Last week, I was lucky enough to get the latest preview update for the Xbox 360. The rest of the world will have to wait until November to download it. In this update, Facebook, Last.fm, Twitter and the Zune Marketplace are the major focal points. Now let start reviewing each of the programs.
Twitter:
Twitter is a simple program you can load up fast from the "My Community" section. Once loaded, you enter your screename and password. After that you will see the last 50 tweets of your followings. Press X on your controller and you can type up a tweet of your own via chatpad or the onscreen keyboard. Downside is that it won't tell you how many characters you have left. Now it a guessing game. Did I go over 140 characters? If you been twittering for more than 6 months, you will figure out if you went over 140 characters. Press done and you have tweeted from Xbox Live. Press Y to refresh the timeline. Press B to sign out. It also features trending topics and a search. Pretty basic twitter features. The team could of done more with it. Have twitter run in the background or maybe a little pop up box showing the latest tweets. Or maybe your avatar could interact a little more while tweeting. Obvious that links in tweets will not work. Although it be nice that if someone posted a picture on twitpic, you could be able to view it. Otherwise is a straight forward twitter app.
Facebook:
Unlike Twitter, Facebook is a free down loadable app. Doesn't take up a lot of space. Maybe 5mb of space. Could be wrong. Once loaded, you enter your email and password and viola Facebook on XBL. You can view your friends pictures, status updates, wall postings. A neat feature that I like is XBL friends on Facebook or Facebook friends on XBL. Here you can view who on Facebook has a XBL accounts or vice versa. Since this preview update just came out, both appeared as blank for. They said to check back periodically once more members get the update. Tested out the status update. Works just fine. Pictures showed up quite fine. They even give you a thumbnail of each picture. With Facebook app, gaming developers can use it API to post status updates of our gaming habits. Post achievements that we unlocked or if our team winning in a online match. So many possibilities with this. That and Twitter.
Last F.M:
Just like Facebook, Last.fm is another down loadable app that doesn't require to much space. I didn't have an account with Last.fm but i was easily able to create one right on the program itself. After that, I was listening music of my favorite artists. You can choose from recommended artists, top rated, etc. Once you made a selection, the app begins buffering the first song. Then it starts playing. All while pictures of that artist are presented in a slide show format. Pretty neat. You can pause or skip a song. Add it to your favorites or hate it. Last.fm could really be useful if was playable in the background. Sadly it not an option. Great app but it could so much more.
Zune Marketplace:
This part of the update preview I didn't spend much time with. It was another app I had to download onto the hard drive. Again only required a little space on the HD. Afterwards, i was browsing the catalogs. You have movies, tv shows, trailers and music videos. First movie I tried was Fast and Furious. Yes lame i know. I felt bad but it the only movie i though be good enough to test out both audio and visual. Once you pay, you have the option to stream or down. If you choose download, make sure you have you don't plan on getting online anytime soon. So best option is to stream IMO. Once clicked, the movie will buffer alittle and you are ready to watch. Depending on your connection, you should be enjoying full 1080p HD video. Video will start out looking a little artifact but that will go away. You can fast forward and rewind like normal videos. What not to love? Zune Marketplace got potential. Release movies on the marketplace the same time it comes out on DVD/Bluray and you'll be golden. One slight disappointment is that older movies should be priced lower then newer movies. Zune Marketplace is a winner!
Overall:
Some apps could of benefited of having them run in the background. Especially Last.fm and Twitter. What were the programmers thinking? They had plenty of time to think up something. But no each app is a standalone app. Once loaded, it all you can do until you sign off. Pretty disappointing in my book. I do like to see game developers use the Facebook API. Uncharted 2 on the PS3 could tweet your status right from the game. Who knows what developers can do with it.
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