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Xbox Dash Update / Kinect


Brandon Strader
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Actually, after fiddling with it, I don't like it. It just feels so overly simplified, but again technical problems probably all over if they tried to use Kinect with the previous Dashboard.

And $60 for a year subscription, for a majority of things that don't run on microsoft's servers (Netflix, Last FM, probably two useless apps for the console, Twitter and Facebook)? And "exclusive" access to demos?

XBox Live is becoming hard to justify fo me, even though it's a measly ten dollar price hike. Guess they have to make money back from Kinect somehow....

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Month-Live-Gold-Card/dp/B0029LJIFG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288699276&sr=8-1 The price will drop on this once in a while. I've seen it as low as $28 for the year card.

You get the best online play with Gold. It's not just demos.

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Actually, after fiddling with it, I don't like it. It just feels so overly simplified, but again technical problems probably all over if they tried to use Kinect with the previous Dashboard.

And $60 for a year subscription, for a majority of things that don't run on microsoft's servers (Netflix, Last FM, probably two useless apps for the console, Twitter and Facebook)? And "exclusive" access to demos?

XBox Live is becoming hard to justify fo me, even though it's a measly ten dollar price hike. Guess they have to make money back from Kinect somehow....

what about espn? that's a big seller, at least for me. i don't have cable or over-air programming on my tv.

there's also the fact that you can't game online with others without XBL. which is why most people get it. the rest is just icing.

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Value of Live aside, the new update is hella ugly. Where are my folders into the background? I was a real fan of that effect, especially when browsing my Netflix catalog. Now it's all Kinect-compatible, which would be great if I was planning buying a Kinect, but I'm not...at least until they make good games for it in any case.

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http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/11/04/is-the-xbox-360-kinect-racist/

HP made headlines late last year when their webcams were called racist. Remember that? Yeah, the Kinect might carry the same club membership.

Early reviews and hands-on reports are dropping but a GameSpot report details how ” two dark-skinned GameSpot employees experienced problems with the system’s facial recognition abilities” while lighter-skinned employees had no issues. Since the Kinect is nothing more than a few webcams with fancy software, the explanation regarding HP’s webcam incident probably applies here. Isolated incident? Perhaps, but with the Kinect launching shortly, no doubt the Internet will erupt in a firestorm if it turns out to be true.

Kanye.png

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Some srs discussion on how well Kinect works:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2010/11/buy-a-house-clean-your-floor-move-your-butt-ars-reviews-kinect.ars

Kind of annoyed that Ben spent the first 3 pages explaining why you still need the controller to navigate the XBox Dashboard but whateves.

Kinect has the potential to be cool. Please, Microsoft. Use the heads in that corporation and some of that money in the bank and make it such that Kinect will be cool. Doing the whole Minority Report style navigation of the UI would be pretty swell, for starters.

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I haven't been happy with my XBox Dashboard since I bought a PS3, but maybe it's just me.

Huge boxes, few real customization options, ads, ads with video and sound, the idea of being forced to see ads while you scroll up to your Friends list, did I mention the ads? :P

Actually, the one thing I hoped for out of the previous Dashboard update was the ability to browse my games Cover Flow style like you do in the Marketplace. But no, it was just a grey menu. :roll eyes: And I see that hasn't been added in the recent update either.

As far as Kinect? Pretty much a non-issue for me, as I'm not getting one any time soon. The Wii burned me out on semi-responsive motion controls.

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I haven't been happy with my XBox Dashboard since I bought a PS3, but maybe it's just me.

Huge boxes, few real customization options, ads, ads with video and sound, the idea of being forced to see ads while you scroll up to your Friends list, did I mention the ads? :P

i'm a big fan of the XMB on the PS3, but to be honest i prefer the interface that the 360 uses. yeah, you can customize some aspects of the PS3's interface, but the menus on the PS3 are limited when it comes to loading lots of content in real time. i usually have to wait to see what's what. not to mention that while there are just as many ads as 360 in the PS3 marketplace, there are none in the menu that you spend all your time in (my xbox). xbox just puts the marketplace content first and foremost, rather than hidden in a menu that you have to sign into to access - which, honestly, i prefer, because i'd miss a lot of stuff if i wasn't able to just browse the spotlight channel like i can now.

it's even poorer on the PSP, where you're waiting for several seconds just for the names of what you're looking at to load on-screen.

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