "twist" interface, which gives you a scrolling top row of headings plus a cascading column of menu options. Also new is an "Inside Xbox" option from the Live Dashboard blade, which delivers news from Xbox.com, as well as highlights from the Marketplace. And speaking of the Marketplace—previews of videos are now full-screen rather than postage-stamp sized. I like it.

I've already meantioned that today's update adds the ability to view the friends of your Xbox Live pals, but now you can also add more info to your gamer profile, including your name, your location, and a brief bio. You can add the info right from the Dashboard, and you can then elect to let everyone see your new profile or only your Live friends. I'm glad to see that Xbox Live is taking a step in the direction of the new Zune Social (a new MySpace-type community for Zune users), but viewing your Live info on the web is still pretty clumsy; as far as I can tell, you can't view the new profile info on Xbox.com, nor can you see the pals of your Live friends via the web. I wish Microsoft would create either, say, a proper web-based Xbox Social, or allow Xbox owners without Zunes to join the Social—or something along those lines.

Here's a final nugget for power users: The update finally adds support for playback of DivX and Xvid files on your Xbox 360. For the uninitiated, DivX and Xvid are file formats that compress high-quality video into relatively small packages. It's a handy addition, but apparently you can't stream DivX/Xvid files via the 360's Windows Media Center feature—instead, you must burn them to disc and/or transfer them to your Xbox's hard drive.